loup68

For all of you "new" chrome bumper owners,I want to let you know how it is to have one for 38 1/2 years. First of all,back then in my case was July 1972, a vette was just another used car. In Cleveland, Oh where I am from, no one wanted a used vette on their lot because they were stolen for the motors,transmissions and rear ends. The girl I got mine from, bought it from a used car lot that had an armed guard and a chain thru all the vettes frames!

Having a 68, the first thing I changed was the ridiculous 67 huge steering wheel to a used 69 wheel so that my right leg could get in the car with me. Next to go was swapping the heavy P01 wheel covers to trim ring and caps. In summer 1973 we had the gas crunch and the 1st wife and I go for a ride about 25 miles away. I stop in a parking lot and I hear water running. There isn't any water around and I look under the car and gas is running out of the gas tank. There were no gas stations open on Sundays then. Talk about a scarry ride home! Turn's out my 5 year old gas tank got a 1/8" hole from the pickup sock collecting a thimble full of moisture and holding it against the bottom because it was installed wrong.

Next were the calipers leaking. SSBC just started selling the first SS sleeved calipers that they invented (bless them). I get a front pair and they leaked when the gas station installed them. Did I mention I have squat for luck. Jonas,The owner of SSBC,had just hired someone for a 2nd shift and he had run out of loctite for the last 5 or 6 pairs and I lucked out again.

Then a few years later I drove home from work and the engine starts squeeling horribly. After a friend took apart my 327/350 hp motor, we found out that the nylon teeth fell off of my aluminum timing chain gear and the plastic pieces blocked off the oil pickup and all of the main bearings turned blue and need replacing. I still can not believe that Chevy did this on an engine that cranks to 6,000 rpm. You have to love these cars because they really were not meant to be daily drivers. I hope that you guy's enjoyed this and I will write more.

daanbc

[QUOTE=loup68;1580185984]For all of you "new" chrome bumper owners,I want to let you know how it is to have one for 38 1/2 years.





Well for all the bad, there must have been double the good, or you would have gotten rid of it quick. I believe that the C3's are vehicles that are meant to be worked/tinkered with. Thats one of the reasons I purchased one. They are K.I.S.S. to work on, and parts are abound. My "me" time is always spent tinkering with my C3. I like working on it as much as driving it!!!!!

Sunstroked

Ditto, you must have liked something about it. I've owned my 72 for 9 mo. And I've never driven it. I put the engine and tranny in today though. Im rebuilding everything in hopes that it will not leave me on the side of the road. On another note, my 92 has been an extremely reliable and fun car to own for the past 6 yrs. not a dd but driven often.

Easy Mike

I hope you held on to the 16" wheel and the P01s.

garage-ghost

Talking about the aluminum cam gear with nylon teeth. I had a 71 LT-1 back in 1977. While backing into a parking space at work, my timing chain slipped, due to worn nylon teeth on the cam gear. That LT-1 ran right up to the point that it bent every exhaust valve and push rod. Luckily the pistons survived. The first thing I did when I bought my 72 LT-1 was to change out the timing chain and gears for double roller setup.
The service rep told me, GM put the aluminum gears with nylon teeth in there for noise reasons. I laughed and told him with my side pipes I couldn't hear the radio why would I be worried about timing chain noise.

brent319

That is really not that much trouble when you spread it out over that much time, and I bet you had fun and looked good doing it :-)

loup68

Easy Mike & Garage Ghost, No I did not save the wheel, I traded it to the one place in Cleve. that sold used vette parts at the time, for a smaller 69 wheel. I traded the P01's back to the used car dealer that sold the girl my car,for the rings and caps. Garage-Ghost, in over 38 years,you are the only other one that I have heard of that had,had the teeth fall off. And yes guy's, I have loved most of the time with my "beater"!

I use to collect vette promotional models and went to Dearborn, MI once a year to a toy show. I was on the freeway going there and suddenly the exhaust sounded like I had lost a muffler. I had no money or credit card so I drove home to Cleveland afterwards and it was a broken exhaust valve. You guy's wonder why it is so hard to find an original carb. The inlet pipe threads stripped out on them if you changed the fuel filter and you tossed it away. I tossed my smog system, too. No one saved those things back then.

The vette started running bad after I had it about 10 months. The girl's dad was a Mopar guy and told me how much he loved the window on the Chevy distributor to adjust the points. My buddy at the gas station yelled at me about the points. Their were no points! I had two bare pieces of metal slapping together!

The tires looked nice on the car when I bought it. The dad didn't tell me that they were recapped tires! I never even heard of such a thing and a rear tire bubble blew out and took a small chunk out of the rear wheel well when I was doing 70 on the freeway.

I had a new 3 year old 69 camaro I sold to get my 68 coupe. 68's & 69's were going for $3,100 & $3,200 in 1972. They also had over 50,000 mi. on them and the interiors looked like a gorilla had lived in it. People thought that I was crazy for getting a year older car. I love 69 camaros but I will keep my vette. My car had 22,000 miles and looked brand new. I paid $2,300. I also paid $500 a year for insurance because I was under 25. I saved up money to get a used power steering setup from that lone vette part shyster. The manual steering is rough to park and change lanes on the freeway, compared to the camaro.

