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COMING SOON

1993 ZR1 - #135
Torch Red/Red
Cleanup/Restoration
"PROJECT RED HOT"

Pictures and story - 1993 ZR1 Cleanup/Restoration

(AUG 2018) - Just parked the ZR1 in my driveway after being delivered. Looks good but she needs lots of work. Lots of dirt, dust and rock chips. Going to be a long clean up process!!! Chrome rims are terrible. Pitted and chipped everywhere so they will need to be refinished along with some new tires.	A shot of the driver side of the engine compartment. Picture makes it look good. In person its really dirty and the cam cover emblem is not looking good!	This poor ZR1 - So dirty and greasy! Time to start the cleanup. Wheel wells and suspension first.
Frame and suspension all cleaned up. During the brake install I will polish up the suspension a little more one the rotor is out of the way.	Passenger side of the Engine degreased and lightly sanded getting ready for silver paint. I will fill in the Corvette lettering and on top of the plenum with a brush. Red and Black.	Passenger side of engine paint complete. Waiting for Emblems to come in. Thanks to Jerry's for having the emblems!
Decided to paint the indent RED. Time to fill in the letters and numbers.	Driver side is just as dirty! Time to clean up and start to paint the driver side of the ENGINE.	Birmal heads all clean!

Driver Side Engine painted, wheel well and suspension cleaned. Time to paint all the bolts black and fill in the lettering by way of brush again! Man it takes a steady hand!	Engine painted. letters and numbers filled in and cam emblems installed. Driver side view.	Another view of engine complete. Passenger side view.
Lets clean up the wheel wells and get all the dirt and grime off of them. Going to prime them and paint them black.	Wheel wells for both Driver and Passenger side painted and ready for install.	Old vs New - Lamp sockets. They looked like this around the whole car. Replace and went with LEDs.
Reinforcement cleaned and painted.	Front bumper removed - Cleaning - Fog light replacement - re-wire of the lamp sockets and LEDs are planned.	Took apart the shroud and tried to make sure all the grass, rocks and stuff were all free and the radiator fins we clean.
WOW! I'm surprised that this ZR1 didn't overheat! According to Carfax this car sat for 7 years from 2011-2018 and only 1000 miles were put on it. 43k total as of Dec 2018.	Custom seat covers. Since all 93 models came with 40 in the headrest I took it a step further and added ZR1 underneath so it doesn't get confused with a 40th RUBY ZR1. I will be installing the covers on new foam. Hog ring time! But will wait a little before tackling the seats.	That's better. I'm sure she will run cooler now!
Continuing to clean the front of the car. Fog lights up next. Took apart to clean and make sure lenses were good. Re-installed with new LEDs.	I told you this thing was dirty! Even under the 3rd brake light there was a ton of dirt! Removed added LEDs and re-installed.	Washing the bumper. There was so much dirt on the inside of the bumper!! I think this car was driven to a quarry for work each day as a daily driver!
Spare Tire is good just full of grime and dust!!	Rear bumper removed. So much dirt everywhere. Time to wash it!	Time to remove rear bumper for Brake light re-wire/LEDs, clear lenses, but most of all to have clear access to the muffler hangers so I can adjust and tuck the exhaust up a little more that it shows in the pic.

Look what was hiding under the strap of the gas tank!!! Awesome!	Build Sheet came out pretty good. Will have to get it together and figure out how to preserve it.	Cut the hanger and drilled a new hole. Mufflers are now nice and tight under the frame.
Lets get this rear suspension and frame all cleaned up.	That's better - All cleaned up.	Wow! What a difference a little black makes. Perfect color match as well! Had to replace lumbar pump. Whew, parts are getting scarce for this car!
Time to tackle all the lights at the front of the car - All LEDs - Headlights-Fog Lights-Turn Signals-Side Markers.	Cold outside in the garage so I decided to spend a couple hours and get my HOG on! Gosh I hate hog ringing seat covers but they turned out awesome!	Front bumper re-installed with new side markers and fog lamps looking good.
Awesome! The lights look great and a really a nice looking white. Will install last headlight cover and front end will be complete.	Clear brake light lenses and new License Plate lights. All will have LEDs.	Painted the mufflers black before re-installing the bumper - I'm not a big fan of Chrome. Let's get the lights installed.
Super bright and they look great!!!

