fuel's '80 C3 Vette

[fuel]

So as I was looking for a side marker lamp for the Pacific kit on my RX-7, this C3 Corvette was offered to me for a price I couldn't turn down. I figure I could sit on it for a few years and possibly bring it back to Australia or New Zealand and sell it for a nice little profit.

 

It looks to have been in Ontario its whole life, but so glad none of the previous owners opted to winter drive it as there is no rust anywhere on the chassis or birdcage.

 

At some point the original L-48 engine was removed in favour of a 333hp 4 bolt mains/Vortec head crate engine, still with Rochester Quadrajet & cast exhaust manifolds though

 

It has a whack '80s/'90s cloth retrimmed interior which I am not so sure about keeping just yet, and the glass T-tops are cracked so I need to get replacements for them

 

My wishlist is to fit aluminium high comp heads, a TH200-4R trans to replace the TH350, headers and a composite rear leaf spring. Right now it needs rear wheel bearings and the brakes having a good going over.

 

 

[fuel]

Couldn't help myself. Needed to ditch those heavy cast iron leak prone calipers and replace all the brake lines anyway. Splashed out a little more for the 6 pistons up front (even though they visually look like a 4 pot). I need to replace the rear leaf spring and sort out the play in the rear wheel bearings before I can swap them on.

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Small update, replaced the 20 year old Goodyear Eagles with some Cooper Cobras (only had two choices in the 255/60 size - them or BFGoodrich which haven't changed their pattern or compound since the 80s for 30% higher price)

 

More RockAuto orders coming in - gotta love getting Bilstein shocks for under $100 a corner

 

 

[fuel]

Wilwood brakes finally on, and polished up the wheels a bit. Bilsteins are in but as they are mostly hidden I didn't bother snapping a pic. Still waiting for composite monoleaf to arrive as they have been on backorder for months. Turns out the rear wheel bearings were already replaced in 2017 about 10,000kms ago and the bushings in the strut rods (rear lower control arms basically) are flogged so that's perhaps where the rear wheel play is coming from.

 

Next up is to sort out the engine bay wiring mess, when one of the previous owners put in the crate engine they disconnected the coolant temp sensor, carb idle stop solenoid and ran a separate wire to the electric choke element as the original one seems to be problematic (when connected the Choke lamp on the dash remains on permanently). Originally I was thinking finding some aluminium heads, better carb (or maybe tuned port injection from a C4/Camaro) and headers but the more I think about it, and the fact that this vette is far from matching numbers original example and that I'm in the land of cheap LS engines I think I will LS1/2 swap it when a cheap truck engine turns up nearby. But doubt this will happen for years at the rate I'm going haha. 

 

Disco here - 

 

[fuel]

Small update - gave it a super good clean, clay bar, machine polish and then ceramic coat on top. It easily has the best paint out of all of the cars in my fleet as it was repainted almost 20 years ago but only travelled 15-20k kms since.

 

 

 

Also had a box turn up from JEGS - Borgeson power steering box to replace the leaky 60's style separate ram & control valve, Ridetech steering box brace & full door/window rubber replacement kit.

[fuel]

So I realised I haven't posted interior pics yet, check out this 1990s refit. The original 'Oyster' interior is gone and replaced with Recaro seats with matching grey & black cloth trimmed dash, door panels and carpets. The cloth is a bit harsh especially on the door panels when you're wearing your jean shorts and new balance shoes. They also just spray painted the Oyster arm rests and the paint is chipping off on the driver's door.

My plan is to find a replacement 78-82 style dash, door panels and A/B pillar trims but maybe keep the seats (after retrimming them), carpet & centre console.

 

 

 

You may see in the above pic the seat back recline knob is broken - it's like this on both sides so I searched around and turns out a pair of Porsche seat knobs are the same and got them for $30 delivered off eBay. I just had to transfer the little spring clip inside.

 

Tell me how lame it is here: 

 

[fuel]

So just an update to show I still have this heap. Have replaced the window rubbers and sorted out 90% of the door glass rattle with new cushions that look like this

 

To fix the rest of the rattle I have to disassemble the window tracks to replace the plastic guide wheels and I cbf'd doing that right now so will just live with the small amount of rattle and occasional misalignment. 

 

Sorted another thing that bugged me - when this car was repainted however long ago they didn't black out the body behind the side gills/grills so beyond the black you could see the white body underneath which didn't look great. 

[fuel]

The front badge was lifting at the corners and the rear badge on the fuel door had lost half of its flag and generally looking crap so got some new repro badges. 

I suspect the front was wearing a different style/year badge in a previous life as the holes drilled didn't match the peg spacing of the '80 nose badge and the pegs had been snipped off the back of the existing badge

after finding a template on the web I measured up where the replacement badge was to sit. The existing badge wasn't even in the correct spot so glad I did this anyway.

new holes drilled, thankfully the badge covers up the old holes

 

[fuel]

and the fuel door badge was much easier as it's just two bolts

 

Disco Fred:

 

[fuel]

I was in the US last week and managed to find an Astro 1 one piece acrylic smoked grey transparent top as a possible replacement of the cracked glass t-tops. I like how the one piece top is under half the weight of the glass t-tops, but the mounting system is a bit crude and not 100% sold on it.

Anyway, pics how it looks

[fuel]

 

Thoughts?

 

[fuel]

Small update, ended up selling the Astro top as I wasn't sold on how crude the mounting system was. I was in the US again last weekend and was able to pick up some fairly well used gold/bronze tint ones for a reasonable price - think these are off the '82 Collector's edition Corvette but I am not 100% sure of that.

As I had some new t-top seals as part of the door/window rubber seal kit I purposely looked for a pair of t tops that needed the seals doing so these seals wouldn't go to waste. You can see the condition of these t-tops aren't the best and the mounting hardware is a bit manky also.

[fuel]

I got to work pulling the old seals off which left part of the old seals stuck to the adhesive behind, definitely a messy job scraping but being careful to not mark the blackened underside portion of the glass

The wagon definitely comes in handy to use as an impromptu workbench

The hardware on the original blue (cracked) t-tops is definitely in better condition so I am swapping them over

[fuel]

The seals aren't actually in bad condition on the cracked tops, maybe someone can reuse the frame/seals with new glass who knows

I then placed the driver's side gold top on (without the new seals attached yet) to adjust up the clips and clasps to make sure it sits properly before continuing. It looks like these tops are actually going to sit a lot more flush than the originals which is nice as the way the original tops sat always bugged me. 

 

disco - 

 

 

[fuel]

Bit the bullet and bought a brand new Van Steel 330lb 0.5" shortened low arch composite spring. Just need to pick up some longer spring bolts and I can get it fitted along with the adjustable strut rods and new poly bushings I bought ages ago.

[fuel]

Long time no post - I still have this, though I have put it up on the market to sell as I need to downsize and this was the easiest to put on the chopping block. I did end up fitting the spring, strut rods etc along with new outer UJ's as they were worn and weren't helping out with keeping the rear geometry in check. I then had an X pipe added to the exhaust and replaced the yunk down-turn tips with quad chrome tips. I also converted rear lamps to LED halos, converted reverse lamp into dual purpose reverse and orange turn signal and fitted a high stop lamp in the parcel shelf.

Some better pics I took of it over last few days:

[fuel]

Added LED lamps to the interior and put in some new floor mats to help tidy up a bit of the roughness:

 

Disco fred here -