You disconnect the battery cables, remove the battery, put in the new battery and reconnect the cables.
Think twice about the Optima, however. While it is a "gel cell" and, thus, less likely to "leak", in recent years, in my opinion, the owners of the Optima brand (Johnson Controls), trying to reduce the retail price and gain shelf space with mass marketers, has reduced the quality of the product. In my opinion, today's "Red Tops" don't have the reliability/durability the original Optima design once had. The most recent one I used lasted only 18 months. Admittedly, I subjected it to two deep cycles, but I feel a good battery for Corvettes needs to be somewhat tolerant of deep cycles at least to the point of being able to withstand more than two.
Problem is, with car batteries, like many other products, there are no free lunches. Batteries that are highly-reliable, truly long-lasting and leak-free costmore than Optimas.
The best battery on the market for Covettes, IMO, is the Odyssey. Unfortunately, they're not cheap, but they do have a projected life of 7 years, are more tolerant of deep cycles, are capible far higher cranking-pulse output than most other batteries.
There is more information on the Odyssey battery right here on the CAC at:
Extreme Battery - Corvette Product Reviews
