James B

I called about this car over the summer and then saw it forsale again at lowes motor speedway at the auto fair. I've been looking for a vette for a while now, and the main thing I wanted was a 4speed car I would work on and drive on the weekends for under 10k. This car does not have the matching numbers motor, its a small block solid lifter 350. The original motor was a 427. It still has the M-22 rock crusher trans.

The interior is ok. It has new seat covers, carpet, and door panels. The console and dash need to be cleaned up and some trim parts need to be replaced. The weather stripping is new, T-tops don't leak (so he say) and the vacuum system has been gone through, chrome looks ok, rear bumpers could use rechroming. The frame looked good from the places I could see, along with the place under the radiator and A-arms. The paint is good except for a place that bubbled up and then popped, it is located on the hood and is about the size of a golf ball. The bracket that holds the hood of is completely broken off of the hood. The cars tires are bald. The fan shroud is held together by plastic ties and the distributor does not have a tach drive.

The 2 things that bother me the most is the ride height and that it might have been hit at one point. It looks like there is 4 inches between the tires and finder well. I think its been hit because when I was looking at the glare off of the finder I noticed that the fiber glass was in the pattern of a window screen, not the normal corvette fiberglass (angel hair?). I didn't notice it at first until I walked around and saw the sun glaring on it. I could only see it in that one place. The car has a small block hood on it, but why would the owner get rid of the big block hood unless something was wrong with it, so maybe the big block hood was destroyed in a wreck. Im not sure. Any opinions would be greatly appreciated. I have included a picture, I can email it to anyone if it does not work.




[Modified by James B, 4:20 AM 10/13/2003]

Smokehouse69

It wouldn't be surprised if the car has had more than one or two crunches in its long life. The repair you see is probably a poorly done repair done by someone using a bondo fiberglass kit, they put the woven stuff in the kits.
The car is probably riding high because of the BB springs in a car with a small block.
You might be able to tell if it was a BB car by looking at the u-joints on the drive shafts. Some BB cars had heavy duty u-joints with straps type retainers instead of u-bolts on the u-joints.

markdtn

:iagree: And I actually prefer the small-block hood. I think it looks cleaner.

LemansBlue68

Another tip off as to whether the car was originally a big block is the presence of a rear sway bar. Even if the sway bar has been removed, there should still be holes in the rear trailing arms where the brackets bolted on. I don't think the trailing arms were drilled for the brackets in the small block cars. Someone may correct me on this, though. I'd say the car's worth under $10K. It might make a good driver as it sounds like a work in progress.

Incidently, the M22 Rockcrusher was a very rare option sold mostly with the L88's. The trans in this one is most likely a M21 if it is close ratio.

gq82

I would keep looking.....I can see the ride height is high both front and rear...the front might be due to BB vs SB but the rear is a different story (replacement spring maybe?). A car with obvious poor repairs, bad paint, crash history etc etc can be a real money pit. The rule is always buy the best car you can afford, especially cosmetics which can eat up $ real quick. For the money you want to spend I think you can find something much better.
Good Luck!! :chevy

James B

Im gonna think about it some more. I think the guy will let the car go for under $8500. The tach has a higher redline on it, I think I remember it redlining at 6k. That was the only way i knew to tell if it possibly had a higher preformance engine. Thanks alot for the replys.

James

63Banshee

If you’re not sure get a “expert” to look the car over with you. C3s are still a good investment (better early last year), but you can lose your shirt if you don’t get what you pay for.