EscapeVette

Hi there -- Thanks in advance for the help!

I owned and redid a 1989 corvette when I was 18-20 and had a blast doing it. That said I did very little under the hood and it was all mostly cosmetic / electrical. I ended up selling that car five years ago because it just was too much work and I could never trust it enough to really enjoy it. Which is why I don't want to get into the same situation with this one.

I recently came across a 79' for sale that is pretty nice. I went and checked it out last night. It has some issues but nothing super major. Some of the issues:
Volt Gauge no longer functions
One decent sized amount of chipped fiberglass/paint on front
Cracked taillights
Cracked paint by taillights
Passengers side door handle isn't working
And a few misc others.

It's got a new engine which I'm an idiot I can't remember at the moment but it sounds pretty nice and pulls 420 horsepower according to the seller. The big issue for me is that the car has 146k miles on it (new engine only has 5000). I'm extremely worried about the transmission/frame/everything that's not the engine. The seller said she only drove it to car shows on the new engine for the past few years and its not keeping its charge very well because of that. Is there any advice you all may be able to give me or simply a "STAY AWAY"? Car is listed for $8k.

Easy Mike

Do you have pics of the car? It's a bit of a stretch to speculate about the car without seeing it. You've seen it; we haven't.

EscapeVette

Sure do! Fighting with this upload thing at the moment. Hopefully they came through.

EscapeVette

Not letting me upload for some reason -- Here's a link! https://unsee.cc/1c240ea6/

BigBlock77

Looks pretty nice to me. Take a loot at the Sticky at the top of this forum for some of the main points to look at before purchase. Good advice I wish I had been privy to when I bought mine nearly 25 years ago.

EscapeVette

Thanks! Will do!

62corvette

EscapeVette

Yes -- I have a friend who paints and he indicated any sort of "spot treatment" will just be lipstick. It's just a part of the aging process from what he says.

Kyle'56

Hello, Im not sure what your budget is but even the superficial problems can add up quickly. My suggestion is that you try to get a look at the birdcage and see if there is any rusting. This is difficult but see if you can pull a bit of carpet or paneling back without raising an eyebrow. You'll get a basic impression. For the chassis, try to get underneath the car with a flashlight. You can usually spot a rust encapsulator paint job pretty quickly. Or a leaky trans. Keep in mind it is an old car and leaks will happen. Identifying where and how bad will give you an idea of the repair burden. As far as the engine goes, its hard to say (Alternator? Distributor?). Try to find a trustworthy shop in the area and see if the owner would allow a mechanic to do an inspection. Regardless, I would reflect expenses in your offer.

PaPaPork

[QUOTE=EscapeVette;1598696375]Not letting me upload for some reason -- Here's a link! https://unsee.cc/1c240ea6/[/QUOTE

if there is no rust underneath and car drives and stops fine i say offer 7k and meet half way. Looks like a great car for the price

ps. Check tire dayecode and dont worry about the paint at this price range they all look like this or actually quite worse. At least you know it didnt have one of them cheap resprays hiding problems

edit: forgot to add, 79 owner here

C3 4ME

As a 79 owner, I'd say it looks pretty nice in the pictures. If there's no rust and it runs and drives well (aside from the discharging issue), I'd say it's not a bad deal. I like the look of the car and it looks pretty clean. Definitely check the date code on the tires. If those things check out, I'd offer maybe 6500, or 7000 and see what happens.

tpfarm

Looks like a pretty nice car at a decent price. I had a 78 with that color interior and never liked the color matching steering wheels of that era, the black steering wheel looks good. Good luck if you buy .

Peterbuilt

Sounds like a fair price but are you saying the battery will not charge?
If I was selling me Corvette I would fix that first.
Price out a front and rear bumper and the cost to paint and have it installed.
Original transmission with that many miles and with a lot of horsepower, that might need a rebuild sooner or later.
It's a pretty but very old used car, does the seller have any maintenance records?
Are you handy?