Time to tackle the under hood components. First up is the Wheel well covers and then a nice coat of black paint color correct for the whole underside of the hood. There are so many paint chips it needs it! Black Paint is from one of the corvette sites on the web and it looks great!	Had to use a sander, grey filler primer and then black paint to get them to look brand new again. Whew! Again no one sells new ones so had to pull out all the stops to get them to look good from all the rock chips.	Under hood wells complete and look great. The rest of the under side of the hood did as well. Hood lights - LEDs look great.
LED hood lights look great and I have them on a switch for car shows. The black paint for the hood turned out perfect!	Vents removed and cleaned. There was so much grass, dirt and grime.	315s to this day is still a big meat!!! Nitto 555 G2 has a great tread pattern.
Took the chrome rims to a local wheel refinishing place and told him my design. Can't find GrandSport rims anymore with the correct offset and smaller polished lip. So I told the place to strip the chrome and showed him the size polished lip I wanted. These are powder coated black not painted. I couldn't be happier with the finish!

Time to get after the under carriage. Front suspension all cleaned as well as the oil pan and transmission. Tightened the oil pan bolts per Mr. Haibeck.	Decided while I was cleaning the oil pan of oil and grime I might as well change the oil! AMSOIL 10w-40.	Exhaust is covered and undercarriage will be degreased and will spray a new coat of undercoating on the whole undercarriage.
All ready for the undercoating spray.	Not a sexy picture...LOL! But at least its protected now and looks a lot better.	Cleaned/Degreased and painted as well. Now to take the plastic wheel well covers and clean them up.
So dirty! Looks like I will have to wash, sand, primer/filler again like I did the under hood covers. More hours to burn!	As I wait a few days for the undercoating to dry I'm going to clean up the rear wheel wells and suspension. DONE!	They turned out just like the front. Look great!

Cold outside and my small heaters are having trouble keeping up. So going to paint correct my Red Targa Top. This is a two top option car. Blue Roof Panel and the Red fiberglass one.	Everywhere there is green tape there were deep scratches and chips. The scratches and chips were filled in with the wrong color paint as well before I started. I filled in with Torch Red paint. Will let dry for a couple days before giving the whole thing a light sanding and polishing.	As I wait for the roof panel to dry, I bought a new headliner as the old one was sagging. I then bought some Alcantara (you can get it by the yard) in Black and Red and covered the headliner with a strip of red and the rest black.
Headliner done and installed. Looks great! Good color match on the red with the torch red interior.	Roof Panel sanded, polished and sealed. I went with the FLEX DA polisher and SONAX CutMax and Sonax 04-06 polishes. Thing is a mirror! Still have some scratches that are visible but its acceptable and 100% better than what it was. Some light scratches are still visible because I didn't completely sand the paint off and re-do it, not because of the polish.	With the driver seat out I took advantage of the extra room to get the console lid off. I re-upholstered the lid in Black Alcantara. The shift boot is from REDLINEGOODS. It was my inspiration for the Headliner. Shift knob will be custom as well.
Seat Belts are the next thing to get replaced but no one makes OEM anymore so going to have to go aftermarket. New on is on the left and the dirty/discolored old one is one the right. What a difference!!!	Here is another pic of the Alcantara console cover & shift boot. Along with the new installed seat belts(passenger side). The seat belts look great up against the black side bolsters!!	Installed the new Driver seat covers. They turned out great!! Interior is going to look great once everything is all installed.

