demunn

We recently inherited a 1982 CE from my father who has basically stored it for about 34 years. Upon cleaning it up an recalling my late teen years with muscle cars, I notice that the odometer turns over at 100K miles. I know there were many of these editions made and probably some out there with lower miles but I was wondering how/if we should certifiy the actual mileage on this vehicle? We don't plan on putting more than a few hundred miles a summer on it going forward and I'd like to keep it under 10K for as long as possible.

Any thoughts/opinions on this?

DM

KingRat

Do you have receipts for work done that show the progression of the mileage?

vettebuyer6369

Kie

Zoomin

Condition? It's easy to tell the difference between an 8,000 mile car and 108,000.

My opinion is you should drive it and not worry about the miles. The difference in value between 10,000 miles and 25,000 isn't enough to justify not enjoying the car.

Check out the age of the tires. If they're that old, they may be shot and still look good - a blowout can tear the heck out of fenders. If they are original, take them off and toss them in the attic.

Also, since you're new here you probably don't know, there's a long standing rule that if you're new to the site or acquired a new car, you have to post pictures of it.

KingRat

With that said, IF you do start putting miles on a car that old with that few miles, hoses, belts, seals, will start to fail and you will end up replacing them. THAT will definitely hurt the value of the car if you ever decide to sell. I sold '77 and '79 Trans Am SEs with 12k and 6k miles respectively. Those cars commanded a premium over similar cars because everything was the way it left the factory. OK forum... flame on.

Zoomin

And everyone knows that about buying an old car. Unless the buyer is a museum or an NCRS Duntov aficionado no one really is going to ante up for an big bucks for an 82 and really don't have the demand Trans Ams do.

KingRat

The OP seems concerned about preserving his father's car in its current condition. I personally cannot say what "everyone" knows so I thought I would be helpful and point out, from experience, driving low mile cars will quickly cause trans leaks, rear end leaks, original dated belts to break, original hoses to leak, original lights to burn out, heater core leaks and a lot of other annoying things that happens as a result of a car sitting so long. I also respectfully disagree with you when you say "no one" is going to pay up for an '82 CE. I sold a very nice one last April for about half the price I have seen them sell for at auction when they are low mile survivor-type examples but, to each his own.

Zoomin

Scottd

Jeebus you guys get off topic quick. The OP wants to know how to keep track of his current and cumulative miles.

1) turn the location based service function on your phone 'on'
2) Take a picture of the odometer and of the car. Your phone will store a date, time and location with the photo.
3) Download this data to your computer, then a hard drive or cloud.

Do this every 6 months. It like a diary for your car. In 10 years when you go to sell it and you say 'its only got 13,000 miles on it, heres when I started tracking in July of 2018'....

Yeah, you could try and start collecting receipts, but receipt paper fades over time. You could go and get some notarized letter, but notaries dont mean **** nowadays. Its almost impossible to fool a phone with LBS turned on. They use time and live GPS data. Unless you are some crazy *** hacker, its a fail safe way to track history with your car.

Just my .02 y'all...................

Zoomin

Kevova

DMV records msy have mileage. With 8k moles should have most if not all the original parts on it. Reputable corvette expert could be helpful with a documented inspection of car. There are some maintenance parts that are unique to the "plant" along with date codes on other parts.

cv67

x2 with DMV, possibly old insurance paperwork? Again, 8k is obviou, dont worry about driving it you wont hurt value.
To want to use the car and leave all the rotten parts on it is insane...the next guy will wonder about replacing it all too, just do it and drive it, its sat long enough!

Its just a car not a hope diamond. No way is an original hose going to increase value over poping the hood and seeing all new expendables. Stck the old stuff in a box.
I saved the originals off another vette it meant nothing to the buyer, didnt want em. Some of ya get way too carried away with this.

derekderek

Pic of brake pedal and driver's seat. Grab left door (while open) and lift up and down. Pic of the tires. These are ways to tell 8k from 108k. Your father stored it 34 years? You were in the home while this beastie was in the garage most of your life? Then the orig 8k is pretty provable. Are you driving 36 year old tires? Some NCRS type will want them. Rims and all. Try to remount them and they are done.

2TONE82

I'll second the DMV records search...our 1982 was fairly low mileage when we purchased her...had three previous owners from Ohio to FL. It took some time but I was able to find DMV records for inspections and actually able to get copies of title transfers documenting mileage.

On a side note - this is why it's important for us car guys to at least make sure our kids/grandkids know where the important documentation is stored for our cars and what it all means. I have a few spare parts - a date code match spare set of t-tops for instance - that the family knows about should/when something happens to me plus a bunch of original paperwork, build sheet maintenance records etc.

L-46man

I agree with Cuisinart....I too have a very low mileage CE....bought with 17,800 on the odo.

I ran the carfax and it agreed with the mileage. It agreed with me being the second owner.

Searching insurance, emissions, and DMV records is one way to chart the changes. Photographing the odo carefully with a date code is a good idea.

I disagree with some posters about original belts and hoses and such. There is a fine line between 37 years old and 'decrepit' and replacing the components with OEM type, date coded et al components. I chose the latter.

But this thread gave me a good idea...."How do you REALLY KNOW if a C-3 has 8,000 miles or 108,000.....there are dozens of 'tricks' to tell the difference immediately.

UnkaHal