New guy with old Corvette.
04-15-2012, 08:34 PM
#1
Racer
Thread Starter
New guy with old Corvette.
Hi everyone, I have been lurking on this site for a couple months. For the last several months I have been trying to buy a 79 C3 to work on. I searched the Seattle area and several on-line sites, Found nothing local that was under 13 grand and not rusted out, or over my budget with nothing left to do. I found several possible cars on E-Bay, with each car I would ask for pictures of the bottom. Some people never responded and so I passed on those outright. The ones who did send pictures of the underside, sent pics of rusty cars or cars with obvious damage. The funny part was everyone with a rusty car would swear it was just surface rust despite what their own pictures showed. I could never tell if they thought I was blind, or they just could not see how bad the cars really were. Finally I found one listed on E-Bay from the Los Angeles area. I contacted the owner asked for pics, the only rust I could see was the exhaust pipe! The owner said it needed paint and his pictures showed a cracked dash and a GM crate motor. If anything, he was talking down the condition of the car. The car was listed with a $1000.00 deposit and the rest due in 10 days, and no reserve.
I talked it over with my wife and came up with a plan. We would fly to L.A. check out and test drive the car if it is not what we want, we would just walk away,(we would only do this if the owner had obviously lied about it’s condition) let the owner keep the deposit, and we would fly home, having only invested $1000.00 plus air fare to avoid a disaster.
If we wanted it, we would then decide if the car could make the trip up the coast and home, or need to be shipped and we would fly home after a short vacation in L.A.
We won the car for $5300.00 paid the deposit with PayPal, contacted the owner, and made arrangements to pick up the car at his home.
When we arrived, the car was out front, and definitely needed paint (a bad silver blue with a lots chips) but very straight panels for a 79. A test drive showed that everything but the cruise worked. We decided that we would take it. We drove it to a nearby hotel, found an auto parts store, bought a bunch of cleaning supplies and some basic tools. The next day we drove to Santa Monica. The car had a vibration in the steering wheel at about 75 mph, something we could avoid on HWY 1. So we found an EZ oil change place for an oil change and lube. While that was going on, we told the manager that we had bought it off E-Bay and planned to drive it to Seattle. He let me go down into the pit and check out the car and take more photos of my own (The first thing I had done was stick my camera under the car while it was still in the owner’s driveway to confirm what his photos had shown--gotta love digital cameras!) We went over the car from end to end. We found no rust or damage. What we did find was a valve cover leak, a small leak at the speedometer cable, and a shiny pipe where the catalytic converter had once lived. Nothing that would keep us from driving it home. The day before we flew to L.A. it had been mixed rain and snow at home. We now found ourselves in beautiful Southern California--spring weather with the T-Tops off our Corvette, and a thousand miles of HWY 1 ahead of us. When we reached Crescent City, the worst problems we had were sunburns and not enough Beach Boys music with us. The last day we woke up to rain, so we headed for I-5 and home. This is when we hit the only problem with the car on the trip. The wipers started to turn themselves off, and it would take a couple of tries to get them to come back on, then just north of the California border they stopped and would not start again. Fortunately among the cleaning supplies I had bought was some RainX glass cleaner. Though not as good as straight RainX it got us over 100 miles up I-5 with nothing but a little eye strain. At that point we hit a bump in the road and the wipers came back on, and got us the rest of the way home without any further problems.
I keep reading that people think, “It’s insane to buy a car off E-Bay sight unseen.” I think the way we did it, may be just sane enough. We had a great adventure, a wonderful vacation, and I am now very familiar with the car before I start working on it. In less than a week the car has become such a part of the family that my wife volunteered to parked her truck outside for a couple nights, while we cleaned up the third bay of the garage for the Corvette. She never even suggested I park my Crossfire outside. I have a great wife.
Just thought I would share what we learned along the way.
Zorro.
I talked it over with my wife and came up with a plan. We would fly to L.A. check out and test drive the car if it is not what we want, we would just walk away,(we would only do this if the owner had obviously lied about it’s condition) let the owner keep the deposit, and we would fly home, having only invested $1000.00 plus air fare to avoid a disaster.
If we wanted it, we would then decide if the car could make the trip up the coast and home, or need to be shipped and we would fly home after a short vacation in L.A.
We won the car for $5300.00 paid the deposit with PayPal, contacted the owner, and made arrangements to pick up the car at his home.
