I agree with Flyboy-if the car "floats your boat" go for it. I bought my 76 as a project roller with a fresh short block. I made sure the frame and birdcage were in good shape and dragged it home. I did it this way because I LOVE C3's and I wanted a C3 but didn't want to shell out a pile of $$ up front. So far I'm into the car for about $14.5K and I've yet to drive it. Crazy, right? But, I'm totally OK with it! When it's done, I'll have a wicked C3 like I've always wanted and I don't plan on ever selling it. I find it easier to spend a little money, out of pocket, over time than a bunch of money all at once. Plus-I know what's gone into the car now-no surprises. I say go for it! And- if it was me?-the 4 speed car all day long! Enjoy!

 

First rule no rust!!!!

Second rule buy the best car you can afford!!!

Saving money at the purchase time will cost you 5-10 times more in repairing the car. Unless your budget is limited to $2500-3000 add some more $$$ now to save alot later. In this price range you have better have the skills to do absolutely everything repair wise, yourself!!I There is a reason these two individuals have given up on these projects!

 

I always dreamed of having a Stingray. But life happened, college debt, then children, mortgage, kid's college, etc. You know the drill. At 64, finally bought my Stingray, a nice 76. I looked and looked, and resisted impulses. I finally found the car that I wanted, knowing that this 76 was not going to be an investment opportunity, nor a show car winner. The car I settled on cost $9000. after some dickering.I was prepared to walk. I have invested about $6000. since: new front and rear fiberglass bumpers, heater core, Borgeson steering gear, a real Corvette steering wheel, one new Rallye rim and Bilstein shocks. The previous owners took great care of the car, and I have found no rust......yet. It does have the original 350 with a mild cam, duel exhaust, and FiTech EFI. It has a decent 10 foot non-original paint job. I did not care about #"s matching or other changes. I wanted a Stingray that I could drive and appreciate. I have taken it to one show and received many comments. I will never sell it. I did not buy it to sell. I told the War Dept. that if I go **** up, it goes to our son, not to be sold by him either. Flyboy hit the nail on the head. Just my .02.

 

This is just my opinion. Be patient & wait on the right one. If possible, save more money for one that is at least driving....I bought my dream 80 & most work was done with the receipts. Engine, trans, brakes, paint, & interior.....I paid 12,500, but most everything is done minus a few little things. You will be a lot happier in the long run....plus since the c8's are out, someone is going to be eager to sell....I hope this helps.

 

Depends,
The experienced "restoration" crowd will tell you to pass without blinking.
Car guys that like to screw with stuff will say "let's take a look".
Both vehicles are gonna be time and money suckers.
First and foremost, check the bird cage.
Pull the kick panels and look up into the A-pillars for rust. Small scale or patina- eh. Heavy rust scale or holes, probably should pass.
Also pull the upper windshield trim and check for rust.

Chassis rust is the next sticking point.
Same criteria, light rust, no biggie, heavy or holes, stand back and reconsider.

If the birdcage and chassis are in good condition, everything else is just time and money.

I bought my '74 a few years ago, and drove it until May of 19, when I incinerated the engine. I'll just say big ol homer Simpson "DOH", right here and leave it at that.

Since then, I have replaced the radiator, repaired the core support, rebuilt the front suspension, replaced the tie rod ends and drag link, adjusted the steering gearbox, re-bearinged the trans, and replaced third gear, replaced all u-joints, resealed the diff (I got lucky here as one of the PO's had the diff gone thru and it is still in great shape ).
I also rebuilt the trailing arms and re-bearinged the axles.
New springs front and rear, plus shocks.
The brakes were in great shape, so I didn't have to replace calipers, but I did replace the M/C, front crossover line and the softlines.
I bought all the door and top seals, plus door window stuff. Installing them this winter.

If memory serves correct, I have around 3k+ in parts for all that.
Plus a bunch of labor.
Add $600 for tires, and $400 for a four wheel alignment.

The interior is in decent condition, but I checked into the cost.
To replace the interior and recover/pad the seats was less than 4k.
It has 10' paint, but that's ok, because it still looks good.
I'd like to paint it, paint and materials are about 1500 from the local Finish master.

Fortunately I am able to do almost all the work myself. I had to pay for the alignment and tire mount/balance, because I didn't want to buy the equipment.
I did make my own bearing set up tool for the rear axles.

Now throw a complete engine into the mix, and there was another 5k. Probably could have found a 350 for cheap, but I wanted reliability.

Now, I have 18k in a car that right now, on a good day, might go for 10, if I'm lucky.

But, mechanically, it is new.
My mistake, was buying the car just as the bottom fell out of the C3 market.

Buy high, sell low, make it up in volume.

If you are looking for something to do, and you are capable, find a car that is solid, and go from there.

Just remember, it's a slippery slope when you start digging into your project.
The "while I'm here" bug can latch on, and then the money suckers turns on.

Make sure the car you buy, is the one you really want. They are difficult to sell (read "get your money back out") unless it is a bumper car or in excellent condition.

From reading what you posted as descriptions, I would say, be ready to start dumping coin.
I, myself, would not go over 1500, for either, since neither runs/moves. Less if you can negotiate.

Just make damn sure the birdcage and chassis are - ok.

Apologies for the extended post.

Good luck,
Jeff

 

Definitely do the rust checks suggested in the previous post! Say "no" to any that fail!

Presuming you have the tools and skills to do most or all of the work yourself and you're looking for a long-standing project and you have a garage/storage area to keep it while you work and are not concerned about keeping things original, then I suggest these as top criterion:

1) Do you personally prefer a manual or an automatic?

