Hi All,

I've been looking around for my first 73 corvette and found one with the following pictures of the underside. What are your thoughts on the underside of this one? I am trying to avoid a rusty car or one with frame damage. Does anything jump out to you? I'm not looking for an original car or one in excellent condition, just a good condition run-and-driver.

Any help/comments would be much appreciated! Thank you

 

I am trying to avoid a rusty car or one with frame damage.

I see plenty of rust.

 

Kind of hard to tell but I have seen a lot worse being from the East coast.

 

it doesn't look so bad to me but you have to check body mounts and around windshield. also depends on price of car. it should be pretty low.

 

It doesn't look too bad. You want to pull the kick panels if you can and see what's there. Here's my CA car. Lot's of surface rust and pitting but after sand blast, all the welds were solid, so I had it powder coated and everything has been good.

 

by far the most expensive item to concern yourself about is the rear wheel bearings and trailing arm bushings. You can drop a couple of thousand real fast in that area.

 

The frame doesn't appear to be 'rotted' badly. It has some heavy surface rusting, but doesn't appear to have loss of structural integrity. You would need to check at the kick-up areas at the rear wheels to make a good judgement on that. Grab a medium sized Phillips screwdriver in your better hand, then make a hard stab at the frame metal in that area. If it doesn't pierce the frame, break off loose sheets/chunks of rust, or give a dull/muted sound when you stab it, it probably still has plenty of strength in it.

A badly rusted frame shows heavily rusted areas that a bubbled or have irregular raised surfaces on it. That frame (while rusty) still appears to be relatively smooth.

 

From what your pictures show there is just surface rust. Need to look at the body mount locations. Noticed there is a oil leak, either a rear main seal or transmission over filled. The bell housing is a lakewood scatter shield used in racing applications , there not cheap. clue to the vehicles past . Bubba has been into the wiring under the hood. Thats not a big problem to straighten up.

 

Looks like newer calipers rear, exhaust brackets look wrong..
scattershiel, rusted headers and chrome aircleaner to me says driven pretty hard..
like others said check rust areas but looks fair

 

id take that over what i have worked with

looks like a decent car., of course pull kick panels and inspect the windshield frame carefully.
my 69 had rust raining down. 68 looked good till i pulled window trim.

 

It’s not bad at all.......Theres some surface rust, but no holes or huge flakes peeling. Thats what most of our frames look like, even after sanding and priming and painting, and waiting a few years.... Anyway, as long as the birdcage and body mounts are good, I’d buy it.

 

i think most everyone is saying ya don’t look that bad but check the areas you cannot see in a pic ...
op asked for looks..opinions..

 

thats surface rust. Look at the first three pics in front of the rear tire. To the far left and right you'll see the frame plug at the kick up. That will rust through before anything else because of the water, salt and grit from tire rotation. The passenger side would be a better indicator as most road salt and water rud to the outside of the crown of the road. You are searching for a car the way I did. Solid frame and undercarriage, then body free from damage with good paint. The rest is pocket money if you are a good mechanic.

around here the frame will rust from the inside out as well because of humidity, mine is and will need to be replaced some day. If you can see big flakes inside the frame drain holes, I mean big flakes that wont fit through the holes then you may have something to look at but these pics you show are fine underneath. Lookk at the front body mounts in the footwells behind the kick panels. If those are bad theres a good chance your windshield frame is too. If you look at the edges of the windshield frame around the glass you can spot rust sometimes. As well as openning the doors and looking up into that area

 

The surface rust looks pretty normal to me, I have seen newer cars in far worse condition. I always recommend you check four body mounts on each side of the car, specifically #2, #3, and #4 body mounts. My 74 looked good until I started to dig a little and this was my #4 body mount area. It was hidden and not easily visible.

How much work do you want to do to the car? Pulling the engine and transmission? Pulling the body off? What are your goals for the car? Knowing this ahead of time might make buying a nicer car less expensive in the long run.
Good luck with your decision and good that you got it up on the lift for pictures.
David Howard
AllVettes4Me

 

I live in central New York where we drop 9 billion metric tons of salt on the roads every time it snows. ALL our cars look like that after 6 to 8 years....

That frame is fine. Your rust is all on the surface and if the car is kept in a warm, dry environment, it wont worsen.

 

Something to think about in the future is that I noticed the exhaust fabricator failed to put any joints in the system. Either a butt joint or slip-on joint. The entire pipe from the header reducer to the muffler tip is all one solid piece. There is a joint just behind the reducer but w/o clamps. Might be welded also.

Someday you will likely have to do some work on the differential, spare tire tub or the leaf spring which requires removal of part of the exhaust pipes.

Also, Rear Spring bolt / cushion kit is in order. Otherwise, looks pretty good.

 

I agree. But you can also see rust inside the frame too. Doesn't look too severe yet. If you want to clean things up a bit, especially the visible parts, wire brush some items like the leaf springs and rear suspension, frame, etc. Remove a few of the stamped-tin covers on the floor and glass-bead them, repaint, then shoot some paint on the underside. Fix the fiberglass crack on the rear tire carrier before that piece falls out and a small fix becomes a big one. Or just leave as it. I see rust on the inside of the frame probably from sitting on a concrete floor in a non-conditioned space for many years. Moisture moves through concrete way more than people think. I would avoid sandblasting areas on the car. It gets into places ya can't get out and IMO causes more trouble that it's worth.

Yes, the windshield frame should be looked at if your goal is to preserve. It's like a U-channel where water can't drain out of. I suspect the top of the windshield surround on the ends is corroded worse than you'd think. Might even have some pinholes. Probably has pinholes. Pinholes allow water leak down inside the A-pillars which soon leads to major structural rust. GM used to spray an expanding foam inside the pillars to prevent wind blowing into the cabin (not sure on 73's). That foam traps the moisture and holds it there. Even my car from the LA area had fairly deep rust pits in the windshield frame (no holes fortunately). Not trying to scare you, just educate and give you the tools to look and hopefully interrupt any corrosion ahead of time.

My personal suggestion would be to remove the top stainless covers and look at it. Pay attention to the water sealing as you do so you can replicate upon install (use 3M non-hardening "Bedding Compound" [Amazon] to re-seal per OEM). If you find any pinholes on the outer edges of the top channel (about where the visors screw to), then you could either sandblast and cover the pinholes ...or remove the windshield and blast all around the frame (which probably also has pitting), re-do any metalwork, repaint, and put the windshield back in. The windshield can literally be removed in less than 15 minutes (5-min by a window guy) with a wire and 2-dowels, so not as big of a job as it sounds.

Or you could ignore the whole thing and just go on with life until it get to be an issue that can't be ignored.

[Edit] The intake air filter area is pretty small in terms of air filtering capability.

Good luck!

.

 

Thank you all for the very valuable insights! Happy such a great place as this forum exists. Seems from the responses the rust isn't too bad, but I need to check in person the body mounts and frame. If this car doesn't work out, I'm still excited to start my first C3 project!

 

Not rust related, but
What's the story on the engine. Not a stock 73 with the oil fil hole in front, valve covers, intake, etc.

 

That style Intake with the oil fill was a replacement. It does not indicate what the short-block is or what year it is. Old schoolers love those types of Intakes and they are still available from Eddy. With that style of Intake, you can use the "closed" valve covers.

As a side note; it amazes me how people will put a 600-800 CFM carb on, then choke it off with a garden tractor air cleaner that flows 100-200 CFM?