enroberts

On May 31, 2009 I bought a 1977 Corvette for $1,500. The car has a solid birdcage and was complete when I bought it. It is not a numbers matching car. In fact, I sold the motor that came with the car (a 400 block) for $1,000 and pulled my motor/trans out of my last toy and sold that for $1,000. When you look at the pictures below, you'll see why I needed every penny I could get to fix the body of the '77. The car sat outside in the sun and weather for over two years with NO PAINT on the car. Apparently the previous owner's dad used to show the car and he decided to have it painted black. The painter obviously didn't prep the car correctly because the black paint checker-boarded on top of the white paint. He removed all the black and white paint, getting the car back to fiberglass. About a month later he died and the car sat for too long outside. The seams all cracked and the sun baked the resin out of the fiberglass causing the car to become "furry." I blocked the car and glassed the seams and patched a few bad spots on the body and took it to the body shop for primer and new Steel Cities Grey paint (thanks to "hammadown"). Before taking it to the body shop, I replaced brake lines, rotors, calipers, pads, and booster/master cylinder. I also wire brushed the frame, trailing arms, and engine compartment and sprayed them black. In September of 2009, I got the car back from the body shop and got to work. I freshened up my engine and trans and dropped them in the car, put bumper covers back on, emblems, and headlights as well as dropping the gas tank to replace the lines and clean it all up and replacing the leaking power steering lines. After two years of buying at Carlisle and Willcox Corvette online, I was able to have what I needed to complete the interior. I replaced the dash wiring harness, dyed what could be dyed from the old red interior, replaced the faded red carpet with a black one, new door panels, replaced glass, and after Carlisle this year, a new steering wheel, seat covers, center console sides, arm rest, and t-top bags. I cut the radio section of the gauge cluster to accept a DIN radio and added a speaker box to the rear of the car. The only thing left to do is buy and install weather stripping. I don't NEED to, but this winter I am pulling the rear diff out and swapping the 3.08's out for 3.70's and cleaning everything up back there. Below are some pictures of the car. I'm having a BLAST driving it and love to just look at it. I'm very happy with the final product and look forward to enjoying it for many more years to come! Thanks to everyone here for your help throughout the restoration process. I would've wasted a lot of time and money otherwise! Almost forgot to mention that last weekend I put the '77 in a local show and took second place at my first show! Very proud!

Zogs2011

very fine work

Hardway

Lot's of kudos to you! Your car looks great and your brought one back that many people would have left behind. The wheeling and dealing you did in parts definitely helped your budget. We look forward to more pics and hopefully some videos. Keep up the good work!

billcarson

very nice! i like the black and red on the valve covers and air cleaner too.

EmNash

Great set of pictures. Well done, love the color.

80malibu

Beautiful!

Roco71

Wow what a save, your car looks great very nice work

jaxlt1

Nice work.

dcurtis

Looks fantastic! Great job.

rudolph schenker

Love it!!!!

Binnie77

You deserve a medal for that one! Like others have said, you saved another one

dboz

Glad you went to a black interior. Really nice job!!

929nitro

Looks great. Quite a transformation. Congrats on the second place. Enjoy.

golfradict

Very Impressive, thanks for sharing

garage-ghost

Looks great.

VoiceofTJ

Looks like it came off the showroom floor. Beautiful!

Vette Fetish

WOW!!!!! amazingly beautiful!

LancePearson

that is just amazing to see it go from one state to another. My hat along with the others here who have congratulated you goes all the way off to you in a very deep bow.

Kudos and a half to you.

Lance P.

enroberts

Thanks for all your kind words guys. I bought a gopro camera with the suction cup a few months back. I need to get that badboy mounted on the rear quarter for some burn out videos! More pics and videos coming soon...still have a few shows and cruises left this year in my area of PA!

Torchsport

Fantastic job! You saw the potential, and your vision made it so. Great job!