If you are 25 and already have the Wifey, Kids, House & Vette - you buy a Boat - DUH...

I just bought the boat first, and then got twofootitis and had to buy a bigger boat every other year for the next ten years.....and then had to buy a house with a big enough outbuilding to store the fleet, and I had the foresight to make sure there was enough romm for a shiny Stingray....

 

Hold out for the type of car that you want.

Have it inspected.

My advice is to buy a southwestern vehicle if you can. Rust wont be an issue then, just some possible dry rotting, minor stuff. My Anaheim Ca car still had the gold anodizing on many of the bolts once I cleaned the crud off of them. Gotta love that!!

 

Color definitely isn't right, black wasn't available in 1970. The front grilles aren't 1970. He claims it has 11,200 miles and is sure that is correct. That brake pedal and carpet sure got a lot of wear in those 11k miles. Not sure I'd call that an "original unmolested survivor".

 

That car looks like it needs a complete restoration. I don't believe the mileage and it looks like it was put away wet. I would be very surprised if the car was not rusty underneath.

In your price range, you can do far better. Find a qualified NCRS or Forum member that lives in the area to go over any car you are interested in purchasing. Good luck

 

You can get a fairly decent Vette for for that amount. Look for bubbling along the front between the hood and headlights. This is oxidation of rivets under the fiberglass, and is a PITA to fix. The rust will be in the bird cage whether it is a coupe or convertible, so get what you want.

Just be patient while shopping. The more people that know you're looking, the better your chances of finding a deal.

 

You can do better.

 

Actually, he does say he is sure it is 111,200, just his shorthand makes that hard to discern.

The paint appears to be green, but it sure don't look like no Donnybrooke to me. This car is not, and will never be a SURVIVOR (tm) IMO.

Under the hood is a mess on this car too. The AC isn't working, you can take that one to the bank. I see all kinds of wires all over the place that I have no idea what they are, Bubba has been active under there.

Seller makes no mention of what, if anything, is original to the car, or even believed to be original.

"Garage finds", and their closely related cousins "barn finds" are funny beasts. In my experience, there is usually a good reason why the cars were lost in the garage in the first place. My guess on this one was someone drove it for 20-25 years until it had 111,200 miles on it and needed EVERYTHING, so they just parked it thinking they would "get around to it". Fifteen years later, they just decide it's better to sell it and move on to something else.

If it's not too rusty, and a whole slew of numbers check out, it might be a good restore candidate. But keep in mind, even though it is a 1970 (the best year for Corvettes BTW, not that I am biased or anything), we are still talking about a low-option, base engine, auto coupe so it still isn't shooting up any fireworks in the desirability department.

 

Hmmm.

 

My wife got tired of hearing me whine about wanting a vette, so after 30 years she finally said ok. She actually looked at a couple C5's with me, but then she was surprised when I told her I bought the '68.

Look around and you'll find a nice one in your price range. There are a couple nice ones on here.

If you find one that's a little far away you can always ask for someone from here to have a look for you. I'm certainly no expert but I did look at a car for a forum member. I just gave my impressions of the car and took a lot of pictures to send to the prospective owner. If you find a car and it checks out you can fly in or pay to have an expert inspect it.

Good luck and welcome to the forum

 

Welcome to the forum, Spoonchucker.

Hope you can find the car that's most desired to you and not spend the rest of the year 'splaining to wifey all the "why's". Ain't none of us getting any younger and sounds like you've already invested time on priorities.

Good advice about saving travel until you find a viable target. Many CF members are willing to help wherever the car may be located, even if it's just to snap some photos and relay what they saw and heard.

Keep us posted on what develops and let your Bride know she's in for more of an adventure than she thinks. Don't we all. LOL.

 

For some people, a mid-life crisis results in an affair with another woman. If you can somehow subtly remind her that then maybe the corvette won't look so bad anymore. She will be happy you want a covette

 

Good luck on your search. In todays market you may fine what your are looking for at that price for a coupe in a really nice bumper car more for a roadster.

