Can I ask you a question, do you love muscle cars? If so do you love the new ones, or the old ones, as you know I restore cars for a living, and my way of doing things is to combine the best of the old, with that best of the new, obviously I like the old body styles, I just think that they had more class and style.

The old muscle cars just fit my style better, but it really doesn't matter what you like, they're both a lot of fun, but I just love the old ones, so I take the steering, suspension, and braking systems and retro fit them to work with the old muscle cars, this gives them all the advantages of having a new car, but with the old style looks.

I know that somebody will spark up and disagree with me here, because I said that I restored cars for a living, and I know that you've all heard that the car will lose value if you modify it, and this is true, it will, but if your restoring the car to make a profit by selling it, you won't make any money at all if you restore it first, it costs a lot of money, and takes a lot of time to restore a car.

If you restoring that car because you love it, because it reminds you of the good times, and has that nostalgia of being an old car, you might as well do it the way that you picture in your mind to be the best, if that happens to be a factory stock restoration, then restore it to factory specs.

But if you've ever pictured a custom hot rod muscle car, well then you may not like the whole factory stock idea, it does mean exactly what it says, factory stock, which means that you get the old drum brakes from the 1960's and 1970's, unless your car had the option to have front disc brakes, most of them didn't have that option though.

You could get an automatic transmission in most of them, but most people opted for the four on the floor, or four speed standard transmission, now you could have four wheel disc brakes, a six speed standard transmission, much nicer riding, and handling suspension, and the new power steering has quicker turning ratios, making the car go through the corners with less effort, and you might as well have the best of both worlds.

You can have all the modern conveniences like GPS, high powered car stereo gear, digital dash boards, well you get the idea, it's your car, so build it your way, don't let anybody tell you how to do it, I have seen it to many times where people go on the word of another person, and just don't like their car when it's done.

If I have one thing I could say, it's don't build the car with the idea to resell it, and make sure that it meats all of your standards, and not some shop owner, or one of your friends, sure take advise from people, but use the advise in the way that will suite you the best, your car only needs to impress you, not your friends, not your family, or your neighbors, just you.

Chevrolet plans to release a new corvette in 2009, well not exactly new, it's and upgraded version of the ZR1 corvette from the 1980's, and when I say up graded I mean up graded, more power, better handling, more comfortable, well yo get the idea, this car is the king of the hill, the best of the best that Chevrolet has to offer.

 

With it's supercharged LS9 engine it is putting out about 650 horsepower, making it the most powerful car built by Chevrolet for a long long time, and making the corvette set salivate, waiting with anticipation, chomping at the bit ready for something new, and this is just what the doctor ordered for a corvette freak.

 

With more then enough power to satisfy the most power hungry corvette freak, and the euro styling of the new corvette, it will no doubt be a huge seller, and no doubt be unbeatable by any stock muscle car on the market, yes I said any, and that includes the Viper, being as how the corvette can already hold it's own against the Viper.

 

Chevrolet has dropped the displacement of the engine down to 6.2 liters, and added another 149 horsepower, obviously this will not be a cheap car, it's not going to be a car for a person that makes $30,000 per year, it will be in the low to mid $100,000 dollar range, making it out of the budget of a normal person.

 

With all the technology that Chevrolet is throwing at this car, it's no wonder that it will not be cheap, I have to give them "CUDOS" for building such a cool car, it's just like that old days, when Chevrolet was the top dog, they are on their way to being the king again.

To put all that power to the ground, in a manor that won't have you fish tailing all over the road Chevrolet has added Michelin Pilot Sport 285/30ZR19s at the front of this monster, and at the rear the awesome power of this engine is being distributed by way of Michelin Pilot Sport 335/25ZR20s, this car has the stance of a muscle car, but will handle like a sports car making it the only choice for a true American muscle car guy or girl.

 

The ZO6 corvette had a very stiff suspension, making it difficult to drive quickly on the road, whereas the new corvette ZR1 will use some euro tech known as magneto-rheological dampers, like the Ferrari 599, the fluid in these units is filled with iron particles and the viscosity can be instantly changed by varying an electric current passing through it, ride sensors in the car take measurements every 0.001 seconds, and translate the information to the dampers every 0.002 seconds, adjusting the firmness of the ride to handle the corners much better then a stock mechanical system would.

 

With a six speed gear box, and Ferrari disc brakes at all four corners, stopping should be no problem either, as you well know, what speeds up must at one time on another slow down, and the brakes and transmission are just as important as the engine is to your safety, the brake rotors are made for a carbon ceramic composite, the Ferrari Enzo used these brakes on the front wheels, the corvette will use them at all four corners.

 

The Tremec 6060 will handle the power distribution from the engine to the road, and to show off a bit of it's new attitude, the speedometer will move for a 200 mph unit in the ZO6 Corvette, and a new 220 mph unit in the all new ZR1, with all of this awesome technology, it will be a car lovers dream come true, all that power and grace in a Chevrolet corvette, not a Porsche, not any euro car, the corvette, and American built sports car, yes I said American.

Obviously if your considering restoring a Corvette, the process is a bit different from a metal bodied car, don't think for a minute that you won't find rust in a Corvette, maybe not as much, but Corvettes do rust, they sit on a metal frame, and use metal suspension and transmission parts, all of which can rust, so don't fool yourself in to thinking because the car's body is made of fiberglass, your restoration will be easier, it will not, if anything it will be harder.

Corvette's will provide you with a number of different challenges then a metal bodied car would, you will have more to learn, and more challenges to overcome, so prepare yourself, get your head in to it, make sure that you have all the tolls that you need to do the job, and if you don't know what tools you need, stop by a Barnes & Nobel book store and buy a book on restoring a Corvette, if you have never restored a car, and the Corvette is your first attempt, you will want to know all you can before you begin the job.

