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In 1982 my Grandfather bought a brand new 1982 corvette. I grew up in this car, riding in occasional parades in Oregon with my grandpa and my sister. Always loving a chance to drive in the car. My Grandpa used to tow his blown picklefork boat with it!
About 14 years ago my dad got the corvette from my grandpa. We had some good trips in it, Including my first concert ever where we drove it about an hour north. Unfortunately my dad had less and less time to drive it or work on small issues. First time I ever got to drive the car was when we were moving and I had to take it to the other house. It had idle issues and died on me right into a crosswalk of a big intersection, cue cranking over and stomping on the gas and dropping it into gear. My dad would start it up and drive it a couple weeks a year after I left for the Navy and I would come home and borrow his truck.
Finally one year before I left to Okinawa to work with the marines, I was teasing him while we drove my truck and household stuff from florida where I was stationed to Oregon. I asked when he was gonna sell me the corvette. and low and Behold my ownership started that year! Almost 4 years ago now.
Now to somewhat current day. While I was in Eastern Africa deployed I finally decided to see our long time joke/ goal achieved and the ordering and planning began. It took months and lots of time while I'm currently out in the middle east but:
383 Stroker 435hp 453ftlbs
Holley terminator EFI /Throttle body/ ECU/TCU
6AL MSD Ignition
Canby Transmission Built 4L60E
American Racing 17" wheels/ Nitto 555G2
QA1 Aluminum body shocks
New Composite rear leaf spring
Custom Exhaust
Acrylic Targa Top (Astro Tops)
Many more extra goodies! I can go more into the details if anyone has questions. I also have lots planned and parts sitting while I'm overseas.
Sharp Vette !
Gotta love when cars stay in the family !
My 1970 LS5 roadster was bought new by my grandfather......
And my 92 LT1 6psd was bought new by my uncle....
Sharp Vette !
Gotta love when cars stay in the family !
My 1970 LS5 roadster was bought new by my grandfather......
And my 92 LT1 6psd was bought new by my uncle....
That's Great! It has been an amazing experience to share it with my younger brothers and my now 8 year old nephew. Having my dream car become their dream car and sharing that is such a great experience. I think that's what corvettes are all about. When you're a kid and that thing is a beautiful rocketship.
i bought a 75 in 77 from a dealer in detroit.. drove the hell out of it...just a lot of miles.
forward to 1986 .. we were in alabama then...wife wanted a chrome bumper car...we found a 72 at bowling green swap meet...at the track.
car was very rough...neede rebuilding frt to rear. now its a driver. torch red with a zz4 engine..new interior. seats upgraded brakes...its a keeper now
i still have the 75 too. it getting compete rebuild. frame has been removed and rebuilt and painted...i have the original engine but replacing it with a 383
Last edited by jcorvette72; 01-16-2018 at 07:25 PM.
She and my dad had a red/oyster '76. I'm the boy not wearing his shirt:
They traded that car in to a contractor as a down payment on a house in late '78.
Parents missed their corvette, so they bought a new black/black '79 L82 auto from Swinson Chevrolet in Tulsa, OK on 01/10/80. The tops were stolen off of the car on the lot, so the dealership moved it inside the showroom. Mom bought it off of the floor while it was awaiting its new set of tops.
Anyway, my sister came along a few years later, so the 'vette got parked in the garage in 1983. Mom wanted a 4-door car. The corvette stayed parked for 18 years. It basically became a storage shelf; covered in blankets and had all kinds of s*** stacked on top of it. The car's hood still wont sit quite level with the front fenders due to having all that weight piled on for so long. Its not really noticeable unless you're looking for it, but it serves as a reminder to me not to stack stuff on cars in the garage and have them sit and rot away.
Dad got tired of having the car and not driving it, so he wheeled it out of their garage one random day in 2001 and stuck a for sale sign on it. For me, there were a lot of early memories in that car. Memories of things like riding in the storage area, mom doing unintentional donuts in the ice one wintry morning, dad making the tires squeal, etc. I couldn't stand the idea of just letting it go, so I went to buy it from him and mom, and they wound up giving it to me as a college graduation gift.
