and more photos of under the hood....I can't wait to see this car in primer! I ordered '91-'92 ground effects from Hawks Thirdgen and they have arrived, i'll need to get those over to John so they can be fitted. Also, John is essentially re-shaping/widening the 5" spoiler and by this coming weekend i'll be able to check that out as well.

nice man keep up the good work

wow thats coming along realy fast, looking good, cant wait to see the finished product, gunna be buring rubber with them tires

Hopefully not! But, with the engine combo he plans... Probably. I can't even imagine the traction I would have with 335's.

Gents, again I have more photos....the spoiler in the process of being finessed and the outer spoiler pieces widened and will be reshaped to take the "squareness" away.

a few more....engine bay in primer and the t-top weatherstrip channels free of all that adhesive, caulk, silicone, elmers glue, super glue AND scotch tape that I used to try and stop the water leaks

Someone else on the boards has that tall spoiler. And they rounded the top of the side peices. Looked a lot better that way IMO.

I am loving this.....can't wait to see it when its done!

I gotta ask you where you ordered those rims. I thought the AR rebels looked great, but those have to be the nicest rims I've ever seen. You've been doing a great job so far, keep us posted as much as you can!

The wheels are iForged Aeros. iForged Performance Wheels - The next generation in forging technology and thank you, I appreciate all the compliments.

Quick question. What made you tear the car apart and do all the work! It looked really clean in the before pics!

That is a question I am still trying to answer myself! lol. Actually, there was hidden rust and some relatively minor structural damage from a previous accident(s) (before I owned it) and I wanted everything right. I figured since I was tearing the car apart might as well go with a bigger tire and here we are! Modified quarter panel/rear end, C6 brakes, LS2, T-56, etc.... Anyway, I wanted it to be a solid, bad *** Z and I hope that it will be this when done.

I need your advice on where to get an SS hood. Is there a vendor other than American Sports Car Design for this particular hood? I appreciate your input!

Thunder Racing, one of thirdgen's sponsors.

lookin absolutely amazing neil! i cannot wait to see this thing in color!

I have pics of the tail lights mounted!

Thats some serious gap youve got in the middle there. Im still curious and excited to see how it turns out.

Look great thus far!

Maybe try a ZR1 Corvette rear license plate bracket, because a ZR1 had the same issues and that is why they made the bracket. you probably have to customize it.

Great suggestion, thank you! John, also had a good idea and that was elongating the black plastic which goes behind the license plate. Hey, that in addition to the ZR1 license plate bracket might be perfect. Does anyone by chance have an up close photo of this ZR1 bracket?

Neil, the bumpers i have are 85-90 iroc style.

2 things...I was going to ask 1, until I saw the tailight pics.

In one earlier pic, it looks like the ends of the rear spoiler, where it fits the quarter, were lengthened and cuved, all the way down. In the talight pics, it looks more "normal". Change your mind on the spoiler?

Other question...Any plans on anything else but the quarters? Like maybe, a reverse opening hood like the Vette hoods? I think that would be kinda cool to see.

that car is looking killer. I am searching for someone in my area who does resto work for mine. Do you have any suggestions on what to look for.keep up th good work

you get c6 brakes on the rear yet? I talked this over with ebmiller and he doesnt know how to do it yet. possibly having to weld different brackets on the rear maybe?

Now that you've got the TTop center section to that point I have a question.

How do you get the black metal pieces off that are on either side of the center bar and do you need to strip the seals out to remove them?

If you had a second set of lights. Looks like it wouldnt be to much work to cut the ends off the second set of tail lights. On the inside where the license plate bracket is. And attach them to the other set. Just extend them where the black plastic meets. The black squares are smaller in size then the colored so it would look factory. Kinda add a second row of the gloss black squares.

Man, this is an amazing project, the project I am about to do is nothing compared to this. I LOVE THOSE QUARTERS! And those door handles are sweet too. Mad props to Vintage, thats some A++++ work. for this build. Can't wait till we get to see that thing finished.

