Florida Members - FRC at Nissan at the Avenues

DO NOT BUY IT. i know someone who is a mastertech and he said the clutch is almost gone, the supercharger is spitting out shavings, its not a real FRC and its been driven hard and the a/c is gone. it might have only 43k miles on it and be selling for 14k but trust me. dont get it.

not a real FRC? it either is or isnt..do you mean not a real Z06 and just a 99-00 fixed roof coupe (FRC)?

it was a coupe/hatch that was made to look like an FRC, and you can see the bodywork lines that were done to it

I was thinking the same thing. would be kinda hard to fake an FRC, unless you glued a hardtop onto a vert or some such nonsense. and what year is it? still may be worth getting and fixing the few issues

oh, well that answers my question lol. we replied at the same time

I was thinking the same thing. would be kinda hard to fake an FRC, unless you glued a hardtop onto a vert or some such nonsense. and what year is it? still may be worth getting and fixing the few issues

he said it would need about 8k to get it running back perfect. it seems like a very good deal until you see all that stuff and then think about how hard its actually been run. 5k of those miles could have been 1/4 mile at a time

for those interested
http://used.nissanattheavenues.com/detail/used-1999-chevrolet-corvette-jacksonville-florida-a1577167.html

Thats a real FRC according to the VIN. The 1 after YY = hardtop. Coupe would be 2. Vert = 3

it looked legit to me as well

maybe I missed it, but I didn't see in the ad where it said anything about it being supercharged?

Clean carfax. Not that, that means a whole lot…

hmm, maybe the guy was wrong about the frc part but it is supercharged. they told me on the phone turbo but when i went to see it, it was a procharger. he said his main reason for catching the part about it not being an frc is the fact that there was no divider wall between the trunk and the cabin

hell if my truck sells I may go up and offer them my ws6 plus a couple k for it. I bet I could fix it for much less than 8k. then maybe resell it

now the question remains, is it a real z06?

edit: something is off. according to this: http://www.corvette-web-central.com/CorvetteVINdecoder.html

Y 5th VIN digit means ZR1

FYI in an FRC (99-00 or 01-04 Z06 for that matter), there is no divider from the factory between trunk area and cabin. Companies make them aftermarket but they don't come that way.

It's a 99, it's NOT a Z06. 01+ only for Z's. I've owned both.

I wouldn't doubt it needs a clutch being supercharged. And something nice to hold power. A cheapo LS7 clutch won't last. S/C C5's are HELL on drivetrain.

FYI in an FRC (99-00 or 01-04 Z06 for that matter), there is no divider from the factory between trunk area and cabin. Companies make them aftermarket but they don't come that way.

It's a 99, it's NOT a Z06. 01+ only for Z's. I've owned both.

I wouldn't doubt it needs a clutch being supercharged. And something nice to hold power. A cheapo LS7 clutch won't last. S/C C5's are HELL on drivetrain.

yea your correct that its not a z06. he said that you could clearly see a weld line from the conversion.. idk i was believing him since he has owned 3 vettes and is a mastertech.

apparently that vin decoder is incorrect. appears to be a regular ls1 frc vette. someone made a damn nice clone though

yea your correct that its not a z06. he said that you could clearly see a weld line from the conversion.. idk i was believing him since he has owned 3 vettes and is a mastertech.

weld line... on a plastic/fiberglass body?

weld line... on a plastic/fiberglass body?

im going off what he was saying, it might not have been a wld line but he said you could see a bodywork line. im going to go up there tomorrow morning to take a look at it again and have him point out all the stuff he was talking about

ok. also just curious, how did he know about the metal shavings? did he pull the charge pipe off?

