What have YOU being doing or are you planning to do with your Vette?

97BlackC5

97BlackC5

CCCUK Member
So, the wheels are on & looking good with the fresh rubber & newly painted calipers. I will need to check the fronts as the balancing weights are running extremely close to the calipers, I guess that is what happens when you fit a tire & balance the wheel without having just taken it off the car for reference (if you can zoom in on the front wheel of the third picture you will see what I mean). Still, I will check this tomorrow & if necessary take a careful trip next week end to my local tire fitter to get them rebalanced.IMG_20210227_094715.jpgIMG_20210227_094729.jpgIMG_20210227_094743.jpgIMG_20210227_121311.jpgIMG_20210227_123845.jpg
 
Adtheman

Adtheman

Well-known user
Front brake callipers rebuilt, by me, rears done soon. tasty new grooved drilled discs courtesy CK along with new brake booster and Master Cylinder. New Bilsteins all round. Old girl should stop and handle nicely now.
 

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Mad4slalom

Mad4slalom

Well-known user
kentvette said:
Agh! Don't remind me! What fun we had installing the brake shoes in the hub assembly on our new trailing arms! :eek:
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What exactly are these? Hand brake adjusters? Cant believe just how bad my handbrake is considering the whole thing was rebuilt. Have run out of adjustment at the cable now going to look at the wheel adjusters . 👍
 
kentvette

kentvette

CCCUK Member
Mad4slalom said:
What exactly are these? Hand brake adjusters? Cant believe just how bad my handbrake is considering the whole thing was rebuilt. Have run out of adjustment at the cable now going to look at the wheel adjusters . 👍
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Those two pieces are the handbrake shoe retainers. The "cone" bolts to the backplate and the shoes rest against them held to the back plate by the plates, but as "Corvette" said, it's impossible to fit the bolts with the spindle there and that has t be "pressed" out. Fitting the brake shoes has to be done after the spindle is in really, so there is precious little space to work - and the return springs are ridiculously strong, so getting them hooked in is always "fun! But, a handy little video certainly helped.

The C3 handbrake is notoriously hopeless! Gavin's (EMC) instructions a few weeks ago on handbrake setting were good, but don't expect too much! As Gavin said, it may take a few attempts to be "satisfied", but in reality it's rare to get one to be as effective as we'd like. To my mind there is something fundamentally wrong with the design, as I have had other cars with the handbrake in a drum within the disc, and they have worked fine.
 
antijam

antijam

CCCUK Member
kentvette said:
The C3 handbrake is notoriously hopeless! Gavin's (EMC) instructions a few weeks ago on handbrake setting were good, but don't expect too much! As Gavin said, it may take a few attempts to be "satisfied", but in reality it's rare to get one to be as effective as we'd like. To my mind there is something fundamentally wrong with the design, as I have had other cars with the handbrake in a drum within the disc, and they have worked fine.
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Agreed - the handbrake design is both inefficient and ludicrously complex. My Daimler SP250 had 4-wheel discs 10 years before the C3 and the hand brake works fine ( handbrake pads grab the rotor rather a drum inside it ). The handbrake shoes on my Mercedes SLK320 work inside the drum and will hold on a 1 in 3 - and have not required adjustment in the 8 years I've owned it.

The collection of pulleys, cables and levers on the 'Vette are a recipe for corrosion, friction, lost motion and cable stretch. On top of that the disc drum diameter is small considering the weight of the car - getting the parking brake to hold on a 1 in 10 is a challenge never mind a 1 in 4. I replaced most of my system ( see here ) and got some functionality back, but when parking in a street I always follow the american practice - wheels turned towards the kerb.

You get the feeling the C3 designers were just patting themselves on the back when someone said "hang on, has anyone done the parking brake?"
 
Roscobbc

Roscobbc

Moderator
One has to look at the mindset of an 'average' American car owner regarding handbrake usage. Most cars sold in the 'States are auto's. The 'average' American driver will simply select 'Park' when parking his or her vehicle - and won't bother with hand brake. Hence why an automatic C3 so often has a hand brake that is inoperative. In UK the 'emergency', 'parking' or 'hand' brake legally needs to be an effective back-up in the case of failure of the main system. I doubt very much if GM ever designed the 'parking' brake to ever be capable of use in a major emergency. Even the American used term 'parking brake' perhaps gives us a clue as to its designed purpose?
 
Chuffer

Chuffer

CCCUK Member
Totally agree with you guys , you only have to think back to all those old American movies and TV series . Every time a driver got out of a car it would lurch on its suspension so you knew full well it was just shoved into park when they leapt out . I have never had a car that had a hand brake that couldn`t be adjusted enough to hold on a good slope . The C3 is total pants :mad: Now on my second Jeep Grand Cherokee that has emergency / park drum brakes built into rear disc brake hubs and that will hold all the weight of a big V8 SUV no problem !
 