 

My .02

Education is a very good thing when it comes to buying a Corvette. Arm yourself with several books on Corvettes. The first being the Black Book of Corvettes. Study everything in it on the years you are interested in. Then study the years around those so you know what parts may be from other years.

Go "look" at as many cars as you can to gain knowledge. Even if you are not interested in that particular year. If you want a 70 and somebody local has a 73 for sale, go look at it anyway just to gain knowledge of the model.

Contact a local Corvette club. There are plenty of folks there that will help guide you on what to look for. Some may even know of cars for sale.

Watch out for rust. Especially on the frame and bird cage. You will hear and learn a lot about this as you go.

If you find one out of state, hire somebody to go look at it. I'm in Pa and I found my car in MI. I paid a guy $250 to go look at the car. He gave me a four page written report and a follow up phone call. All of this info gave me the confidence to buy the car. When I got the car, I compared it to his report and it was spot on. Again, local clubs will have members that would be willing to go look at the car for you. I would lean towards somebody involved in the NCRS.

Make a list of features you want. Color, engine, trans, vert/coupe and keep looking until you find it. There are plenty of cars out there, don't buy the first thing you look at.

Keep the faith. It took me a year to find my 71 LS5. I must have looked at 20 cars. Drove hours to see "restored" junk. (I drove 3.5 hours once to look at a "restored" car. Within 30 seconds I was walking away). I spent hours upon hours looking at the internet ads.

Good luck, but please don't buy without educating yourself about what you are getting into. You don't want to plunk down that slush fund only to find out you can't sell the car for half of what you just paid for it.

Have fun!

Tom

 

This was my mid-life crisis car. After spending a small fortune on tires, friction materials and a $600 liquid cooled alternator I traded it in for a Yukon. The Yukon makes a great tow vehicle for dragging home old 'vettes!

 

A quick note on the rust issue. Arizona, So. Cal, and points south west are very good places to buy cars from.. Check the history from the owner, how long and where from.
And in this economy, you should be able to find a very nice car for that amount of money. I like the chrome bumper idea too.

 

Welcome to the forum!! Let us know how it goes when you break it to your wife that you've been holding out with $15k in the bank!!

http://boise.craigslist.org/cto/1590791761.html

http://spokane.craigslist.org/cto/1601716140.html

http://spokane.craigslist.org/cto/1585263233.html

Deja

 

axiom01
i like the way ya think... & ya get the Corvette, life is too short...
Pete

 

I'm no expert, but,
I can't even see the front grills.
I've seen much worse under the hood. Most of the wires look generally stock. There might be some stray ones there but overall not too bad. Yes, the wires in the back of alternator have tape. Vacumn hoses look close to right. But at this age, there probably are leaks all over.
I would guess closer to 112,000 than 11,200 miles.
The front carpet and seats may be original with local upholstery patches. The rear carpet looks stock. Worn, but stock.
The door panels look too good to be originial. Possibly old repros.
I would not want to pay the current bid of $8,600. But I also don't know the going prices of C3's.

What would it take to get this car to being presentable and reliable - another $10,000?

Not wanting to talk down on the C3 world, especially since I bought (new) a 1972 coupe that I had for about 8 years, but $15,000 would go about half way to a garage queen 2007 with 11,200 miles.

 

Blasphemy!!!!

Deja

 

Spoon,

Welcome to the Forum!! Just wanted to let you know, Mrs. Spoonchucker was on the Forum a couple of nights ago. She told us she had a slush fund of $25k!

Learn all you can about C3's on CF. Drive a couple, just to be sure a C3 is what you want. More than one CF Member has wanted a Bumper Car for more than 30 yrs., only to find the C5 & C6 more to his liking. Get to know some CF Members in your area. By all means have someone knowledgeable check out any car you are seriously considering. It will be $$ well spent.

Rickman