2) Do you intend to rework/replace the engine for a lot of power, say 500+ hp? If so I suggest the '80 as it has the heavy but extremely durable cast iron rear end while the '81 has a far less robust aluminum unit.

If any one of those things in the paragraph above do not apply then I suggest you look for something in far better (at least rolling and running) condition.

 

Run Ray Run....

Neither. Option C
Buy a decent car THAT RUNS AND DRIVES...you can get a decent car for between $6-8k.
Your up-side-down just READING THE AD!

 

I disagree. A decent car for $6-$8K means you just spent more money for a car that still needs lots of work. This cannot be generalized or ignored. It really depends on the actual condition of the car you buy. These votes for no, based on these mythical "good" cars for a few thousand more is sweeping generalizations that very likely could simply result in the OP spending $5000 more for the same thing he can buy for $2500.

I just found out about a guy who bought a 67 Camaro with big block for $40,000. The car and engine were supposedly rebuilt. The owner wanted to install aluminum heads, and when the builder removed the existing heads he found the engine straight worn out......had a nice engine paint job. The rear quarter panels where welded in with huge trunk and door gaps. So.....you can pretend all day long that spending more money buys you quality, but it is all BS if it wasn't done right,......and you just lost $5000.This poor guy with the Camaro lost alot more, and now has to spend alot more. He now will have $50,000 into the car minimum.

And the biggest thing is you guys are telling him to bail on this car based on his simple description only, which includes statements about no rust. Its the default position on this forum.........RUN AWAY, find that PERFECT car for $5000 more. Guess what.....I don't believe the exist. They might look nice.....they might have pretty paint jobs on the engine, they might start and run,......for a little while, but no 40 year old car will be reliable until ALL of its old issues are resolved. There is NO way around it. If you truly want to drive the car, all the time, you need to rebuild it. NOW, if all you are going to do is park in the garage for the occasional Saturday night drive to some store parking lot, where you sit around in lawn chairs listening to a bunch of old guys brag about themselves, then I guess you can buy your $7000 car and it will probably be fine.

 

The 80 and the 81 both have the same Dana 44 aluminum rear differential with the "batwing" rear cover/mount. It saves a lot of weight, but is less robust. It is possible to create a hybrid with an iron differential and the batwing cover/mount.

They both have removable transmission crossmembers, though, which is nice. And at parts cars prices, you are 100% spot-on about about them being a clean-slate to do anything without having to keep it 100% original.

No rush on these particular non-running cars with bad paint. It's about to be a buyer's market for all non-essential purchases, including Corvettes.

 

True. I've found very little correlation between purchase price and ongoing repair costs. These are 40 year old cars that need everything. Fortunately we aren't paying 67 Camaro prices for them.

Still, a solid birdcage has to be priority #1. Paint is something I don't want to do myself, either (YMMV). Anything else is pretty easy, you just need a place to do the work.

 

well said
when you buy a c3 , do not expect to recover your investments.
instead enjoy the experience, both the repairs and most importantly the dive.
Bfit

 

Also remember you can only check what you can check in terms or rust.

Check behind the kick panels and in front of the rear wheels. Go underneath and check the chassis with a torch. Check the radiator support panel at the bottom.

However, there are places that you can't check, such as the windscreen frame behind the seal of the screen and also behind the dash. These cars are 40 to 50 years old. Unless it's been restored fully and you have seen pictures and proof I believe that you WILL have some rust, unless you are really really lucky and even then you won't know until you pull it apart. So even if you spend an extra 5k you might have the same rust as the one you're buying and if you have to pull the windshield and the front clip off and rip the dash out, I'd rather do it to the one that costs 5k less and make it a project.

At the end of the day if you're looking for a project then get one of them (The one with the 4spd )
All I say is I agree with Flyboy, I would rather strip it all down myself and know what I have done rather than chance some other buyers work only to end up doing the same job and be out 5k.
I deliberately bought a project for this reason and even though when buying it had NO RUST in all the common places (Excpet the radiator support), once I pulled the dash I could see some from behind and then the windscreen came out and I have a couple of holes at the top and quite a bit of rust below the windscreen, but at the end of the day I bought it as a project, not as something to buy and drive.

 

I read a lot of the responses and as I’m sure you can tell you’ve got a mix of good buying advice and personal opinions. It's a bit hard to organize all that into a decision. So, the net is what are you looking for?

A. A project car you can learn on, on a budget?
B. Something you can drive this summer?
C. Other?

No question either of these cars will require substantial time and presumably money to reach even a modest level of dependability for use.

opinion, if I was buying what are essentially parts cars for a project, I’d buy the manual transmission. When I bought my 76 I didn’t come across to many manual transmission cars that met my personal goals. (See my intro 3/18/2020 to see what I did)

if your answer is A and you have time, patience and have the $$$ go for it. You’ll learn a lot. It won’t be cheap.
if your answer is B keeping looking, these are definitely not the car for you.
if your is C, fill in the blank....only you know what motivates you.
if your answer is A and worse case you brake it down and decide it’s not worth it to continue and invest, you can recoup some cost by selling parts ...the education will be priceless😉

good luck!

 

Agree 100% with this. One other thing to consider: If the economy tanks like many are predicting due to the Coronavirus outbreak, prices will fall and you'll be able to get a nicer car for your money.

 

I really hope so! Been looking at C4s too. But open

 

Lol

 

I really hope so!

 

lol!!

 

I concur, I do enjOy tinkering. I dont need a perfect car, but like everyone else said I guess they are over priced for their condition.