|
|
|
Vettescapes On-Line Users Guide |
For those of you here via Corvette Surfing, take a look. For those of you
here to make the most out of your copy of Vettescape, Welcome and thanks for
your support..I hope you enjoy the software.
|
|
|
|
|
| 1. LOGGING ON
2. VETTE INFORMER ..........2a...........Selecting the Year ..........2b...........Selecting the Engine Suffix/Horsepower 3. 1953 - 1973 "Shop Talk" ..........3a...........Selecting the Correct Template ..........3b...........Decoding your VIN ..........3c...........Where is my VIN Located? 4. Additional Serial Number Info 5. Regular Production Options (R.P.O.'s) 6. Engine 7. Graph 8. Maintenance - Main Menu Button ..........8a...........Adding a new vehicle to Vettescape ..........8b...........Selecting an existing vehicle ..........8c...........Maintenance Detail ..........8d...........Maintenance Summary ..........8e...........Retailer Summary ..........8f...........Adding A Retailer ..........8g...........Deleting a vehicle from Vettescape 9. Vette Retailers - Main Menu Button ..........9a...........Selecting a Vendor ..........9b...........What We're About 10. Vettescape Photos ..........10a...........View Pictures ..........10b...........See the enlargement ..........10c...........Send us a picture of your Corvette |
|
|
| 1. LOGGING ON TO VETTESCAPE
Logging on to Vettescape is pretty simple. For Windows 3.1 users, select the program group where you installed the Vettescape application, double click on the Vette31 Icon. This will start the Vettescape program and bring a login box up for you to enter in the appropriate information. All you need to fill in is the name. No password is necessary. The Name to use when logging in is "Vettescape" (minus the quotes). For Windows 95 users, from the Start menu select programs, click on the Vettescape program name, click "1953-1973 American Muscle" Icon. This will start the Vettescape program and bring a login box. The Login name should already be populated with "Vettescape" minus the quotes. If it is not, enter "Vettescape" into the name field, and select Okay. There you are...you're in! I am aware that this login can be a nuisance, but unfortunately it is needed for security purposes. Below is how your login should look. LOGIN PICTURE HERE |
|
Vettescape Main Menu |
| 2.
VETTE INFORMER Your just one click away from viewing commonly referenced information for 1953 - 1973 Corvettes. Just as the button name indicates, information contained on the Vette Informer related screens is meant to show you the most often referenced production information for corvettes manufactured between 1953 and 1973 Corvettes. High level information such as number of coupes, convertibles, total number produced and RPO's for any selected year is available, but the good stuff is in the detail. This is not just a high level data sheet based on the year. It is detailed information, based on the Year and Engine Suffix you select! The Vette informer not only gives you the high level information, it fills in the gaps others don't address. The information contained in Vettescape took me years to compile. Countless phone calls and endless reference books helped to make Vettescape what it is today. I've done the work for you. Put those books back on the shelf, it's all here in one CD! Start up your copy of Vettescape today (order form link). 2a. Selecting the Year: Once you have selected the Vette Informer Button from the Vettescape Main Menu you will be presented with a grey screen with two "combo" boxes available for your input. Above the combo box on the left you will see "Select Year". This combo box lists years from 1953 - 1973. To reveal the entire list use your mouse and click on the small arrow on the right hand side of the box. Use your mouse to scroll up and down through the years until you see the year you are interested in, select the year with your mouse. 2b. Selecting the Engine Suffix/Horsepower: Once you have selected the Year from the left hand combo box you will notice text "Select Engine Suffix/Horsepower" appear above the right hand combo box. Follow the same procedure as described above in "Selecting the Year". Corvettes built from 1956 on had a variety of engines available for the customers to select from. The Engine Suffix was used by the manufacturer to identify the different engine types. For instance in 1967 there were over 20 different engine suffixes that were used by chevy to identify the various types of engines. A different Engine Suffix doesn't necessarily mean more or less horsepower. Often times it was used as a reference by the linesmen building the car to let them know that a particular car should have air conditioning as in a 1967/HB combination, or that it was a California car and required additional emissions equipment as in a 1973/CLB combination. There is a lot that can be gleaned from this 2 or 3 digit code. Order Vettescape today and find out just how much you can learn from these little numbers. 3. 