Last week in northern Indiana amongst the snow & wind I found myself in the comfort of a warm garage with hospitable clients. This was an install to remember.
It had just snowed across the Midwest dumping 6-10 inches of snow across central and northern Indiana. Exactly why I drive a truck. Like the postal service we try and trek through the rain, sleet & snow to complete our installs and stick to the schedule. If you follow the social media pages for the company then you see how I work on dozens of C8 vehicles in a row. It is always nice to work on a new vehicle that makes you think because I often find myself just going through the motions on the C8.
On the C6 there are a few things to consider.
First thing to consider is the door lip. The new function of the doors means that the door lip is going to pull against the fender whenever the door is open. The lip of your door has to be cut out and touched up with paint in order for the doors to function without hitting the fenders.
Secondly in order for the vertical door shock to extend and help push/hold the door up the inside lip of the C6 fender must be completely cut out. This gives the shock space to operate. If you don't cut the fender lip out then as the shock extends it pushes against the fender forcing it off the vehicle.
Thirdly on some models of the C6 the location of the window washer reservoir must be moved around to allow space for the vertical door hinge. This may require an additional hole to be drilled into the vehicle to bolt the reservoir further forward & away from the new hinge kit. The reservoir is located typically inside the driver side fender on the C6. The vertical door hinges compared to the factory hinges on the C6 add about 50 pounds to the front of your vehicle. The hinges are made of American hardened steel so while they are built to last, they are bulky. But that is required in order to support the weight of the door and the functionality of a vertical lift.
Overall it was a great experience having to go back through the rigors of a different installation and spend some time away from the C8 Corvette installs. While challenging in their own right, they are a bit repetitive for me.