My dad died 5 years later due to a blood clot after a bone spur removal. Mom is still scared of the car from the icy donuts (seriously, give her the keys on a dry sunny 75° day and she will not drive it). Basically, the car is a good stress outlet for me and a good reminder of being a little kid hanging out with mom & dad nearly 40 years ago.
Plus, its pretty hard to get tired of this view...
She and my dad had a red/oyster '76. I'm the boy not wearing his shirt:
They traded that car in to a contractor as a down payment on a house in late '78.
Parents missed their corvette, so they bought a new black/black '79 L82 auto from Swinson Chevrolet in Tulsa, OK on 01/10/80. The tops were stolen off of the car on the lot, so the dealership moved it inside the showroom. Mom bought it off of the floor while it was awaiting its new set of tops.
Anyway, my sister came along a few years later, so the 'vette got parked in the garage in 1983. Mom wanted a 4-door car. The corvette stayed parked for 18 years. It basically became a storage shelf; covered in blankets and had all kinds of s*** stacked on top of it. The car's hood still wont sit quite level with the front fenders due to having all that weight piled on for so long. Its not really noticeable unless you're looking for it, but it serves as a reminder to me not to stack stuff on cars in the garage and have them sit and rot away.
Dad got tired of having the car and not driving it, so he wheeled it out of their garage one random day in 2001 and stuck a for sale sign on it. For me, there were a lot of early memories in that car. Memories of things like riding in the storage area, mom doing unintentional donuts in the ice one wintry morning, dad making the tires squeal, etc. I couldn't stand the idea of just letting it go, so I went to buy it from him and mom, and they wound up giving it to me as a college graduation gift.
My dad died 5 years later due to a blood clot after a bone spur removal. Mom is still scared of the car from the icy donuts (seriously, give her the keys on a dry sunny 75° day and she will not drive it). Basically, the car is a good stress outlet for me and a good reminder of being a little kid hanging out with mom & dad nearly 40 years ago.
Plus, its pretty hard to get tired of this view...
I'm sorry to hear about your Dad's untimely passing. Beautiful memories though, and I know what you mean about stress relief. That's a gorgeous view!
This thread is awesome- love to see how others and their Vettes came to meet/ great times shared with these beautiful machines!
Here's my corvette inspired, long, but detailed story: Late/Mid March of this year I was scrolling through the endless pages of Craigslist looking for a replacement vehicle/ gas saver to trade for my 88 V10 Chevy Blazer. I had an ad up for the longest time with no real interest probably due to its heavily built 355's unending thirst for gas ~10 mpg highway - Fullsize Blazers aren't famous for high mpg's at all. I was looking for a 99 geo metro (45mpg) to really swing the hurt at the gas pump in the other direction... But no luck finding one that wasn't rotted away up here in the upper midwest.
So then out of nowhere one morning soon after that I see an email in the inbox that actually looked like an "honest" person looking to trade for my blazer. With, guess what... a 1978 Corvette project car.
After some emails back and forth, the guy told me he was looking to get something bigger than his 94 blazer, with decent power to pull his boat around to different lakes in the central MN area. I was bummed out at that point because the tranny in my blazer was starting to go to **** and would never last long pulling anything larger than a Red, radio flyer wagon- just kidding The deal seemed broken, until I offered him an alternative trade- my 98 dodge ram 1500, my first truck/car after I got my license. It was solid in body, semi solid in mechanical operation, no speedo, abs and brake lights were on, both back doors were jammed, a/c and heater sucked, tranny was goin too, but was much stronger than the blazer's- I had it up for sale for months and nobody wanted to deal with it, so I thought I could at least get the vette in my posession if he wants that ...
He liked the idea of the dodge even better than the blazer so we agreed to trade!
