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It's your car, do what you like to it. Like others have mentioned, people I run into will ask my how my Stingray's coming along etc.
My 14 year old son, who puts in nearly as much work as I do on the money pit, asked me why we had the crappy Crossfire emblem and not the Stingray emblem. I explained about the different years etc and he said "but they all look the same, can we put a Stingray badge on ours". Answer - yes. I'll soon be cutting the front louvers out of my 82 and grafting in egg crate louvers from a 72. Once it's all painted, the Stingray script will be going on also.
Can't help you with the angled column as I haven't even sat in mine since I installed the Jeep box...
During the 68-77 Stingray years the C2 came to be known as mid years to differentiate from C3 Stingrays 68-77.
Since 63, for 15 years (63-77) Corvette & Sting Ray were synonymous.
78- 25th anniversay of the Corvette- not Stingray. Many changes.They were already working on the C4 & McLellan had said the styling would be reeled in. 84 induction & 700R4 were in production in 81. So the focus was on the C4. Note that putting Stingray emblems on a C4 would mean from clueless about Corvettes downward ...
Can be debated on 78-82. Many changes. Note that the 78- rear glass is reminiscent of the 63-67 coupe. It could have been continued so it is fine to use Stingray floor mats or sidepipes on 78- C3.
C2- Mako Shark I
C3- Mako Shark II
II was restyled for the 69 auto show & renamed the Manta Ray.
Here we go again ...... this subject comes up at least every other month:
Bottom line if you are not into the NCRS thing - it's your car do what you want.
I tend to believe that all C3's are "Stingray". If you go back to 1968 promotional literature for the "New Corvette", you will find that the promotional department of Chevrolet referred to the 68 as a "Stingray" even though it was not badged.
Lets face it, it is basically the same body style carried for 15 years! My feeling on the matter is that is was all left up to the styling department in charge of freshening up the design from year to year. I personally prefer the later 1980-82 with the longer and lower nose and the built in spoiler, that's my preference. I chose to do the following when I did my resto/mod on my 1981:
Thanks for the good info. That clears it up....sort of.
Anyone have any insight to my other question?
I have a '79 and I noticed when I reinstalled my tach/speedo the other night that there is a little lateral play of the loose steering column that gets locked into place when you tighten up the column bolts. I don't know how much of a cant you're seeing on your 81's but maybe it's worth a try to loosen up the two bolts just below the tach/speedo, along with the bolts strapping the column to the firewall (2 on the 79). See if you can tweak it to the left and tighten it back up?
I have had my 77 on the road now for about 24hrs and have had every person at the gas station, at work, and all my buddies compliment my "Stingray". Its not worth an hour long explanation that it is technically "not a stingray" but it "is a stingray" discussion.
Just go with it, its a C3 and thats all that matters.
Jimbo
From: if you have a ? on my avatar, please contact me directly, you spineless twit
St. Jude Donor '09
Originally Posted by Jims79
?? did I miss the joke ??
Originally Posted by Double_0_7
can someone explain this? i'm slow...
IIRC, in true technical terms, a convertible has a top that can be taken down, and a roadster has no top.
Just be careful with your word usage if you're going on the Bloomington Gold I.E. Corvette in America tour, some folks get really, really bent out of shape if you use the term 'vert'.
It's only a problem if you get extremely bent out of shape over trivial matters of syntax.
my 81 is a stingray and i dont need any badges to prove it. its the body style the makes it a stingray to me. just because i dont have the logos on the side and back of my dodge ram dosent mean its not a dodge ram cus it sure looks like one to me.
I think they should be called Sharks, not Stingrays.
I agree with this. I first and foremost think of a C3 as a "Shark" or "Mako Shark". Although if someone said "Nice Stingray!", I wouldn't bother to correct them. I think technically they are all "Stingrays" or "Sting Rays", but they all sounds the same when spoken.
Or when we talk to C2 owners we could correct them when they talk. "No you need to pause after you say 'Sting' and before you say 'ray' "
Well, the non-badge years aren't "Stingrays" but most people just won't know that. However, adding a badge to a wrong year car just looks terrible in my opinion. Very, very newbie. As bad as putting C4 stickers on the valve covers or something... it just doesn't look good.
Yeah but that C5 with chrome bumpers added on looked SWEET!
This coming August I will have owned my '69 Stingray for 38 years. I virtually never think of it, or refer to it, as a Stingray. It is the Corvette, the 'Vette, the '69, Old Gold, or the gold car. Stingray has never imprinted in my mind regarding this car. Not that any of this means anything, I just thought I'd add my 2¢ worth.
I wonder if someone at GM was looking at a '68 as it was coming off the production line and said "Hey, that fender looks kinda plain. What can we do to spruce it up?" Someone else said "Lets put the Stingray thingie back on there" And Presto...the '69's are Stingrays.
Just one small problem with that theory...there never was a Stingray thingie on the side prior to 1969.
cc
Last edited by CCrane65; May 31, 2008 at 12:41 AM.
We regularly call this 'series' of Corvettes [with very similar body design] "C3's"; but GM never designated the car as a C3.
I don't mean to be agurmentative but C3 is the GM designation for third generation Corvette so yes they did in fact designate them as C3s. They were also called the Y body.
This coming August I will have owned my '69 Stingray for 38 years. I virtually never think of it, or refer to it, as a Stingray. It is the Corvette, the 'Vette, the '69, Old Gold, or the gold car. Stingray has never imprinted in my mind regarding this car. Not that any of this means anything, I just thought I'd add my 2¢ worth.
Cheers,
Pete
I'm with you Pete. I never called my 65 a Sting Ray when I owned it and I have never called my 72 a Stingray yet.
I once saw a kid driving a 6 banger Firebird with the super chicken on the hood and Trans Am badges all over it. I thought what a wannabe.
It looks pretty goofy but what the heck, it's not my car thank God!
When I owned the 65 I was one of those guys who went around with a T-shirt that read "Sure I know they made Corvettes after 1967...but who cares?"
I still like the C2s a lot but I would be heart broken if I had to give up my 72.
I don't mean to be agurmentative but C3 is the GM designation for third generation Corvette so yes they did in fact designate them as C3s. They were also called the Y body.
cc
Again, not to be arguementative, but back in the day the C3 wasn't called C3, nor were the previouis generations called C1 or C2. C2's were called "mdyear" soon after the C3 came on the scene. When the C4s came out, they were pretty much referred to as the NEW Corvette, not very discriptive now, but back then it meant a lot. If my memory is right (HaHa!), the C# scheme seemed to start about the time of the C5. By then there were so many generations a numbering system was necessary.
During the 68-77 Stingray years the C2 came to be known as mid years to differentiate from C3 Stingrays 68-77.
Since 63, for 15 years (63-77) Corvette & Sting Ray were synonymous.
78- 25th anniversay of the Corvette- not Stingray. Many changes.They were already working on the C4 & McLellan had said the styling would be reeled in. 84 induction & 700R4 were in production in 81. So the focus was on the C4. Note that putting Stingray emblems on a C4 would mean from clueless about Corvettes downward ...
Can be debated on 78-82. Many changes. Note that the 78- rear glass is reminiscent of the 63-67 coupe. It could have been continued so it is fine to use Stingray floor mats or sidepipes on 78- C3.
C2- Mako Shark I
C3- Mako Shark II
II was restyled for the 69 auto show & renamed the Manta Ray.
that says it all they are stingrays up until it was about moving foward to the c-4 design 78-82. this website makes sense to me