Jeff's winter Corvette thread.

[Chris GTO TT]

What's going on here?

[DCIV]

Cf accent?


Coop

[mjannusch]

Beats me on that one... I have no idea what you are planning with that craziness.

[Jeff V.]

The bargain hunter strikes again!

A little while back I came across a factory carbon dash on eBay crazy cheap. Less than $200 shipped. You can barely get a clean non-carbon dash that cheap. Retail is about $600. As an added bonus, it came with the HUD controls, engine start button, and the climate/infotainment controls. Spare buttons are always nice, and the infotainment controls could come in handy later. :suspect2:

There's an issue with some of the C7 carbon dashboards where they start to delaminate at the top corners above the gauge cluster. This one had that problem. They also noted the fan switch for the AC controls was broken, but I didn't care about that since I could just swap over my current controls. I figured I'd just glue the edges back down and call it good.

Well, this one was a little further gone than I thought. After I pulled the trim pieces and vents, the carbon overlay damn near fell off. It took minimal effort to just pull both sides completely off.



I set it aside while I worked on other things and researched epoxies that'd be suitable for carbon fiber and plastic. I also needed to fix a piece of carbon trim that came apart on the Audi, so this was going to be a 2 for 1 repair. I eventually settled on 3M DP 8005.

The old adhesive was just flaking off the plastic frame, so I cleaned that all up, and then took a leap and glued it all back down. That's what all the zip ties and clamps were for. I wanted to make sure the carbon layer was tight against the plastic base.

It came out great. The climate control knobs rub against the carbon layer a little more than I'd like, but I can live with it.



Here's where I started.



Installing it was a gigantic pain. This car is built with some hard core trim clips. The noise some of them made when they released had me convinced I had just broken something. But as far as I can tell, I didn't.



But just doing the CF dash wasn't quite enough. One thing I've loved since the C7 was first revealed was the red dash on the 3LT trim level. My car is only a 2LT. The same salvage yard that supplied the dash also had the trim bits I needed



Those were kind of pricey, but it was worth it. I ended up having to buy a whole door panel to get that stupid little red strip that goes down to the arm rest, but now I've got some nice spare parts if I ever need them.

Not that I ever want to take that door panel off again. I have never seen plastic clips that need that much force to remove, yet somehow don't break. It was amazing.

I didn't do the full 3LT swap though. The 3LT cars have red trim on the passenger side too.



But I think I'm going to leave mine like it is. In 2016 GM started doing the 2LT cars with the colored trim on just the drivers side. The passenger side still has the red arm rest and red stitching on the dash and door. I think it's just the right amount of red now.


(Not my car)

[tabasco122]

looks good, but too much red for my tastes lol

[Jeff V.]

Looks good, but too much red for my tastes lol

It could be worse



That's a factory option. Spice red. It's more muted than the Adrenaline Red in my car, but there's a lot more of it!

[tabasco122]

jesus lol. I always hated the porno red in the 90s cars. I like red accents. I think if the seats werent solid red it might look a bit better. But if you like it thats all that matters. I'm rolling around in a BRZ, my opinion is invalid :-p

[DCIV]

No pictures of it done close up? That one pic is from like 7 feet away. Also....coop wins as I guessed it!


Coop

[aaronatstate]

I like the red and the carbon fiber!

Also I know what you mean about the interior panel clips. When I installed my short throw shifter in the ST, I had to take a few things out from around the center counsel, and I was SURE I broke something, but nope everything was good. It's like clip technology has come so far in the past 10 years or so, it's insane.

[Jeff V.]

I think if the seats werent solid red it might look a bit better.

They recently started offering a couple other options with red.



This gets suede inserts.



But I think if I do anything to the seats, I'll upgrade to the competition model. Those only come in solid red.



I wish I could get the black suede centers on the competition seats. That'd be awesome. They offer it on a few of the other colors. The red comp seats come in solid leather only.

When I installed my short throw shifter in the ST, I had to take a few things out from around the center counsel, and I was SURE I broke something, but nope everything was good. It's like clip technology has come so far in the past 10 years or so, it's insane.

It's weird. When you look at them, they don't look much different.

I think it might just be that we're not used to dealing with something that's still new and not all worn out

[aaronatstate]

[quote=""Jeff V.""]It's weird. When you look at them, they don't look much different.

I think it might just be that we're not used to dealing with something that's still new and not all worn out [/quote]

That is a distinct possibility

Though I wonder if plastic technology has improved since the early 90s (it has to have right?)

[Jeff V.]

Too much suede!

[Jeff V.]

I'm rolling around in a BRZ, my opinion is invalid

What's that got to do with anything? I think this is classy as hell.

[Chris GTO TT]

But his is left hand drive so it's way less cool :d err:

[Jeff V.]

:suspect2:

[tabasco122]

That first set of seats isn't bad. And I like the way my interior looks. Only thing I'd change is the rattles and the AC controls, they look a bit too much like a toy.

[tabasco122]

Also thats the 2017, they added a few more leather bits from mine.

[Jeff V.]

I've got a bunch of 2016 bits in my car now. Get to it

[Chris GTO TT]

He has to add the mud flaps first!

Also I know we've talked about it in shout, but I am entertained by all of our inner ricers coming out now that we are all older.

[Jeff V.]

What are you trying to say, Chris?