He sent me pics of the vette and gave me the rundown on its story- his son had it for a few years before him, got an 82 vette, sold the 78 to him (the dad) and then the dad started to restore the vette. He tore it down WAY TO FAR, and got overwhelmed by the whole project- he never actually said it, but I could tell he was a foot over his head in "oh crap". So he let it sit untouched for 2 of the past 8 years that he had it from his son.
The original motor had been bored .030 over to 355 and completely rebuilt and has a mild/medium cam in it, the heads were reconditioned, it has an edelbrock intake and carb, and a dress up kit on it. The motor had never been run, and wouldn't have run if my dad hadn't caught a major engine assembly screwup... timing was off by a country mile- But here's a pic of the motor- probably a 300+hp motor now, my dad estimates it above 350 when comparing this motor's build/parts to other's that he's built, but I'm not a bench-top dyno, power estimate expert so I leave it at 300hp to prevent any overselling the power at my right foot... But it does get up and go well enough for the street. Save the 500+ hp for the dragstrip. Nobody can use up 500 hp on the street legally anyway, so why eat through so much fuel?
That fresh motor and the SPOTLESS frame/chassis/underside, whatever you want to call it- is what made me want to go for the deal... the Dodge I traded was worth less than the motor at that point (pretty much) so I was happy to trade. No real MPG gains aside...
The NEXT problem... getting it to my dad's garage. I live in LaCrescent, MN, I'm from Nekoosa, WI, a 2500 person paper mill town/nowhere (point to the very center of WI by the good size lake (Lake Petenwell) and that's where I'm from... The 78 was 10-20 mins west of Faribault, MN. That's getting the car over 225 miles to its recovery point in as cheap a manner as possible. Luckily my little brother and his buddies like to waste time and gas... So my lil bro's friend has a diesel pickup and access to a good trailer and all I needed to do was pay for gas and food. That beats ANY tow cost by a long shot... and they would help me look the car over as well.
The day I got it:
So an hr and a half of delay (cause my brother and his friends left Nekoosa way late), 2 hrs in the truck with my brother and his 2 friends- and I was finally there to see the corvette in person the first time- here's a pic he sent me, and that's what I saw once the cover came off
It was pretty rough, but had it where it counted for me... the doors were just hung on for seeing and hauling it, the drivers door skin was held on with 3 clips, and while i'm talkin about the doors- I could use a talented adjuster of these 78's doors if anyone can help me for little to nothing... Maybe some beer and a ride around town
The right fender had a chunk out of it near the bottom of the back edge and a crack mid-back wheelwell that was gobbed with the guy's repair, the rear bumper had a 1/2 inch gap from the body and was sticking 3/4 of an inch out from the side along the bottom, the interior was stripped right out, seats were sitting in it tho. And while they did what seemed like a 2000 point inspection on my dodge- 1pt/$ which we trailered there to save gas, we did the usual checks on the vette like any classic vehicle- rust, what's there, what's missing, vin number checks,... And after half an hr they had me get the truck off the trailer for a test drive.
They liked it enough to do the trade after a few side discussions and blood pressure raising doubts... Which made me want to scream at them to "just do the trade!" The wife didn't wanna let the car go- she said so within the first 2 min we got there... So I thought "*****, I just paid $200 for my brother and his friends to haul my dodge around for the day-" (the wife has the last word 97% of the time.) BUT they wanted to go fishin all summer and the vette was untouched for over 2 years at that point.
Once the title was signed I was ready to get it loaded up and gone before they went back on their word!!!!
So we got the tote and 2 boxes of parts loaded up in the back of the truck, got the car on the trailer, and b-s'd for a few min to be nice, and then got the **** out of there!!!
As soon as we were a couple blocks down the road we all were amped up that I made such a screamin deal! I was high on new corvette ownership, and couldn't wait to get wrenchin'. But an hr later, just about to Rochester at that point, the trucks battery light came on... but luckily we got the light to come off after a quick stop and a few raps on the voltage regulator... So it was pretty smooth sailing after that, and they dropped me off in Lacrescent and took an hr break- it was around 9:30pm at this point, so around 11 they took off for Nekoosa and took my new car with them.
