My first C3, an 81, gives me a taste for more - dam I love the shape of these cars! I'm thinking early roadster, so I have been prowling the used car listings over the winter. All the cars look great in the low res web images, and there are a fair number of em out there, but how many are worth bothering with? Restoring? Given my first (fairly favorable) ownership/refurbi$hing experience, and reading about some of the experiences of those on this group, I suspect that the C3 population worth bothering with may be quite small. I am not a barn find guy, God bless them all. And given the magnitude of effort and $ required to keep a classic in reasonable shape, meaning you don't have to be a hero to bring it back to life, the worthy population of C3s will likely decline rapidly over the next decade or so because the generation of people likely to put the effort an $ into the cars will also decline. Please tell me why I'm wrong.

 

Spot on I think....we I was young ( mid to late 1970's ) cars were always a BIG thing for me. If I wasn't driving or working on my car I was looking at other cars on used car lots. Now most young guys I know couldn't care less about cars. They are viewed as a necessary appliance... only time will tell.

 

Why are you wrong? We are getting older, physically weaker, and our pensions have other priorities.

 

Having a body that won't rust out, I suspect that Corvettes have a higher percentage of surviving cars than just about any other American car (but I don't have the data to prove it). Owner who have them usually care for them. Ones in poor condition usually get picked up for a 'song' and brought back to life. I think the only ones that go to the scrap yard are cars that get totaled (doubt that many C3's have that happen to them).

 

Does this relate to this subject?
Why dont i see c3s in traffic any more i saw two or three back a year ago when we moved but not once since,
Do people feel they are too nice to drive,
Are people too spoiled to newer cars creature comforts to take the c3 or are most c3s in too poor a condition to drive?
When my 69 is up again it will get driven daily,
But i have to wonder is lack of c3s seen on the road a reflection they are dwindling away?

 

Bats, I think you are right about the creature comfort thing. After getting carried away fixing up my 6t8, it' almost to much to drive on a daily basis. So I got a loaded 69 with all the creature comforts and in the last 4 years put almost 20k mi. on it. If you read any vette mags, the c3s in them are so far over the top I wouldn't even drive then and I think that is where a lot of them are. But then you go to a car show and there is always a lot of C3s there and they are local cars and I never see them on the road. T

 

I bought my 81 because I couldnt afford a chrome bumper C3. I use it as my daily driver, and am taking it from Atlanta to Michigan and back in March. Since everything in the interior seems to be around 500 bucks (carpet, around 500 bucks, seats recovered, around 500 bucks, etc), I'll slowly work on the non mechanical issues. Needs paint, but I want to learn to do that myself. I also see them at shows, but rarely on the street, and the C7 guys won't even bless me with a glance, let alone a wave.

 

I see a c3 every once in a while thats it, and it may be the same one. When I joined this forum 13 years ago they were a lot more, the wave was in full swing. I've had my latest c3 a year and I haven't received one wave from any corvette. I don't see many c3's at car shows either.

 

You may be right...I been a corvette owner for the past 18 years..Own a 73 convertible and a 91 ZR-1..I think one of the reasons you see a dwindling population of C-3s is the performance factor of the newer Vettes..

Don't get me wrong I think a chrome bumpered C-3 with a big block hood and side pipes are still one of theeee nicest sports cars ever produced, but I'm 53......The younger generation can pick up a C-5 Z06 with some nice mods making 420-450 RWHP for the same price as a nice C-3 chrome bumpered coupe...A C-5 convertible can be picked up for lower than the asking price of some C-3s I see advertised..

In my opinion cars are meant to be driven, even if it less than a thousand miles a year....Buying a car and looking at it makes no sense....True, I do see a fair amount of C-3s at shows sometimes but rarely see them driven around town...

 

Here on the west side of Chicago I think I saw one or two C3s at the car shows all of last year and I don't see any on the road,once and awhile you'll see one one for sale in a driveway for sale.I know of two that are in garages but the owners don't drive them,one of them was being restored but the owner gave up on it and bought a newer one.

 

I'm 71 years old and have owned 8 different Corvettes since 1966 and presently drive a 78 Pace Car. Note the key word, DRIVE. Being retired and living in Florida you can drive a classic car year round and I do. I go to several car shows a month and only see a handful of C-3s of which mine is one. I put about 5000 miles a year on my Pace Car and only have 53,000 miles on it at this point. At this rate, I can drive it 10 more years and have just over 100,000 miles on it when I'm 81. But I do think that because of the cost and effort required to keep a C-3 on the road and the lack of interest of the younger generation, they will slowly disappear except for those on display in museums. And that is too bad! JMO.

