Frankly, I am not looking to get rid of them. I will tell you that if your side exhaust is not factory diameters, the covers will not wrap around them with enough room. You will need a pair of insulators that attach on the inside of the covers which in turn connect to the side black plastic piece below the doors to keep them in place. There are also insulators and a "Z" bracket that attaches in the rear of each side to keep the exhaust cover away from the exhaust pipe of your pipes. If these aftermarket pipes are not the same diameter as the originals that the covers were made for, the excessive heat may "blue" the chrome and rapidly deteriorate the insulation (molded layers of ridgid gp or pvc composit in at least two layers), that can dangerously burn your lets if you touch the pipes while exiting the vette.
As for price? the originals are worth about #3000.00, and my replicas that last ten times longer about half of that.
I had attempted to make the insulator backings by designing and having tooling for heat molding of the fiberglass material but stopped suddenly when the cost of this die exceeded $8,000.00!
For the people who pleaded for them, and the cost to be divided into each set, I felt the cost was too much. I believe these units are now being made by a private contractor who sells them to several corvette outlets but be careful, some are only in it for the 100% mark-up and the costs are overbearing in most cases.
Your logic demands a few Kudos and I undestand the bogus parts that are on the vehicle, but if you really want to keep it original here is a few suggestions----Keep the money you would have spent on the covers and get a hold of Chicago Corvette Supply. give them your serial numbers, casting numbers on the trans and rear and they may have a engine that matches in set. You would purchase this engine, go over it and install it in place of your bogus one, second, little parts that are missing from the vehicle can be bought either at shows, outlets as Bairs Corvette in Linesville, Pa. or the dealer. A little at a time will make this a loving project with not going broke all of a sudden. Used parts? not a problem for fitting your year, call Contemporary Corvette, the largest scrap yard on the east coast and ask for Rocco. Tell him what you need and let him do the professional probing to get you the parts in an honest reply with always a policy of returning or exchanging if what you get is not good enough.
Thanks for the e-mail and hope this helps out. any other questions will always be answered.
Regards, Ed