No word from anyone until 2 days later... I wanted to play it cool and not ask everyone if my car got there alright. It arrived to my folks place fine, but my older brother wasn't thrilled to see I made the deal- which explains why nobody wanted to talk about it. He wanted a corvette for awhile, but got a newer yukon denali, gsxr 1000 and a 2010 Harley instead... and I'm the bad guy for getting a wore down/tore down corvette... We've said maybe 6 words since then, I tried to be nice and chat- but he's got a serious bad attitude about my car and hates my guts. Oh well. Screw him then. Harley riders- they Rev it at the light/stop, Gun it to 25 mph, then get off the throttle to cruise slow enough for everyone to see how cool you are. WOW cool... not! Any vette owners that have a HD are excluded of course...
Here it is in the home base garage after its travels:
So I got the 78 on March 27th or 28th, and after just over a month of partial days of work, a few long delays, bad weather kept us from painting so many times... and a couple of side projects that got in the way for over a week each time- an old Rupp mini bike got dropped on us the 1 day we had great weather to paint... It's pretty much done- we're going to wet sand and do another coat of paint after I park it this winter... Dings, chips, and the crap that settled into the paint will be taken care of then and I can rest easier. It's been this "finished" for weeks now, but the power steering gave us trouble- check my thread: Phantom behind the wheel... and you might just have the info I need. ANYWAY- check out my pics to see the transformation over this past April. Here it is now:
A huge Thanks goes to my dad the master mechanic- He's great at what he does... Look what he did with under $1k and 2 months of very part time work on this thing... The car's got around $3,000 into it with $1000 cash and the dodge's practical selling value of $2k on a good day... not bad for 1/3 the cost some guys pay for just their car's paint jobs!
Like my forum Name and signature quote lead people to believe- It's got very little $$$ into it, the fun/$$$ ratio is unbeatable. Thanks for reading guys- hope it inspires others to go save some sweet Corvettes!!
500 horsepower not Streetable? Sure it is!
Just have to be careful where you are when you stomp on it! 69 427 the only Chevy parts in it are the block/crankshaft. It's not to radical for Street use has a Lunati hydraulic roller cam/ rockers, aluminum heads (rectangular port). Fun fun fun.
Bought my '80 new in Victoria, TX. Straight out of college in June of 1980 I went to TX in an $800, 4 yr old, Ford LTD station wagon to start life as an oil field engineer. Two months later took almost everything I had earned, borrowed $1600 from my brother, agreed to pay an additional $500 one time payment 2 weeks after getting the car, and traded the station wagon to qualify for a 13.4% car lone for my white 1980 L82. Two weeks later Iransferred to Houston for 3 months of training. Drove the 100 miles and all I had was the car, a full tank of gas, and about $60. That got me dinner, one night at a motel, and breakfast with a little change. But my buddy who I was going to share an apartment with said he'd cover the first month. The first morning of training though they gave us our first check to cover our first month per diem expenses - $600. I was once again financially secure.
Drove the car for about a year then drove it up to my parents in NY for a visit. Left it there in a barn and flew back. Missed it a year later so flew up and got it. Got laid off about 8 months later as the oil boom went bust. So packed all I had in the vette (it was cramped), took my savings out of the bank as a cashiers check of about $30k (the oil business paid well while it lasted) and head to West Palm, FL where my parents had a camper and were wintering. Had fun cruising FL for a couple months, then headed back to NY. Enrolled in college for a yr for a second undergrad engineering degree. It's nice being an undergrad and having a virtually new Corvette.
