ryanmh

Well, I finally picked up my new-to-me '69 roadster, and it took a week or so, but I finally snapped a few decent pictures (below). Some of you were very helpful with the inspection process, which I very much appreciate. The forum has been a great resource so far! She's a '69 4 speed with a NOM big block and sidepipes, with code correct Fathom Green interior and (fortunately) not code correct Burgundy (code was Fathom Green). Some year, I would love to paint her yellow.





The story:
I bought the car locally after it had been sitting for quite some time. It was shipped to Michigan from California about 7 years ago, and has supposedly only moved about 5,000 miles since 1998. Only 300 or so in the last 7. The odometer reads around 33,000, but who knows whether that's accurate. There was not a lot of documentation with the car--none, really. Just the owner's manual, a service manual, and a title. Before the last owner had it, a NOM 427 had been swapped in. In the process of rebuilding it about 2 years ago, the block was stolen and a 454 4 bolt block was put in. The new motor has about 200 miles on it--still running on break in oil. The motor is a fully balanced full roller with ported and polished '69 427 semi-open chamber heads, topped with vintage Cal Customs valve covers, a port matched single plane Street Dominator intake, and a 770 Street Avenger. It was built with all ARP bolts, and factory forged crank and dimple rods. There is also an electric fuel pump, March billet serpentine pulley system, and MSD 6A electronic ignition mounted in the glove box. The motor sounds great and seems to be built very well. Original? No. Better than original? Absolutely.

The exterior is in fairly good shape as well. The paint is still shiny and glossy, but the paint job itself leaves something to be desired. A little orange-peeley in spots. I will probably see if I can wetsand it and buff it at some point. Bumpers were rechromed in the late 90s, and all the other brightwork still looks good. Drivers door might need some adjustment, and unfortunately a very small piece of fiberglass/paint is starting to chip where it looks like it might have caught. I'm going to have to superglue it before it gets worse. I probably caught it when yanking the door due to the janky door handles.

The interior is pretty good, with newer seat upholstery and carpets. It needs cleaning and a few things don't seem to work quite how they should, but it easily a 9/10 with carpet shampoo, a toothbrush, some detailing picks, and a paint touch up here and there. No tears or major visible flaws, other than some wear on the top of the e-brake handle and a minor 3/8" crack in the DS doorpanel elbow rest right at the elbow. Only comfort options are Tilt/TS and power windows. No air, no power brakes, no power steering.

Mechanically, it is decent, but eventually needs rebuilding. The manual steering is sloppy. The manual brakes work well, though. I need to replace the speedo cable (which I understand is a real treat on roadsters). Drivers side vent works, but I'm not sure if the passenger does, so that might need some attention too. The **** for the driver's side vent/heat controls doesn't seem to move the pointer, but I haven't looked into it much. Passenger is fine. The convertible top is recent and in very nice shape. It latches down good on one side in the rear, but pops out on the other. The whole thing seems to be twisted about 3/8" from ideal. The top was never used until I bought it, so I suspect it was simply never adjusted. Fitment of the deck cover isn't quite perfect either (you have to coax the passenger side into latching), but nothing some adjustment shouldn't take care of. The footwells are hotter than blazes, so I'm going to have to come up with some sort of shielding solution. The amount of engine heat is completely and totally ridiculous. Headlight and wiper door still haven't been tested out, and are currently disconnected (but supposedly work). I still haven't ironed out the door handles, which work perfectly from the inside but one just barely from the outside, and the other not at all.

So, it isn't a perfect car, and it needs a little tweaking here and there, but it sounds great and generally looks really good! The birdcage appears to be rust free, so that's a huge plus. I'm probably pointing out too many flaws, but I'm fussy. It's fast as all heck, a lot of fun to drive, and I got a pretty good deal in the end, so I don't have any real complaints...

dbeall1968

congratulations! I'm glad to see that you are keeping this hobby alive.The non original motor issue will continue to get more and more common as these cars age. The floor heat issue can be easily remedied with a heat barrier kit under the carpet.I'm glad to see that this car is on the road, and not rottiing under a shade tree or in some garage. Now you can save up some money to change that interior color to black! Good luck with the car and have fun with it. That's what these were made for!

bill3302

I am looking at somthing very similar. Would I be out of line if you could tell around how much? The one I am looking at wants $18,000. I was going to give an offer of $10,000. Take it or leave it. Thanks, Bill

vettebuyer6369

Congrats. Looks like a great car to drive the wheels off of, why is why we own them.

The PO's choice of a color change to Burgundy with the green interior is interesting. If you plan to paint it yellow, are you going to switch to black or saddle in the interior? Doing it when the car is apart for paint is a great time for it.

Id get a rear filler valance panel first thing if it were me. Be on the lookout for the headrests, too.

Looks like it will be fun to tinker with while you drive it. Have fun!

Delta26

Use SEM and die the interior black. Mine was done that way and looks great and wears just fine.

ryanmh

If it ever gets painted, it won't be for awhile. I've got too many other projects on the burner. But my guess is I would probably leave the interior green. The cost to switch to black just wouldn't be worth it.

I have the headrests. They were never reupholstered when the rest was done, look crappy, and have never been in the car since new upholstery went it. The car is a definitely a neck snapper, so I'm going to have to look into getting them done.

