jwbert

I know a lot can happen to a Vette that is over 30 years old, especially if passing through many hands, but please, if you do your own work on your car and hey, that's probably one of the most enjoyable parts of owning one, please do it right, do it thoroughly and do it well.or else hire a reputable pro. I bought a Vette I probably shouldn't have bought, but I did and I have to live with that. Virtually everything I have decided to repair or upgrade was screwed up by some other owner or mechanic. So many things that it borders on the rediculous and unbelievable. I was taking it all in stride until today, as I was converting to power brakes, and it's a good thing I decided to do it because I found that my clutch rod was just barely hanging onto the pedal by one-half of a way to small cotter pin and the brake clevis pin was just about to fall out as someone chose not to replace the clip that holds it in place. Needless to say if either of these parts had fallen off at the wrong moment, it could have been disaster. I can overlook throwing away the A/C duct work, all the ignition shielding, all the insulation, foam gaskets around the radiator, backup switch on tranny, tranny & steering lock cable, all because yeh they're a awfull lot of work to put back in once removed. But when it concerns real safety issues, please be careful. Another hint, don't put the wrong exhaust pipes on a vette, they tend to burn holes in the floor if routed to close. Yeh some nuckle head did this to my pride and joy also. :mad :mad :mad

Sharky Guam

That is the problem when you buy a used car. You can end up with someone else's headaches. I am sure that most of us have been thru that, been there, done that. I call many of the cars that I constantly redo, abortion victims. It would take a lot of time and money to make them virgins (I really call them cherries!) again. It is the little parts that are discarded that makes life so miserable and sometimes even dangerous. Buyers beware! :chevy

Paul L

I agree with you. C3 newbees should invest in an SS brake and front end kit straight off. And watch those frames. Safety comes first. This pic horrified me when it was posted. I was very thankful the C3 owner did so as a warning to others. I was also very thankful to learn recently that this cross-member has been repaired!

ROD NOCK

As I like to say: Follow-up...follow-thru. Trust but verify. You should be able to sign your name to anything you do, with pride!! :flag

andyg

I've only had mine for just under a year now, but the last 32 have seen some bubba action. I have been slowly restoring worn out components with the original GM parts or a OEM replacement. Hopefully in a few more years she will be back to a more original status, but with some of todays available upgrades. It breaks my heart everytime I start another project just to find it wasn't done correctly; Yet the correct parts may be a few more dollars, but someone did not want to spend the extra $$ for the correct part. That reminds me, I best check my clutch setup. Who know what I will find next....

---Andy

rrent

I've been real lucky with the "nothing fancy"'77 - it came with a whole bunch of shop receipts - I could track where the previous owner had brakes, motor and suspension work, even oil changes, tuneups and even inspection sticker needs done by pros at good shops.

As some of you know I'm getting a '65 Impala ready for resale - I noticed while pushing it around and getting it on the trailer (hadn't put it on the road at all yet) - it pulled real hard to the right upon braking. I was changing wheels and gave a front tire the "wheel bearing check" and the wheel moved front to back about 3" - yep 3". Upon inspection I found the pitman arm to steering box shaft connection to be non-existing the nut was 1 1/2 threads from falling smooth off.

So its not only Vettes you gotta be careful with. Keep em safe after all I might be on the same road as you.

Frankenvette

Let me tell you that you also need to be aware of covette restoration shops. Not all of these shops do the work we think they do. My car was rebuilt, before I owned it, from a 73 to a 1980 vert. This included the use of a 77 frame (good shape), 1980 body, electrical and interior. I have been restoring the car for 3 years and have been amazed at the lack of care used by an otherwise respected vette resto shop that has been in business for 25+ years. I still can't figure out why they did some of the things they did. I will say this car sure creates a challenge when working on it.

I guess I am forturnate that the car has almost no rust and was at the minimum safe to drive. The only real failure since I've owned it was a loss of rear brakes due to a leak while driving very slow. The shop installed old calipers instead of new(rebuilt) s/s calipers. They did not connect the clutch saftey switch while installing a new wiring harness. Instead they bypassed it even though the switch is there. They used broken wiring harness connectors. I fixed this by going to the junk yard and finding original connectors for about $2.00. They installed a 7 leaf rear spring with no rear sway bar and worn side yokes. The a/c control panel was held in-place from underneath with styrofoam. No two screws match anywhere on the car(I've invested about $100.00 so far in screws and bolts), and the list goes on and on. This is one case where "Bubba" (thats me) is doing a better job than the resto shop.