In '84 got a job in PA, so the vette and I moved there. I still live in PA. Drove the car as main transportation until kid number 2 showed up, then it was time for the daddy car - Olds Delta 88. The vette then did light duty until 2003 when it had too many knocks and rattles. So it sat in the garage until I slowly started getting it road worthy a couple years ago. Finally got it tentatively back on the road late in 2017. This winter I'm working on the rear diff and suspension. Hopefully a new overdrive tranny will also go in soon. Then next year it's time to tackle the engine.
Photos, the car in NY livery in 1983. My grandson in the car last year.
Bought a '71 340 4-speed 'cuda when I got my first job in 1971 out of high school. Loved the car but wanted something with a/c. So in '74 I found my '72 vette with a/c and I sold the 'cuda. Payments on the vette were $50.00/mo.
Best mods over the years were to pull the original motor, put in a warmed SB and later the Tremec 5-speed overdrive. I've driven it all over this country, it's no garage queen.
And that '71 'cuda? I still get to see it, I sold it to my brother and he still has it.
I have owned 5 C-3's in the past now just a '72 L-48 At 6'5" I will never be really comfy in such a ride but really like the handling of the Vette. I would have kept the 'cuda but back in '71 things were different. Who would of known MoPar cars would get so pricy as they are now.
I often fear that my c3 story makes me sound like a privileged kid playing with his dad's money but here it goes.
Ever since I was a little kid my dad has told me about his dream of getting an old corvette and fixing it up with me. I remember this as early as kindergarten and it's a very prominent memory for me. Now my dad isn't a mechanic, and aside from an oil change here and there he didn't know anything about cars. He's a computer guy, works in IT Consulting, but the idea was that together we would learn how to restore cars and just figure it out along the way.
More backstory: this dream of his started because, when he was a kid, HIS father was really into expensive land-yachts. Mostly cadillacs if I remember correctly, but my father and my grandfather never got along. In fact my grandfather was a downright horrible parent. This dream project of his was kind of my father's way of proving to himself that he is and will always be a better person and a better dad than his father before him.
So when I was 15 and about to get my permit, this project finally started to happen. We searched for a few months and eventually bought a brown 1979 L-82 with an automatic. Sat in a barn for most of its life. We ended up befriending the man we bought it from and he would be our trustworthy mechanic for the couple years until he fell into bad health and we lost touch.
Now we had no idea what we were doing. We tried to change a wheel bearing and long story short we ended up redoing the whole rear end. Not because it needed it, but because we destroyed just about everything we touched. Had to get bailed out by our mechanic big time. Similar scenarios would follow. We take on a project way over our heads, break a bunch of stuff, and get bailed out by someone who knew what they were doing, but even though we would make gear heads everywhere cry out in despair, I was learning a lot and I was having fun.
Now I'm 18. Due to work issues, my dad no longer has the time to work on the car with me (to be honest I think he also kind of lost interest). But this is OK, I have taken the car in as my own project to continue this dream that my dad has planted in me. The car is not the prettiest, it needs paint, it needs new carpets, and it's a slow project. But these days I spend nearly all my time teaching myself how to do things the right way (joining these forums has been the most helpful thing of all). I know 79s aren't the best vettes out there. Choked for power and whatever, but to me, my Vette is the best Vette. I got it to run beautifully, I've learned so much and it's a great little cruiser for warm sunny days.
So yeah, that's the story of my Vette in a nutshell. To those who think of me as a kid who got an expensive toy and just recklessly plays with my parent's money, maybe you're not wrong. Although in my defense, for the past year I've insisted that they stop paying for my repairs and I will be beginning to pay them back over time, for whatever that's worth.
Great story.....
While the 79 might not be a high dollar car.....
I have a feeling that as time goes by, the sentimental value with far out weigh the cash value!
Just wondering how you got your Corvette and what was the best thing that has happened with your C3 since?
