When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Hey guys. I thought I'd start a thread on my project C3. If nothing else, let's all shed a tear for the abuse this thing has seen and share a laugh over the life it must have lived. It has certainly earned its current name: Project Poorvette. Been a creeper for years now with my dad's Light Blue 1977 but a few years back I picked up a very heavily abused and bubba'd 1977 myself in a straight trade. I didn't really know exactly what I wanted to do with it at the time, but now, I think I've settled on a bit of a plan. It's in absolutely terrible shape as far as a restoration project goes and I don't think it makes any financial sense to treat it as such. So my plan for it is to cobble together whatever used parts I can find to get it running again, delete everything unnecessary to that goal, and treat it as a testbed for learning how to really work on Corvettes to a deeper degree than I would on my dad's car (which is in very good shape). That includes learning fiberglass body repair, painting at home, and probably electrical upgrades/changes/anything vastly different from stock. I'm not all that concerned with it being 100%, or even 70%. I would accept 40% *but it drives*. If we make it that far, I would like to bring it closer to at least 80% of what it should be. Also, super early days, but when it comes to paint, I'm really considering the idea of going with Steel Cities Gray. That was the color of my dad's first Corvette, a 1971 that he traded for a black 1977. And I think it would be an interesting color to go with on these later C3 bodies. If that's too difficult it'll be black lol.
I guess I should start by saying that when I got the car, it was extremely rough. It had some very poorly welded-on side pipes screwed into the rockers with no mufflers, what I later discovered to be an 80's era 305 under the hood, a Holley carb, a tiny electric fuel pump connected with dangling wires and wire nuts, a very loose push-button starter flopping around the floorboard, an interior full of acorns, and most of its interior borrowed from an earlier 70-73 car.
The bodywork is...sort of in okay shape? I guess it depends on which spot you're looking at. The rear bumper is absolutely trashed, the wheel openings are cracked, the firewall and some areas of the floor have holes in the fiberglass, the rear window fell out while pressure washing it, and most of the rear of the car is covered in what looks like gouges into the fiberglass surface. It also had a giant wing spoiler when I got it and from what I can tell somebody thrashed the thing.
It was originally a Dark Blue with Tan interior car, which I'm sure was probably very attractive. It seems it was poorly repainted black at some point, then a very 90's Fox Mustang metallic teal, then a very 90's metallic blue which it currently is. Plans for the interior are to get seats and windows in it and a working dash with gauges and worry about the rest later.
I pulled the 305 late last year when I found the cylinders full of coolant, so my current idea is either a used but ready 350 or maybe a 2000's Tahoe LS. I'm not afraid to get into that world but it depends on availability and price I guess. It's not really a priority as is though. I spent forever looking for a replacement steering column for it after the rack and sector came loose while trying to reconnect the ignition switch to it instead of the crappy push button wiring. Oh, yeah, I forgot I replaced the dash side harness with a used one off eBay after I realized most of them had melted or been chewed through. Again, super budget.
I'll post some images of it as I go, but let me know what you guys think of it, what you would do, and what I should consider. Or if you just want to tell me I'm crazy, that's fine too. My thought is that it's a great testbed car for me to learn more advanced techniques on, like bodywork and paint because, hey, it's not like I'm gonna ruin it. In a perfect world I'd find a roller and move on but I figure if I have a C3 that isn't rusted to hell, I should take advantage of it. I've had it several years now and not accomplished very much, but in that time, I've worked on several other cars and expanded my skills and knowledge, and I think I've finally reached the point where my standards are lowered enough to not be afraid to fail (which I think is important for all of us.)
Apologies if this is too long/is in the wrong forum.
