slief

Looks good but I think they might have messed up on the two laser diffusers. I'd contact K40 to confirm. Police are trained to aim the laser guns at the head lights and becase of that, the diffusers are supposed to be as far aprart as possible and as close to the lights as possible for best results. At least that is my understanding. Where did they mount the front radar sensor? The easiest place is just above the lower panel under the front of the car. Only issue is that it's pretty low to the ground and inhibits the front radar sensors range. That was the one I was initially mentioning above. While it's not a huge issue, the radar detectors range increases the higher the sensor is mounted in our cars. Hope that helps!

slief

Thank you very much!

Callihan

Thank you! I will check with K40 and also ask where they mounted the front radar sensor. I ordered the carbon flash blackout did you install? and how long did it take to get it? Thanks for all the help!

slief

I assume you are talking about the roof blackout? It only took a few days to get after ordering but I think Vette FX is in California. He does ship via USPS so it's shouldn't take much longer to get to you. I had a local shop install it. I had already tried my hand at installing the stinger stripe and screwed that up so I wasn't about to screw the roof blackout too. It would have been just my luck! In the end, I found it cheaper just to pay a pro to do those big vinyl pieces as they aren't forgiving at all unlike most of the other endeavors I'll dive into on my own.

Steve Garrett

Damn....all the updated mods look great.

slief

Thanks Steven! There are a few more things on the way from Bob at Fitchner. I've got the suede steering wheel, shifter and shift boot on order. Also strongly considering the MGW close ratio gear shift since I will already be removing the **** and the boot. I will make the decision on the MGW tomorrow. I've always been leery of changing the shifter since the factory one works so well but it's been something I've strongly considered since my 09 Z06 and figure now might just be the time to bite the bullet.

slimjimp

How are you liking the brownstone interior? I think it looks much better than the kalahari tan, but have not seen one yet.

slief

I don't have brownstone. My interior is black.

That said, if I had Brownstone, I am sure I'd love it. It's very classy looking in my opinion and would work well with the white exterior.

slief

I got my suede OEM steering wheel, suede shift **** and shift boot today along with my MGW close ratio gear shift.

It took me all of 20 minutes to do the wheel swap since I was already familiar with the process having swapped in the carbon fiber steering wheel trim piece. It was a walk in the park though I did use an impact to remove the steering wheel bolt which was even tough with the impact. None the less, it was a walk in the park so to speak when you have the right tools and ambition. I will likely install the ****, boot and MGW shifter Saturday unless my patients run out.

Here is the wheel installed. While not as nice as those custom D-wheels, it's still nice without the added expense and it goes well with the other microsuede treatments that I've done recently.


This would have been a nice picture but the damn glare kind of ruined it. I bit or brightness and contrast adjustments helped a bit though.

redstar299

I think the AW with the black side mirrors and spoiler looks amazing..congrats

slief

I just got through installing my MGW shifter., suede shift boot suede shift know. Thanks to Theta's install instructions in the tech and performance section, the MGW install was fast and simple. Total install time was 1.5 hours which included about 30 minutes of distractions such as finding the tools, taking a call and a couple smoke breaks. Overall the install is darn near simple.

I posted an MGW shifter review in the tech section but figured I will include that feedback here as well.

I'm really impressed with this shifter. The quality of the machine work and what ever it is that makes this thing work the way it does is nothing short of amazing. Especially for the money.

How it feels... Again I say WOW!! I had given serious consideration to installing one in my C6 Z06 but was apprehensive and didn't do it. Now I am sorry I didn't. This thing is great! The shifts are precise and frankly, darn near impossible to miss a gear and end up in the wrong gear with the MGW. It's a night and day difference between the MGW shifter and the stock shifter. The gears are so much closer and easier to find. I think the last review mentioned that the shifter pretty much finds the gears for you. Well, I'd say that is completely accurate. Hit the clutch, pull or push the shifter and you are in the correct gear.

There is no added vibration that I could feel or added noise. Overall, I'd say this is probably one of the best bang for the buck mods you can do to your C7 and if it is even close to as good in the C6 as it is the C7, then I feel comfortable in saying I blew it when I had my C6 Z06. I should have bit the bullet because it really is that good.

That said, I didn't take any pictures of the MGW itself. There are a few threads that already cover that in the tech section but here are a couple pictures of the suede shifter and boot. This should conclude my suede/micro fiber upgrades.

Edit: Mecholova pointed out that there was a bit of a gap between the console cover and dash. I ran into to the garage and pulled the console cover off and loosened the console base up and made a quick adjustment. Took all of 5 minutes start to finish but it's much better now. Thanks Mecholova for pointing it out in your PM. I hadn't noticed it.

Mecholova

Nice work Slief. Your cars turning out to be quite a plush and upscale ride
That boot makes a big difference! Hows the shifter **** feel for driving? j/k!

Have any other plans for interior mods?

slief

They suede takes some getting used to. I've had leather steering wheels for several years now and for the first couple days, the steering wheel was feeling really foreign. It was comfortable but different enough that it didn't feel right. Now I like. I've only got a couple miles in driving it up the street but the **** felt good and very comfortable.

As far as any other interior upgrades, I'm not sure what else I could do.
I really like the suede seat inserts but that one is a costly one that I don't think is worth it. I've got comp seats so if I could find somebody that wanted to trade I might do it but the skin costs would drive it up to a couple thousand dollars which I will not do. I may talk to my upholstery shop to see what they could do but with the perforations for the cooling, I think that renders the upholstery shop useless unless they could do it right. Still I think even that would be impractical.

The only other thing that will inevitably start boring me is the factory stereo. Don't get me wrong, I was very pleasantly surprised with the stock system. For what it is, it's actually pretty good when you get it dialed in and some decent quality it music to play. Still I've had reasonably large systems in all my cars of past. Some that were/are over the top show winners. As such, a speaker upgrade along with some amps and digital processing driven from the factory head unit may be in order down the line.

Beyond that, I can't think of anything else I'd do. Maybe the console cover and that little strip down the drivers side of the console? I wanted it to be factory and not over the top. The suede as it sits now is just that and it brings a level of comfort and softness that the leather doesn't.

Vetteman Jack

Congrats on getting the car - sure looks great.

JSibert

Congratulations

slief

I figured I should post an update as I've done a few somewhat significant changes to my car. First I switched from my Lashway body kit to the ACS Splitter and ACS Zero 7 skirts. I really like the look of these. No knock on the Lashway stuff. I just preferred this stuff more.

Some not so great pictures. I will work on getting some better ones this next weekend.










I also was fortunate enough to get in on the AFE cold air group buy. It arrived today and I installed it as soon as I got home. I have not driven it yet since installing it but I will do that when I go to work tomorrow. It's going to take some miles for the computer to adjust to it anyway but the install was a breeze.

Glen e

very, very nice....interested if you get a better accell sound with the AFE...I don't care about power increase....

slief

I did fire it up when I completed the install and it did sound throatier and perhaps a bit snappier. I will have a better idea tomorrow when I drive to the office.

I had intended to take it for a spin when I finished but I had somebody come by to take some free macro algae that I grow and prune to help export nutrients from my 650 gallon salt water reef tank. He showed up just after I cleaned up my install mess so that became a bit of a priority.

The tank is one of my passions like my cars but I've had this tank for about 20 years now and unlike my vehicles, this tank is the highest priority among my hobbies. I think I'm derailing my own thread!

Glen e

tropical guy here too...my 55 high was the focal point of my room...are they still using the bio-ball deal for filtering gases out - ozone too?

doneski

Looks great man!