I'm going to look at a '71, 350/270hp, auto this weekend. This will be my 1st Vette! He said the car is completely rust free and never been hit that he knows of. He has owned the car for 5 years. He has the paper work from when it was in Bloomington in 1994 and the original window sticker. Paint is a 6 or 7 out of 10. Interior is "perfect" and still smells like leather. It is Bridgehampton Blue with Black interior. Has 72,000 miles on the original engine and tranny. The main issues that he mentioned was that the Tach and oil pressure gauge do not work. Also there is a 6" crack in the passenger side of the windshield. He said he did not want to replace the windshield because it was the original. It looks great from the pictures which I'll try to add later (photobucket is not letting me add them right now). Body and paint look good and the engine compartment looks very clean. It seems like a great deal at $15k. Is there anything that the Tach and oil pressure gauge could be pointing too as other problems?? He said the oil pressure gauge problem was probably from a lack of running the car since he's only driven it 4 - 5 times since he got it. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

Is it a convertible or coupe? If it checks out ok, it sounds like a bargain.

 

Go to your local parts store and buy a cheap mechanical gauge. It would take you all of five minutes to screw it into the fitting to see if the car has oil pressure or not.

The tach could be the gauge, the cable, or the drive in the distributor. The driven gear the distributor shaft will frequently be chewed up but it's an easy (and relatively cheap) fix to replace the shaft and the gear.

See if you can find someone who really knows what to look for on C3s. It's a fair price as you're describing it, but it would be a disaster if you got the car home and found the frame is shot.

I'm always suspicious of people who don't make repairs and have a head-scratcher of a reason for not doing it. After all, what is the real value of a broken windshield even if it is original? Puzzling logic to say the least. It would give me sufficient cause to go over the car with a skeptical precision.

 

sorry, it is a coupe. Also, does anyone know where I could run the VIN to ccheck the car out???

 

There are three possibilities with the tach, the drive gear in the distributor is worn, the tach cable is broken or the tach itself is bad. Any of the three are fixable.

On the oil pressure, make sure you hook up an external oil pressure gauge to verify it does have pressure. If it indeed has good oil pressure than the feed line to the gauge or the oil pressure gauge itself is plugged. This happens with the mechanical gauges if they get a gunk build up in them. These issues are also fixable. If there is in fact no oil pressure then it's time to rethink your possible purchase.

Give this car a very thorough mechanical inspection and especially check for rust in the frame and birdcage.

 

This is what he said he believes the issue is. He said he used an external gauge to verify that it had good pressure.

 

A "seller" will tell you anything to sell the car. It could be exactly as he states....or, it could be that he didn't replace the windshield because of the rusted birdcage he didn't want to deal with....or....

Hopefully, you get the point. If you want the car to be in 'good' condition, YOU have to verify that it is. The seller will ALWAYS say that it is "in perfect condition".

 

Go slowly. Too good to be true stories are usually too good to be true. Do your homework.


Good luck.

 

Hi WF,
I agree with Gerry that you should find someone who is very familiar with 71s to look the car over with you.
You may have found a great car or maybe just a deep pit to drop your wallet into.
I think 71s are great cars!!!
Regards,
Alan

 

Thanks for the advice. We are going to look at it on Friday. I'll let you know how it goes. This is my 3rd car to drive several hours to see and it's getting expensive so hopefully it checks out and he is being honest. I guess there is only one way to find out. Still I'm sure it's less expensive than buying a car with a rotting frame and/or birdcage. Wish me luck!

 

Just an opinion, but, $15K for a '71 base engine auto coupe is not what I would call a bargain, especially if it needs paint and has three mechanical problems I know about for me to deal with out of the box. I'm not saying it is outrageous, but certainly not a bargain. I agree with Gerry72, people who don't fix things on their cars for weird reasons raise my suspicions immediately. Also, the idea that a guy buys a car, owns it for 5 years and only drives it 4 or 5 times? That doesn't sound good to me at all. I believe that the simplest explanation is most often the right answer. The simplest explanation here is this guy bought the car, got it home, and realized it has major problems and he is afraid to drive it. After 5 years of sitting on it and not fixing it, he has decided to see if he can make it someone else's problem. I hope I am wrong here, but my story there fits the data given to a "T".

He didn't want to change the broken windshield because it was original to the car? Wow, now I feel really stupid. With all the stuff I checked on my car to see if it was original before I bought it, I never even THOUGHT to check the windshield!! Not that I even have any idea how I would check, but if I figure out how, and find out I have a non-original windshield, I'm gonna be PISSED!!!!

 

Might be a little high $$ as stated before, but the items that need fixing are a bit harder to do for a novice mechanic. I know it took me years before I had the guts to take apart my dash and fix the tach. It still is a little screwy and I just flat-out don't want to take it apart again. Same with the oil pressure gauge - it's a PITA to take the center dash out and clean out the oil line and possibly the gauge itself (as was my case). Same with the windshield. I guess what I'm saying is that I've got a '71 that has had similar problems, I have other cars and other family responsibilities that take time away from driving and fixing the car as I would like to, and I don't see anything fishy here at all. Of course, your personal visit will give you the ability to size up the situation and meet the seller himself and form your own judgements. As I stated before, the price may be a bit high unless the car is stellar and correct in every other aspect, but I don't see a problem with the things that need to be fixed here.

 

I agree that taking the dash apart is a PITA for any car, but not something anyone with some patience can't handle. The windshield on my '69 vette cracked one day. I called several places, picked the one that I thought knew the most about what they were talking about, and hired them. They came to my house and changed my windshield in my driveway while I sat on my *** and watched tv. It wasn't expensive either, it was like $120 IIRC (this was in about 1990). The guy did the job, cleaned up after himself, and when he was done, the only way I could tell he had done anything was the crack and my inspection sticker were gone (he gave me the sticker back). From talking to other folks, my experience was almost universal. In other words, there really isn't any excuse for NOT fixing a broken windshield.