I have an opportunity to purchase a 1978 corvette coupe from an individual, and I am trying to find out if it is a good deal. I am new to corvettes, but this type of corvette is my dream car and I want to make sure I am making a good decision if I buy it.

It has a new paint job and the body is in very good shape. The upolstery is new, although the dash board and instrument panel look a little old. It has new tires, wheels, brakes, and a new master cylinder.

It has 160,000 miles on it, but the motor was rebuilt in the last year. The owner says that the transmission was checked out by a tranny specialist and is good.

The air conditioning was not reinstalled after the engine rebuild, and the headlights do not rise automatically, which I assume is from a vacuum leak.

There is some fluid dripping slightly from underneath the car, which the owner says is likely from the transmission tank (?). I did not verify what type of fluid it was, but the leak was slight.

I have three questions:

1) What would good price be for this car? I know that is hard to give accurately, but a guess would be good enough?

2) How hard will it be to fix the headlight vacuum system?

3) How difficult would it be to install the AC system?

Thank you in advance for any advice you can give me.

 

Corvette Mag January 06.
Good=$13k
Average=$8.5k
Needs TLC=$5.8k

Vacuum issues could be as simple as a line off or bad relay valves or headlight switch. Maybe a couple hundred bucks unless the main actuators are bad (not likely) which will add a few hundred more.

If the car originally had A/C, it might not be to bad. You will just have to buy all the mechanical parts and hoses (I'd guess a grand). All of which should be available from any of the parts vendors.

I have a 78' and a 71' and I much prefer driving the 78'. Much more room......good choice for a first Vette.

 

That is good info, and just what I was looking for. Thanks.

 

while far from an exact science, i will try to atleast offer an opinion on some of the questions you raised. first is it just a 1978 C3, is it a pace car, is it a silver anniversary model?? as far as price guesses, it would make a difference. it is also a geographic thing too. in my area of the country, a decent, maintained, driver quality C3 in that era would go for between 6,000 and 8,000. a friend bought one about 6 months ago for the 6000 figure. it was in decent shape. original paint (so nothing was hidden or covered by a new paint job) that was very presentable after some clay, compound and polish.

what you should be looking for in a 28 year old car is RUST. pay particular attention to the areas of the frame around all the cross members and around the trailing arms. try and inspect as far up the birdcage as possible by looking upward from the front of the door openings. if possible pull the kick panels and see what kind of shape the metal there is in. pulling the A pillar trim would also be helpful in determining the condition of the birdcage.

does the seller have any of the paperwork regarding the engine "rebuild"?? it would certainly substantiate the fact that it actually happened. if not, assume it probably didn't, or if it did, it might have been closer to 100,000 miles ago if he claims 60,000, lol (i just have a general disbelief in those types of "claims").

the headlighjt vacuum system is pretty easy to repair. the hose kit is about $50.00, the actuators (2 needed) are about $100 each, the vacuum relays (2 needed) are about $45.00 each, the check valve and filter are about $25.00. if the headlamp assemblies need to be rebuilt (springs, bushings, etc) the kits are about $80.00 a side. that should give you an idea as to the cost should you need a complete rebuild. if you are lucky and the parts are all still functional, re-plumbing the vacuum hoses is a piece of cake as far as effort. can be done in about an hour or so. just keep in mind that even though it appears to be a vacuum problem, there are a lot of "pieces" to the vacuum system and figuring out exactly what the part is causing the problems usually becomes a process of elimination. as an example, i replaced the entire plumbing system on my vehicle, had to replace the 2 vacuum relays as they weren't even there, had to add the passenger side actuator as it wasn't there (bought a brand new one) and changed out the check valve and filter, just because. the system worked perfectly for about a month, then all of a sudden, it wouldn't work at all. since there were so many new parts to the system, i started to tear apart the pieces that i hadn't replaced. when it was all said and done, after a week of tearing my hair out, switching hoses back and forth between actuator and relays and just about everything else i could think of, i decided that it had to be the brand new actuator (which it turned out to be). you would have thought it would have lasted more than a month, but it was probably defective out of the box, but just too just enough time to allow the warrantee to give up before it did. some of the joys of owning (and driving) a 28 year old car.

if you have all the pieces of the a/c system, and assuming that all they failed to do was put the compressor and drier back in, then re-installing the system shouldn't be that hard.

hope that give you something to think about and helps answer at least somewhat your questions.

steve

 

Thanks, Steve, for the info. I will look at some of the items you mentioned. I was able to get the price down some due to the A/C issue, bringing it in line with the prices you gave.