Regards,

Jim


[Modified by Jim73, 9:33 AM 3/18/2002]

Sharky Guam

Jim73,
It is quite funny that you have a car that GM should have built, an 80 vert. I too have an 80 vert. But mine is one step further than yours. I have a 1969 435 hp 427 4spd air con p/s original convertible with soft and hardtops as the base. All of the body panels were replaced with true 80s style including the lightweight racing 80 style hood. I swapped the three deuce carbs a few years ago for a more streetable 850 cfm Holley double pumper carb. My car has 4.56 posi rears in it. It is white with blood red interior and a white soft top. It even has power windows. I added 80 seats to the otherwise 69 interior. There is a high dollar Pioneer/ Rockford Fosgate sound system. The car has 17x9.5 and 17x8 polished billet wheels on Firestone tires.

I wonder how many other 80 vert conversions lurk out there? My car was built in 1983 and has remained almost unchanged for nearly 20 years.

:cheers: :cheers: :cheers: :cheers: :cheers: :cheers: :cheers: :cheers:

Frankenvette

Sharky,

Want to trade :eek: I'm aware of about 5 others including one here in my hometown. There are a few on this forum plus a couple on another forum. I've thought of starting a registry for late C3 verts like ours. Hard to believe someone would want to convert a 69 to an 80 but hey I like it!

Regards,

Jim

Sharky Guam

I have two copycats here on Guam that built theirs out of early 70s platforms with automatics that originally were coupes. So that makes it three here alone. My car was originally built in California and I am glad that I did it. To me, it is my ultimate ride. I would not have it any other way. I hope that you feel the same about yours. :cool:

Edzred72

After all my complaining about the previous owners lack of upkeep, I guess I'm not so bad off. After reading some of the previous posts, he wasn't so bad after all. My car was in very good mechanical condition, (other than leaks and bushing age deterioration) but asthetics and some mechanical were ignored for the sake of "keeping it original".

mrvette

The history of my car is....original owner traded it in to Sport chebby in Maryland around '73....it's a '72 convertible...so being a year old, factory white/dark saddle...the second owner, a woman, converted it into a show car...
stock mechanicals...but did the rectagnular tail lights from a '68 olds 88....
and added huge flares....painted it a lime metallic white...I"m not at all sure about what the front was like....so it sat for years and years...maybe 12-15 or so....second owner, also a woman....bought it, removed the wide flares, and returned the front end to stock appearance....painted it blue under candy apple crimson overspray.....burgundy metallic....retaining the tail lights...
when I got it some 6 years ago....apparently the paint job is NOW about 12 years old or more.....I redid all the mechanicals....brakes, suspension, engine, tranny, and replaced front grill with something nicer, cleaner....

but in fact whoever did the rear light wiring did the worst wiring job I ever seen, man, what a mess.....
needless to say, all wires were removed and replaced with something soldered, wrapped and neat.....

GENE

Zachary76

I bought a hunk of Vette that didn't even come with a door key (didn't even realize it at the time because the key ring had two keys on it, they just both ended up being ignition keys :mad ) and when I took apart the doors this weekend to replace the locks there were not two screws the same in the door panels, one side had two screws holding it in, the other had 5 (including some that were poked through in the wrong places). Then I took apart the center console to remove this Pioneer Radio that was jamed in there with the console broken so the square face would fit better, and the console didn't even have two matching screws.

Needless to say I bought it as a project without going over it with too fine a comb, and needless to say it isn't pulling any punches.
:crazy:

Alwyn678

[Buyers beware! :chevy [/QUOTE]


CAVEAT EMPTOUR

PRNDL

Hey, that DID happen to me!!!!! I was very very lucky to be going 5 mph on my quiet level street when I hit the brakes and the pedal flopped!! I did the "what ifs" and "coulda been here s" and it was very scary! But that clip is SO hard to put on!! :) MJ