I pretty much covered my origin story in my forum intro thread, but the basics are this: In 2015 my dad was presented an opportunity to buy a 79 Vette from a friend of a friend of a friend. Dad was always a car guy and this scratched an itch. He took ill in spring of 2017 and passed on shortly after. He was really worried he'd have to sell her to cover medical expenses but it never came to that. Originally I had no interest in keeping her, she sat for months untouched in his driveway. One day I decided to start her up, you know, just to see if things still moved like they should. They moved. And now she's in my driveway. I've always been a Corvette fan, but never really focused on the C3 too much. She's not my "dream" Vette, so she'll always be "Dad's L-82". For now the plan is to restore her a bit, a project for my son and I. He's a car nut, too (it's genetic, I guess). My wife says this counts as my mid-life crisis, but since I inherited this one I think I have an argument if the right C2 comes up for sale near me
As far as the best thing that's happened since I got her? The smile on my boy's face when we took that first ride together. Cheers!
I bought my first Corvette a 1980 C3 a little over a month ago - the guy selling it had it sitting in his yard because he lost the title to it. I researched the VIN and found it was last registered in another state, not stolen or ever reported stolen and not salvaged - so I bought it - worse case I can get a bonded title for it I figured since I have space in my garage and some free time I could tinker with it - I paid $1200 for it, its not perfect but it runs and drives...
I had the money to have the title investigated and am able to register it in my name by paying the tax on its value - will cost me $1000 and a 4 or 5 weeks of waiting, in the meantime I am tinkering with it to learn more about C3's - always wanted one from the time I was a kid and built a model one.
My buddy picked up an 80 L82 from his father-in-law back in 2004. The original owner kept every scrap of paper. I even have the original build sheet that notes it was a special build for a GM employee. My buddy always planned to do something with it but really never did much. It's been taking up space in his garage. A few years ago I asked about it and he wanted 7500. Not a bad deal for a car with 56k original miles, mostly original paint and original interior but it was too much for me at that time.
2 weeks ago he sent me an IM saying he had to get rid of it. He said he would part with it for 2500 for me because he knew it would go to a good home. He was very honest about the car. I knew it was missing the original block and replaced by a crate 350. I have the original heads but he put aluminum heads, and intake and headers on it.
I had it trailer-ed home as it was not running. I also took home about 10 boxes of OEM parts, paperwork, manuals etc. The first thing I did was to drain the gas take and purge the lines. Then she got a fresh oil change and a few vacuum plugs and she fired right up and runs great. I think she needs a caliber on the passenger side as the car pulls pretty hard like a piston is hung-up.
The one big item it needs is for someone to figure out why there is always a 3A draw. My guess is it's related to a Viper alarm someone installed in the late 90's. We checked every fuse in the fuse box and can't find the drain yet. For now I put a quick disconnect on the battery. I don't have any really nice pictures yet but here is is in storage before I picked it up. The last 2 are from after I got it.
This is my 4th Corvette. I've owned a C4, C6 and C7. This is my first C3.
Try disconnecting the alternator, see if the draw goes away. Also if the battery is connected and car hasn't been running, put your hand on the alternator, if its hot to the touch, that's your draw.
01-13-2018, 06:57 AM
1982 C3 Third Generation Owner
I was looking for a 99 geo metro (45mpg) to really swing the hurt at the gas pump in the other direction... But no luck finding one that wasn't rotted away up here in the upper midwest. 
The deal seemed broken, until I offered him an alternative trade- my 98 dodge ram 1500, my first truck/car after I got my license. It was solid in body, semi solid in mechanical operation, no speedo, abs and brake lights were on, both back doors were jammed, a/c and heater sucked, tranny was goin too, but was much stronger than the blazer's- I had it up for sale for months and nobody wanted to deal with it, so I thought I could at least get the vette in my posession if he wants that ...
We've said maybe 6 words since then, I tried to be nice and chat- but he's got a serious bad attitude about my car and hates my guts. Oh well. Screw him then. Harley riders- they Rev it at the light/stop, Gun it to 25 mph, then get off the throttle to cruise slow enough for everyone to see how cool you are. WOW cool... not! Any vette owners that have a HD are excluded of course... 
