I feel you there we strive to meet a certain goal on these things and by time we are close to the end we think we got it only to discover oops I forgot that.

 

The C-3 is an interesting car because of timing.

When the car first came out it was a monster. The L-88, the big horsepower, the killer looks, everything. It was raced; and won.

The big 454 and the 380 hp mighty mouse engines guaranteed the C-3 a place in the history books.

So what happened? Well, smog and gas prices. In 1970 the 350 went from 0-60 in 5 seconds. By 1981 it went from 0-60 in 8 seconds.

The cars went from high performance to low compression pathetic.

Around here you can find nearly stock 76-82 vettes for around 6-8,000. If you drop in a 383, slap on some decent paint and an exhaust system, you will get 10-15,000 pretty easy.

It would really be boneheaded to mess with a 60's big block or small block manual. And don't even mod an early 70's 454. Keep those cars stock.

Just my 2 cents.

 

Man that sounded like one long walk of shame but i bet they oooh and ahh over it when it is finished.

 

Hooking a battery up backwards in a C3 isn't that hard especially if both leads are original black.

 

I put the motor back in my 77, bolted the hood on at 1am the night before we were to leave for pour tour in 2011. Got up at 4am drove it 70miles round trip to work and back, then picked up the wife and our luggage and we headed off .

Some where around 11pm, stopped for fuel 200+ miles from home... I look down at the the passenger front wheel and thought to myself "I never torqued those lug nuts"

My wife was walking out of the gas station about the time I was finishing tightening them, with the question "What are you doing...?"

 

To bad mine is a NOM but it does have a sweet 70 LS6 454 in it, that my grandfather balanced and blueprinted, so at this point it would cost at least $10K to outfit under the hood the correct way and I don't think I would ever recover even a portion of that money back if I went that route. Gonna get all the mechanically 100% and drive the hell out of it like they should be. The car has been in the family since 1969.

 

I have one word for you: BOAT.

We've owned several. Bought a 1912 wooden classic in need of work. Paid $15K, sold it for $25K. Lived aboard it while performing abut $8K of work. Profit - $2K

Bought a 1962 ketch for $9500. Put $4000 of work into it, then sold it for $13K. A wash

Purchased a 'floating home' for $262K. Lived in it for 4 years, put $5K of work into it. Sold for $400K. Profit: $133k

Bought a 4 bedroom home for $445. Lived in it 4 years; invested $70K in repairs/improvements. Couldn't give it away in 2008. Rented, got tax breaks, equity investment. Home SHOULD close today for $475K. Loss: $40K. But still ahead $93K factoring in previous profit.

Bottom line: any investment is a crap shoot; many investments end up crap. But it's all relative - especially if you're upright, walking, breathing, healthy, and above ground.

 

When I first met my wife, she had her mothers old 73 Chevelle. One time I tried to clean and tighten the hot side terminal on the battery. It was so old that it just snapped off in my socket. I tried to drill a hole in the broken off stub for an easyout. I had my drill going real slow and the stub is lead, I think, and it just grabbed that drill bit and drilled a hole right through the side of the battery. Had to buy a new battery that night to get to work the next day at 6:00 AM! Lou.

 

I hear you on the boat deal because I own 2 of them. One is a 88 Ebbtide with a 150 Johnson on it and my other one is a 2007 22' champion with a 250hp Merc. Break Out Another Thousand is what BOAT stands for

 

Try selling one of these and the boat problems will seem like a walk in the park:



Oh, BTW... I had TWO of them!

 

You really are a glutton for punishment.

The Bricklin is an interesting, but silly, car brought to us by the same guy who imported the Yugo (that should tell us something).

It was supposed to be a "safety" car.

To look at, you would think it was a really high performance sports car.

It reality, it was more a big 'brick' with wheels.

Less than 3000 made. And you ended up with TWO of them??????

 

I brought up boats.

Growing up, my parents bought a very nice 37' Seidelman sailboat. We actually lived on it for a time. Great experiences growing up.

The original purchase was $33k or something like that. They were very excited when they got about that upon selling it 10 or so years later.

Great deal, right?

Between the new engine, new sails, new lanyards, new bottom paint (twice), new stays, new lifelines, new prop, new prop shaft, and many other items, I'd say we were approaching the origininal "investment" price just in parts and repairs. That's not to mention the slip fees and other accutrements that come with a boat (dingy, another motor, etc.)

So...buy for $33k, "invest" $25k, and sell for $33k. Yay. Awesome deal.

On the other side of the coin, I wouldn't be the man I am today if I didn't have those experiences. So, in the end, it WAS a great investment!!!!

The fact that I'm even CLOSE to "right side up" on my car is an amazing feat that several others DO NOT enjoy. But my children (now 8 and 10) get the enjoyment, frustration, concern, and pleasure of riding around in a now 44 year old car is ALWAYS a GREAT investment.

 

I did. I got a cheap project car because I thought they were interesting and I always liked them from back when they were made in 74-76.

Found out the ones to have were the original unpainted acrylic cars, so I decided to find an original Safety Green one in nice shape, and sold the other one.

Regarding performance, they were heavy but the 351 Windsor in '75 kept up with the comparable "performance" Corvettes of the day. I never found anything silly about it.

The biggest problem was keeping the doors working and issues with the acrylic. They didnt have long enough to work out the bugs.

The green car was great fun, generated more interest than most of my Corvettes at events, had a ball with the (remote) gullwing doors and overall had fun with the car. However, it is a niche market and it proved difficult to sell. I had it for sale for a year with an incredible string of idiots, tire kickers and posers calling, making deals over the phone and disappearing, defaulting on ebay, making plans and never showing up... it was insane.

I sold it to the first guy who actually showed up in person to see it, after a year!

I don't regret the time I played with the cars, but Im done now. I still think they are cool, and the story is pretty interesting from a historical standpoint. Too bad Delorean gets credit for the Gull Wing idea, unfairly. And it gets a bad rep from people who have never been around one.