When we arrived, the car was out front, and definitely needed paint (a bad silver blue with a lots chips) but very straight panels for a 79. A test drive showed that everything but the cruise worked. We decided that we would take it. We drove it to a nearby hotel, found an auto parts store, bought a bunch of cleaning supplies and some basic tools. The next day we drove to Santa Monica. The car had a vibration in the steering wheel at about 75 mph, something we could avoid on HWY 1. So we found an EZ oil change place for an oil change and lube. While that was going on, we told the manager that we had bought it off E-Bay and planned to drive it to Seattle. He let me go down into the pit and check out the car and take more photos of my own (The first thing I had done was stick my camera under the car while it was still in the owner’s driveway to confirm what his photos had shown--gotta love digital cameras!) We went over the car from end to end. We found no rust or damage. What we did find was a valve cover leak, a small leak at the speedometer cable, and a shiny pipe where the catalytic converter had once lived. Nothing that would keep us from driving it home. The day before we flew to L.A. it had been mixed rain and snow at home. We now found ourselves in beautiful Southern California--spring weather with the T-Tops off our Corvette, and a thousand miles of HWY 1 ahead of us. When we reached Crescent City, the worst problems we had were sunburns and not enough Beach Boys music with us. The last day we woke up to rain, so we headed for I-5 and home. This is when we hit the only problem with the car on the trip. The wipers started to turn themselves off, and it would take a couple of tries to get them to come back on, then just north of the California border they stopped and would not start again. Fortunately among the cleaning supplies I had bought was some RainX glass cleaner. Though not as good as straight RainX it got us over 100 miles up I-5 with nothing but a little eye strain. At that point we hit a bump in the road and the wipers came back on, and got us the rest of the way home without any further problems.
I keep reading that people think, “It’s insane to buy a car off E-Bay sight unseen.” I think the way we did it, may be just sane enough. We had a great adventure, a wonderful vacation, and I am now very familiar with the car before I start working on it. In less than a week the car has become such a part of the family that my wife volunteered to parked her truck outside for a couple nights, while we cleaned up the third bay of the garage for the Corvette. She never even suggested I park my Crossfire outside. I have a great wife.
Just thought I would share what we learned along the way.
Zorro.
Great story, welcome. 
04-15-2012, 10:07 PM
#9
Melting Slicks
Good story and welcome aboard!
Now about those pictures...
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c3-p...tep-guide.html
Come on; post them!
Dan
Now about those pictures...
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c3-p...tep-guide.html
Come on; post them!
Dan
04-16-2012, 01:15 AM
#12
Administrator
Member Since: Jul 2000
Location: About 1100 miles from where I call home. Blue lives matter.
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It is insane to buy a car sight unseen, but you only risked $5300 (actually, $1000 plus air fare) so its not that scary,
The majority of those purchases work out OK, but if it goes bad, you have to know its on you. Accepted risk.
The majority of those purchases work out OK, but if it goes bad, you have to know its on you. Accepted risk.
04-16-2012, 08:40 AM
#16
Le Mans Master
Very well said.....congrats on your new ride and the keeper wife, have had mine for 35 years now!
We KNOW you have a digital camera.............................
A picture is worth a thousand words
We KNOW you have a digital camera.............................
A picture is worth a thousand words
Last edited by 73Corvette; 04-16-2012 at 08:43 AM.
04-16-2012, 12:39 PM
#17
Le Mans Master
Member Since: Mar 2008
Location: Oxford MA-----You just lost the game!!!!
Posts: 5,948
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Ya know, I like to tell younger people that, when you really get down to it, life is all about generating cool stories to tell when you're in the old folks home. So go out and have an adventure, and keep in mind that you're going to be telling the story to somebody someday, so make it interesting. It's the secret to enjoying life.
Keep the shiny side up!
Scott
Keep the shiny side up!
Scott
04-16-2012, 01:17 PM
#19
Racer
Thread Starter
Thank you all for the warm welcome. This is my forth Corvette, I have had a 69, 84, and a 90. I never got over the view of the road over the hood of a C3. I really like the motor and trans (4spd auto) in the 90, but at the time it was new, and far to complicated for me to work on. As it turned out it was far to complicated for the local dealers to work on as well. The 78-79 has been my favorite body style since the first time I saw one. I am now lucky enough to own one, and for the first time my Corvette does not need to be daily transportation! This one is just for fun. From what I have seen this web-site is going to be a big part of that fun. When I get a chance I will post pictures.
Thanks again.
Zorro.
Thanks again.
Zorro.
04-16-2012, 01:25 PM
#20
Melting Slicks
Welcome aboard, I lived in Kent for 2 years. I'm sure you're looking forward to some weekend runs to Mt Rainer this summer....enjoy.