DWS44

Well...this post will probably get a little long, but after a pile of work this spring/summer, I thought I would share my results! Some of you may remember some of my posts since I bought the 81 last fall...and a big THANKS to those who answered posts helping me along the way!

When I got the car, it was nowhere near being a basket-case, but it was a little "tired" in places...notably the interior and the paint on the nose and tail of the car. Mechanically, car is very sound and in great shape for its age.

I never really took many interior "before" pics, but it was a bit on the dirty side. I'm the 4th owner of the car, but have paperwork back to the original owner's purchase in Amherst, NY. First owner kept the car nearly 25 years...and apparently was a smoker. Prior owners had kept it fairly clean on the surface, but there was plenty of evidence of smoking left in the car in the cracks and crevices...and a bit of an odor left in the car, too. The console was a bit scraped up and most of the chrome accents worn off. The black portion of the dash was in the worst shape and took quite a bit of work. Seats are original leather and in pretty awesome shape for the age other than the seat backs having being scratched up over time. (Paperwork shows the seat foam was replaced in the late 90s)

So...I started taking it apart and cleaning...and the further I went, the more I took apart till I had the seats out and majority of center console removed.



Interesting goodies found under the seats?


• Well-Preserved July 1990 Receipt from a Delta Sonic Car Wash in Syracuse, NY
• $1.03 American
• $0.23 Canadian
• Two golf tees embossed with original owners business name (according to the original paperwork with car)

Proceeded on with scrubbing and scrubbing the carpets with Adam's Carpet/Upholstery Cleaner, and everything else with DP Total Interior Cleaner (both great products! ), and finishing off the leather with Zaino Leather Conditioner. Then replaced the majority of the center upper and lower console, new lenses, etc. As I disassembled the console, I realized where a lot of the "creaking" I was hearing while driving was coming from...the existing plastic console and lens pieces were broken all over the place and barely hanging on. Since replacing them, the interior has MUCH less interior rattling noise!

I used the Corvette America spray dye to redo the door pulls (had faded to an odd bluish shade that was quite noticeable) as well as the scratched seat backs.

Once I got it all back together, I was really stoked at the end result!





Now...with the interior done, I shifted focus to the exterior. Car showed signs of having been resprayed in places and looked good overall, but the tail was faded and looked like the clear had worn off...and on the front, the tip of the nose had been hit at some point, and paint had cracked out from there. There were also some bad spots in paint on the headlight covers as well. I worked with the guys at my local Vette shop (Corvettes Unlimited, Rock Hill, SC) and made the call to respray the tail and have the nose stripped and repainted to correct all it's issues. Ordered replacement stripe kit from Phoenix Graphics. Paint work came out great and the Phoenix stripe kit matched the original stripes on the rest of the car exactly! (I was shocked actually...expected the decal colors to be off at least a little). The guys also helped me sort out a few electrical gremlins and replaced the power antenna that wasn't working.

Now, with it back home, I refurbished and reinstalled the emblems...then time for lots of Zaino and fresh pics:















And so...with all that work done and a bit of cleaning under the hood...it was time for my first show last weekend with the finished product. Show was at Hendrick Motorsports...and I came away with First Place for Best C3!



Nice result after a year of cleaning! It's really been fun bringing the "new car" feeling back to this Vette, preserving one of the first body style Vettes that I fell in love with as a kid!

F22

Your hard work paid off! Great looking car and nice job on the interior too!

Blue73Shark

Great looking car. Nice job on the interior refresh.
Fran

929nitro

Very nice, your hard work paid off.

gerry72

Your car looks like it just rolled off the showroom floor...maybe even a bit nicer than new.

GPGG70

Outstanding!!

Roco71

Well done, Awesome car.

qwank

very nice and a well deserved win. I wish my engine compartment looked that clean

empeg9000

Awesome work! That thing looks amazing!

ryanmh

I have always thoughts this was about the point where GM finally got Corvette looking decent again after the safety regs struck, and your car very nicely shows it. This body actually looks like it was designed on purpose. IMHO, you'll never get mid to late 70s car with those molded on afterthought safety bumper thingajigs and the oddly raked taillight setup looking this good. For plastic bumpers, this is about as good as it gets. And two tone paint to boot? With all the stripes? Nice.

billcarson

very very nice.even the cement is clean.

AGVI

Wow, looks effin' great!

C3 4ME

Man, that car looks SWEET!! Great job, and congratulations on the trophy!

Lupigiato

Looks phenomenal! Thanks for cleaning it up for me - I'll swing by to pick it up! LOL!

alconk

Man that looks great! Always did love the two-tones.

pigag2

Congrats, looks beautiful. BTW, when they repainted the front nose and rear tail, did they have to remove them or were they painted in place?
Thanks

DWS44

Thanks for all the comments!

hehe...thanks! Pressure washing helped pass the time one day I was jonesing for the Vette while it was in for paint.

No prob...glad to be of service! Remember to bring a LARGE bag of CASH when you swing by!

So far as I know, they were both painted in place.