Mereness

I have been debating on whether on buying a 78 Black Corvette here locally in New York. It is badged with L-82 but with running the VIN it is a L48. It has only 49,000 miles. I would like to determine the history of this vette. The guy seems very honest.. He has had it for about 7 years and hasn't had it on the road in the past 7 years. It has red cloth interior, the frame is in great shape and runs great. I can pick it up for $5k.

Any thoughts on what else I should be looking for? Also, was it common for people to re-badge an L48 as and L82? The current owner I am sure did not do this, the previous owner probably did as they added a lot of chrome to the engine compartment.

I would love to find out if the speedometer is flipped or if it truly is 49,000 miles.

Drew

It doesn't matter if the owner has an L-82 badge on it or not. The VIN doesn't lie......
5th digit of VIN, L= L-48 185hp and 4=L-82 220hp

There is also a 3 Letter Engine Stamp which will tell you what Motor and what Transmission the car came with....

For example my Motor stamping is CMR, which is 220hp/manual trans.
Hope that helps a little....

Mereness

Thanks.

Is there a way to very mileage on a 78 vette?

Easy Mike

Start with the current owner and work your way backwards. Who did he/she purchase the car from? You can go here: http://www.corvetteactioncenter.com/...x.php?cmd=area and see if you can obtain a copy of the original dealer invoice for the car. The invoice will not provide any owner information but will tell you where the car went (and when) after it left St. Louis. The original dealership, if they're still in business, may no longer have new car sales records back to 78. GM only required the records be kept for ten years. After that, they could go in the trash.

Iceaxe

I worked in a Chevrolet parts department in the late 70's, I can tell you the L-82 badges were a very hot selling item. We used to joke that half the L-82's in the area were posers.

hunt4cleanair

Look at the chassis from underneath (with a flashlight) can tell you much about its life and how it was cared for.

• Is it wet from fluids that are leaking or leaked such as oil, tranny, differential, brake or power steering?
• Has crud caked up around wet areas?
• How about rust...how heavy or light is it and does it look like a 49k mile vehicle?

If it extremely rusted with no finish remaining on the frame and lots of crud build up...I would be quite suspicious of a 49k vehicle.

76CSRvette

im not sure about 78's but the earlier models had there rotors riveted on and at 50k I would think the rotors would still be in good shape but then some one could always re rivet so just throwing it out there and like they said the rubber bushing and joints will also show there age and usage. I am always skeptical about people selling a car of that age claiming low miles my car has 20k right now but maybe the first owner flipped it at least once and the next another and I have only put like 5k in 10 years but its been a project. There are people out there that have paperwork to prove the mileage from new to now but it all comes down to price and paperwork to prove it before I got my 76 I was looking at a 71 with 40k miles and guy said straight its probably been rolled like 2 or 3 times already the condition of car showed it though but it was a driver.

Easy Mike

So did the later cars. All factory rotors were riveted.

The13Bats

Is a whopping 35 hp difference for a still anemic 220 hp that big of chest thumpin bragging rights?
Wasn't being a rather sweet car, a c3 enough?

briankeery

Some people have a really, really small *****............

kanvasman

Since we can't do a carfax on these things, after the obvious look over, I was conecerned that mine might have been stolen at one point in it's life. There are lots of stories about guys who buy a great car, dump lots of $$ in it, only to find out that it was stolen 20 years ago. I went to the local police department with the vin number. They ran it and gave me the thumbs up that the title was clean, no wants or warrants. Then the money started to flow.

MrJlr

Pretty bad when people had to lie about having 220 HP

The13Bats

I didnt get that one either but briankeery might have hit that nail on the head,
I wanted one of those ZL-1 console labels to stir up fellows with a keen eye at the cruises, with I think two cars sold how many times do the parts houses sell one of those labels,

blue427

N.Y. keeps mvd records for ten years,so contact the and you can find out about the previous 3 years before he owned it.