I'm starting the research process of purchasing my first C3 corvette. I'm very new to this but have been learning a lot from the many resources available, particularly this forum.
There are several 1980 cars that I'm interested in but would like some support in inspecting the cars. I also want to start making some personal connections with highly regarded folks who might help with upgrades and modification.
I'm in Westchester County, just north of New York City.

I would appreciate any input you might have.

Thanks

 

can you post links to the cars showing detailed pictures?
are you aware there is a club in your area called Westchester Corvettes, https://westchestercorvettes.godaddysites.com/

 

Thanks for the response. I was actually on the NCCC site earlier and didn't see the Westchester club. The site seemed dated. But your's is exactly the kind of input I'm looking for.
The couple of cars I will be looking at shortly are below. One is in CT and the other is in Philadephia.
The pictures probably aren't very useful but I plan on taking more when I see the cars.

I plan on seeing them on my own initially (bringing a checklist that I got from this forum), but before I pull the trigger, I would like to have someone who knows C3s have a look.
I'll definitely check out the Westchester Club. Any other feedback is greatly appreciated.

Does anyone have any experience with Gateway Classic cars in Philly, or 34motorco in CT?

https://classics.autotrader.com/clas...DtMbOm9k.email
http://www.34motorco.com/ProdDetails...id=123&pid=118

 

Hi Andy,

I'm a member of that club -- proper link is: https://www.westchestercorvettes.com/

I am an avid C3 collector, I have a 1980 and a 1971. I'd be more then happy to check out cars with you and introduce you to locals who share our passion for C3s in the area.

PM me and we'll exchange info. This site is also pretty good at spotting things in ad's so posting here never hurts!

 

read the sticky "10 rules before buying"

it saved my butt
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...-corvette.html

welcome aboard,

 

I just PMd you. Thank you very much!

 

Thank you!
For those who haven't seen it, I thought it might be helpful to attach a buyers checklist that I found at the corvette action center: https://www.corvetteactioncenter.com/tech/buying.html

Any additional suggestions for someone very new to this are appreciated. The checklist appears to be light on structural rust assessment which, from what I've learned for this forum, is probably the most important thing. .

 

Here are the techniques I use to save myself from buying a rust bucket:

1. Remove the kick panel from both the driver and passenger side to examine the front body mounts. You are looking to make sure there is little to no rust, rust in here typically means that bird cage has problems and you want to stay away.

Removing the kick panels is easy on an 80, there is a single screw on the far edge deep in the footwell, unscrew it and then slide the panel out.

2. Put the car on a lift, and look on the frame kickups in front of the rear wheels, you want to see a solid frame, surface rust is okay, but holes are a no no, poke and prod it with a screwdriver to make sure its solid

3. With the car on a lift look behind the passenger rear wheel at the fuel line which rides on top of the frame. This line if rusted more or less requires the body to come off the frame to replace. So this line better be good!

4. Look all around the windshield frame, is the seam sealer there? Is there any visible rust near the vin plate, can you see rust peeking out under the interior trim along the windshield frame. That too is a bad sign.

I can lead you through a bunch of other checks etc you should do when buying the car so that you know what you are buying and lessen (you can never get to 0) the chance that you buy a car you are unhappy with.

 

Engine, trans, carpet, seats. These are much easier to deal with than structural problems. So if you see one the body's nice it's got good bones but the seats are torn up, use the torn-up seats of the price lowering device. But don't turn your back on it because cosmetics are a little ugly. But also don't buy it because the Cosmetics are ugly Alone. Look under the Cosmetics. Look close.

 

Thanks for the great input. My goal is to replace/rebuild the drivetrain....not a financial decision, but I want the learning experience. So I'm looking for something with moderate to high mileage, but well cared for otherwise, and no rust.

I completely agree with the comment on cosmetics.

Any feedback on my plan is appreciated.

Thanks

 

Good choice on year! 80s are favorite. Keep checking Craigslist, and this forum, for better deals than you are likely to get from a dealer. The dealer already did just that, and is now flipping the car for a few $K more without adding any real value.