 

Yesterday was the first day in a few months, that was a nice sunny day (albeit only around 45 degrees).
I had the urge to go for a drive in one of my non-driver type cars.
I own a '39 Ford Deluxe coupe 283, 4spd, a '40 Ford P/U a mild Kustom with a built up flathead, a bone stock '48 Ford coupe, a '64 FJ40 Landcruiser (presently restoring), and my '71 Vette (avatar)
My choice..the '39 Coupe, The most fun/most appreciated of my cars.
My '71 Corvette, unfortunately gets driven very rarely, as it's farther down the line..maybe I should think about selling it.

 

Bought my '72 in '95, old show car, see pix below....and so I keep modifying it as years go by, nothing stock, literally, from wheels through roof, NOTHING...stem through stern...NOTHING...except the chrome bumpers and they up for powder coating.....

some 30 years ago a neighbor just down the block and I met up via having same baby sitter for our daughters.....he had a '35? Ford rumble seat convertible....he was resto the car to V8 Ford club regional winner standards.....I kept saying to make a hotrod out of it.....steel body and all...but he paid like 13k for it, and sold it ten years later for only 15k, because everyone that ever wanted one as a kid, was outta the market....BUT as a hotrod, he could have gotten 50 grand, easy....

same with the vettes....and so my son is age 34 now and out in Ca....so he got his FIL's old '57 Chebby pickup, dropped an LS/trans in it...and upgrading all the truck, built a wood bed for it....etc....

and so Son/Grandson are chips off the old (cylinder) block......

edit.....I have extensively modified the seating/gas/brake pedals, and interior to make it comfy for ME, but wife can still drive it so it's not all THAT heavily modified, one large thing for ME is that is does NOT have that stupid uncomfortable lower (lumbar) back support forcing the spine forward....hurts enough without that crap, so the list of cars I can drive is very short......

 

If "disappear" means that they are in garages and can't be 'visually detected', then "Yes", they may be disappearing. But the many folks who still own C3's in drivable condition haven't decided to donate them all to charities so that they can be scrapped for pocket change.

They are still around; but the owners are older and may no longer care [or be willing] to work on them and/or drive them like they used to. Eventually, they will be sold...either by the owner or by their estate; and new owners will take possession of them.

When that happens, I suspect that MANY of them will go the "restomod" route, getting modern drivetrains. But the C2's and C3's will still be around.

 

My C3 is my regular driver. I work out the house so regular driver is about 750 miles a month. Everywhere I go I get comments. I openly share how little I paid for my car to encourage others to consider them as drivers. I paid $18,600 for my 78 S/A L82 4 spd car. Less than a 2 or 3 year old used Honda would run with about the same miles.
I think the C3's will be one of the cars that continue to go up in value. My car's biggest fans have been the 18 - 25 year old group.



I mean would you rather drive this or a 2012 Toyota??

 

Time is the all time evil. Things in the end wear out, rust out and just fall apart from neglect. I remember in early 80's a mid 70's corvette could be bought for $1K,parted out real fast and you could make a little cash on the side. Lost a lot of cars back then. Not surprised that fewer are seen today.

 

What about this picture of my car (78) on the track. My track days puts me in the oldest car on the track.

I see a few every year on the street but never at the track. Sometimes at the 1/4 mile drags.

 

But who will bring them back to life? Non of my kids or the kids of people I know. I suspect the rotting C3s will continue to rot until they are lost.

 

Yeah some of those high performance C7 owners, like my wife, think the C3's are a quaint piece of history. But I say to her, what will your C7 be like in 35 years? Will all those electronics still work or be replaceable at a reasonable cost?

Anyway, we've started doing the "corvette cruise" to the ice cream joint up the valley. The lady first with me tagging along behind. She says we get honked and waved at by other drivers. I miss it all cause my car is so loud and I have the music blaring!

 

That's great that you can use your 78 as your regular driver....I know the later 70s C-3s had better creature comforts than the earlier 70s including mine....
It's almost an impossibility in New York specifically Brooklyn where I live, to drive a C-3 year round.....Allthough the roads are decent by me, in other parts there horrendous.....Besides, there's just too much activity and crowds to be driving a C-3....I've had my 73 for 15 years...I've put 22,000 miles on her....She's no garage queen but you really have to watch where you park these rubber bumper Vettes .....If it's not in a parking lot than I look for a spot where there is a hydrant in front or, somewhere where they can't park in front of me...

12 MPG and 3:70 gears don't help either.....Lol