Marlon

This is true and hopefully you'll pick up some 'lessons-learned': I bought my 71' LT-1 from a reputable dealer in Southern California. I have talked with the dealer on and off for at least 5 or 6 years, watched her cars come and go and always had my eye on that LT-1. It needed work tho: hole in gas tank, brakes kaput, hadn't run in a long time and kind of worn out looking, but all original with no-hit body. Went out there once or twice a to see it and, loved it! Bought the car, negotiated some repairs to it while out there (new correctly stamped Quanta tank, sending unit, all new brakes, change the oil, run the car, etc. before shipping.
She got me set up with a fully enclosed car hauler for 1600 bucks to Triangle VA - awesome!

The hauler folks were great too - called me at least 5 or 6 times: "Car is being picked up", "No, we won't kick your manual headlight switches, etc....", car is halfway there, ...", "Car has arrived...", etc.

I arranged to have it delivered to a local corvette repair shop - why not, I had spent a couple thou there doing some work on a real nice 74' a couple years ago.

At any rate, after the car was safely delivered and I contracted the shop to look it over and give me a list of things "to do"; change the oil, tranny & diff fluids, etc. Told them that the tach and the oil pressure gages did not work (yes - I watched pressure manually checked at 35+lbs with a direct reading gage before!)

OK- here's the good: 1. They successfully rebuilt the distributor with new shaft, tach gears and cable - yippee! 2. Installed new direct read oil tube and gage (old one didn't work with new tube - bummer) - it works - yippee!

Here's the "sort of" good - 1. said they changed oil - ok, great. But they broke the ORIGINAL rubber oil fill cap! Bummer - replaced with a Zip repro cap. 2. installed new radiator cap - ok, great. But later it proved to be a cap for a base 350, not the special cap for LT-1; not a big-deal, I bought the correct one when I installed that awesome De Witt Direct Fit aluminum radiator when I realized that my original radiator could not be repaired. The LT-1 has NO overflow tank, so it requires a different cap. 3. when i pointed out that they did not tell me that my hood release cable and passenger side latch was trashed and would not latch the hood, they offered to pull a cable and latch off someones nice C-2 vette to fix mine. W E L L maybe not, I felt good about their 'can-do' attitude, but not so good about robbing parts off a nice red 69' vette to get my trashy-looking 71' LT-1 back on the road. They DID correctly advise me that the hood would not come off in flight on the drive home, but I insisted that I defer the pickup until the hood was fixed and I'd simply Uber back there in a week or so. No biggie.

Here's the not good: OK I come back a couple weeks later, shell out 1200 bucks and jump in. The car started up great, but as I'm driving I notice that it doesn't like going into 3rd gear - only if I sort of bang the shifter. Hmmm-my 74' shifted really good - this doesn't seem right for an M-21 Muncie? Get the car home and I notice that the interior footwell and rear cargo lights don't come on when the doors are opened. Hmmmmm. I called Sonja and she told me that the car shifted fine and the passenger side interior lights did in fact work and that the drivers side did not: she re-sent some photos depicting the footwell lights and all the rest of the interior lights - yep, she was right. But by now I realize that my gage lights don't work also. But that they do if I turn the the headlight **** all the way thru the detent.
OK - i can live with this for now, I'll troubleshoot later, too much to do for now. I also notice that the car has some sort of oil leak near the tranny and rear of oil pan is fairly covered and i'm accumulating a couple drip spots on the garage floor - bummer! My worst thought is that maybe I've got a rear main seal going bad and/or oil pan drain plug is leaking - ughhhh. Again: Sonja said the car did not leak while sitting on her showroom floor for about 8 years!!! She's been in this business since the 80's - gotta' trust my Sonja.
Fast forward 7 months until now, lots of stuff coming together. Lots. New core support (that's another story for a separate Posting - stand by for that debacle); new radiator; incredible rebuild on that huge 780 CFM Holley 4801 carb; totally cleaned and 'pretty much' detailed engine compartment with tons of little odds and ends replaced or cleaned up - but trying to retain the patina of a vintage sports car; original(!) alternator rebuilt; lots of powder coating (pulleys, some brackets, air cleaner base, etc.); pulled the air pump for now and plugged the air injector holes with Zip parts; pulled the carpet and cleaned the interior and replaced the carpet, replaced the busted parking brake console; had Al Knoch recover the seats (awesome - while-U-wait at Carlisle Spring Hot Rod show!!!); new rubber and leather shift boots; new rear vent drain tubes and fittings (what a pain); reconnected my loose fiber optic cable; tons of new gaskets, rubber parts, etc. And clean, clean, clean. Too much to list.
Anyway I put the car up on jack stands to pull the wheels to get the rims to the powder coater; replace the shocks and a few other assorted bushings and drop the old exhaust (next).
So while the car is up I decided to go ahead and change out the tranny fluid as a troubleshooting effort on the Third gear shift problem and really get a look at that leak issue. My thought was that maybe the shop had installed synthetic or something weird in my tranny and it was affecting the shift and weeping out somehow. And now I could really take a look at the oil drain plug too.
Went to NAPA and got StaLube 85-90 GL4 and that cool hand-held plunger transfer pump (was advised that GL5 is bad for synchros or something???)
Decided to pull the Fill plug first so that the drain would be fast. To my surprise the Fill plug was on hand tight - I used my fingers and pretty much spun it right off! Luckily had put my drain pan in place already since fluid starting POURING out of the fill hole. It was obviously overfilled since a stone cold tranny should just barely leak out when the Fill plug is pulled! I also noted that the magnetic plug had at least a 1/4" of dirty material that appeared to be very old! I then pulled the Drain plug - same material on the plug and the fluid was black and really yukky. Obviously the tranny had not drained, it might have been topped off, but it was NOT drained and filled.
I wiped the area down and pumped in the StaLube. No leaks yet - realize the tranny is not under a load at idle, but after 45 minutes of idling - no leaks from the oil pan area either!! Yippee - maybe the tranny Fill plug was the leak culprit??? I'm kind of pissed they didn't change my fluid and left the plug loose (Hmmmmm...), but relieved that I corrected the leak issue!!!

