~Stingray

Hey Guys,

I will try to keep this short....I am looking for someone (or people) who would be willing to help me work on my car (and theirs if needs be). I am not an expert, but I have learned a lot over the years. However, I prefer someone who knows mechanics to be there for some of the bigger projects that need to be done. I really want to do this right the first time. I don't have a lot of money so I can't afford to learn the hard way nor do I want to be one of those people whose car catches fire because I hooked something up incorrectly. I know its still possible with experts, but two heads are better than one. And I am not saying you need to be a certified mechanic. If you feel you are knowledgeable about a project and would tackle it yourself, then that is all I am looking for.

I am eager to learn and willing to help too. Basically looking for a mentor(s). I have a decent set of tools and garage to work in - however, I could bring the car to you.

I have tried looking into taking classes, but they are all offered as full day classes that last several
months. I can't really take off work for that long nor do I have the funds for classes like that. And the last few car clubs I was in, no one was really willing to help. They would talk with you about your car all day, but when it came to getting their hands dirty, they would blow you off.

This is more than just about learning how to fix/restore a car, its about camaraderie and meeting new people too; it's about having some fun. I also don't mind if more than one person wants to come. If someone else wants to learn as well and one guy is willing to teach, AWESOME! And once I learn, I have no problem sharing it with others. I love to teach! I hope out of this entire community, someone would enjoy this as much as I would.

Immediate projects I need to complete:
- replace exhaust manifold seal
- figure out why my car is running so rich. (Its really rich, standing in the garage as I back up the car makes your eyes water)

There are other things I want to do, but those are not needs and can be discussed at a later time.

I live in Indianapolis, IN.

Thanks.

MelWff

Not close enough to help but have you purchased either a hard copy or CD of the factory Chassis Service manual for your car?

~Stingray

Yes, I have both. I have used it a few times, but felt it gave me more questions than before I opened it.

Easy Mike

http://www.ncrs.org/in/

~Stingray

Thanks Mike, I will check out what I find on there.

I have to admin I was really hoping someone would just be excited and volunteer...."lets do stuff this weekend"! lol

gerry72

While it certainly does make a difference having an experienced had to guide you, most things you would do can come from the distance of the Internet. Not quite as assuring, but for the most part, it just take more care and time to get to the same place.

Your exhaust manifold, for instance, is nothing more than three nuts at the flange junction. Not much to it, but you have to know to give the nuts a good dose of Liquid Wrench (or other penetrating product) to help the bolts to come loose, and what it feels like at the wrench when the nuts are still seized on the manifold stud and how to gently work the nuts back and forth a tiny bit at a time while continuing to spray the penetrant. There are no gaskets at the manifold to cylinder head interface, so you would be referring only to the flange doughnut gasket and maybe a flat gasket for a heat riser at the same pipe to manifold junction. Yes, it would be hell if you snapped off one of the manifold studs but you can avoid this if you are careful on your disassembly.

What you describe as a rich condition can have a number of causes so that one is not quite straight forward in running down the issue, but it's still based upon measurements and abundant detail in describing symptoms of the problem.

I'm not wiring off that you'll find someone who can be a guiding hand in this, but even if you don't get that, you can still find the help you need right here.

69L46

You might also look for a local Corvette club. There's always a few members who are willing to help others in the area, from my experience.

Easy Mike

https://www.google.com/#q=corvette+c...=1497370484573

xpoc454

What side of town town do you live in INDY?
I live on SE side. I am no expert but Ive fixed a lot of stuff on my 69.

~Stingray

West side, Speedway. Just off the interstate. I can hear the cars practice on the Motor Speedway sometimes.

~Stingray

I wish I could say the same from my experience. I was in several clubs over the last few years and no one ever volunteered. They would use a bunch of jargon that I wasn't familiar with and that would be it.

xpoc454

I was in a local club for a while here in Indy. Problem is, none of them have the older cars. Out of around 100 members I think there were maybe 2-3 C3s. I thought about joining a muscle car club. At least they would be working on their cars more.

caskiguy

From a novice who bought a 1970 Coupe to completely restore, "You Can Do It" ! The fella who replied to you from the Indy area I'm sure thinks the same contact him and have no fear. Practice "Safety Everyday"!
Buy the necessary manuals, CD's and take your time. It will be less intimidating if you set up a plan of attack and follow the plan.
Good Luck and I hope you find the experience/challenge as exciting as I do.
Btw,"take pictures" of everything before and after you work on something. Bag and tag any parts for long term, use weber grill trays or such to hold small parts disassembled.
And lastly, Ask questions on this forum for there is a vast resource of knowledge here.

First time breaking down a engine compartment.



First time taking apart a dash/interior.

69L46

That's too bad..kind of a main point for one to be involved with it, IMO.

Procrastination Racing

Wow, this begs for a thousand things to be said. And I could write all night about it. But I need to go to bed so I'll try to cut this down somewhat.

First, if you are looking for friends and fellow car people, you need to actually open up a bit. Your profile has nothing, or is closed. Hey, you don't have to put your SSN in there, but you need something like name: Dave, location: Speedway, IN, etc.

I have no idea of your age, but guessing you have had your Corvette about 6 years. Few buy them at 21, same with 31, so odds are you are older. That makes things tough.

Back in ancient history, I joined a Corvette club and it was basically in two halves: about one half were early Twenties, the other half mostly Thirties with a few older.

One group was almost all single, the other had kids but trying to keep that dream alive with their Corvettes.

As such, all of us 20-somethings began to drift together and as things happened, we would help each other out with little things, until we got to working on fairly intense projects together.