Anyway, here's some pictures to tell the story so far, Sep 2019-Jan 2024:
The day I brought it out of the barn, September 2019. 305 cubic inches...of dirt, and sludge. And acorns. Not sure if that's good/bad/disastrous but either way it's coming out. Thank you for your service. Mostly driving onto the trailer and into the garage. Carpet stripped, acorns removed, Walmart battery engaged. I prefer to call it a "minimalist" interior. Donor '79 column I pulled which should work until I can get the rest of the car together. Dark secrets. Ready for Daytona. Actually, looking at it now...is it just me or does this thing look like its lifted? Idk anymore I'm gonna go ahead and say this bumper has been bumped one too many times. jeez.jpg Those turbines look kind of cool but also I kind of hate them? Not sure. More importantly, they scrub the calipers in the front and the stud holes are ovaled out. Not sure if that's a thing or somebody got happy with the die grinder in its past. Really nice crack in this quarter. Also I really admire the commitment to absolutely no masking on this paint job. Masking a rectangle is perhaps the easiest shape possible to cover with tape, but no. We don't have time for that. All jokes aside, these are some good detail shots of the body damage. It seems like it's gouged down to the fiberglass? seems to be the case all over the rear of the car. Road Rash pt. 1 Road Rash pt. 2 The nose has seen better days, if it gets replaced it will be with a fiberglass alternative I think.
You have a big project ahead of you but take your time and think it through one step at a time. But if the stud holes in the wheels are ovaled out, take them off and bring to an aluminum scrap place. No matter what you do, eventually the lug nuts will come loose and a wheel will fall off. ANd it they are hitting a caliper, they probably aren't even on square. That might answer your question about keeping them. Good luck and we are all here to help. Or at least encourage.
Update! As usual, a million things got in the way of progress on the car. The main obstacle for me is that the car is at my dad's house 4 hours away so I'm only able to work on it for a few days/hours when I visit. I struggled to find a decent motor to replace the 305 with, but I managed to find two off Marketplace over the Christmas visit. The first is a 4 bolt main block with heads, no internals besides a crank that the guy told me was junk he put in for storage. It looked like it was in fairly good shape and I liked the idea of a clean slate to learn about engine building, so I picked it up. Apparently it had been in his father's C10 and after 40 years of parking under the same tree, the tree landed on the truck. He pulled the motor and gutted it to rebuild but ended up using the new parts for a different build. Not sure what the plan is for it just yet. My initial thought was to find a machine shop nearby and have them clean it up at a minimum, plus take any critical measurements to aid in the process of building it. Timeline for this would be well over a year, making small progress each month and hopefully assembling it over a few trips as parts are ordered. Definitely would build it for performance but if nothing else, it's a backup motor for my dad's Light Blue '77 if tragedy strikes. These are all phone pics, next updates will be with the good camera lol.
4 Bolt block. Intake manifold stolen off the 305, kept it for weight savings. The entire motor is a grease pit outside but not too bad inside. Apparently the white dust is fake snow from being stored near some Christmas decorations. Only wear I saw in the cylinders. What do you guys think?
Although finally getting a new motor as a foundation was a relief, I was worried about stalling the project for a long time since learning how to build an engine and actually building an engine aren't exactly quick projects, so I kept looking on Marketplace and of course, the next day I stumbled upon this 77 motor, minus accessories for $300 about an hour away. Funny how that happens once you've already spent money.
Listing photos. Listing photos. Listing photos. I wasn't able to go to pick up the motor myself, and at some point the motor was dropped while lowering it. Not sure how bad the damage is, but based off the pictures from my dad it looks like it's mostly surface level. Quadrajet took some damage. Not sure if it's still usable but I have some backup options. The fall did break the balancer ring off, but I'll replace it.
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to be there when it was picked up (thanks, Dad!) and more unfortunately, the guys loading it dropped it. Not sure how bad exactly but I'm hoping it was just light tumble.
Assuming it's in good enough shape, this checks a box and moves us up to Good Enough For Yard Drivin' status.
I'll definitely go over it in detail when I come back up and am making a list of priority items to get it assembled and ready. It'll be a long thread and a slow process but that's fine with me. If it saves another car from the junkyard then it's worth it.
As far why I ultimately didn't go with a Tahoe LS...they're really plentiful down here in the junkyards, but the quickest and easiest path to get things running was to source an original motor without having to alter dozens of other parts. I may revisit the LS swap down the road as my confidence grows, but finding a complete motor that isn't rough with its complete ECU and harness is a headache I don't want right now.
