[trackbird]

I got up at 2am and drug a trailer almost 700 miles today to bring home a 2002 Z28 convertible (6 speed manual). It's a virtual twin (other than a convertible instead of t tops) to my original 2002 that I bought new. I actually believe every option matches right down to the color. It came with piles of service records, a receipt for a new GM installed engine (15k miles/4 years ago) as well as new clutch (with the engine), new window regulators and all kinds of other stuff. The previous owners spent a fortune at the dealer with this car. It was a summer car at the house on lake Michigan. I don't think it's ever seen anything beyond some occasional rain. The steering column is tight and there's no major wear on the seats or steering wheel. It has a few small door dings and I think the paintless dent guys can remove those. Overall, it's a solid and clean car that should be lots of fun. It was also dead stock, not so much as a lid on it.

I'm planning to swap on some larger wheels, lower it a bit, stiffen it a bit, sway bars, exhaust and a "lid". I just want a fun driver to enjoy on nice days. I've actually never owned a convertible in my life, I've always had t tops or targa cars....this should be a new adventure.

I don't have many pics, but I'll add a few before I crawl off to bed.

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[trackbird]

I finally got out to the garage to get a little work done. I actually spent way more time on this today than I meant to, but it was a beautiful day to be outside, so I'm not complaining. I got the SFCs on the car first. I just bolted them on for now, I'll deal with welding them in later. It's pretty simple, just hang the rear mount on the LCA bolt, swing into place and bolt to the metal bar with the two threaded holes in it. Unfortunately, my car didn't want to cooperate and I wound up grinding the hole just a touch to get the bolts in. There was a layer of sheet metal that was covering the edge of the bolt hole. Once I opened that up, I decided that the job would be easier with guide bolts. My wife collected a couple bolts at tractor supply and I cut the heads off and threaded them into the "bar". Once I had them in place, I removed one and inserted the bolt, after it was slightly snug, I swapped the other one for the remaining bolt. This turned a half hour of cussing into about 5 minutes of work. Reinstall the center support and torque the rear LCA's once the suspension is loaded. These are the UMI SFCs for convertibles. There's a lot more bracing under these cars than I'm used to seeing and the SFCs have to work around that.

The swaybars and the beautiful machined aluminum brackets went on. The UMI bars are very well made, they fit nice and the powdercoating job is as good or better than any swaybars I've ever used. They really did a nice job on them. The bars are 35/22 hollow bars. I usually run a solid front, but I keep reminding myself "it's a convertible". We'll see how I like it when it's all done. A quick test drive confirmed that it no longer drags the door handles around a corner. Ahh....much better (the front bar and brackets were installed too, by then I was getting tired and it was late, so I didn't get any pics, I did have to modify the metal "bracket" that protects a hose on the drivers side frame mount because it wasn't going to work with the new aluminum mounts, I just trimmed the ear off of the bracket, touched it up with paint and reinstalled it).

The TA performance (Jeg's) 10 bolt girdle went on and a fresh load of Mobile 1 went in the diff. I figure it can't hurt and it's certainly easier to fill (and drain).

The rotojoint PHB dropped right in. I've always run rod ends (heim joints), but in an effort to avoid noise, vibration and general "clunkiness" (remember, I have to keep this project "wife friendly", she's been worried that I'm going to "ruin" the car....I'm trying hard not to...and everything I've done can be put back stock at this point....except trimming the one sheild in the front for the swaybar) I'm trying something new. The roto joints are pretty interesting looking and the tig welding on them is nicely done. I didn't hear any new noises on my quick test drive, so far so good.

The two bolts are what I used to line up the internal bracket on the SFCs. Once I tried these, the job went very quickly. No more poking and prodding with a screwdriver and a dental pick. Just line them up and swap on the bolts. If I ever install another set of bolt on connectors, I'll do the same trick. It made the job simple.

I'm getting old and slow, it took me far longer to get this done today than I expected. However, it is done and the car feels much better. There is a note in the UMI SFC paperwork saying "if you hear a clunk in the rear, tighten the LCA mount to 90-100 ft lbs instead of 72". I did hear a bit of a clunk and I'll run the bolts down a bit more tomorrow. I'm guessing there's still a slight gap between the SFC mount that goes over the LCA mount and the factory sheet metal of the LCA mount. These cars have some pretty large variances in the chassis and the sizes of parts, so my car may be a little on the "small" side. I tightened it with two 3/4" box end wrenches and I may not have it tight enough. It's tight, but it may not be at the 72 ft lbs. I'll take the blame for that one since I was lazy and assumed I had it tight enough.

I received the new to me SS wheels (10 spokes) from Tony on Friday. I cleaned them up today and decided to just take them to the wheel refinishing place instead of running them a while. The wheels are in pretty good shape for "track wheels" and I bought them knowing I was going to have them refinished and painted charcoal, so I'm going to drop them off sometime next week and have them fixed up. I need to order a set of 275/40-17's to go on them and I guess I now have some 255/40-17 Rival tires for sale (local pickup in Columbus only). The SS wheels are going to delay the Forgestars, but they saved me some cash and I don't feel bad ordering the coil over kit now. The 16" tires are cupped and really noisy with the top up. I'm not buying new 16" tires and I need shocks before buying new 17's (and wheels...which I now have). So this seemed like a good plan to keep things moving along.

I'm going to order the UMI coilover kit Monday. I'm looking forward to trying them out and I know a few people here were curious about them. I'll try to take lots of pics and post the install information and driving impressions. Then I'm going to have to get a fresh helmet and hit at least one local autocross event.

And a huge thank you to "Bubba353z" who came over today and was a HUGE help with all of this work. We also bled the brakes and installed fresh ATE Superblue fluid (nobody tell the DOT!!!!).

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