The older guys didn't get into working on their cars that much, having more resources and thus having better cars not needing work.

So odds are if you are an older guy, then finding other older guys working on their cars will be a bit rough.

Finding younger guys will be easier, but how well are you going to fit? And most younger guys who work on their cars aren't into Corvettes, typically going for the import cars.


NCRS guys, as a general rule, will be split into having work done or having finished cars or they will be only interested in restoration stuff. Helping you swap an automatic for a 4 speed won't get them excited to come help you.

NCCC guys if you can find them, were more car performance oriented, so they would be more incline to work on cars and do the daily nitty gritty of things needed.

And then there are the guys who are into some muscle car or cruising club or such who are also more inclined to working on their cars.

I'd hit the local cruise nights and the local shows. Talk to people, see what is going on, and look for the activities.



Remember, to get a friend, you need to be a friend. If you hear someone talking about needing to do some work, volunteer to help. They would be more incline to help you after. And even if they don't, you'll learn some things from helping them.

You'd think it would be easier with the Internet, being able to connect to so many so fast, but instead, most don't want to connect more than through a keyboard.

I've thought about the Craigslist type thing. In the strictly platonic section was supposed to be a place to advertise for things like this, where you could say "Hey, we are running up the River Road on Saturday. Anyone wanting to go, meet at 9 am at 4 Corner Shell Station." But most times I have looked, it is just more sex pedaling outside the MFW, MFM, WFM, etc. classifications. Occasionally, there are people looking for fun activities, but rarely.



And even if you get a club going or find a local club, Corvette or not, the odds that it won't do much is unfortunately high. While at Boeing, one guy had formed the Boeing Employees Car Club for any and all car activities. Go to shows. Go on road tours. Work on projects together. help each other out. Whatever anyone wanted to do.

It started off well, monthly lunch time meetings of about a dozen and a little less on a monthly evening meeting. But getting people out to an event was like impossible. One of the early road tours had 4 people. He was discouraged, but I insisted we go anyway and everyone will hear about the good time we had and not want to miss the next one.

Well, we went on about 5 different tours. It never got bigger. Meetings decreased to about four on the evening and the same at lunch.

I'm not saying this to be discouraging, but it seems that most people just aren't interested anymore. I have no idea why.




Probably your best bet on this forum is to post a message with a title like:

Speedway, IN: Working on taking out my rear suspension this weekend. Anyone want to come over?

or


Indy area: working on my car this weekend. Want to come over?


and of course, bump those up for a couple of days before you do work on it. Maybe someone in the area will come help.

Good luck.

~Stingray

Wow, thanks for the write-up. Allow me to respond to some of your comments...

1.) I am my early 30s. Bought the car back in 2011 so I have owned it for about 6 years. Never really had to do much to it until now. So I am learning as I go out of necessity. For example, I lost braking power while at Carlisle last year. Come to find out that all 4 calipers had started leaking. So I had to replace those. Luckily I knew someone who was comfortable with doing that to hang out and help. It wasn't a hard project and I have changed rotors and pads before but it was nice to work with someone for peace of mind as almost every project I do will be the first and maybe even the last time. So its not like i have a chance to really build muscle memory. And it bleeding brakes by yourself is almost impossible if you don't have special tools.

2.) You have got to be the first person I know who has ever told me I need to be more open and more friendly. lol. I am pretty much an open book, but when it comes to posting PII online, I try to refrain. There is enough identity theft as is, I believe 1 in 9 now. The less my personal info in out there for anyone to find the better. But that is just on forums and online accounts. If you want to hang out and get to know me more, by all means, send me an email and we can chat. But to post on a public forum where even non-members could find the info, just seams unnecessary. My facebook (don't know why I even have it still) page has all false information about me, haha. A little paranoid, ya, probably. But my job exposes me to that kind of stuff.

3.) I try to help when I can. But most of the time issues that show up on here are things I have not done. Hence the reason for asking for help. If I find a thread I am knowledgeable about, I will post and offer help. I even try to do so in every day life. Just yesterday I replaced a light bulb in a lady's car. She was talking to my cube-mate and I offered to help. The shop wanted to charge her $120 to change the light bulb.

4.) I don't think craigslist is the best place to post for help, not the safest place to invite people over to your house. Granted, there could be predators on here too, but I think the chance are less likely.

5.) I know what you mean about the car club. I stared one at my last job. Several actually. Sports, cars, motorcycles, etc. I got mailing lists that people could sign up for and communicate with fellow hobbyists. Every one was so excited, sending me "thank you for organizing this" messages. When it came time to pick a date to meet up. No one wanted to. It was very disappointing.

Thanks for the ideas and encouragement. There has been one guy who has posted already, maybe that will work out in the near future. Hopefully we can get some people to get together and work on cars regularly. Hell, if we get done with all our projects maybe we will get to the point where we just hang out and change someone's oil for the heck of it.

xpoc454

Hah, my car club that I was in. I was the youngest in my 40s. Everyone else was 60+.
I work on the west side and often eat lunch in speedway. I will be going to the bloomington Gold show at the Track, next Friday. I haven't been to one before but I hope to mostly check out the parts booths.

~Stingray

Awesome. I am planning to go too, but probably not until Saturday. With getting off work later in the day, I don't want to rush through. If you change your mind about Saturday. Let me know, we can meet up.

~Stingray

bump...

itomh

It's going to **** rain all day Friday, Saturday is your better day to stay dry and booth checking. This will be my second year going, but first year while owning a Vette myself, 2008 C6 Z06, can't wait! I'm not to far from you, I'm in Zionsville.