[b-man]

.....some real motivation to keep moving forward on my Tempest project.

I was actually caught in the act of working on the Tempest by a long-time internet forum friend who I had not had the pleasure of meeting yet. I was all wet and dirty from laying underneath the car. I was really getting into washing down the underside of the floor pans and frame rails to remove all of the grease and dirt when a 'stranger' walked up my driveway called out my name.

Mike (455HOGT37 on Performance Years) stopped by in his LS3-powered six-speed manual 2008 Corvette. We talked cars and took inventory of some of the major components I had for the LS3 swap for a while. It wasn't long before Mike forced me to get behind the wheel of his 'vette. I gladly accepted his generous offer.



I impressed Mike right away with my ability to handle a stick-shift by trying to take off in 3rd gear instead of first. Those shift gates are mighty close together.

We headed out for a little drive and right away I was impressed with the smooth low-RPM power of the LS3. I had the car in sixth gear at a little over 50 MPH, it was doing about 1100 RPM on the tach and wasn't complaining. I pushed it back into 5th to keep it a little happier.

Mike asked me to find a spot where I could launch the car in low gear from a dead stop, I gladly obliged. Beat on your car? Sure.

The car spun the tires with ease, I let out of the throttle once and nailed it again and they spun even harder. These LS3 cars are animals.

We headed to the freeway to check out the high-speed power and acceleration. I was able to get it up to 90 MPH in a very short distance heading down the onramp, letting off before entering the freeway. The acceleration ability of this base model Corvette was nothing less than astonishing, it's stock other than the addition of a set of factory LS7 headers and matching factory 3" exhaust.

Thanks Mike, I'm now even more excited than ever about getting the LS3 Tempest project done!

[455HOGT37]

Originally Posted by b-man

... It wasn't long before Mike forced me to get behind the wheel of his 'vette...


Thanks Mike, I'm now even more excited than ever about getting the LS3 Tempest project done!

LOL! As I recall, I didn't even get to complete the sentence "wanna drive it" before you were running for the house to change clothes!

You have a great project going there... I'm glad I could keep the fires of motivation lit in a fellow Pontiac "nut". You still owe me a test drive though.

[b-man]

.....and more progress.

First thing today I removed the rear bumper and fuel tank, and emptied out the trunk. Both bumpers will need to removed to replace the body mounts. The bumpers bolt to the frame and body needs to move up enough to get the mounts out, so removing the bumpers is a must.

While I was under the car I loosened up all of the body mount bolts in preparation for their replacement. Every single one broke free and turned freely without any penetrating oil, there will be no cutting out the floor to remove any rusted-up captured nuts in the floor pans.

Spent some time inside the trunk scrubbing it cleaner than it's ever been since I've owned the car. My full-size spare 18X9" wheel and 245/45-18 tire needs a nice home.



The spare will sit in the stock location on the passenger side.



A look at the driver's side.



The trunk floor still looks pretty good after 13 years, some of the heavier rust has started to bubble up under the silver POR-15. This trunk floor was pretty crusty when I did the POR-15 application, I scrubbed the loose stuff off until I just couldn't scrub any more.



Underneath the trunk floor with the fuel tank removed, you can see where a little silver POR-15 seeped through when I did some patching right in the center.



I cleaned the front trunk wall from underneath and the panel above the rear axle, I scrubbed and cleaned as far as I could reach. You can see some more evidence of rust patching right next to the trunk body plug hole.





I even scrubbed everything that's usually hidden behind the bumper.



I won't get an armfull of dirt or grease while I'm working on the chassis or brakes.



This car's cherry. Moving forward!