Mad4slalom

Mad4slalom

Well-known user
Chuffer said:
Totally agree with you guys , you only have to think back to all those old American movies and TV series . Every time a driver got out of a car it would lurch on its suspension so you knew full well it was just shoved into park when they leapt out . I have never had a car that had a hand brake that couldn`t be adjusted enough to hold on a good slope . The C3 is total pants :mad: Now on my second Jeep Grand Cherokee that has emergency / park drum brakes built into rear disc brake hubs and that will hold all the weight of a big V8 SUV no problem !
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Just been reading the 72 owners manual and that too states that you should apply the footbrake hard before applying the parking brake, I still cant see what help this would be when the footbrake only operates the caliper and pads and note the h/ brake shoes 🤔
 
CaptainK

CaptainK

CCCUK Member
Roscobbc said:
Made a start on polishing the inside of these wheels (especially after being out over the last few weeks - specifically avoided using car when salt had been applied to the roads......don't want to take a chance and leave things too long before cleaning). Getting to the inside surfaces of the wheel is challenging - if I do it in situ and I'll end up with ripped hands - easier to remove wheels individually and polish all surfaces........
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Out of interest, what did you use to polish your wheels? I'm going to be polish mine soon and already have some autosol metal polish, but wondered if there was something better?
Alas, one of the last times I used my Vette was a beautiful sunny, but cool and crisp winter day. Gorgeous sun and it was midday. So for my lunchtime break I thought it would be a perfect time to give the Vette a run up and down the road as it hadn't been used for a while due to poor weather.
So out the garage pops the Vette, drive off down the housing estate road my house is on, turn onto the main road, immediately go around the roundabout leaving the village to head off along said main road into the country, and as soon as I exit the roundabout..... off in the distance around the corner comes a flippin salt spreader truck. I kid you not. I had nowhere to go and the bugger just pelted me. I was fuming !
 
Roscobbc

Roscobbc

Moderator
Sovol Autosol was always the 'go to' polish for chrome and ally..........and it does do a nice job, especially turning natural cast alluminium from a matt to polished finish (like 'old school' bike engines).......however it is comparatively coarse comparared with some of the newer polishes like Mothers, American Racing Wheel Polish and similar polishes. If you have a highly polished mirror surface on 'billet' wheels and engine components Autosol will perhaps leave very fine scratches on the surface............
 
CaptainK

CaptainK

CCCUK Member
Nice one thanks. I might give it a go in a small place to see what it looks like. Otherwise I'll shop for the American Racing wheel polish, as mine are American Racing wheels after all.
 
Daytona Vette

Daytona Vette

Well-known user
Roscobbc said:
Sovol Autosol was always the 'go to' polish for chrome and ally..........and it does do a nice job, especially turning natural cast alluminium from a matt to polished finish (like 'old school' bike engines).......however it is comparatively coarse comparared with some of the newer polishes like Mothers, American Racing Wheel Polish and similar polishes. If you have a highly polished mirror surface on 'billet' wheels and engine components Autosol will perhaps leave very fine scratches on the surface............
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Just mix the Solvite Autosol with a little Olive Oil, it will work a treat and for light scratches on the windows, some tooth paste and a tooth brush
 
Mad4slalom

Mad4slalom

Well-known user
antijam said:
Well I've just treated the 'Vette (and my other cars) to an under-bonnet wad of cotton wool dosed with Peppermint essential oil.....

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We live out in the sticks and share our rural environment with a wide variety of flora and fauna. Despite my generously leaving tasty snacks of peanut butter around the garage......

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........as the cold weather approaches some of the smaller fauna seem to develop a preference for automotive wiring - expensively incapacitating my Hybrid Toyota a couple of years ago - I guess a warm engine bay is more comfortable than a cold garage. I have since discovered that peppermint is allegedly a very effective rodent deterrent, so now part of my winter service schedule includes regularly topping up the cotton wool pads with the oil.
Hopefully this may stimulate their taste for peanut butter.... :devilish:
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Peppermint oil, hadnt heard of that👍 Just had a seat belt chewed by the mouse resident in my van , thats a deffo mot failure next week, belts not cheap either. 3 traps in there now , I had left a sacrificisl apple and a caramel wafer in there too to protect my seats 😩
 
James Vette

James Vette

CCCUK Member
I've been looking at 74-77 C3's and I'm pretty keen on a blue one but I saw Gavin at EMC Performance is selling one in flame orange and I think I like that too. Would be nice to visit him but it's hours away and I don't want him to get his hopes up of selling it in case it's not for me.
 
HJG

HJG

CCCUK Member
James Vette said:
I've been looking at 74-77 C3's and I'm pretty keen on a blue one but I saw Gavin at EMC Performance is selling one in flame orange and I think I like that too. Would be nice to visit him but it's hours away and I don't want him to get his hopes up of selling it in case it's not for me.
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No excuse! I went up there twice from Sussex to view a car.
I don't think people get their hopes up - especially those who have sold many cars over many years. Just be up-front and say that part of this viewing is to see if this is actually what you want (y)
 
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