he said he went through a full inspection on the car and told them to not even put it on the lot. what did catch my eye when i took a quick look at it, the procharger had the serial number plate on it but it was so worn off that all that was left of it was the imprinted serial number. the color and everything else was gone

hmm. all I'm getting at is I'm wondering if this dude is actually wanting it and is trying to scare you away from it so he can pick it up. I've worked at dealerships and have seen it done by techs. maybe not, but kinda how it sounds to me. if you go back tomorrow, see if you can get him or someone to pull off the charge pipe right out of the outlet of the s/c. if there's metal in there, yeah I'd probably stay away unless you are prepared to either remove the s/c setup or rebuild/replace it. if not, try to see if you can reach the impeller and feel for shaft play, check the crankcase oil level, and with it running listen for strange sounds coming from it

Ditto because he's already owned a couple and now this pops up where he works for that price with a pro charger shit who cares if it needs a clutch that come with the territory of performance used cars and for that price it's worth it if you don't mine spending a few bucks to get it right.

Hell if one of you guys is interested I live ten mintues from them I'll go up there and have them pop off the tube and send you a pic.

He told me that if i ever found a z that I like to bring it up to him and he will do a full inspection. I'm gonna go up there today and have him show me all the stuff.

I think your "master tech" doesnt know as much as you think he does, or he is BS'ing you

If this is the car i think it is, EFI Alchemy did a ton of work on it about 4 years ago, and it was a well cared for very fast car owned by a Navy guy

He told me that if i ever found a z that I like to bring it up to him and he will do a full inspection. I'm gonna go up there today and have him show me all the stuff.

Lol if you dont get it, Im gonna look at it saturday.

I'm going up tomorrow and tearing into it. I'll let Yall know what i find.

Since when is a "master tech" needed before you buy a used car?

I'm going up tomorrow and tearing into it. I'll let Yall know what i find.

Let us know, I am definitely interested in that car as long as u don't buy it

I called the dealership and got the list of stuff. The clutch and throwout bearing is bad, it needs all new brakes, the procharger is blowing out metal flakes, the front shocks are blown, needs new tires, sway bar bushings are bad and the a/c head control unit? Is bad. I'm gonna see what deal I can make with buying the parts and having them install it.

not trying to be a dick here man, but if you are even remotely interested in the car, you are going to have to physically go there and look at it. all the dealer is going to know about it is what the tech tells them, and from the sounds of it the tech doesn't sound like he is as fluent as he should be. or like I said, he wants it and is trying to work in a deal on it. if they really want to sell the car they should have no issues letting a tech do an inspection of the car with you present so you can see. I have worked for 2 different dealerships now and seen how things work within them. and the longer it sits at that lot, the more it is going to be hot rodded and abused by all the techs and detailers who need to take it out for driveability tests or put gas in it. not that I would know anything about doing something of that sort...

I can't believe that they didn't say anything about metal being in the oil if that much is " blowing" out of the blower.If theres really that much metal then that motor is screwed and it should be cheaper since the motor is going to need bearings at the bear minimum. I wonder if they would offer you an extended warranty for a few more bucks that would sick huh?

I know I have to physically go there. That was my plan today. I haven't had a chance to since i get to school by 8 and then go straight to work after and i don't get a chance to get there. I just called the dealer last night to let him know and he magically said there's a list now. And firebird99, what are you talking about?

He is saying that if the said metal shavings are as bad as described it would, at the minium, tear up the bearings inside the motor and would need replaced. And if you bought a warranty you could have them fix all the stuff that is fucked up at the cost of whatever the warranty costs..

This has seriously got me cruious though, i almost wanna drive up there and test drive that bit and see whats good and whats bad

He is saying that if the said metal shavings are as bad as described it would, at the minium, tear up the bearings inside the motor and would need replaced. And if you bought a warranty you could have them fix all the stuff that is fucked up at the cost of whatever the warranty costs..

