Spring Project Day at Greg's Garage
Sunday, April 13th seemed like a great day to do some projects so Chris White, Randy Sprague, Dick Pacetti and Rich Bellville drove their Vettes over to Greg' house to hang out and putter around with the Vettes. First things first though so Donna made some coffee and cut up some fresh banana nut bread she had baked the night before for the event. After breakfast snacks, supplemented by some bagels and cream cheese that Dick picked up on the way over we headed out for the garage. Probably none too soon for Donna as there was way more testosterone then she cares to see flowing in her kitchen.
First up was Chris who had previously put new seat covers on his C5 but hadn't replaced the seat foam and was regretting that as the powder flakes were starting to build up under his seats. He removed the seats from the car and then stripped off the seat covers taking care to avoid tearing any leather as they would be reused. He also used the opportunity to do a seat fix that is common on C5s where a piece of plastic on the seat tracks wear and cause the seats to become loose and rock. This turned out to be time consuming and frustrating as its a simple fix that has a learning curve. No matter he had plenty of advice and helping hands as we all pitched in and with all of us working we were able to accomplish a 2 hour job in just under 6 hours. Not bad really.
While Chris was busy on his project, Randy pulled some of the plastic parts off the front of his C5 in order to find out why one of his turn signals wasn't working. Luckily a new bulb did the trick and with the expert advice and help he got from Randy, Rich and Greg he was able to get his Vette back together without any left over parts.
After Randy finished up it was time to take a look at Dick's C6 as he has a major oil leak and found a drop of oil on his garage floor. The bottom of his oil pan was a little oily and there was a drop of oil forming on one of the oil pan bolts. Rich checked the oil pan bolt tightness and that wasn't an issue. Its possible that the source is higher up on the front of the engine but it does appear to be a very minor leakage from the oil pan gasket. Dick may try some oil additive to see if that will correct the problem and if not may have the vehicle looked at and see if the problem is covered under his warranty.
Rich had a project too of replacing the rubber brake lines on his "84 Vette with stainless steel braided lines but after surveying the quality of his helping staff decided to wait until another day.
Greg also had a project of replacing the front grill on his C6 with some added bling and was fine with the available help but was just feeling too lazy to do it and decided to leave it on the to do list.
The morning turned into afternoon and Donna helped the guys get strength to finish up by bringing lunch plates to the short order window. For dessert we finished off the banana nut bread.
After a lot of work, a bunch of fun and only a little cussing, Chris did get his seats back in the Vette with Randy's help in anchoring them down. It was a great day to work on the cars and an even better day to drive the Vettes to and from the project place. The weather was so warm that before the afternoon was over the A/C went on in the garage as it was hitting close to 80 degrees!
It should be added that Chris did such a nice job on recovering his seats that he received the HOG RING PLIER AWARD from Greg & Rich.
First up was Chris who had previously put new seat covers on his C5 but hadn't replaced the seat foam and was regretting that as the powder flakes were starting to build up under his seats. He removed the seats from the car and then stripped off the seat covers taking care to avoid tearing any leather as they would be reused. He also used the opportunity to do a seat fix that is common on C5s where a piece of plastic on the seat tracks wear and cause the seats to become loose and rock. This turned out to be time consuming and frustrating as its a simple fix that has a learning curve. No matter he had plenty of advice and helping hands as we all pitched in and with all of us working we were able to accomplish a 2 hour job in just under 6 hours. Not bad really.
While Chris was busy on his project, Randy pulled some of the plastic parts off the front of his C5 in order to find out why one of his turn signals wasn't working. Luckily a new bulb did the trick and with the expert advice and help he got from Randy, Rich and Greg he was able to get his Vette back together without any left over parts.
After Randy finished up it was time to take a look at Dick's C6 as he has a major oil leak and found a drop of oil on his garage floor. The bottom of his oil pan was a little oily and there was a drop of oil forming on one of the oil pan bolts. Rich checked the oil pan bolt tightness and that wasn't an issue. Its possible that the source is higher up on the front of the engine but it does appear to be a very minor leakage from the oil pan gasket. Dick may try some oil additive to see if that will correct the problem and if not may have the vehicle looked at and see if the problem is covered under his warranty.
Rich had a project too of replacing the rubber brake lines on his "84 Vette with stainless steel braided lines but after surveying the quality of his helping staff decided to wait until another day.
Greg also had a project of replacing the front grill on his C6 with some added bling and was fine with the available help but was just feeling too lazy to do it and decided to leave it on the to do list.
The morning turned into afternoon and Donna helped the guys get strength to finish up by bringing lunch plates to the short order window. For dessert we finished off the banana nut bread.
After a lot of work, a bunch of fun and only a little cussing, Chris did get his seats back in the Vette with Randy's help in anchoring them down. It was a great day to work on the cars and an even better day to drive the Vettes to and from the project place. The weather was so warm that before the afternoon was over the A/C went on in the garage as it was hitting close to 80 degrees!
It should be added that Chris did such a nice job on recovering his seats that he received the HOG RING PLIER AWARD from Greg & Rich.
