I don't get any pleasure out of driving a restored and detailed Corvette in the rain. It just creates alot of work. That's what my pickup truck is for. As a matter of fact, I don't enjoy driving that in the rain either

 

 

My first 82 was drove all year long, we had to because the payments were $319.00/mo (in 1982). I'm on my 2nd 82, I plan on driving it when ever I feel like it, probably not too much in the snow & ice. I've bought it..... worked on it..... now enjoying it. It's like any other vehicle, if there is wet roads, drive with common sense......The newer vehicles have nice newer features, traction control...etc. It still great to see a vintage vehicle on the road and the pride the owner has........

 

I worry about the other fools who can't drive on less than perfect days plowing into my car. I've had too many experiences in the past with that.

Second, if you drive the car daily you will have to deal with bug guts during the summer. A good coat of wax helps but it's hard to wax egg crate grilles. I've even had some that left permanent yellow stains in white paint. Probably grasshoppers.

Although my car is mostly water tight, it wasn't when I got it and I had a lot of rust to deal with. Especially on the driver's side under the seat. Don't want to go through that again. I still haven't riveted the new seat belt anchor plate to the body.

cc

 

I got a somewhat funny driving in the rain story. 2 yrs ago for my 40th b'day my wife and I decided to drive north on the blue ridge parkway to a bed & breakfast / winery. As a little background I have never driven my vette in the rain... never!

It was a record hot day in the mountains of western NC when we started the drive. We put the top down, loaded up our stuff and headed north. After about an hour we noticed dark clouds to the west. No worrys as we kept turning to the east. Well I waited just a little to long and before I had time to pull over the heavens opened up. I was in the middle of a severe thunderstorm with my convertible top down! Funny thing is there was no real warning as far as lighting, thunder or even a mist of rain. We just came around a mountain and boom.

The top was still down, and we had the back loaded with so much stuff we could not pull the top up while driving. I needed to pull over but the minivan in front of me came to a near stop in the middle of the road. Now I can't see and what was funny is now down right scarry. I wanted to pull over right then but we had just passed a sign saying "danger high collision area". Plus there was no shoulder to the road and my wife said we are in greater risk of getting hit by another car.

So I had to drive another 3 miles or so to a pulloff area. We jumped out of the car and pulled all of our stuff out so we could get the top up. Ok, now the tops is up. That did not seem to stop the water as all of the gaps between the top and windows leaked. We had some hand towels in the car which we used to wipe up the river now flowing in the cabin of the car. I should also mention at this moment that I have never used my wipers. Heck I did not even know if they worked. They did but very slowly... even in the fast position. Bad time to discover that I need to rebuild the wiper motor.

Next I tried the defrost which I had never used. It barely worked. In fact wiping the windshield with the now wet hand towels worked better than the defroster. After 20 minutes or so when the rain had let up a little I decided we were going to have to drive out from under the storm. We drove another 10 minutes or so when we finally were out of the rain. We put the top back down and were dry by the time we arrived at the bed & breakfast.

On the return trip I was much quicker to put the top up when I saw dark clouds. Did not want a repeat :o

Jim

 

I just drive mine, if it rains? so be it. nothing a car wash and wax cant solve. If I drive my main car, I'd have to wash and wax it too, and frankly Id much rather spend that time on the vette.

My vette no longer leaks and has modern tires on it so driving in the wet is no big deal.

 

It rained hard the day I picked mine up. It was a good test and the fact that I didn't have any leaks made me happy. It has only seen a few drops since. I try not to drive at night either. I don't like the looks with the headlights up.