1953-1973 SHOP TALK 3a. Selecting the Correct Template There is not much to this section. Hopefully I designed the screen so the user has a relatively easy time identifying parts of the screen that are related. One of these areas is called the "Shop Talk" section (I know in windows 3.1 "Shop Talk" is not very legible...Look for improvements in version 2) located directly under "Cubic Inch", "Horsepower", "Transmission Type". In this area you will see four "Radio Buttons". These buttons are used to change the templates for the VIN decoder. The title for each of these button indicates the VIN decoder template that is active. To select a different Template simply use your mouse and click on the radio button for the year you would like to research. The initial template displayed corresponds to the year you selected upon entering the Vette Informer screen. There are 4 different templates that cover 1953 - 1973 Corvettes. The labels beside each of the radio buttons indicates the years that are covered by a particular template. Once you click on a radio button the VIN Decoder template corresponding to your selection will be displayed below. 3b. Decoding your VIN For years I tried to find a concise breakdown of the Vehicle Identification Numbers (VIN) for 1953 - 1973 Corvettes. Until about a 1 ½ years ago everything I saw was confusing and muddled together with a bunch of other information I wasn't interested in deciphering. Then came my Corvette Autotrader subscription. As per usual the article were good, but one jumped out at me. I can't remember the article title or the authors name ( I will try and find it so I can give him/her full credit), but there it was...the VIN decoded. It took some time but I was able to translate the written word into computerese so you too can have this decoder at your fingertips. Based on the radio button selected (as described in "Selecting the Correct Template" above) a VIN Template is provide for your input. User input fields are indicated by a small down arrow on the right side of the entry field. By clicking your mouse on the down arrow, the entire list of available codes for that particular field are displayed for your selection. Many times you will find that fields must be selected in order from left to right. The reason for this is that each fields contents may change depending on the previous fields entry. So input your information from left to right. You may have noticed that in some instances fields are already populated. The reason for this is that in some cases chevrolet always had a particular character, or digit in a specific location. For instance Corvette VINs issued between 1960 and 1964 always had a 0 (zero) in the second position which indicated the model of the car was a corvette. You can click on these fields and a description box will appear in the center of the screen telling you what that field signifies. Once you have selected from the available information, and all fields are populated, click on the "Tell Me More" button located on the bottom right side of the VIN template. The VIN Decoder screen will be displayed. This screen will provide you with such details as; where your corvette was produced, the body type, the engine type, the year it was manufactured and more. This is invaluable information to the Corvette owner who wants to fill in some of the missing pieces of the Corvette genealogy. 3c. Where is my VIN Located? Over time the location of the VIN has changed. To the folks out there considering the purchase of one of Americas sexiest cars, this is must know information. Within each of the VIN decoder templates you will notice a title in the top right corner of the template. WaLa - up pops the treasure map you need to locate your VIN. The description for each template is different...check them all out! 4. Additional Serial Number Info Depending on the year you selected, you may have noticed a small red button displayed near the bottom of the screen with the title of "Additional Serial # Info". There were a couple of years i.e. 1967, where the serial number range varied depending on the type of corvette. Click on this button to find out how the serial number changes for the year you have selected. If there is not a visible red button with the "Additional Serial # Info" title, then the serial numbers do not change for the year you have selected. 5. Regular Production Options (R.P.O.'s) Everyone loves looking this information over. Ahhh to be buying a car back in 1967 where a convertible Corvette cost only $4,240.75. Oh well those days are gone. If you are considering purchasing your first piece of 1953 - 1973 American Muscle you know the prices of old are long gone. Make sure you're an educated consumer. Vettescapes RPO listings tell you RPO numbers, title, number sold, and cost. This information can be a tremendous asset to both old and new Corvette enthusiasts. If you are considering purchasing a 1970 corvette there are probably a couple options you would want to look for while scouring the country for that special piece of Americana. For instance in 1970 there were 22,940 corvettes were made, but only 1,287 were LT1s find an LT1 in good shape at a reasonable price, and you're making a better investment than if you were to purchase a standard 1970 of similar or even slightly better condition. To add to the equation if you found a 1970 LT1, with 4 Speed Close Ratio Transmission (Heavy Duty) (Only 25 produced) and Shoulder Harnesses (Only 475 produced), then you've stumbled upon a gold mine. Let Vettescape help you to become an educated consumer and enthusiast Order today. 