Thanks again guys! I saw the car yesterday and it pretty much is all in primer and looking sweet! The spoiler is 95% complete and looking smoother and flowing more with the lines of the car. As for the C6 rear brakes, this coming weekend I will fab a template out of wood to mount to the Strange axle tube (I have a Strange 12-bolt) or the existing bracket. I would rather have a completely new bracket which bolts to the 4 locations on the housing. It doesn't look too difficult with this setup (knock on wood!). Either way I'll keep you guys posted.

Good suggestion on the lights, we have been tossing that idea around as well. However, if possible I am leaning towards extending the rear black plastic portion of the lights which tucks behind the license plate. The only problem with that is that the license plate lights will be slightly further away, but I don't think that will matter too much OR we just might extend the black squares. I am sure by next weekend, we will have nailed something down and have more photos, speaking of which John will be sending me more in a day or so and i'll show you the car in primer. I am loving the engine comp. it is clean and smooth, he filled alot of the holes and the strut tower lip is gone!

Nomad TA: I am not sure of which black metal pieces you are talking about? Hey, I might learn something here that will keep my T-tops leak free! All we had to remove was the center T-bar and of course all the weather stripping.

How about something along the lines of the C5, using reverse lights by the license plate?

2001 Vette

Then you could tint the stock 3rd gen reverse lights to red, to match the tails, and use the C5 lights as reverse lights? Kinda have, the OEM look, but "something isn't right" look!

Stephen, i'm liking that idea! I'll have to see if there is enough gap to fit those C5 reverse lights in.

Thanks! Obviously, the C5 lights are the right height, but I guess it depends then on getting the space filled in between the C5 lights and the F-body tailights, and mounting.

But, with the work the shop has done so far, I don't see much of a fab problem.

that would look pretty good.
you probably have to do something with the tailights though.

More pics, now of the car in primer........

and now for the rear spoiler with John and Martias's touch! I am very happy with the results, especially how well the spoiler now follows the body lines.

Here are some rear views of the spoiler....

i am really digging all the work put into smoothing out the engine bay... nice

i dont really leikt he tall deck spoiler so much, its more for 2nd gens in my opinion


and da,mn, they got primer all over that car, a-arms, struts, swaybar, ... lotta scrapeing..

car seems to be coming along good

Neil, looking great! Are the sides of the spoiler going to be molded to the body, it looked like it from the rear. I think that you should have the front marker lights shaved while its under the knife.

Car is really starting to look good! I think the c5 back up lights is a really good idea. I also think you should blend the spoiler in. Keep the front marker lights and can't wait to see all the work in paint!

Again, thanks for the kind words! I plan on keeping the marker lights and my only worry with molding the spoiler to the body is having cracking issues. So, I am going to play it safe and leave the spoiler as is. I do appreciate your ideas and suggestions though!

The hood arrived today and hopefully John sends me some pics with it on the car

How much is this costing?

Is he going to have to widen the rear bumper cover?

Looks great so far BTW!

Yeah, he is going to widen the rear bumper and I have alot of pics to show you guys.

Finally, bought an SS hood from Hawk's Third Gen and it looks very nice and fits quite well! Anyway, here are the pics

and some more...............

some more...

and more photos of the bumper, he used a piece of sheet metal as a backing plate and is using epoxy to strengthen and mold the front.

The gap seems to be very manageable and will probably use some black plexan to fill in the space on either side of the license plate.

I appreciate your concern for Neil's car, just as a follow up to your comment, we are replacing the ENTIRE front suspension, so primer is a Non-issue.

looks like they're doing good work. reminds me of my car while it was in the paint process for a few months.

I have hear bad comments on the SS hood, some guys complained about the fitting of it. Did you have any problems with it?

Glad to see it in primer finnaly! its comin along real quick and it looks awesome! keep us posted.

on the SS hood fitment. It appears to be a pretty clean hood as far as construction. We've set it on, but haven't bolted everything down, so I can't definitely tell you one way or the other, but it seems to be a pretty good design. I should be able to give you some better info next week or so. I do know that this particular hood was designed specifically for this car, so it should be close.