Greetings:
I have a C4 91 coupe & C5 04 coupe Corvette.
I am looking to buy a C3 from a fellow in our Corvette club, here in Florida. (I think he's the original owner)

It's a 1981 stock with 39,000 miles on it.
It's in perfect shape & running order. I might be able to get it for
$10,000.

Would this be a reliable car to drive?

Is it hard to get parts for it? (I plan to do my own maintenance on it.)

I will probably need to replace the electric carb on it, as I heard it was not a very good design. Let me know if this is indeed true.

My good friend is a corvette mechanic & he has the car now & I plan to sell my c4, to make room for it.

Please advise, I would appreciate it.

Thanx in advance & God bless America

N

 

Hard to tell without pictures if it's a good buy, but the electric carb works great when properly tuned.

 

I have an 81, granted I have yanked out a good deal of the stock stuff power train and suspension wise anyway but yes they are good cars.

Underpowered at 190hp with the L81 but they run fine. If the paint is decent and with 39k miles 10k seems like a pretty good deal.

Things I have encountered that are expensive to fix or hard to find parts when broken..... Rear Defroster Switch, Intermittent Wiper Relay

 

Parts are not really that hard to find. Just like the C4 vendors, there are some good supporting vendors here for the C3s. Wilcox, Mid America and Corvette Central to name a few.

The cars can be reliable, it depends on what you do as preventative maintenance, and how you treat them.

But style wise...they are fantastic.

For a good looking 1981 with 39,000 miles the price seems very reasonable.

kdf

 

You ask if an 81 is reliable. As long as you realize that it is a 30 year old car, and things do wear out and break, then yes it can be reliable.

Parts availability is excellent. There's probably more available for the 81, than for the 84-96's. Most 68-82 mechanical parts (brakes, steering, suspension, etc.), are all basically the same. Lot's of parts for the 81, have been repro-ed. 81 parts are also cheaper, than a lot of the C4 and C5 parts, too.

Other than the electrical connections, the 81 Q-Jet is really no different that the millions of other Q-Jets, that GM has installed over the years. The worse thing about the 81 Q-Jet, is that it's more expensive to replace, than 80 and earlier ones.

$10,000 sounds reasonable, for a 39,000 mile 81, but it's really hard to say without more info, and/or pictures. Do you know, or do you have any proof, that the mileage is correct. Is it all stock or has it been modified, what is the color combination, is it a Bowling Green or St. Louis car, is it an auto or 4 speed trans, does it have painted or glass tops??? All of this, and more, can effect the value of the car.

 

Test drive the 81. It is not going to be the same as the C4 or the C5.

 

I love my 81, and in the shape you describe a decent price. As for the E4ME Carb...there are differing opinions, before I give mine, I will state facts. When the entire system works it is a fine running machine, no better and no less than a non computer car. When things go wrong they can be fairly difficult to diagnose as with any computer car(as you know). But this is a simple system... AND if you ever want to remove the computer and go without it, that is not all that hard nor expensive either. The ECM controls the carb, distributer and torque converter lock up. Now for MY opinion, I tried to get mine to work right, too much work, in one afternoon, I swapped the carb, and distributor, set them both per Lars papers and it runs great, it is about 2 years since I did that and have touched nothing since. I also added B&M lock up controller for the converter, but since 90 percent of my driving is in our smallish city I rarely use it. On the highway I average 20 or so, in town around 15-18 depending on my foot. I added true 2.5 inch duals, headers and removed all of the smog stuff and it runs great. I love my 81, whether you keep it stock (which is fine) they are nice, and if you mod her up that is OK too, the 80-82's are my favorite looking Vettes. :O)

edit: As far as reliability....that is subjective, each car is different. As with mine, I drove it home 260 miles from the purchaser so I knew it had some level of reliability, however until I had it a while, fixed a few small things, spent some time looking things over I developed the confidence in it I know have. I did rebuild the front end, and replaced some U joints and always doing something to it, but I drive as often as I want and am never worried about it. But for me, I personally would not drive mine as a daily driver. I think it would bring more issues to light quicker, but luckily I don't have to either(as you don't). It is a 31 year old car until you have replaced anything and everything like some here have done. I would never discourage you, I love driving mine, it turns heads, I get smiles both on my face and others. Nothing like a C3!!!

 

I will pretty much concur with what's been said. The '81 vette is just as dependable as any other 30 year old car, which is to say that maintainance plays a huge factor. In this case, an ounce of prevention is worth 5 pounds of cure.
Parts avability is not a problem. I've put plenty of money into restoring my '81 and never run into a parts availabilty problem.
As for the Rochester carb and computer control, I found it to be no problem at all. I had my carb rebuilt and I replaced the origial intake with an inexpensive Summit intake and my vette pulls STRONG. I have no complaints. Quite frankly, I think setting the initial timing and letting the computer control the rest is a lot easer than curving your own distributor.
As for price, $10,000 is right on the money for a well working, relatively rust free car.
I say go for it!

 

 

Greetings

I went and looked at the 81 today.
It is a 2 tone silver and white, the 39000 miles is correct. Build date is 11/80.
I checked underneath and there is no rust on the frame, as a matter of fact the frame Has been painted black, maybe rust proofed. Everything under looks new, no oil leaks at all. There are no cracks behind the cills. I could not find rust anywhere.
The car is all stock.
The only problem is the doors both sag, I thought that a weak frame sag would cause this, but the frame looks good.
Could the frame sag even though there is no rust?
I plan to replace the carb and ignition & remove the pollution stuff.
Thanx

N