1st Vette!
Thread Starter
Melting Slicks
Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 2,030
Likes: 363
From: Lubbock Texas
Thanks for all the kind words from everyone.
Yes - the trip back to Texas was a blast. The worst thing that happened was I had to re-route from my planned drive. My buddy who lives in Scottsdale insisted I make the drive from Globe Arizona over to Socorro New Mexico. He said it was one of the greatest drives in the southwest. So, I head out that way the morning after buying the Vette and spending the night at my buddy's house. About 1/2 way to Globe, traffic is backed up for miles. I sat in one spot in the middle of the road for around 30 minutes before turning around and heading for Tucson. I'll have to head back over there some day to complete the drive.
I completely underestimated the attention this car would get. The trip took longer than expected due to all of the conversations I had at the various gas pumps.
One of the coolest things was when a group of Harley riders blew by me only to have all of them slow back down, check out the Vette and give thumbs up before blasting off again.
I also discovered the speedo was off. I was driving 5 over and everyone kept passing me so I dug out my GPS and found the speedo reads fast. Turns out the previous owner put on smaller tires to get a better launch out of the 3.08s.
I did have a scary thing happen after I got back to Texas. I was a few blocks from the house one afternoon after work and realized I had NO oil pressure. As in zero, zip, nada, OH MY GOD THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING! Eased back to the house and found a bunch of my oil sitting in a puddle in the middle of the garage floor. The plastic line going to the oil pressure gauge had broken a few inches from the block fitting. I had oil pressure when I first fired it up but I let it idle in the garage for a few minutes because something didn't sound right. I guess I was hearing my oil spraying everywhere under the hood but didn't make the connection. Anyway, wasn't too far from the house and got back there before the engine got warm. I'm lucky it didn't happen on the trip and I'm also lucky it didn't pop inside the dash. Ended up replacing the plastic line with a 4AN nitrous hose. A bit of overkill but I shouldn't have any future issues. Not exactly what I wanted to do for my first project but that's okay cuz I own a Vette and that makes life good.
DC
Yes - the trip back to Texas was a blast. The worst thing that happened was I had to re-route from my planned drive. My buddy who lives in Scottsdale insisted I make the drive from Globe Arizona over to Socorro New Mexico. He said it was one of the greatest drives in the southwest. So, I head out that way the morning after buying the Vette and spending the night at my buddy's house. About 1/2 way to Globe, traffic is backed up for miles. I sat in one spot in the middle of the road for around 30 minutes before turning around and heading for Tucson. I'll have to head back over there some day to complete the drive.
I completely underestimated the attention this car would get. The trip took longer than expected due to all of the conversations I had at the various gas pumps.
One of the coolest things was when a group of Harley riders blew by me only to have all of them slow back down, check out the Vette and give thumbs up before blasting off again.
I also discovered the speedo was off. I was driving 5 over and everyone kept passing me so I dug out my GPS and found the speedo reads fast. Turns out the previous owner put on smaller tires to get a better launch out of the 3.08s.
I did have a scary thing happen after I got back to Texas. I was a few blocks from the house one afternoon after work and realized I had NO oil pressure. As in zero, zip, nada, OH MY GOD THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING! Eased back to the house and found a bunch of my oil sitting in a puddle in the middle of the garage floor. The plastic line going to the oil pressure gauge had broken a few inches from the block fitting. I had oil pressure when I first fired it up but I let it idle in the garage for a few minutes because something didn't sound right. I guess I was hearing my oil spraying everywhere under the hood but didn't make the connection. Anyway, wasn't too far from the house and got back there before the engine got warm. I'm lucky it didn't happen on the trip and I'm also lucky it didn't pop inside the dash. Ended up replacing the plastic line with a 4AN nitrous hose. A bit of overkill but I shouldn't have any future issues. Not exactly what I wanted to do for my first project but that's okay cuz I own a Vette and that makes life good.
DC
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Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 63
Likes: 0
From: Missouri
Congrats on the 'vette... lots of nice '73s showing up lately! I had the same issue w/ my oil pressure gauge line shortly after I bought my '73; unfortunately it leaked on the gauge end of things and covered the radio with oil... no wonder the radio didn't work when I got the car!