I'm gonna try to break these up a bit. Part 2 below!
A blank canvas is what you have and these kind of cars can be rewarding to work because even smaller things done can add a sense of accomplishment! First example would be to loose the rear wing then stand back and tell yourself how much better it looks already. I would not worry to much at this point about what your vision may be because that can change over time. As far as skills go these cars are not difficult to work on with the right direction and fortunately there is a large collective amount of knowledge available to help you along. Good luck and look forward to watching your progress.
A good thing to do while you have your car that far apart, is to research the grounding points of the electrical system, and go over each one confirming a good grounding contact point.
@OMF great idea! I'll definitely check all the ground points. I'm also going to give the visible parts of the frame and any metal a coat of chassis black paint while I'm in there. No better time than now.
I may end up sourcing a replacement engine bay harness for the car, or at the very least the AC harness at some point as I know those wires are pretty melted in places.
I'll also check the stock cables to the battery and make sure they're still intact as well.
The secondary air valve linkage on that Quadrajet is busted off. At least the air horn and choke pull-off would have to be replaced, but it wouldn’t fit on your square bore aluminum intake manifold anyways.
I would definitely be looking at a new engine wiring harness if you want to go back to the drivers side mounted alternator.
I got a basket case ‘76 a few months ago myself. Looking forward to following your progress!
@Piersonpie Thanks for pointing that out. I saw the damage to that area but didn't know exactly how to refer to that specific part. I managed to find a donor Quadrajet I can use for parts or as a stock swap if need be. As for the intake, depending on how I feel I'll either keep the stock cast intake for the moment or swap a donor Holley or Edelbrock carb I have with the Performer intake.
I'll scope out the price on a new harness vs. a lightly used engine harness on eBay. I did that for the dash harness and saved a ton of money last year.
@4-vettes Thanks for following along! I'll definitely ask if a specific 77 question comes up. My dad has a Light Blue 77 that I use for reference all the time. I've learned about a lot of the unique details for the 77 cars working on his, but there's always more to learn. I appreciate it!
Once I got back home from the holidays, I started working on a To-Do list to get things moving again. My top priorities for now are all mechanical and electrical, with secondary tasks being anything I can do while I have access like cleaning up the frame and painting the engine bay.
I'm lucky enough to have two pretty nice junkyards near me here in Savannah, and I occasionally search for Corvettes in the yard for fun while looking for parts for my Jeep Cherokee. I think in three years I've only ever seen three, and they have all been C4's. Imagine my surprise when I searched "corvette" upon getting back into town to find out that the local LKQ yard has a 1977 Corvette, and has had it since late October. I honestly couldn't believe it at first because they rarely have anything older than 1995 or so and if they ever have anything pre-85 it's usually a Cadillac or older Town Car. Absolutely couldn't believe a C3 ended up there. Believe me when I say I RUSHED out to the yard to see what was left of it, hoping to find the steering column intact and whatever else I could use.
I found it pretty quickly, it had been moved up to the first three rows of the yard. It had been picked over a bit since it had arrived based off the photos. The column was gone, along with the custom hood and the wheels and tires. The lone remaining tire looked like a Trans Am wheel though, so I have a feeling there weren't a ton of original parts left on it when it arrived.
Those long fenders make a decent workbench. Not much left to take here, but I did grab the plastic interior trim. It was all in pretty good shape and I got five or six pieces for $10 total. If I had the money and the time, I'd totally take the motor and transmission out of it. Final resting place. Corvette Orange with Buckskin interior if I'm not mistaken. Wonder how popular that combination was for the year. June 1977 Production date. Pretty cool to see these so intact.
I did manage to find a few things worth taking. The heater core/blower motor box was in great shape compared to mine, which is full of holes. Instead of repairing that box, I grabbed this one instead. I contemplated taking the full heater/ductwork box on the dash side but I don't specifically have a need for it right now so I left it for the moment.
The motor and transmission are both intact, but it looks like the motor has been sitting out in the rain for a while, probably months at this point. I WISH it was a 4 speed car, I would spend days getting that out of it if need be. On a side note, let me know if there are any parts or pieces you guys need/want, or if there's anything I should grab. I thought about the AC hard lines, but I wasn't sure if they were worth taking used.