6. Engine You have to look long and hard to find a virgin 1953 - 1973 Corvette engine. Remember the more original, the more valuable. How do you know what the engine specs of a car built over 20 years ago is supposed to be. Vettescape. We have documented Cubic inches, Horsepower, Bore, Stroke, RPM, Compression, Distributor Number(s), Transmission Type, Induction Type, Carburetor Number(s) and more. If it had 2 carburetors Vettescape will show you 2 carburetor numbers...if it had three Vettescape will show you three. If you're serious about Corvettes this program is a must for your reference library. There is no other program or publication out there that provides this much valuable information specifically designed for Corvettes in one place. Yes this information is available through other media, but you'll spend hours flipping pages, and cross referencing numbers. We've done that for you. Its all here. All you do is select the year and the Engine Suffix and you're done. 7. Graph The Graph : Button located at the bottom of the Vette Informer screen is just that...a graph. on Vettescape Graph will show you a bar chart of the production volumes 2 years prior to the year you have selected and 2 years after the year you selected. For instance if you selected 1967 in combo box 1 of the Vette Informer screen, and then went to view the graph, you would see a bar chart depicting total produced, total convertible, total coupe for 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968 and 1969. I sometimes find that information presented in graphical form is more meaningful than just numbers. this graph enable the user to see side-by-side representation of the Corvette volumes for a selected range of years. You can see both the Highs and Lows which may be helpful in deciding which year of Corvette you would like to invest you money. 8. Maintenance - Main Menu Button Many years ago when I started this program the above mentioned features were the entire Vettescape application. After many corvette shows and discussions with folks around the country the Vettescape application began to evolve, and almost seemed to take on a life of its own. Everyone had different ideas about what the program should and shouldn't do. From those ideas I looked hard and found the things that most people agreed should be featured in the application. A Maintenance log was one of those items that was recommended almost unanimously by all parties. So here it is. This Vettescape feature will allow you to keep track of your parts, time spent, warranty information, local retailers and dollars spent to keep your piece of American muscle on the road. 8a. Adding a new vehicle to Vettescape Until you have done it a couple of times Adding a new vehicle can be a-bit confusing. The first time you start Vettescape...there are of course no vehicles listed in the Maintenance Screens Selection Box. To Add a vehicle select the "Add New Vehicle" button, located about half way down the left hand side of the "Vettescape Select Vehicle" screen. Once you do this the cursor will be positioned in the "Make" field. Once you're in the Make....enter the make of the vehicle i.e. Chevy, Ford, Pontiac. Once you have entered this information hit the enter or tab key and you will be moved to the "Model" field. Here is where you enter in the model i.e. Corvette, GTO, Firebird. Once you have entered the "Model" information hit the enter or tab key and you will be moved to the "Year" field. You may have noticed that when you moved to the "Model" field, the "Year" filed was automatically populated with the current year. This can be changed if needed. If you would like to change the year simply enter in the year of the vehicle via the number pad. Now that all the information has been entered, simply hit the tab or enter key. The vehicle will be added to the Selection list above. You will also be prompted with a couple of questions such as "Would you like to add another vehicle?" and "Would you like to enter maintenance information for [the vehicle you just added]?"". If you answer yes to the first question, the information you just entered will be cleared (the vehicle has still been added and is available for your selection from the combo box above) and you will be placed back at the "Make" field to enter information for vehicle # 2..3..4..n. If you answer yes to the second question, the "Vettescape Detail Entry" screen will be opened. 8b. Selecting an existing Vehicle Once you have added a new vehicle as described above in "Adding a new Vehicle", this vehicle will be available in the future for you to select from in the "Vettescape Select Vehicle" (Screen Name) combo box. To select a vehicle simply use your mouse and click on the small down arrow located on the right side of the combo box displayed at the top left corner of this screen. Once you have clicked on the vehicle the "Vettescape Detail Entry" screen will be opened. 8c.Maintenance Detail You have arrived at this screen by either selecting a previously entered vehicle from the "Vettescape Select Vehicle" screen or answering yes to question 2 "Would you like to enter maintenance information for [the vehicle you just added]?"", after adding a new vehicle. The Vettescape detail entry screen is where you log maintenance information pertaining to the vehicle you have selected. You will notice the "Year" and "Model" of the vehicle you selected displayed in the upper left hand corner of this screen. When the enter into the "Vettescape Detail Entry" screen, your cursor will be positioned in the "mileage" field. Entering the correct information into this field may be very important when it comes time to sell your vehicle. Prospective buyers are sure to view your maintenance log a testament to your care