New vette in the family
05-30-2012, 11:00 AM
#1
Le Mans Master
Thread Starter
New vette in the family
My son was home on leave for a couple weeks in early May while transferring from Pearl Harbor to Charlston SC. He's a nuclear electronics tech on a sub. The 2nd day home, he saw a green 76 L48 4 speed at the local chevy dealer(where my other son works) and bought it, got a decent deal at $5500, no rust in the bird cage or frame, and a quarter size rust hole in the floor pan. The car is original, down to the spare tire that still has the rubber nubs, never been on the road. It needs carpet and the paint is faded. He and I with my bum shoulder(just had surgery 5-02, I mostly supervised) did a recurve on the distributor, found the vacuum advance had a hole in the diaphram and replaced it, changed valve seals and valve cover gaskets,and adjusted the carb, runs like a top. He drilled and tapped the diff for a drain plug and changed the oil. He changed the engine oil and filter and used the huge 1794 napa filter for a little more oil and filtering capacity.
On the 18th he left for SC in it, had the alternator bolts break, but fixed that along the way. A few days ago, he took a trip to Florida with it, got most of the way there and the coil went bad, lots of phone calls to Dad for road side troubleshooting, then caught a ride to the nearest town and came back with the coil and put it in, fired right up and continued on. On the way back, he was about an hour from Charleston and decided to pull off the highway for gas, on the ramp he met an RV going the wrong way, coming right at him. He couldn't get over the right curb and the RV hit him on the left rear fender and tire. The RV driver had gotten disoriented in the dark trying to get back on the freeway and came up the wrong ramp. Nobody was hurt, but the vette had to go home on a flat bed. The left rear tire has a gouge and the trailing arm is bent, making the tire tow out. Looks like the paint job will come a little sooner and at the expense of the RV owners insurance. I'm glad he wasn't hurt, the car can be repaired.
On the 18th he left for SC in it, had the alternator bolts break, but fixed that along the way. A few days ago, he took a trip to Florida with it, got most of the way there and the coil went bad, lots of phone calls to Dad for road side troubleshooting, then caught a ride to the nearest town and came back with the coil and put it in, fired right up and continued on. On the way back, he was about an hour from Charleston and decided to pull off the highway for gas, on the ramp he met an RV going the wrong way, coming right at him. He couldn't get over the right curb and the RV hit him on the left rear fender and tire. The RV driver had gotten disoriented in the dark trying to get back on the freeway and came up the wrong ramp. Nobody was hurt, but the vette had to go home on a flat bed. The left rear tire has a gouge and the trailing arm is bent, making the tire tow out. Looks like the paint job will come a little sooner and at the expense of the RV owners insurance. I'm glad he wasn't hurt, the car can be repaired.
06-01-2012, 05:20 PM
#4
Instructor
The insurance adjuster came out the other day and quoted the damages for $3370. I'm not an expert, but that seems a little low.
I dropped the car off at Jamison's Custom Corvette today. He's going to take a look at it on Monday (04JUN12) and give me an estimate. I plan on having all of the glass repaired and painted as well as having new weather stripping installed.
He recently took a '76 down to the glass and painted it. He said it came out to about $16K. Looks like I'll be spending a lot of money soon.
I dropped the car off at Jamison's Custom Corvette today. He's going to take a look at it on Monday (04JUN12) and give me an estimate. I plan on having all of the glass repaired and painted as well as having new weather stripping installed.
He recently took a '76 down to the glass and painted it. He said it came out to about $16K. Looks like I'll be spending a lot of money soon.
06-02-2012, 09:23 AM
#6
Drifting
Member Since: Jun 2005
Location: grand prairie texas
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That damage estimate seems way too low looking at your pic's and the paint job seems way too high unless your son is planning on keeping the car for only a weekend driver and a garage keeper. I would definately look into just a decent paint job and not strip it down to the glass.
06-02-2012, 09:42 AM
#7
Le Mans Master
Thread Starter
I forgot to mention that all the bonding strips are showing through, so those would need to be fixed. His daily driver arrived from Hawaii a couple days ago, so the vette will be the weekend fun car. Ya, it will be interesting to see what the paint job estimate is, I agree, $16k is double what I would expect. Anybody have experience with Jamisons?