Long time chrome bumper owner speaks.
09-15-2021, 06:53 PM
#103
Le Mans Master
I have owned 2 c2 427/435 cars, first one in 1970, second which I bought in 1983 sold not long ago. I also owned 7 c3s (6 70s and 1 73) including 70 with 454 and currently own 70 LT-1. NEVER did cars fail me and I drove them HARD and all had nylon gears... I believe vast majority of owners had same experience, sorry for your bad luck.
09-15-2021, 06:56 PM
#104
Melting Slicks
Thread Starter
LOL. I was not married at the time, so I was safe! But I am married now, so no car rides! And I never did have a good memory and it is not improving with age! Lou.
09-15-2021, 07:15 PM
#105
Melting Slicks
Thread Starter
Mike, LT1driver, I am really lucky that way! It really was an experience having the chain gear teeth fall off. It was winter in Cleveland, Ohio and a good friend helped me remove and replace the reworked motor in an unheated garage and it sure was cold!
Here in Myrtle Beach a few years back, I stopped for a dead 68 Corvette on the side of the road. Seems the guy bought it for an investment. Had it about four years and had JUST changed the oil in it a little while before.
The motor locked up and it had a rod through the original motor. Never heard what caused the problem. Why didn't he change the oil when he first bought it? Lou.
Here in Myrtle Beach a few years back, I stopped for a dead 68 Corvette on the side of the road. Seems the guy bought it for an investment. Had it about four years and had JUST changed the oil in it a little while before.
The motor locked up and it had a rod through the original motor. Never heard what caused the problem. Why didn't he change the oil when he first bought it? Lou.
Last edited by loup68; 09-15-2021 at 07:16 PM.
03-21-2023, 07:42 PM
#106
Melting Slicks
Thread Starter
I just wanted to tell you what changes I did to my 68. Don't forget that I drove it daily for over four and a half years and part of the time it was the only thing that I had from a divorce.
The first thing that I changed was the god awful 67 clone plastic fake wood steering wheel that was 16" in diameter. It killed your right leg every time you got into the car. I traded the wheel for a 69 one. Next I changed the wonderful engineering screw up on early 68's that had a seat back release **** that you could not reach! How could they approve that thing? It works on other GM cars being that low but they have a back seat and plenty of room for your hand. They moved the lever up about six inches, still hard to get to. There were no Corvette recycle yards back then, so I bought the changed parts from the dealer and made a plate to hold the upper parts after bashin in the seat frame a little to hold it. Oh, Chevy only wanted about $800-$1000 dollars for one new seat at the time if I remember correctly.
I hated having to push in the seat belt warning button every time that you started the car after owning my coupe a few years. For one thing, the paint wore off of the gauge bezel there. GM had a few red "tell-tails" in the parts books so I added the 69-up headlamp tell-tail there and bought the new parts to hold the headlamp up switches and added the correct wiring. I also have the very rare early 68 low fuel red filter, but of course it does not work. It was listed in the first edition 68 sales brochure along with the plastic gas tank that also never happened.
68 Coupe's have an interior light in the rear sail panel. This is a one year only item. In 69 they dropped that light and changed to the 63-67 interior roof light and put it on the back wall. It does a great job of lighting the back of your seats and the rear storage area. The interior, not so much. Mine lights the interior nicely but not the back area, so I added the rear interior light. Strangely, the plate to mount it was already installed there. Lou.
The first thing that I changed was the god awful 67 clone plastic fake wood steering wheel that was 16" in diameter. It killed your right leg every time you got into the car. I traded the wheel for a 69 one. Next I changed the wonderful engineering screw up on early 68's that had a seat back release **** that you could not reach! How could they approve that thing? It works on other GM cars being that low but they have a back seat and plenty of room for your hand. They moved the lever up about six inches, still hard to get to. There were no Corvette recycle yards back then, so I bought the changed parts from the dealer and made a plate to hold the upper parts after bashin in the seat frame a little to hold it. Oh, Chevy only wanted about $800-$1000 dollars for one new seat at the time if I remember correctly.