of the vehicle. Whether its an oil change or an engine keep this information up to date. Once you have entered the correct mileage, hit the tab key to move to the "Purchase Date" field. The purpose of this field is to identify when a particular part was purchased. I have often found that often I will purchase several items like brakes, grills, tachometers..... only to have them sit in the workshop until I have time to install them. The purchase date can be very useful when trying to evaluate the warranty information. Once you have entered the correct Purchase Date, hit the tab key to move to the "Install Date" field. The purpose of this field is to identify when a particular part was actually installed. As mentioned above, all to often a part is not installed on the same date it was purchased. Once you have entered the correct Install Date, hit the tab key to move to the "Retailer" field. Initially you are probably going to feel as if entering the retailer information is cumbersome. Well give it some time and I think you will grow to like it. Rather than you having to re-type a retailer name into this field, you add it to a "Master Retailer List". Once a retailer has been added to the Master List you can simply select from the selection box located directly above the Retailer field. Based on this the first time you enter the Maintenance Detail screen, you will need to add the retailer information to the "Retailer Master List". To do this click on the "Add Retailer" button located at the bottom of the Maintenance Detail Screen. If you have already added your retailer to the Master List, you can select the retailer by clicking on the small down arrow of the "Retailer" combo box located directly above the retailer field. Click on the Retailer of your choice, and the Retailer name and Phone number will be populated in the appropriate Maintenance log fields. Once you have identified the retailer, your ready to add the part (required for all new entries). From the retailer phone field, hit the tab or enter key any you will move to the part field. Enter in the name of the part, or service that was performed. The rest of the fields are available for your convenience. The Warranty Information: is available for you to enter in specific warranty details as they pertain to the part you listed in "Part". All to often I found that even when I had purchased a set of "Lifetime" brakes, by the time it was time to replace them, I had forgotten my next set should be free. No more. With this Maintenance Log I simply look up the part, check out the warranty information and if the part is still covered.....it's free. I have saved hundreds of dollars using this feature of Vettescape. The "Install Time/hrs:" is a field I have provided so you can keep track of just how much time you have spent working on your pride and joy. It's just a little perk I threw in to assist folks in documenting their progress. This field is on a part by part basis....you can see the grand total listed at the bottom of this screen. Same goes for the "Cost :" field. As I'm sure you're aware even the little things add up quickly. this is a simple tool you can use to keep track of the $$$$$ you pour into your piece of American muscle. Like the "Install Time/hrs" field, this keeps track of costs on a part by part basis, you can see the grand total listed at the bottom of the screen. The "Notes:" field is also part by part. This is a section made available for you to keep track of any miscellaneous information you would like too. You can use this section to make note of difficulties you encountered while installing a part....leave a note to yourself about additional work that needs to be done, or just a kind note to yourself telling you what a great job you did. 8d. Maintenance Summary The Maintenance Summary: Button is located at the bottom left of the Maintenance Detail Screen. Clicking on this button will open the Vettescape Maintenance Summary screen. This screen will list all of the Maintenance entries you have made for the selected vehicle. It is not a user input screen. The information displayed here can not be modified. Items listed on this screen include "Install Date", "Part", "Retailer", "Install Time" and "Install Cost". This is your Maintenance log at a glance. You can use this screen to quickly preview all of the work, time and dollars you have put into the selected vehicle. 8e. Retailer Summary The Retailer Summary: Button is located at the bottom of the Maintenance Detail Screen. Clicking on this button will open the Vettescape Retailer Summary screen. This screen will list all of the Retailers you have entered ... It even lists retailers you have added while inputting information for other vehicles. You CAN modify this screen. For example the first time you go to "Add a New Retailer" you may want to over write, or change the entry that comes standard with with Vettescape. You CANNOT delete entries from this screen, but you can modify them. So if something is incorrect simply select the retailer entry and change its contents. Items listed on this screen include "Retailer Name" and "Phone Number". This is your Retailer List at a glance. You can use this screen to quickly preview all of your entries, to quickly find a name and number of one of your trusted corvette resources. 