I thought about the valence filler panel. If I respray and come across some reasonable chrome sidepipe covers, I might do it. The silver painted pipe covers aren't fooling anyone anyway in that department.

ryanmh

You really don't want to know what I paid, but it wasn't as low as $10,000.00. I could probably part it for more.

$18k sounds like a steal, particularly if everything works and it has a newer big block. A perfect NOM big block roadster that looks correct enough to fool the average guy on the street (which this one is) should be a low 20s car. If not, start making deductions for fix costs.

What doesn't show up well in my pictures or description is why I got a pretty good deal. The guy wanted it out of his garage and did not want to fix even minor items. A fuel pump that screams like a banshee, doors that don't open properly, lights (and wipers) that don't go up because the vacuum line wasn't reconnected after the new motor went in are not selling points. Also, you can't see it in the pictures, but whoever painted this car really orange peeled it. Supposedly, the painter was a professional, but if so, I suspect it was a side job in a badly controlled environment on a day that was just too hot. I retouched this to make it look worse than it is, but you get the idea:

That's probably the most time consuming fix on the whole car, and whether it can be fixed without a repaint is questionable. You will impress people on a cruise, or guys on the street, but guys at even the local car show are going to laugh at the paint.

capevettes

Congratulations on your new Big Block. Looks nice You might have some success wet sanding the high spots off the paint to get rid of the orange peel. Just make sure whoever does it knows what he's doing. You might be pleasantly surprised at how well this can work. After wet sanding it would need to be buffed out and polished.

ryanmh

Thanks! It was a deal I could not pass up. I have another classic and another convertible, too (now for sale). But, now I picked up the classic, convertible, big block Corvette that I always wanted for 20% of the price of a "real" perfect one, and I don't have to worry about spinning the tires, getting grease on my $45 NOS emissions decals, or dropping my date coded air cleaner nut. I'll take that. The high dollar resto NCRS cars have their place too, but in my book it's as a piece of rolling artwork and expensive hobby. Not really a "car" anymore that anyone would dare drive the way it was intended to be.

As for the orange peel, I'm sure some/most of it will come out. I've done plenty of wet sanding and buffing, although not to remove orange peel this bad. My hope is that they also put on too much clear, leaving plenty of material to work with. If so, 20-30 hours and good to go. If not, needs re-cleared. There's also mild trash in the paint, which is probably the bigger concern. Hopefully it isn't in the base coat.

In the short run, I've got bigger worries than the paint. Like figuring out why, when I hit a pot hole, the steering wheel wants to come out of my hand and the car feels like its going to fall apart. That's next up after the heat shielding and getting the kink out of the convertible top.

Rally68

$10K for a '69 roadster? I'm afraid you might be engaged in a bit of wishful thinking. If it's similar to the car in these pictures, it's worth every cent of $18,000.

One man's opinion.

Alan 71

Hi r,
The car looks VERY nice in the pictures and has a LOT going for it....69, convertible, bb, 4-speed.
Plus, it looks like it'll be FUN too!
Good Luck!
Regards,
Alan

ddawson

AND a BBC so the OP did really well, But Green and Maroon is an odd combination.

vettebuyer6369

Yeah, 10k is not reasonable. Ive bought a couple '69 roadsters in recent years that needed work but were numbers matching for 17-18. An NOM might get that down to 14ish, but 10 is not acceptable.

Last year a guy had a 69 red roadster not far from here that I was told he was asking 12ish for but would probably take 10. I went there with a cashier's check in hand with his name on it... it was the biggest POS Id seen in years. Wouldnt have given half that.

ryanmh

Agreed. It's growing on me, though. If it ever comes to painting the whole car, I like the suggestion above about dying the interior. I should have thought of that! Black would be the way to go. I just don't know if it's worth the effort.

Now, the BBC isn't original in the slightest, so I didn't do that well. It was likely an L46 originally. Still, it does have the #1 critical convertible option: Power Windows. I think I might have to add Borgeson power steering someday. It is really, really hard to get the car out of the driveway or jockey it around a parking ramp.

ddawson

If you want to go black it's not very hard. I've used SEM paint on other projects.

My convertible Mustang had to have new panels installed so I prepped and sprayed them with SEM Napa Red. It's been years in the sun and no fading, chipping or peeling.

If it was me I'd replace the carpet and seat covers then paint every panel after it's been removed.

I was going to do the Borgeson but it's pretty big compared to the stock until so I went Rack and Pinion. Either way you will have to add a PS pump.

As for a real BBC, see if you have a rear sway bar and that the half shafts connect with a cap or strap.

oldsarge

Congrats, looks like a great find, have fun.

LS4 PILOT

congratulations on a nice purchase . looks to be a solid car . and great value.

Well done.

thats a fun looking ride and you will have a smile on your face long after you climb out from a Sunday drive

stay safe

Mikesfreetime

I paid 15 for mine in far worse condition but it is 100% original with all documentation. BB, roadster, Air conditioning, headrests etc and only 60K miles.

ryanmh

My problem with paying for documentation is that it just doesn't drive all that well! Still, that sounds like a pretty good deal. Personally, I'm very pleased with mine, though.

Now here's a question: Has anyone ever found a way to pull the speedo cable on a convertible without yanking the whole dash? I looked, and came up empty handed.

JW3101

Very nice find, good luck with her!