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So I have had my car since January 2023, I have a 2007 Chevy cobalt SS supercharged got it at a really good deal and couldn’t pass it up. Now I know this car has potential and I want to live up to it. So my goal is to soak up as much information from other cobalt drivers Is too the best way to upgrade my car, slow slowly but correctly. Because I am the only one that’s going to be putting out money for this and you have to deal life on life’s terms so whenever I get a little bit of spending money, I wanna put it towards my car so if anybody has any thoughts, opinions, I am open to all of them. The first thing I am doing on my vehicle is going to be the ball joints, the control, arms, and the knuckles. Please feel free to comment anything and I will try to be proactive about answering any questions you guys might have for me thanks for taking the time to read my thread and hopefully I will hear from you soon.
also, I’ve included some pictures of the body and the paint. If anybody can explain to me why does my cobalt peel the clearcoat off? I’ve seen it on a few other cobalts since I’ve had mine.
Secondly getting ahold of control arm bushings and any suspension components offered by Powell Raceshop will vastly improve the car. I had many of their parts on my SS/SC and what a night and day difference in handling. The third owner of my car is reporting clear coat failutre as well. It seems to be common. Its sad because I took immaculate care of the paint when I owned the car, but it does seem common.
Thirdly - nice to see fellow ss/sc ginger owner. unless the username is reflective of the car?
New LSJ control arms would come with the ball joint. I highly recommend upgraded control arm bushings. The Powell one mentioned above 👆 would be great, but they can be hard to get a hold of and slow. I highly recommend OTTP control arm bushings from personal experience. The knuckles really never have to be replaced unless damaged.
There are to main suppliers of parts for this platform. OTTP and ZZP
Also from personal experience OTTP has amazing shifters and shifter upgrades, as well as engine mounts, trans mounts, and sway bars. OTTP offers plenty of performance upgrades for the LSJ but I don’t have experience with that as I have an LNF.
ZZP has pretty much everything you can think of for these as well. I have plenty of ZZP performance parts on the car as well.
As for the red paint with the clear coat peel/fade, it’s very common for GM cars that are red. My Victory Red HHR SS was fading and peeling and that was 2008. Which I had bought in 2014. Also a previous Pontiac vibe that we had had the same thing going on the entire front bumper had peeled.
So I have another question my 5th gear will occasionally slip out does that mean I have to replace all of the clutch system or just 5th gear
(if that’s even how it’s done?)
Welcome. Are you able to do the repairs yourself or are you taking it into a shop? If you are doing the repairs yourself I'd buy spherical control arm bushings and new ball joints and install them yourself. Do you need new knuckles or just wheel bearings? The 5th gear popping out is either bad synchros or your shifter cables are out of adjustment. How does it shift between all the other gears? Does the shifter sir in the middle between the odd and even gears? Or does the shifter lean a bit toward one or the other?
I will be doing the repairs myself and are there 5 cables or just one or one into 5. I know I may sound dumb but these are the things that come to mind when I’m asked questions now is there a way to figure out if my gears sit in between each other or if it leans this is only my first Manuel that I’ve had. I’m not sure how to determine the questions being asked. As far as the fifth gear goes it just slips right out and I have to push the clutch in to get it back into it.