8f. Adding a Retailer The Add Retailer: Button will present you with basically the same screen as the Retailer Summary button. However, when you access the screen with the Add Retailer button, your cursor will automatically be placed at the end of the Retailer listing in a blank field. Simply add your new retailer. Don't forget to provide a phone number. If you don't the name you add may not appear immediately in the Retailer Combo Box of the Detail screen. After you have added the retailer to the master Retailer listing, you can access the Retailer Combo box from the Detail screen and select the newly added entry. Give it a try. 8g. Deleting a Vehicle from Vettescape: Once have selected a vehicle from the Maintenance Log Selection Screen the Delete Vehicle Button become activated. To delete a vehicle simply select the Delete button from the bottom of the Maintenance Log Selection Screen, and the vehicle listed in the Selection box will be deleted. Be careful, this will delete the Vehicle and all its maintenance records. Add a sample vehicle .... write up a couple of dummy maintenance records and then delete the vehicle to see how this works. 9. Vette Retailers - Main Menu Button Over the past 4 years Vettescape has subscribed to the Corvette Auto Trader and Corvette Fever for the sole purposes of gathering information to present to you in Vettescape. One of the primary pieces of information I collected was a listing of the Retailers who advertised in these publications. This list is now available to you as a part of the Vettescape package. If you can't find the part your looking for in our database, then it probably doesn't exist. This is a NATIONAL LISTING, Dealers, Parts, Restorers, Clubs....if its for a Corvette Vettescape has it. Vettescape regularly makes spot calls to verify that the phone number and address of the folks we list is correct. If you come across any that are out of date, or incorrect in any way please drop us an e-mail  Vettescape Updates:
and let us know so we can update our database. Likewise if you know of a corvette related retailer that is not on our list. Drop us a line and we'll make sure to add them to our listing. 9a. Selecting a Vendor Just like many of the other screens....you make your selection from a combo box, and the rest is provided for you. The combo box you select from on this screen is located at the top right corner of the screen. When you first enter the screen, this combo box lists the retailers from all over the country. If you would like to narrow the listing to a particular state, from the radio buttons directly below the retailer combo box. Then you must select the state you would like to list. To do this click on the smaller combo box directly under the List by State title. Your Retailer Selection box will now only display vendors from that state. 9b. What We're About Most of the entries in the Vettescape Retailer Listing contain the same text in the What we're about section...It says something like "Stay Tuned Waiting on vendor response". Vettescape is working hard on providing accurate descriptions for each of the vendors listed in the database. When we hear from them you can be sure to update the Vettescape Database, as well as the National listing of the vendors listed hear at the Vettescape Web Page. We here at Vettescape think this additional information will be very helpful when you're trying to narrow down your contact list of Corvette vendors. 10. Vettescape Photos - Main Menu Button It's true a picture is worth a 1000 words. For years I have been traveling to Carlisle for the Annual Corvettes at Carlisle. If there's a better place to take pictures of Corvettes....I want to know about it. The Vettescape Photo Archive is quite extensive. Over 500 Photographs. We selected some of our favorites and included them in the program for your enjoyment. Remember if you are viewing the pictures on a Windows 95 machine, the Vettescape CD must be in your cd-rom drive. If you are running on a Windows 3.1 machine, then the Vettescape cd-rom is not required for this function. 10a. View Pictures Select Vettescape Photos: from the Main Menu. This will open up the Vettescape Photo Gallery. From the Vettescape Photo Gallery, select View Pictures...This will take you to Page 1 of the Vettescape Photo Gallery Images. In Windows 3.1 you have 4 pages of pictures to review, Windows 95 users have 7 pages of pictures to review. Each of the pages has between 20 - 25 thumbnail sized pictures of corvettes previously in attendance at one of the Carlisle shows. 10b. See the Enlargement If you see a thumbnail image you would like to view in more detail simply click on the thumbnail, wait a second or two and the enlarged image will be displayed on your terminal. There are some sweet cars out there....Check it out. Vettescape has included a small sampling here on the Vettescape web site. Click here to check out the Vettescape Photo Gallery. 10c. Send us a picture of your Corvette Vettescape has provided a unique way for you to share your pride and joy with the rest of the world. Simply send us a color photo (3x5 preferred), along with a description of the Car i.e. year, engine, owner name, any other special features you would like the world to know about....and we'll put it in our next release of Vettescape. If you would like the photo returned, simply include a self addressed stamped envelope, and we'll be happy to get it back to you as soon as we have scanned it into the program. Hope to see your car soon. Send your photo to: Vettescape Photo Gallery P.O. Box 1217 Bowie Md., 20718-1217 |