Remember this picture? Well I decided to wash/clean the OEM belts on the right to get them ready for EBAY/ZR1-Registry and something amazing happened.	Here I stretch out the belt from the tensioner and held it from winding back up with a heavy weight. Scrubbed and washed them.	Once the belts dried overnight from cleaning I couldn't believe how they looked. I decided to put the OEMs back in the car. So I ripped out the passenger side seat (a 3rd time) and made the change. They look perfect. I would never had bet they would have cleaned up to almost new condition!!
Just another picture of the seat belt fastened. They look great!!	Ran into another snag tonight. Powered Bolster switch was wasted. Took apart and cleaned the contacts and the inside and that was it. Working like new. Look at all the junk in there!!	A view from the passenger side.
A view from the driver side.	Exciting night. I was able to get everything in the driver seat completed and installed. The whole interior is now complete. Everything turned out according to design. Really excited on how it looks.	New boot and Shift knob picture. Both in Alcantara. Look and feels great. Hand won't slip off that shift knob!!
Another close up shot of the driver side. 40th black floor mats look amazing against that Torch Red interior. The silver 40th just pops!! Something special is coming for the Steering wheel - Stay tuned!!

Removed old battery that was barely working. Went with a new Odyssey.	Quick view of the batteries during replacement.	Remanufactured Rear Caliper - It came with a silver paint coating. Time to tape everything off and give it a nice coat of RED Caliper paint.
One caliper all painted. Going to for a Red/Silver theme on the rear calipers.	Both Red Calipers painted. Will let dry for a day or two before taking the tape off.	Rear calipers finished. The color combination looks good. Should look nice behind the black rims.
Stock view - Front Brakes. Before replacements.	Hubs and Suspension cleaned. Ready for new calipers and Rotors.	New Brakes installed and completed. Very easy install.
Quick test fit of rim. Plenty of clearance. That red caliper just pops behind that black wheel.	Quick view of Passenger front Brake.	Rear suspension cleaned up and ready for new brakes. I was amazed on how clean it turned out. New shocks will have to wait until a later date.
New rotors and calipers installed. Baer brake pads and Rotors with re-manufactured calipers.

Rock chips filled in with paint and other scratches all sanded down and ready for cutting/polish.	Passenger side view - sanded.	Driver side view.
Quick pic after a run over the paint with the clay disc on the polisher.	Nice looking paint after using the clay disc and first run with the cutting pad. Now time to polish and seal. Did a quick test fit of the new emblems. Can't wait to install them. Looking great!	New Hood emblem installed.
New emblems installed. Great color contrast.	ZR1 emblem test fit on passenger side. Good color combination. Actually got lucky with the color as there's not many emblems out on the market anymore.	Polish and wax sealer completed. Ceramic coated the front bumper for added protection. The shine is incredible.

Time to remove the old weather stripping around the rear hatch. Its all split at the corners as seen in the picture. Clean everything up and install new one.	WOW! This is a scary thing to tackle. Had to remove the struts from the body of the trunk to get the new weather stripping around. Sure didn't need the glass to fall down. Had someone hold it for safety.	Driver side molding was replaced. As the pic shows it was cracked and banging around.
Nice clean looking now. Everything turned out well. No more cracked stripping in the corners.	Finished polishing and sealing the rear of the car. Now the whole car has been cut/polished/sealed. The paint reflection is incredible. Rear Emblems installed - CORVETTE-Gas Lid and ZR1.	Good color contrast with the new emblems. Again these parts are starting to become rare. Lucky to find this color.

The car is finished. I finally was able to drive it around the neighborhood. My first drive ever in a C4 ZR1. Thanks to everyone who helped me over the last 7 months!!

Mar 2019 - Car is complete. Quick picture in the shadow of the garage.	The picture does not do the RED justice. This is a must see color in person. But the hard work put in on the paint correction paid off. It looks great in the sun! Time to put some tire shine on those new tires!	Last item was installed today. The Alcantara steering wheel looks and feels awesome.
Another view of the entire interior. All the Alcantara looks great. Underside of roof panel matches the shift boot and steering wheel. Great color combo!

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