Corvette Stingray - The American Dream

Car facts

Engine: #3963512 - 427 Cubiktum 7.0 litre
Heads: #3931063 - Closed Chamber - 101 CC
Camshaft: Hydraulic rollercam 514/510 lift
Intake: #3947801 - HiPerf Aluminium intake manifold
Crankshaft: 3804816
Gearbox: M20 Manual 4-speed
Rearaxel: Positraction diffad med 3.08 utväxling
Rack & Pinion steering
Updated suspension with composit spring front and rear and aluminum control arms
American Racing TTII 18" wheels

Klick here to come to 2011 years restoration
2004 - 2007 Restoration
An overview of the multimedia from Elmia Custom Motor Show. Notice the new steering wheel and the new made doorsides. Click on the pic.
Here is an overview of the installation. Notice the small speakers where it should be air outlets. Also notice the steel plate that I cut and bent to fit the original radio console. Looking factory made. Click on the pic.
Swdish JVC gave me a great setup of multimedia with this DVD-player and 6.5" widescreen monitor. In lack of space I hade to come up with an idea of where to put the monitor and here is how it ended up. A stainless stell plate replaced the original glove compartment and was dressed in black leather. Click on the pic.
I descided to dres up the doors to get a newer look and to get a new feeling. The interior was all black so I welcome this little change. Click on the pic.
2003 / 2004 Restoration
Here are my new, homemade sillplates wich I think looks better than the original. They are made in 2 mm stainless steel and got a 45° angel towards the insinde of the car to meet the carpet. You can also see a bit of my new door sides. Click here so see a bigger picture.
Finally, the new dressed leather seats are in the car. Just look at them and tell me you dont want to sit in them :-)
The interior, dashpads, console and steering wheel are in place. Im really please with the looks of the car now. Check it out.
Both dash pads were in a terrible condition, at least that was my first thought. After removing the old vinyl on the dash pads, I discovered that the original vinyl was intact in a pretty good shape, but red. After removing all glue and some paint I colored the dash pad with a black vinyl paint. Looking great now, huh?
As the original manifold was leaking at the front connection to the water pump, I left it for welding and cleaning. This is how it looked right after I painted it in a silver color.
The upper windshield molding was in a terrible condition since the roof has been in contact wirh it during many years. I let Jocke at Stockholms Metallssliperi AB polish it and damn, its looking good now, better than new. See for yourself.
Same as above but from another angle. Im so pleased with it :)
The top of the radiator isnt looking so good originally so I let a company do this stainless steel cover for the radiator. Also notice the chroomed covers over the headlight actuators. Click here to see it.
Now, what could this be that was removed and cleaned and painted?
The heater panel was in a miserable condition last year so I descided to replace it. Now it is looking super and this is how the difference is between them.
2001 / 2002 Restoration
This is how the right side of the car looks with the new mounted fender moldings. Looking great huh ?
This is the other side with the fender moldings :)
This are my new set of wheels. The wheels is called American racing TT II and the tyres are in dimension 255x40x17 back and 235x40x17 in the front. They look Super on the car. I was sponsored by Guson Däck & Fälg. Please visit their website at www.guson.se
Here is my friend Jarko, putting my front suspension and my super heavy duty aluminum control arms on the car.
This is how it looks with only the upper and lower control arms in place.
This is how the window frame looked when I removed the windshield. Pretty sad look, the frame wasquite rotten. The good part however, is that it wasnt rotten all thru, but only the outer frame, the part towards the window. The frame is in two parts, one outer and one inner steel frame.
This is how the windshield frame looks after my friend Pedro in my garage did some hard work. He is a super guy and real good with fixing rusty steel. Thanks Pedro.
This is the original molding attached to the top of the fender, just below the windshield. This is how it looks after I have removed all paint. From the beginning, it looked just like the molding under, the wiper door molding.
This is the wiper door molding and how it looks when I have put some "bums" on it to remove the paint. Under all paint, there should be chrome. Let us hope so anyway. This molding are suppose to be in stainless steel.
And this is how the rear end looks when it is almost finished. Notice that the exhaust hole is no more. How come? Sidepipes my dear.
The molding of the new front is almost completed. Some more layers with plastic before we leave the rest of the work to the painter. The lower part with the spoiler still needs some work.
My latest purchase is these Hooker Headers wich im gonna mount later. Naturally, they came with chromed sidepipes as well. 3" with pressure chamber.
So, the front is finally starting to match with the rest of the car. Some smaller adjustments remains before we can start molding it together.
Another angle of the same from as above.
The front is cut out and all we have to do now is make the new front fit. Its a piece of a puzzle but its fun if it works.
After taking the rear end apart, cleaning it and painting it, the result came out to this. It will look even better with new brakeparts and brake hoses and of course a new rotor. More pics will come when everything is mounted.
Since I bought a great set of chromed Hooker headers and chromed sidepipes, i decided to cover the original holes where the exhaust pipes come out. Its a lot of job make it look great but we will make it right.

Well, I couldn wait. I just started the restoration of my roadster and you can follow the restoration here at Stingray. The first thing I did was to remove the fron wich has been modified. Not a good work since they put plastic over the bumper. My god, how awful. I removed it and vill put a new fron on it.

I´ve started to take the front apart. Im rebuilding the front to get a more personal look on the car but first I have to remove all badly applied parts that was done sometime in the history. This shows the broken lower valance panel.
Meanwhile, see some great shots of the car taken a wonderful day in May 2001.
© Tommy Ledberg