Get out your notebook and pen, or do it on your computer, but plan the restoration, and spend some time to do a really good job in on this part of the restoration, this is what will make most people loose interest in the car that they are going to restore, and you don't want to do this on your Corvette, if you plan the restoration you'll always know what your looking forward to, you'll know what you need for the job, and what you already have, and this goes a long way to resolve the frustration issues that just naturally go a long with the restoration.

Noe that we have that out of the way, you'll want to choose a good car to start with, even if you have to pay a little bit more money for it, and if your trying to restore it so you can sell it for a profit, forget that right now, you will spend more to restore the car then you can sell it for, unless it happens to be a special Corvette, like and L88 or ZL1 Corvette, then it would become possible to make profit of of a restored Corvette.

The first thing that you want to do to make this easier on you is to check the car out before you buy it, if the owner doesn't want you to drive the car, there is a reason, and you can take that to the bank, but for this article, let's just say that you have already chosen the perfect Corvette for you, the body & mechanical, and electrical are all in decent shape, and you got your foot on the starting block, ready, set , go, you have the Corvette in your garage, and it's just begging you to get it restored so you can drive it, I know the feeling.

Here is where it gets hard, nobody can show you every little thing about a restoration, something different will happen on your car then what happened on the last car that they restored, so be ready to face a learning curve that you won't believe during the restoration of your car, do yourself a huge favor, and spend the first day cleaning the car, get the grease out of the engine compartment, and form under the chassis of the car.

Once the car is spotless, you should spend the next day taking pictures of the car from every imaginable angle, these pictures will help you when it's time to put the car back together, believe me, it's a huge mistake not to do this, or to skip any step will make you pay later, and you will not like it, the next day is when you need to bust out the plan that you have made, and follow it to the letter, if you plan is set up to guide you by the day, you will get your car done, and probably even be very happy with the out come of it, just don't expect more by the day then what you can deliver for yourself, this may sound a bit weak, but I'll give an idea of a day 1 plan for me.

Start at 8:00 A.M.

From 8:00 to 12:00 Noon, work on tearing down the front end of the car, and be prepared with a lot of boxes for the parts that you take off of the car, label these boxes so you know whats in them, and just for good measure take pictures of the parts that you pull off of the front end and put them in with the parts, make sure that you bag and tag the parts that you pull off of the car, I can say from experience that you will not remember where the parts came from, the car will be torn a part for quite a while.

When I say bag and tag the parts I mean, say you pull the headlights and headlight buckets out of the car to start with, make sure that you have a box labeled headlights, and inside that box you have the pictures of the parts that you have pulled off of the car, in this box should be plastic bags with the small parts, labeled mounting hardware, and be sure to put your nuts, bolts, and brackets in there, with pictures of where these nuts, bolts, and brackets came form, also draw a map of where these parts came from and put it in the box also.

Organization is the key to getting you Corvette restored the right way.

From 1:00 P.M. To when your done for the day.

When you get back from lunch, you can remove the hood and hinges, and it's the same here, make sure that you label a box, hood and you bag and tag all the parts that you pull of while removing the hood, take pictures of these parts and put them in with the parts in the box, remove the grille and mounting hardware, and label a box for it, take pictures of it while you remove it, make sure that if you break off any nuts and bolts, that you document this so you know what to replace, normally I'd just replace all the nuts and bolt with new ones any way.

Any way, you get the idea here, this is the most important part of the job, and by the way, do not throw any of the old parts away, they will be useful during the restoration project, I know that you'll replace most of these parts during the restoration process, but you will need them for reference, so make sure that you keep all of them.

I was recently asked how to decode a Yenko Camaro vin tag, and the honest truth is that it's no different from any other Camaro vin tag, Yenko Chevrolet modifies the Camaros at their dealership, so you see, a Yenko Super Camaro would have a regular Camaro vin code such as 124379N345145, so by the vin you would know that the car was a Chevrolet indicated by the number “1” and that it was a Camaro indicated by the number “2” and that it was a two door coupe indicated by the number “37” and that it's a 1969 Model indicated by the “9” and that it was built in Norwood California indicated by the “N” and anything after the “N” is the line number or serial number id you prefer this would tell you that this particular car was the 345,145 TH car built in 1969.

All Camaro vin numbers are pretty standard like this in an effort to make them easy to decode, now to find out if it's a Yenko Camaro that your looking at you could look at the RPO code located on the passenger side of the engine on a machined pad just in front of the head, now just as a warning these numbers have been known to be re-stamped to say that their something that their not, so this is where you need to be careful and match this number to the block casting number located at the back of the engine on the driver side, and the bell housing flange, and this number cannot be re-stamped, so of the RPO code does not match this number, I would not buy the car.

I have spent a lot of time studying how the vin codes, and the RPO codes, and casting numbers all work together to tell you what the car is, and what it should be, and if you look at these codes, and make sure that is your looking for a factory Camaro, or a special Camaro like a Yenko Camaro, that you pay close absolute attention to what these numbers are telling you, you probably will not get ripped off on your purchase, don't second guess these numbers as you match them up, if they tell you that it's not a real Yenko, then it's not.

The Yenko Camaros had a factory horsepower rating of 425 HP, and if those numbers don't tell you that it's a 425 HP 427 CID engine, then it's best that you steer in the opposite direction of this purchase, make sure that these numbers tell you that it had the right transmission in it, the Yenko Camaros were all sold with a standard transmission, and it was a Muncie M-22 rock crusher, if the numbers on the car don't tell you that this is what's in the car, don't buy it.

Red Line Restoration is in negotiations to purchase a new state of the art restoration shop, and we're taking appointments for restoration work on cars right now, be the first to get your car in to the brand new shop.

Give us a call at 801-401-9399