I hated having to push in the seat belt warning button every time that you started the car after owning my coupe a few years. For one thing, the paint wore off of the gauge bezel there. GM had a few red "tell-tails" in the parts books so I added the 69-up headlamp tell-tail there and bought the new parts to hold the headlamp up switches and added the correct wiring. I also have the very rare early 68 low fuel red filter, but of course it does not work. It was listed in the first edition 68 sales brochure along with the plastic gas tank that also never happened.
68 Coupe's have an interior light in the rear sail panel. This is a one year only item. In 69 they dropped that light and changed to the 63-67 interior roof light and put it on the back wall. It does a great job of lighting the back of your seats and the rear storage area. The interior, not so much. Mine lights the interior nicely but not the back area, so I added the rear interior light. Strangely, the plate to mount it was already installed there. Lou.
Last edited by loup68; 10-19-2023 at 07:00 PM.
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doorgunner (03-22-2023)
10-13-2023, 07:50 PM
#107
Melting Slicks
Thread Starter
I bought new GM weatherstrips over the counter and they did not have 68's anymore. They were 69-up one's. Those things were so stiff that it took about ten years to have the door close flush.
I had a drunk try to change lanes into my left rear fender while I was creeping up to a red light. He made a rip in the lower fender under the rear bumper. I patched it up but eventually had it professionally repaired years later.
I got a GM crate motor ZZ4 about 2004 and put a mechanical tach drive distributor from D.U.I. in it. Having a four speed, I really needed the tach. I heard that it needed a full 12 volts, but I did not know about this forum back then and did not know where to get the power from. Eventually the distributor module died and I had it replaced. I did not know what was wrong at the time and a mechanic ended upchanging it. I found out about this forum and I ran a new wire from the fuse block to the distributor. We used the module from the GM one that came with the ZZ4 non mechanical tach drive distributor. Lou.
I had a drunk try to change lanes into my left rear fender while I was creeping up to a red light. He made a rip in the lower fender under the rear bumper. I patched it up but eventually had it professionally repaired years later.
I got a GM crate motor ZZ4 about 2004 and put a mechanical tach drive distributor from D.U.I. in it. Having a four speed, I really needed the tach. I heard that it needed a full 12 volts, but I did not know about this forum back then and did not know where to get the power from. Eventually the distributor module died and I had it replaced. I did not know what was wrong at the time and a mechanic ended upchanging it. I found out about this forum and I ran a new wire from the fuse block to the distributor. We used the module from the GM one that came with the ZZ4 non mechanical tach drive distributor. Lou.
Last edited by loup68; 10-16-2023 at 06:43 PM.
10-16-2023, 01:31 PM
#108
Le Mans Master
Lou: Like you, I am a long suffering 68 coupe owner. I bought mine in late 72 and drove it all over the place as a daily driver in Brooklyn, NY. The car never let me down. I still have the original drivetrain.I did rebuild the Muncie and the L-79 engine. I moved to Florida in the 80's and could not take the heat in the summer, so I installed a factory air system. This was before VA and Classic Air systems became available. Like most others, I have rebuilt the brakes in stainless and 20 years ago switched to O-rings. No problems since. I also added PS and PB. Like me, the car now leads a pampered life. I tell anyone who likes to listen that I have had the car through many girlfriends and a wife of 40 plus years (not at the same time) and three dogs that died of old age. Great posts, keep them coming. Jerry
10-16-2023, 06:57 PM
#109
Melting Slicks
Thread Starter
That is cool, Jerry! My wife can't take the heat in summer here in South Carolina, either. It hardly got warm in Cleveland to need air conditioning. Just curious, did you put in a 69-up AC system instead of the 68 only one year parts? Lou.