It looks like you got the warning on rust already. Really do pull off the kick panels and look. Also look between the frame and the body at that location from below (the car may need to be on a lift, or get creative with a camera). Rust is the real killer of these cars. Anything else can be fixed*.

*Paint costs a LOT of money. $10K is not an extraordinary amount to spend these days. I hope to build/swap an engine eventually, and I'm looking forward to that. It won't be wasted money, to me, to drop in an modern drivetrain. I'd feel terrible dropping the same amount of money on paint, though, so try to find a car that looks good now, even if the mechanicals need some work.

Not judging, just asking, are you planning to swap the automatic for a manual?

Good luck, and post pictures!

 

Thanks for input!
I'd like to find a black 79/80 with manual but theyre hard to come by. But yes I am thinking about swapping an auto for manual.
Feel free to provide input. I'm very open to it.

Andy

 

I'm attaching some pix of a 1980 that I saw today. I would appreciate any feedback.
This is my first inspection and I'm very new to this but it looks like frame and suspension is in very good shape.

This is the first time I'm posting pictures on this forum, so if I'm doing anything wrong, my apologies in advance.
I have additional pictures that I couldn't fit in this post so I'll send another shortly.
I'm prob going to rebuild engine so I didnt focus too much time there.

I appreciate any input.

 

Additional pix of the 1980 vette.

 

Car looks solid to me. Body mounts look acceptable, the kickup you show and the key fuel line look good. The brake you show looks brand new. Assuming the windshield frame is clean which I assume it would be I don't think you'll have to worry about rot on this one. Even the rubber to me looks acceptable.

 

Hi a,
I agree with TL that the car looks pretty solid underneath.
I'm really more familiar with earlier car's so I don't exactly what to look 'for' and 'at' on a chassis from an 80.

The one thing I noticed is the 'extra' washers on the bolt that runs from the trailing arm to the end of the spring.
Typically there'd be 2. One at the very top.. between the head of the bolt and the upper bushing and one just above the nut on the bottom of the lower bushing.

Why they're there I don't know. Their effect is that they raise the 'ride height' of the rear of the car perhaps 1/2".

What's the rest of the car look like?
Regards,
Alan

 

The rest of the car is in good shape...body and paint are very good. Seller told me the car has 18k miles but the interior looks like it has much more...but not in bad shape at all. A couple of more pix attached....

 

FWIW, my '80 shows about 16K miles on the dash. I have a receipt from 1998 that shows the car had 98K miles on the dash, so my best guess is 116K total. Perhaps that is what happened to the car you are looking at. Unless it has been replaced, the miles on a car can be guessed by looking at the wear on the brake pedal.

That said, this car looks very clean, with hardly any rust. If you are going to restomod it anyway, with an LS engine and a T-56 6-speed, you'll end up replacing that brake pedal.

 

Yeah, 118k is much more likely. Also looks like the rear bumper has been replaced. Are you happy with the color match and fitment of it? To me in that light the color looks off, but I can't tell on fitment

 

Thanks to all for the input. The wealth of knowledge on this forum is amazing.
I have all of one inspection of experience under my belt, but I could definitely make an argument that the interior and engine bay, although very clean, look closer to 118k. But whats interesting is that the frame and body look like something from a much lower mileage car thats been sitting for awhile. Whatever the true mileage is, Im sure it's closer to 118k thank 18k.

This was a good learning experience but with every car buying experience, I always try to consider other colors but end up choosing black. Thats probably the direction I'm going to head here.

I'm probably heading out to the midwest to see a couple of cars this week. I'll post some info and would definitely appreciate continued feedback and advice.

One of the things I find interesting is that I'm learning that a 1979/80 C3 in very good condition is supposed to be somewhere between $10 - $13K, but I made some inquiries this weekend on cars in the $16-$18k range and the sellers had almost zero interest in budging from their prices,
Thankfully there are a heck of a lot of cars out there.

Thank you all very much.