You could not get vette parts other than from a dealer back then. I never saw one in a junk yard back then. I think Mid America was first and then Zip products. Vette vues magazine came out and later Corvette Fever magazine. I also got a used 68 power window setup and installed it. I hated having to lean over to crank the window up and down all the time. Besides that was luxury to me back then. Most cars had manual windows. I hope people are enjoying this.

73L82AIR

This is a good reminder what things were like back inthe day ,gas was 55cents a gallon being broke down on the side of the road messing with your points was common.Muscle cars at the time were daily transportation and people were'nt as affluent you did what you could to keep it rolling.

LemansBlue68

Very much! Keep the stories coming. Post pics of your '68 when you get the chance. I was just a kid when these cars were new, but I knew they were special even then.

An Akron, OH native here, but I considered Cleveland my second home as I had (and still have) many friends there. I moved to SE Michigan 20+ years ago to work in the auto industry. I sure love these old cars but also recognize their shortcomings for sure. I'm sure glad we don't make'em like that any more reliability-wise, but I do miss the personality these old machines have over the new ones.

Faster Rat

You mean your gear looked like this?



After I bought my '69 in '04, the car had just been pulled out of storage with 56k miles. Test drove OK so I left my money and loaded it on the transporter. Luckily for me, the water pump began leaking almost immediately. I was told to pull the timing chain cover while I was at it. Most of the nylon teeth were in the pan, along with a number of broken valve stem seals. That old chain was flopping around in there like you would not believe. Only later did I find the broken piston rings, stuck lifters and wiped cam. Hard to believe all these supposed success stories about squirting this or that into the cylinders and just firing up some 43 year old engine that has never been rebuilt.

I always enjoy listening to other old-timers' stories. Brings back memories.

Alan 71

H l68,
As a 41 year owner I'm enjoying some off your observations.
You mention that "they weren't meant to be daily drivers"....mine certainly was, and so were the Corvettes of most of the members of the Corvette Club I belonged to back then. Chevrolet certainly thought of them and advertised them as daily drivers.
Regards,
Alan

golfradict

loup68

Lemans Blue, thank you so much for appreciating my ramblings. I was really afraid that no one wanted to hear all this. I'm from Parma,Oh and for 34 years I worked in maintenance at MTD (Modern Tool & Die). They switched us to making all automotive parts and we made a lot of 68-86 corvette parts. It was such a good feeling to walk down the isle and know that those parts were going on every vette.

Faster Rat, I really am sorry that your motor was that shot. I think the new(low zddp) oil killed my L-79. It started smelling so bad (exhaust) that it almost asphyxiated me with the back window out. I put in a ZZ4 with the wife's help.

Alan71, What I meant about not being a daily driver, although some nuts like me did, was that they ride so hard that they shake themselves to death. Newer owners probably do not know that 68-72 vettes have solid body mounts, not the rubber 73 up ones.

Faster Rat

You got it. I knew nothing about reduced zinc and phosphorous levels beginning in '05. That regular Castrol and Shell that I was dumping in there pretty much sealed the deal for my 427 by '09.

When I first got the car, my wife asked me what was wrong with it...because it shook so much. I told her everything was right with it...that's the way it's supposed to be. With the new Comp Cam and oversized Allen 's side exhaust, it shakes more and is much louder than ever...real nasty, just like me.

71redskin

i bought my first vette when i was in my early twenties and it was a daily driver until i sold it three years later. i vowed to myself that i wouldn't own another one unless i didn't have to drive it. the 71BB i have now probably gets less than 500 miles a year. i dig hearing your stories about your experiences with your vette.... keep it coming.

Duane4238

I've been through a lot of those experiences, myself, as I bought my '72 from the first owner in August of '74. And, yes, back then, all of us used our Vettes as daily drivers. I was one of the first guys in the area to buy a winter car and put the Vette away until spring each year. You used to see Vettes in snowstorms and I can even recall some with snow tires!!!
I even had a neighbor with a '74 that had a trailer hitch so he could pull his boat.
I could go on and on, but I'll stop and chime back in later on with more.:
Duane

Bangkok Dean

That's nothing try getting married.............

scott2173

i wonder who the original dealer was on the car your speaking of if you know
another ohio native here

loup68

Scott 2173, I have been looking for my tank sticker, so far no luck. But I have a lot of junk after moving here four years ago, from Cleve.into a much smaller home. I tried to go back to that used car lot about six months later after buying the car and he had closed. I wanted to know who the first girl owner was and the dealer.

scott2173

i know alot of history behind a dealer near cleveland since my father was the gm for many many years there
they were one of the dealers who ordered copo camaros and corvettes
so i just wonder if the car your talking about could be one from there
Zone 28 Dealer 488 would be the correct codes if it is