10-17-2023, 11:34 AM
#110
Le Mans Master
I used a later 69 plus system. Trying to source 68 only parts is next to impossible. I had to leave the right hand floor vent in place as putting the AC flapper in would mean removing the right front fender or cutting a giant hole in the area. My system works on recirculate only. Which is fine in the Florida heat. In NY I would never put the T-tops while driving in the summer. I was much younger and I felt the summers were a bit cooler as well. Just read that Joel Rosen of Motion Performance passed away. We went to the same high school many years apart. Back then, he was a legend with the car crowd. Jerry
10-18-2023, 10:38 AM
#111
Easy Mike & Garage Ghost, No I did not save the wheel, I traded it to the one place in Cleve. that sold used vette parts at the time, for a smaller 69 wheel. I traded the P01's back to the used car dealer that sold the girl my car,for the rings and caps. Garage-Ghost, in over 38 years,you are the only other one that I have heard of that had,had the teeth fall off. And yes guy's, I have loved most of the time with my "beater"!
I use to collect vette promotional models and went to Dearborn, MI once a year to a toy show. I was on the freeway going there and suddenly the exhaust sounded like I had lost a muffler. I had no money or credit card so I drove home to Cleveland afterwards and it was a broken exhaust valve. You guy's wonder why it is so hard to find an original carb. The inlet pipe threads stripped out on them if you changed the fuel filter and you tossed it away. I tossed my smog system, too. No one saved those things back then.
The vette started running bad after I had it about 10 months. The girl's dad was a Mopar guy and told me how much he loved the window on the Chevy distributor to adjust the points. My buddy at the gas station yelled at me about the points. Their were no points! I had two bare pieces of metal slapping together!
The tires looked nice on the car when I bought it. The dad didn't tell me that they were recapped tires! I never even heard of such a thing and a rear tire bubble blew out and took a small chunk out of the rear wheel well when I was doing 70 on the freeway.
I had a new 3 year old 69 camaro I sold to get my 68 coupe. 68's & 69's were going for $3,100 & $3,200 in 1972. They also had over 50,000 mi. on them and the interiors looked like a gorilla had lived in it. People thought that I was crazy for getting a year older car. I love 69 camaros but I will keep my vette. My car had 22,000 miles and looked brand new. I paid $2,300. I also paid $500 a year for insurance because I was under 25. I saved up money to get a used power steering setup from that lone vette part shyster. The manual steering is rough to park and change lanes on the freeway, compared to the camaro.
You could not get vette parts other than from a dealer back then. I never saw one in a junk yard back then. I think Mid America was first and then Zip products. Vette vues magazine came out and later Corvette Fever magazine. I also got a used 68 power window setup and installed it. I hated having to lean over to crank the window up and down all the time. Besides that was luxury to me back then. Most cars had manual windows. I hope people are enjoying this.
I use to collect vette promotional models and went to Dearborn, MI once a year to a toy show. I was on the freeway going there and suddenly the exhaust sounded like I had lost a muffler. I had no money or credit card so I drove home to Cleveland afterwards and it was a broken exhaust valve. You guy's wonder why it is so hard to find an original carb. The inlet pipe threads stripped out on them if you changed the fuel filter and you tossed it away. I tossed my smog system, too. No one saved those things back then.
The vette started running bad after I had it about 10 months. The girl's dad was a Mopar guy and told me how much he loved the window on the Chevy distributor to adjust the points. My buddy at the gas station yelled at me about the points. Their were no points! I had two bare pieces of metal slapping together!
The tires looked nice on the car when I bought it. The dad didn't tell me that they were recapped tires! I never even heard of such a thing and a rear tire bubble blew out and took a small chunk out of the rear wheel well when I was doing 70 on the freeway.
I had a new 3 year old 69 camaro I sold to get my 68 coupe. 68's & 69's were going for $3,100 & $3,200 in 1972. They also had over 50,000 mi. on them and the interiors looked like a gorilla had lived in it. People thought that I was crazy for getting a year older car. I love 69 camaros but I will keep my vette. My car had 22,000 miles and looked brand new. I paid $2,300. I also paid $500 a year for insurance because I was under 25. I saved up money to get a used power steering setup from that lone vette part shyster. The manual steering is rough to park and change lanes on the freeway, compared to the camaro.
