Eight months, hundreds of hours and thousands of $$s after the spouse presented me with an inspected, licensed, running, good looking and seemingly original '79 L82 with 45k on the clock I was finally confident to take a drive to visit an uncle who bought numerous new C3s in the day. While an automatic it came with every option save the spoilers. I hoped to have everything working like new but the A/C system is being a true pain so it was open air on a perfect sunny day.

I took the beautiful, curvy, hilly back roads there and tossed my uncle the keys when he said, "What do you want to do?"

I then listened to him reminisce about his 'vettes, accidents, friends and Corvette related "conquests" as we drove for hours along even curvier and hillier roads and the occasional excellent but very rural highway.

His comment when he was able to first hit the accelerator was "nice, but nothing like my '69 [L88 special order]". Then, "I want a clutch." Next, "I have to be careful because I have a CDL and if I'm stopped playing around in an old 'vette I'll be told, 'You know better!'"

He talked of the '69: It would only do 135mph or so but it was INSANELY fast getting there. I had to sell it before it killed me. It could not turn at high speed. 15--I still remember the number--hits on a guard rail after I gave the keys to a bold and reckless friend.

He talked of his '74 L82: I never really liked it. It was hot. It was the first L82 with terrible engine and electrical problems .

He talked of his '78 Silver Anniversary L48: A dog.

He talked of my '79 L82: WOW! This handles better than my '69 when it was new! I haven't even floored it and it accelerates better than my '74 and '78. I just want a clutch!!!! After some carefully selected sections where the Jimmy Carter speedo became useless he was confident that it could reach the top speed he remembered from his 69'. We had a nice laugh when I talked about my very recent cruise on the German autobahn at about 135 mph @ 4,500 rpm when 4,500 rpm was about the cruising point when my speedo lost meaning

400 miles on the road trip at about 16 MPG. Not too bad considering a number of flooring accelerations, some safe high speeds and extremely hilly roads with only 50 miles or so cruising at 70 MPH on flat land to test my newly repaired cruise control.

All fluids stayed level. All were leaking when it was new to me. Temp went slightly above 220 only at sustained high RPM.

Idle actually improved. It took on a loping character that makes me wonder if the cam was replaced along with the intake manifold. My uncle's comment about the idle: "Great!"

 

Congrats On Your First Road Trip!!!

 

Thanks!

I hope for more. Maybe a winter trip down to New Orleans for some great food, great people and great fun.

 

Congrats on your road trip, and reminiscing down memory lane with your dad.

kdf

 

 

Sound like you had a great time! Congrats on the successful trek.

You mentioned that it didn't have the "spoiler" package. If the front valence did not have any kind of air dam under it, that's why the engine ran hot at speed. An air dam is NECESSARY for proper cooling via airflow deflected upwards and through the radiator in a C3.

 

Good times, congats!!

 

Congrats! Pics of the highways and curves next time

 

Sounds like good times. Congrats and enjoy!

 

Everything in the front end is like the original as confirmed by the assembly manual. Such certainly includes the air dam that probably isn't original to the car.

I was though a bit concerned about temp above 220 at 80 or so ambient during heavy acceleration or 70+ cruising speed.

Thanks to an astute member here I was clued into the fact that my motor driven fan was installed backwards! Something tells me that I would have overheated had I not made correction!

 

You should take up writing...excellent story!

 

I was having too much fun driving and later riding to take pics. The old roads in the hill country of rural southeast Missouri are unlike those any other place I've lived or visited in the world. They were built with as little earth movement as possible so they twist crazily, have no shoulder and you encounter wonderful things like curves banked opposite of the proper slope--those are frequently the ones with the nickname "dead man's". You're not climbing mountains so there are no switchbacks; instead you're snaking your way between and over big forested hills avoiding both creeks/streams that tend to have big-time flash floods and dividing any decent-sized relatively level areas long used for agriculture.

 

Thank you. You're far from the first to make that suggestion. There's an incredible book floating around in my head and dreams but I don't know if it will ever be written as I agonize over every word of a tragic work so politically incorrect and in-your-face provocative that no publisher would touch it.

 

 

Now the casualty list that continues to grow.

The "CORVETTE" emblem on the rear bumper was already broken in half but the "TTE" fell off and I'm driving a "CORVE". I knew about that immediately.

I've developed a new transmission fluid leak that appears worse than the ones I repaired. I checked the level immediately upon coming home so I think the leak started shortly afterwards. I'd say nearly an ounce on the garage floor. Haven't yet lifted the car to find the location(s) of the leak(s).

The starter sounds sick and barely gets the car running. Previously it sounded OK if a touch coarse. Battery fully charged. Maybe it's just a worn wiring issue but the solenoid engages strongly and immediately.

The driver window that I have spent hours and hours trying to adjust properly on three different occasions still isn't right. That was the last repair I made and thought it was finally good. I can't get the inboard/outboard tilt adjustment correct at both the front and rear of the glass at the same time. Correct at the front and it's always too tight at the rear to raise fully with the door closed. Correct at the rear and it's too far out in the front and won't seal near the top of the glass. I completely disassembled everything in and on both of the doors for cleaning/lubrication/repair of bad parts. I didn't replace the regulator rollers on the driver side (they seemed find) but did replace the other rollers. I replaced all of the rollers on the passenger side which worked absolutely perfectly simply by putting all of the adjustment nuts onto their original witness marks (they weren't there when I disassembled). The gap between the door shell and the inner metal frame is inconsistent on the driver side and it really looks to me as if it is slightly deformed in a couple places along the top edge where it makes a 90 degree turn. I've used pressure and a rubber mallet to get the gap consistent (like the passenger side) but still think there's some distortion right by where the front and rear vertical guides attach.