At some point last year, my dad invited a local scrap hauler to come get the leftover parts of the 305 out of the garage. I didn't think much of it at the time, until a few weeks ago when I asked him where he put those side pipes/headers and the transmission crossmember we took off the car while pulling the motor and trans. Turns out he thought I didn't want them anymore, so...they went to the scrap heap. Damn.
Luckily, this junkyard 77 still had its crossmember intact. My worst case scenario was to fabricate my own out of round tube and weld some flat ears, but if there's a stock part for the taking, that's the best route. I doused the bolts in PB Blaster on my way in to the yard and took time to hunt Jeep parts while it worked its magic. I took a Sawzall with a fresh blade to the exhaust pipes and cut them clean in four places, ahead of and behind the crossmember. After a bit, I got to work with the sockets and managed to loosen the frame bolts up pretty easily. I realized towards the end that I definitely should have started with the horizontal bolts instead, because as gravity pulled the crossmember down, it pinched the bolts in the ears of the frame at a weird angle. I struggled with it for awhile before I took a step back and came up with a plan. I grabbed a couple of scissor jacks I found nearby and used them on either side to raise the crossmember up bit by bit until the weight was off the bolts, and they slid right out. I dropped it to the ground and took the sawzall to the brake cable which worked but took forever, and I still had the two rear cables to disconnect. I would have saved them but honestly for a safety item like that I'd rather buy new than mess around with a stretched cable. At this point the yard was closing, so I had to hit pause and plan to come back for another shot.
Before I left, one of the employees of the yard stopped by to check for me when he saw my tools but didn't see anyone around. I slid out from under the car (which by the way, WAY more broken glass then you can ever imagine in these yards. It's literally everywhere) and talked to him for a bit. He told me the car had been moved at least three times and that the current row it was on didn't get shuffled much. I asked if he knew how long it would be before it was junked and he told me at least another month. That was a relief, since I might want to come back for more odds and ends. We started talking about C3s and he told me about the car his dad owned when he was a kid. He said his dad would let him drive it, but only around the local state park which was usually empty. He said he always begged his dad to let him drive it a bit more. I feel that. He also told me that when the car showed up to the yard, he told the other guys "there's gonna be some rare individuals coming to get parts off this thing." I feel that too.
My trip around the yard wasn't quite over. I grabbed the heater box, some interior trim that had been painted black at some point, and walked around looking for parts for other cars in the family. I ended up stumbling on this 1980 Chevy Ambulance.
Honestly, Corvettes aside, this thing is so cool. The amount of storage inside these old ambulances is wild. I spy...a QUADRAJET!
I poked around this thing for honestly too long, and ended up using its flat floor as a workbench while I worked on a nearby Tahoe. Something about these old van conversions, they're just super cool these days. I have a friend who's into camping at music festivals, and I told them, forget camper vans, get an old AMBULANCE. The storage and flat floor are built right in. Not to mention all the power outlets and dual battery wiring.
But of course, the thing that caught my eye the most was the Quadrajet in the cab. I know they're not rare, but in the junkyard these days, anything with a carburetor is rare. I rebuilt the Quadrajet in my dad's 77 when he got it years ago, and I decided to grab this one as a fun project to rebuild and also as a hands-on model to learn them inside and out. This one seemed to be in great shape, as did the entire motor. I contemplated grabbing the distributor for the Corvette but that may not be worth the money that LKQ wants for it, especially with prices for cheap new distributors.
Donor Quadrajet. May not use it, but should be a good model to play with and practice on. Yeah, I was lazy and twisted the fuel line off. I didn't have the time or wrenches to do it right. I apologize to the Chevy club.
One smart thing I did forever ago was to take a ton of photos of the car and save them in a Google Photos album so I can reference it when I need to, since the car is 4 hours away from me. That helped with quick questions like "what am I missing from the doors? Do I need the lock rods or just the door handle rod?" "Do I have the heater ductwork?". While I was looking through them, I decided to look up the trim tag again and realized I misread the build date as "H" when it's actually an "M". Using the birthday calculator at https://www.c3vr.com/Corvette-Birthday.asp it seems it's an August car with a build date around the 12th-15th. That would mean it's one of the last batch of 77s built. It also means I need to look for 77-Late parts when needed, so glad I figured that out.
