A touch of luxury

Upholstery

Covered in Touch Red leather throughout, the seats are slightly lower than stock and offer a little more legroom. I layered the matching carpet over Dynamat to reduce road noise.

The sounds

The retro-look head-unit feeds a CleanSweep DSP which equalises its input signal so it can feed the amplifier with a clean signal. The power is then handled by a 1200 Watt Kenwood 5 channel amplifier, feeding 4 front speakers and 2 rear JL Audio sub woofers in the trunk. Sweet.

The extras

The first thing you notice is the glow of the interior light as you approach the car, the second is the flashing red ignition button to indicate the car is disarmed and ready to start. The key-less ignition and push button security system also operates the remote door locks.

The addition of air conditioning is a must in Australia, supplied by Vintage Air and using the original control plate to keep that factory appearance. Power windows were installed and a modern wiper system replaces the old troublesome cable system.

I converted the park brake to a centre handbrake and replaced the ugly hood latches with a completely customised mechanism to keep the clean lines of the engine bay. The headlights use the much improved "angel eye" lights from the 7 Series BMW for night time visibility.

I converted all the gauges to electronic with the exception of the speedo, which has its original mechanical drive. I achieved this using a special gearbox tail housing conversion which also incorporates the necessary vehicle speed sensor which feeds the engine management system.

John Ward

 

< the conversion <     > a body to die for >

 > go back to the 1958 Corvette page <