Moral of the story -
1. Choose your repair guys wisely and inspect thoroughly
2. Be there when your car arrives from a car hauler!!! I was not there for that and didn't have any kind of observable baseline when the car was started, moved, etc.! Since it was a really big car hauler, it was not going to fit in our private neighborhood and I wanted it close to a repair facility in case there was a problem.

Sky65

It's hard to find people with a good work ethic anymore. True Craftsman that are concerned about the quality of what they do are an endangered species. Do as much of what needs to be done yourself. It's the only way you now it will be right.

Tom

65hihp

it's one heck of a story.
bottom line was they did not change tranny lube and did not tighten drain plug?

SoCalErv

There are some quality Corvette shops throughout the country and they charge a premium for their expertise and professionalism. There are some projects just worth paying the dollars. I have used a shop in the Houston area during my Texas days and now an excellent shop in Southern California, inland Empire.

If you receive shoddy service first and foremost Don't go back.

Marlon

They likely pulled the fill plug, overfilled it and then hand tightened the plug. It's then going to leak, but not cause the tranny to go bad for a long time?Maybe I would see the leak, get concerned and take it back to them and have to get ta new transmission -

Very sad...

Marlon

The diff is next. While removing the exhaust the fill plug appears untouched by human hands for a great many years...

rayvaflav

You should always be there on hand when the unload the car from transport. Not for any of your own personal reasons, I just love seeing a car being dropped off to a new owner. For some reason this happened quite a lot in my old neighborhood (wide open delivery area not too far from a highway) and I was witness to quite a few of these deliveries. It's sorta' like being there when the girl finally says "yes".

Ray

Marlon

You are absolutely right!!~ Maybe I'll get to do another one someday...!

Randy G.

A little off track, but the transportation company sure keeps their trailer clean and in good order. I would use them just after seeing how they take care of their own stuff. Might mean they would take care of mine. Last time I looked in a transport trailer it was a complete mess.

Oaker57

If that's the hauler for your car in the pictures, I didn't notice any oil leaks on the clean looking floor, so if that's the case the leaks had to have started after your local shop got their mitts on it....

Marlon

Correct!

Marlon

Sadly that is true. My footwell lights don't work now either. Incompetents.

Marlon

This trailer was spotless and the driver and the dispatch were absolute top notch - I would recommend them in a heartbeat!

Marlon

Agree - this place is a joke. I'm going to be amazed if they changed my dif fluid - I won't be surprised if the fill plug is loose...

vinman63

If you need a great quality corvette specialist shop, I know of one in the Culpeper area.

By the way, was the shop your speaking of happen to be located in the Chantilly area?

Marlon

It's in Triangle, Va...thanks for the tip for Culpeper, a little far but will keep it in mind. Do you have contact information?

SDVette

Two thoughts:

1) After a similar incident at a "Corvette" shop with my C5 15 years ago (they cross-threaded the fill plug on my trans, causing a leak), I swore them off. At least in my area (San Diego), the "Corvette" shops have devolved into maximizing profit and minimizing work. I found this at both of the "Corvette" shops I tried. Guys that built their reputation decades ago and are now riding the wave.

2) This is stuff you can do yourself pretty easily, right? Why not?

When I am over my head (or lacking a lift!), I have found a local shop (non Corvette) where I know the owner, he's into old cars, and is a straight shooter. We welcomes me in to inspect their work. Much better results than the "Corvette" specialty shops.

Congrats - Great car! How about some photos?

Fred