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My ZR-1 is #526 of 2044 ZR-1's built in the 1991 model year. It is 1 of 313 Corvette White ZR-1's in 1991. There aren't any numbers for interior-exterior color combinations for 1991 but red was the least ordered color interior with white. I would estimate that it is one of approximately 60 cars in 1991 with white exterior and red interior. I purchased this car from a very small car dealer outside of Champaign Illinois who had purchased the car at an auto auction in Ohio. He already owned a 1990 ZR-1 and bought this one because his son wanted to take it on as a project. Well his son never came up with the money to pay him back so he decided to sell it on E-bay which is where I came in. I had been watching the E-bay auctions for ZR-1's for a while because I have always liked them since their arrival in 1990 and I wanted to find one that needed some work for a project car. Well I won the auction and the rest is history.

When I purchased the car it had 81700 miles on it. It started it's life in Florida, then moved on to Ohio, then Illinois and now Wisconsin. I am the fourth owner. I have put about 3000 miles on the car since purchasing it in August of 2003. At first glance the car looks very clean and people give me odd looks when I tell them it's my project car. But on closer inspection one can tell that it needs some TLC.

Here's my long list of repair and restore items along with what work has been completed so far:

When I got the car the service ride control light was on, I found that the left front shock had the pin stop for the actuator gear sheared so it didn't stop. I purchased a rebuilt shock and installed it.

The tachometer was doubling the RPM's when I got the car. This turned out to be a bad tachometer in the instrument cluster. I purchased a slightly used cluster from a gentleman that was parting out a totaled ZR-1 and installed it. Now I know for sure when I hit 7K RPM's.

I changed the oil, changed the transmission lube and changed the clutch hydraulic fluid this smoothed out the shifting. I also flushed the coolant system and changed the A/C to R134 refrigerant.

When I got the car the tires were hard as rocks and the SLTPWS (service low tire pressure warning system) light was on intermittently. One of the tire sensors was going bad. The tires on it were Goodyear Eagle GSC's, which were original equipment for the car. I purchased a new set of Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3's for the car and had the pressure sensors removed when they were mounted. This cured the warning light, in the '90's and '91's if no sensors are present then the warning light doesn't light. I must say I really like the GS D3's they have very low road noise, ride very nice, have good grip and look very cool.

The car came with a solid white top that had the headliner hanging down. I repaired the headliner. I also found when I got the widow sticker and build sheet for the car that it originally came with a blue tinted clear top. So I purchased a clear top for the car used. It is in perfect shape, as the guy I bought it from never used it. It was still in wrapped in the factory plastic when I got it. I think the car looks better with the tinted top on it.

The airbox housing was cracked when I got the car. I purchased a used one on Ebay and replaced it.

The seats in the car were in very rough shape, lots of holes, cracks, wear areas and hardly any of the power features worked any more. I bought a pair of seats of Ebay from a totaled '90 ZR-1 in near perfect shape. I replaced the existing seats and boy did that make a big difference in making the interior look better. I also replaced the center console door, repainted the slate gray metallic console and door cover pieces, and generally gave the interior a thorough cleaning. The drivers door panel was also cracked along the top where it attaches to the door so it flopped around in the top back looking like it was going to fall off at any moment. I purchased a used door panel off Ebay and installed it. The shift boot was loose from the reverse lockout ring when I got the car and a little epoxy fixed the situation.

The weather stripping is in rough shape and I need to replace all of it. I will probably work on that this winter.

The sill carpets and the speaker covers need to be replaced as they are very worn. This will also probably be a winter project this year. All the carpet needs a good shampoo which I will do very soon.

The tinting on the side windows and rear hatch glass is peeling off in places, I will have this replaced as I like the look of the car with the tinting. Also the windshield has the common delamination problem that allot of the ZR-1s had. If I can find a windshield at a decent price I will replace it.

I would like to change out the clutch slave and master cylinders at some point in the future. I think they are getting weak and need replacing.

The engine plenum, injector housings and cam covers need to be refinished as they are pretty dark and stained. I plan on doing this soon along with fixing two other problems with the car which require pulling the plenum. The car has leaked a little oil since I got it and investigation revealed the leak to be the breather box cover not being tightly sealed so the valley is probably a oily mess and needs a thorough cleaning. You can see a little oil peaking through the runners of the injector housings. More recently the car has started to surge a little on idle when coming up to a stop. The RPM's will go up to about 1K then drop to about 500 then settle in at 650 when the clutch is depressed coming up to a stop. I checked and cleaned the idle air control and that is OK. I checked the throttle position sensor and it measured OK threw it's range with no hitches. I cleaned the MAP sensor and hose and that seems OK. I checked the fuel pressure and it was good at idle and wide open throttle, it also held, so I don't think any thing is leaking. The O2 sensors measured pretty wide apart so that might be a problem but it might also be a symptom. When I pull the plenum I am going to have the fuel injectors cleaned and flow tested as well as I am going to clean up the throttle body. I think one of these two things or both are where the real problem lies, we shall soon see. The engine bay needs a thorough cleaning as well.

The exterior of the car is showing it's age. I clay barred it and did the Meguiars 3 step to it and from 4 feet out it looks great. On close examination it has a lot of little chips in the paint and the nose and rear urethane fascias have changed color a little. There are also some small stress cracks in the paint. At this point I am not sure if I want to paint the whole car or have the fascias painted and fix all the little chips. I probably won't do anything until spring of '07 so I have some time to decide.

Here are the modifications the car has as well as the ones I am planning.