Hi guys,

I've had this for a few months now, but have just now gotten around to finding a forum to frequent. So thanks for having me. This 1977 came into my family's dealership, and I, being the Used Car Manager got to do the honors of buying it from the gentleman. I had a feeling I'd end up buying it . The engine numbers match the VIN, and it looks to be very original. The radio has been changed, and parts have been replaced, but overall it is a nice original car from what I can tell; it even has the horn ring.

I've always loved these C3s, and while 1971 would be my first choice, this was a very, very good buy, and I was in the position to buy it at the time. It is not without its issues, but they are nothing major. The oil gauge doesn't read correctly, nor does the water temp. When its cold out the transducer goes nuts, and I've already broken the speedo needle off once. It has a few oil leaks, but nothing major. It has an odd intermittent vibration at highway speeds. Kind of a vrooom vroom sort of feeling in my butt. Probably rear end, or transmission I would guess. The brights don't turn on, so I'll have to disassemble the column to fix that at some point. Everything else but the cruise control works, and I've all but given up finding the parts I need to get that working.

With it being this original, I'd like to keep it that way. I would like to get a bit more power out of the engine, so I might throw some new heads on, but nothing that won't be reversable. Certainly a new exhaust; I can't hear it over the radio, it isn't loud enough.

One question I do have, as I've never been in one. The HVAC control head only goes about 3/4 the way to left (towards cold), so I think it won't go to full heat. The heat in the car works, but I'm thinking the head is not allowing the blend door to open fully. Can that lever get stuck somehow? Is it worth pulling apart, or should I just find a replacement?

 

It’s been a while, but I think if you take the panel off the passenger side of the center console, you’ll find an adjustment on the blend door cable that you can try playing around with to see if you can fix that issue

 

Welcome to the forum !

Sweet 77 !

Don't let go of that horn button, they appear to be pretty rare !

 

Congrats! It looks like a great find.

 

Great year !
Great color !

You have the recalled horn button - Early build -

Happy Motoring !

Frank

 

Nice. Missing the distributor cover and original radio but other than that looks to be a very original '77! A very early build, no crossed flags on the fender. Funny how the first thing we '77 owners notice is that horn button!

 

Welcome to the forum and the orange 77 club.

 

Welcome to the forum. Where in AZ? We lived in Mesa for 20 years .

 

Welcome!. Great looking car.
Release the cable end from the blend door "arm".
Can you open/close the blend door fully now by using your fingers on the "arm"?
Does the cable core move freely when the control lever is moved left and right?

 

I have to ask, how did you manage to break the needle off of a 160 MPH speedo?

 

On that Blend door cable ,on my 77 ,just past the control arm on the passenger side of the console you will see a plastic tube inline on the cable it's a turnbuckle. If you turn it one way the arm on the control will go towards the hot side and if you turn it opposite it will go more toward the cold side ,you can adjust the arm so it is centered on the climate control face.

Also thats a good looking car

 

Thanks for the confirmation on the button!

I hadn't caught the distributor cover, thanks for that. Nor did I realize the missing flags were due to early production. I did know it was early because of the blue paint. I'm glad to know the body holes haven't been filled.

That is a great looking car!

Flagstaff. Love it up here.

Well. As we know 77 is one of the faster years It was really cold one morning and the speedometer just started jumping around once I got on the highway, and by the time I pulled over, it had slammed the needle fully right so many times it just snapped off. My guess is transducer as I lubed all the cables, pulled the speedo and tested it, and had no erratic movement.

Thanks for the tip on the blend door. I'll pull that side panel and see what I can find. I may have not lined it up properly when I had the speedo out now that I'm thinking about it. Thanks everyone.

 

Welcome to the forum and congrats on the new whip! Orange is of course the best color =)

 

Hwy noise you hear most likely Ujoints, need to get it up on a lift ck the wheels for play, pinion seal for leaks in case.

 

See that was my first though, but it is really intermittent. In my experience ujoints generally are bad, or they aren't. It probably should have new joints on all the driveshafts though.

 

Seeing that your '77 is so original, maybe you can help me with a mystery I've been chasing for a long time. Do you see a clip like this on the wires plugged into the AC compressor? If so, is it clipped in anywhere, or is it just hanging?

 

I am not sure, because colors can vary in pictures, but the orange on your car appears much darker than the Code 66 one year only orange in 1977. Your color appears to be more like Flame Orange used on the 76. Just FYI. My car is correct Code 66 orange for a 1977 for comparison.

 

Mine is exactly the same. Same clip, and there is no place to put it.

 

Thanks for reminding me. It definitely has been painted. The paint code on the door leads me to believe it was originally silver. That seems to be the only modification.

 

Thank you for the response.