You could not get vette parts other than from a dealer back then. I never saw one in a junk yard back then. I think Mid America was first and then Zip products. Vette vues magazine came out and later Corvette Fever magazine. I also got a used 68 power window setup and installed it. I hated having to lean over to crank the window up and down all the time. Besides that was luxury to me back then. Most cars had manual windows. I hope people are enjoying this.
10-18-2023, 07:01 PM
#113
Melting Slicks
Thread Starter
Let me explain. The 69 Camaro that I bought new, was three years and three months old when I sold it, with 52,000 miles on it. I loved the looks of the 69's. I did not want to sell it.
I tried to talk to my first wife to keep it for when her new 1970 Nova died in the future. I had unfortunately borrowed $1,500 dollars from her retirement money from Navy finance that she had quit from when she got pregnant with my daughter.
I bought the Vette three months after my daughter was born. The wife wanted her money back. You know how that goes if you are married!
Thank goodness that my wonderful second wife is a car girl and you are able to reason with her! Lou.
I tried to talk to my first wife to keep it for when her new 1970 Nova died in the future. I had unfortunately borrowed $1,500 dollars from her retirement money from Navy finance that she had quit from when she got pregnant with my daughter.
I bought the Vette three months after my daughter was born. The wife wanted her money back. You know how that goes if you are married!
Thank goodness that my wonderful second wife is a car girl and you are able to reason with her! Lou.
10-18-2023, 07:06 PM
#114
Burning Brakes
Member Since: Jul 2022
Location: Wisconsin
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2023 C3 of the Year Finalist - Modified
2022 C3 of the Year Finalist - Modified
Let me explain. The 69 Camaro that I bought new, was three years and three months old when I sold it, with 52,000 miles on it. I loved the looks of the 69's. I did not want to sell it.
I tried to talk to my first wife to keep it for when her new 1970 Nova died in the future. I had unfortunately borrowed $1,500 dollars from her retirement money from Navy finance that she had quit from when she got pregnant with my daughter.
I bought the Vette three months after my daughter was born. The wife wanted her money back. You know how that goes if you are married!
Thank goodness that my wonderful second wife is a car girl and you are able to reason with her! Lou.
I tried to talk to my first wife to keep it for when her new 1970 Nova died in the future. I had unfortunately borrowed $1,500 dollars from her retirement money from Navy finance that she had quit from when she got pregnant with my daughter.
I bought the Vette three months after my daughter was born. The wife wanted her money back. You know how that goes if you are married!
Thank goodness that my wonderful second wife is a car girl and you are able to reason with her! Lou.
Btw love your stories!
10-18-2023, 07:53 PM
#115
Melting Slicks
OP, I remember those nylon-coated timing chain gears (just the large gear). LOL. They were quieter for most their life, but like you say, didn't stand up to many yrs. I had a late 60's buick which did the same thing. But didn't clog up the oil pick-up.
I've been reading some 80's Corvette magazines I bought, lately. It reminded me how a few yrs after the C4's came out, anything that wasn't a big block, C3 values were real low.
I've been reading some 80's Corvette magazines I bought, lately. It reminded me how a few yrs after the C4's came out, anything that wasn't a big block, C3 values were real low.
10-18-2023, 10:05 PM
#116
Racer
Member Since: Feb 2017
Location: San Diego
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2023 C3 of the Year Finalist - Modified
I replaced one of those nylon gears on my grandma's Chevy II BEFORE THE INTERNET. I had no idea what I was doing and I am always amazed that we did stuff like that back then with no instant information resource like we have now.