This has seriously got me cruious though, i almost wanna drive up there and test drive that bit and see whats good and whats bad

they didnt really say where the metal shavings are so they could be in the charge pipe or they could be in the oil. i just havent had time to get up there to inspect everything. i do know they have a list of everything wrong and they are selling it as-is. you may get a warranty from one of those companies but the dealer may tell them whats wrong with it when you purchase it. if it was that easy, id buy it, get the warranty work done and get off with a steal but i dont think that could happen

Like I said before if there is that much metal shavings in the charge pipe and it's still blowing shavings which it will if it's bad then it's going to be in the motor period. Sorry if my post came off hard to read but I would consider that a blown motor at which point the price should go down and to prove that point have them quote you a price to buy a factory crate motor all parts needed for the swap and their labor add it up and compare the price of the car with swap to a car with the same miles and a good motor. Now after that through in the cost of the clutch, brakes and whatever else you can find.

they told me that they cannot go down to far on the price of the car since it is so low now. they have about 13 in it and after i talked to him about all the problems, he said that they wouldnt go down much.

Well if you think it's worth it with a bad clutch,no brakes,bad supercharger and possible a blown motor then go for it but I hope you would be able to see past the sugar coating and see the turd below. Sad part is some unsuspecting person will end up getting screwed when they buy it. Please don't take this as me being a smart a$$ but this seems like a steal until you really look at it but I know how some people including myself sometimes look past things just because we really want it that's how I ended up with my last trans am.

If you do your own labor and are going in knowing what may be wrong on an AS-IS car, then go for it. Don't count on getting any kind of warranty on a modded car with a blower.

However, if you pay to have work done on your car and are scraping by just to buy it and not prepared for "possible" repairs then skip it. Be prepared to bend over if you take it someplace to have work done. My personal opinion, if you have a blower on a stock bottom end, ALWAYS be prepared to put a motor in it.

Also, there are a few different procharger kits around. The older ATI stage 1 kits have a crappy bracket and the dual intercoolers are less than desirable. The newer ATI stage II kits are much better. However, in the corvette world, people usually go with A&A or ECS. They both made procharger kits as well. They are nicely designed kits and the brackets are much better. They now use Vortech or Paxton head units, but you can still buy parts for them and upgraded brackets. I'm personally a fan of A&A.

Sway bar bushings are nothing (probably has the plastic end links, new ones are metal), and doing brakes is about the same as an F-body. The EBTCM module is expensive if you need to replace it. I'm not aware of anyone who rebuilds the pre-2001 brake modules as of now. It will typically throw codes if it's failing. The A/C control unit can be manual or digital. The digital ones have a tendency of the screens going blank. Its an easy fix IF this is the case, and people rebuild the displays. Manual ones rarely go bad, the blower switch can though.

Tires and clutches are wear items but you dont want to skimp out. Labor on a C5 clutch job is going to cost you $$$. It's much more involved than an F-body. However, you would want to check the couplings in the torque tube while doing a clutch. They can and will go bad especially on a car with power. Especially on pre-2001's when they were upgraded to a larger shaft and couplers. I've had 2 older style tubes go bad. I now run a tube from an 02.

I try to avoid buying other people's projects or nightmares depending on how you look it at. Someone may have traded it in because it had problems, or maybe not. There's quite a few stock clean FRC's even Z06's around that can be bought reasonably and you just have to look. You may have to travel a bit to get exactly what you are looking for.

If the car was local, I would go look at it out of curiosity...
Good luck.

Anyone looked at this thing yet?

I believe this was a friend of mine's car in the Navy. Well cared for and extremely quick. Mark at EFI redid the heads a while back and Doc tuned the car afterwards. Made 615whp and drove fairly easily considering. I dont doubt the clutch needs replaced, however the car is a steal if it is the one im thinking of. Did the heads appear to have been painted with an aluminized spray paint? if yes, Dover did them and Im pretty sure its his car. Worth the money for the work done IMO.

The thing I'm worried about is the drivetrain. Do you know if he raced it alot? With that much power, if its the stock bottom end and transmission and possibly rear, its been beat to hell.