up2nogd

Need a little help! I have a 1962 Corvette that I have been waiting to give to my Dad for his 70th Birthday. The car is basically Stock and as you all know is a @itch to drive!! I really would like to make the car easy for him to drive - any suggestions to make this happen would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks!

62Jeff

They aren't that hard to drive at all, just not as comfy as a modern car.

Radial tires in place of "correct" bias ply, along with a good set of gas shocks will help the ride.

Nothing you can do about the manual steering without spending a LOT of money to hack a power steering setup into the car.

You can add aftermarket A/C, several here on the forum have done that.

BobT59

I will be 70 in two months and am not ready to hang up my 59... while it does not have all the frills of the power steering age, I still love driving it after 49 years and the fun (and compliments) certainly overcomes any muscle aches than follow.

Jeff is right...a good set of radials and gas shocks will help. I just put on new 5 leaf rear springs this past year and it gave a tremendous improvement in the ride.

K2

If the king pins and front suspension have not been rebuilt, that together with a regular grease job, properly inflated radial tires that are as close to stock tread width as possible make them quite easy to drive. Rebuilt and properly adjusted steering box and steering linkage help a lot too.

Very nice birthday gift, I must say.

UberLegend

Sell it and give him an XKE

Stewart Allison

He will be right in it ! Hell if I can do 8 hours straight in one he can get a pint of milk in one Stewy

Oriondriver

Costly but here is what I did for that same reason... Jim Meyer IFS and disc brake conversion all around... easy to drive and safe...

Scott

GEM '62

I drive mine daily and did 12 hours in it last Saturday. I have never felt the car was difficult to drive. If you do the few things stated in the above posts and your dad don't try to parallel park he will have a ball. Guaranteed to make him feel 30 again.

wmf62

i believe i have read about someone offering a modified Ford F250 4wd power steering box that makes the power steering easier to add without changing the entire front suspension, and then there is someone's new R&P systems for the c1s
Bill

DZAUTO

If it's hard to drive, SOMETHING is wrong somewhere!!!!!!!!!!!!!
With a frontend in good condition (might need a rebuild), proper adjustment to the steering, and a good alignment, radial tires inflated to 31-33psi, it should handle fine.
FAT tires on wide wheels will adversely affect steering, badly worn frontend parts and PARTICULARLY if it is misaligned, will all contribute to poor handling/steering.
I'm almost 69 and have a fast steering adapter on my 56 with a stock frontend, the suspension is in top condition and it has a proper alignment and I drive the hell out of my 56 with no problems.

Tom Parsons

up2nogd

Thanks for all the suggestions but I guess there were a few things I left out!!
1. The car is a driver although numbers matching
2. Wide tires / custom wheels front and back
3. Narrow Steering Wheel
4. All front end parts in good shape
I was kind of the thinking of going with the Jim Meyer setup that Orion had suggested?
Thoughts: Good / Bad / Ugly??

Thanks Again!
Just want him to be able to enjoy it as much as I have!!

firstgear

My 60 with myers front and rear...over 1200 photos

http://public.fotki.com/htmiata/1960_corvette/

wmf62

the Meyer IFS is a relatively easy swap but EXPENSIVE...
Bill

C-1 Generation 2

A little hight on price,but a great setup.Handles great even with 245X45 17" all around once you can find a good alignment shop.

Joe's 62

I'm almost 67 and my 62 is not hard to drive just hard to park.
My garage is in the back of the house and when I drive in I have
to make several turn back up turn pull forward turn back up turn
pull forward into the garage and I'm out of breath by then.
I need power steering! But its lots of $$$.

wmf62

TCI





ignore the 'racoon'


not as sophisticated as the Meyer, but if you can do a lot of the work yourself, about half the cost.
Bill

DZAUTO

That's why I had my house built with a 6car drive-through garage. I have a corner lot with a drive on each street, so I can come in the front or back and drive through.

From the front






From the back


Tom Parsons

up2nogd

WOW - Beautiful cars!!
Hey Tom do you have to get a running start to bust through that snow drift??: rofl: Down south we only see that in pictures!!

First Gear - very nice! I am assuming from the pictures you did the Meyer front and back?? Also - did you lower the car further or is that the out the box height of the Meyer system? This is exactly the way I would like the car look and hopefully drive.

Thanks for the help guys! His B-day is in February so I have to make some decisions pretty quick!

x0000rgw

If you have about $600 and a couple of days, you can add
power steering to the 62. It will steer like a new car and you can
add power brakes later (hydroboost). No changes to the front end.


http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c1-a...-steering.html

Ray

Joe's 62

Ray,
I'm in Ft Worth. Not healthy enough to work on my cars any more.
I got CHF. Do you know someone that can do the labor and what they would charge.
PS there is an all corvette show in Ft Worth this Sat.

http://www.cowtownvettes.org/Events/...1511_CS_I.html