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Mdbirk (10-19-2023)
10-19-2023, 12:11 AM
#117
Melting Slicks
I replaced one of those nylon gears on my grandma's Chevy II BEFORE THE INTERNET. I had no idea what I was doing and I am always amazed that we did stuff like that back then with no instant information resource like we have now.
We didn't need no stinkin' innner-net back then! LOL.
10-19-2023, 07:35 PM
#118
Melting Slicks
Thread Starter
The friend that helped me with my L-79 timing chain was a great motor mechanic. He also had a race car. So he knew what he was doing. Lud was a die repair man at work.
As I have said, I was in maintenance at the original 1932 Modern Tool and Die plant in Parma (Cleveland), Ohio. Parma was also my hometown. MTD was one of the largest lawn mower and outdoor power equipment companies in the world. Our plant and another plant close by also made automotive parts.
I was hired in as a pipefitter and plumber in September, 1974 and after 27 years there at 52 years of age, they sent us to classes upstairs after work, so that we did not get paid, to become millwrights which is heavy machinery repair. This was so that they could just send out anyone of us to do a mechanical maintenance job. We had separate electricians. Lou.
As I have said, I was in maintenance at the original 1932 Modern Tool and Die plant in Parma (Cleveland), Ohio. Parma was also my hometown. MTD was one of the largest lawn mower and outdoor power equipment companies in the world. Our plant and another plant close by also made automotive parts.
I was hired in as a pipefitter and plumber in September, 1974 and after 27 years there at 52 years of age, they sent us to classes upstairs after work, so that we did not get paid, to become millwrights which is heavy machinery repair. This was so that they could just send out anyone of us to do a mechanical maintenance job. We had separate electricians. Lou.
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Mdbirk (10-19-2023)
04-05-2024, 08:11 PM
#119
Melting Slicks
Thread Starter
I mentioned that we made all of the Corvette radiator supports from about 1960-1982. We made the front outer bumper braces for 1968-1972 and some years beyond that. Those are the "dog leg" braces to the outer bumper area. I found out later that we had made 68 big block smog pump brackets, but that was just before they closed the plant. I looked in the one storage area that they had but never found anything.
But I wanted to relate the kind of funny thing that happened to me there. We made a lot of different automotive parts at work. One thing that we made a lot of was this very large, funny ribbed panel. I would walk by these two presses and they would hit the blank sheets in the first press and then slide them over to the other press to be hit again. I really did not know what the were for.
I had to help build a new quality control office and I ran hot and cold copper water lines to the sink that I had to install there.
They were finally finished and I went inside to talk to someone there. They had painted a few of the parts that we made and had them painted and hung up on the walls. I looked up in surprise and there in light blue paint were the two ribbed panels spot welded together. They were the two ribbed panels behind our seats that are part of the bird cage! Every time that I saw them in the press room, they were in one huge piece connected together before they were separated and so I did not recognize them! Lou.
But I wanted to relate the kind of funny thing that happened to me there. We made a lot of different automotive parts at work. One thing that we made a lot of was this very large, funny ribbed panel. I would walk by these two presses and they would hit the blank sheets in the first press and then slide them over to the other press to be hit again. I really did not know what the were for.
I had to help build a new quality control office and I ran hot and cold copper water lines to the sink that I had to install there.
They were finally finished and I went inside to talk to someone there. They had painted a few of the parts that we made and had them painted and hung up on the walls. I looked up in surprise and there in light blue paint were the two ribbed panels spot welded together. They were the two ribbed panels behind our seats that are part of the bird cage! Every time that I saw them in the press room, they were in one huge piece connected together before they were separated and so I did not recognize them! Lou.
04-06-2024, 11:41 AM
#120
Nam Labrat
Member Since: Sep 2013
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GOOD ONE LOU ! I delivered white picket fence boards and white paint in the combat zone in Nam once after delivering a 105 Howitzer the day before in our Chinook helicopter!
War and High Finance.....who can understand them?
War and High Finance.....who can understand them?
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loup68 (04-06-2024)
