Assembled the brakes today, excluding the last front caliper (waiting on the anti-rattle spring). Once I get the last brake assembled I will put together all the suspension arms.

I didn’t do much today, but I did get brake knuckles mounted to the wheel hubs. Cleaned up all the clips and anti-rattle springs for the calipers and got those clipped into the calipers. I am missing one for the front caliper, so I will have to wait for another to come from FParts. Tomorrow I will get the rotors and calipers all mounted.

In other news, I think I have picked out the color for the car and wheels. I was originally planning black/black like always, but I think this color will really look better. I’ll wait until later to post what it is.

After five cans of primer and paint all of the suspension and brake components are repainted and ready for reassembly.

Finished the disassembly of the brakes, cleaned up the knuckles with the Dremel, and primed them. Suspension parts were painted with aluminum Rustoleum. I will be glad when all this painting is done and I can start putting everything back together again.

More parts came today (alternator and AC compressor), and the 2001 LS6 engine should arrive within the next week or two. That will be torn down and rebuilt with new internals, heads, cam, intake manifold, etc.

Today I tackled the suspension pieces and donor C5 brake disassembly. I used the Dremel on the suspension arms to buff out any corrosion and asphalt bits and then sprayed them with some Rustoleum metal primer. Tomorrow I will prime the other sides.

Brake disassembly was a pain at first until I remembered my friend – Gunk Liquid Wrench. Front and rear brakes are completely disassembled, minus removing the knuckles from the wheel hubs. I will have to run out and get some bigger star sockets to tackle those. After disassembly I sprayed the caliper carriers glossy black with some high-temp Rustoleum. Once I get the knuckles off I will buff them with the Dremel and prep them for paint.

Last night I painted the front calipers and they look great. The Duplicolor red is a shade darker than the ‘Z06 red’, but you can’t really tell without having them side by side.

Tonight I ground off the ‘corvette’ lettering on the Z06 calipers. Smoothed them off afterwards with the Dremel. They should look good as new once painted.

I’m already getting the itch pretty bad to do anything I can to get started with the build. Bear with me as I post updates with way too much detail for simple tasks. The radiator needed the condenser and fan shroud attached so I made that today’s activity. The BeCool radiator is a direct-fit radiator for the C5 Corvette so the AC condenser clipped on easily. The fan shroud needed to be bolted to the top of the radiator using holes drilled through the shroud’s upper clips. Perfect fit.

The rest of the braking components arrived today. Baer DecelaRotor’s and Hawk Pads from CorvetteGarage.com, and the Z06 calipers from YourCorvette.com. The ‘corvette’ text will be ground off of the front calipers, and then repainted.

This is a pretty moderate brake setup. I have a very similar setup on my sc’d Z06 and I haven’t had braking issues for what I have used the car for the most (street and SCCA autocross). The GTM will be roughly 800lbs lighter, so braking shouldn’t be an issue for a while.

This week should prove to be ‘thrilling’ as various parts for the build start coming in.
Today saw the arrival of the C5 donor pallet from FPARTS Salvage, along with stainless steel braided brake lines from DB1Racing.com, and the BeCool High-performance radiator from YourCorvette.com.

The donor pallet includes just about all of the electrical, fuel, cooling, and suspension components needed for the build. Suspension parts will be cleaned and repainted. Brake components that were included (rotors and calipers) will be discarded for shiny new Z06 calipers and drilled/slotted rotors. The donor side mirrors were black…good sign.

In the quest for more power and more speed, in a more exotic package, I have decided to take a big leap in building my own supercar. The Factory Five GTM Supercar is a work of art, and brings along extraordinary performance with its aggressive styling.

This log will detail everything involved with the build process – from start to finish. I do not have a timeline for this project, but reaching go-kart stage by spring is the primary goal. Spring here can be read as ‘May or June’.