Dark Blue with Buckskin if I'm not mistaken. Weird looking 8 on the Paint Code Stamp.
That's a a lot for now, I know. I'll leave you guys with these pics I took of my 77 next to my dad's 77 on a foggy day while moving things around in the shop.
I love poking around junkyards just to see what they have. Wether I can use it for my car or not it’s always fun to look around and “experience” cars that I would otherwise never own.
One thing to note on that Quadrajet. It has a sticker on the rear of the float bowl on the drivers side. This is a sure sign of a commercial rebuild, meaning there’s probably multiple setup issues that prevent the carb from running how it’s intended to. In most cases this would be a bad thing, but since you have it just to mess with it’s a perfect carb to learn how they go together and if you feel like it destroy it to your hearts content.
@Piersonpie I definitely agree on that, I could spend hours walking around the junkyard. I always feel kind of bad when I see something great there because I know it will never leave, and I want to save them all.
Also, good spot on the sticker! I figured being a service vehicle that it would probably have some replacement/refurbished parts, but good to know either way. My dad's 77 has a rebuilt Quadrajet on it as well. This has me questioning how it runs now as well. Is the consensus that commercially rebuilt carbs are generally junk and not worth running? Or is it more of a case-by-case basis?
And I agree with you on the color! I think that's one of the best colors for '77. The metallic adds a lot to offset the lack of chrome on the later cars for me. Might just be me but I personally think '77 had some bland color options compared to every other year. That Light Blue is perfect. He loves getting compliments on it, I'll pass it along!
It’s pretty hit or miss. Sometimes it’s things like subpar accelerator pumps and gaskets being used. Other times it’s entire different major components from other years being put together. Here is a good thread by Lars that details this. He also has another thread made more recently that talks about what you want to look for when buying a good rebuildable core. The correct carb number for a 1977 L48 with federal emissions and AC is 17057228.
@Piersonpie Damn, good to know though! I knew there were different Quadrajets through the years and suspected a Van/Truck application would be different in the internals, but had no idea how bad the rebuilt examples were. I can definitely see why those in the know don't bother with them. I also see Torx screws all over that carb now that I'm looking at it, so it will definitely be donating its body to science.
I also am 99% positive the Quadrajet on my dad's car is a rebuild as well from memory. I recall a literal "remanufactured" sticker on the rear as well as maybe a 78 or 79 casting number. It was on the car when he bought it, and I cleaned it up and used a rebuild kit on it not really knowing any better. I'm definitely wondering if it has the same issues mentioned in those threads, and I've always wondered if I could set it up better. Might be time to swap a different carb in and try it out for a while.
Hi guys! Update after a long absence. Starting to clean this motor up and unfortunately noticed one of the 882 heads is cracked around the center bolt holes.
Couple of questions:
1. is that a good candidate to just Helicoil up and hope for the best? I plan on replacing these heads eventually so it's not a forever fix but good enough to get it moving and make some progress.
2. Seems like that mounting hole is right around the center air port and not the coolant passage, so I'm guessing at worst it would leak air and not coolant right?
3. I have a spare set of 993 heads I could swap over. Is there an issue with reusing the pushrods from the current motor on those 993 heads, or does it not really matter anyway since the rods are mating to the lifters and not the rocker arms on the heads?
Thanks again. Gonna go get knee deep in degreaser now.
Update: I ended up deciding to trash the 882s and fix up the 993s for now!
Last edited by alleyesonthefuture; Jun 4, 2025 at 05:46 PM.
Quick round of updates on this before I can go back and work on the car some more at the end of the month. Annoyingly, I took some photos with my mirrorless camera but left the SD card in the garage. I'll post what I have for now.
Tore into the L48 I bought off Marketplace a few months back after degreasing it and pressure washing all the gunk off. Took forever to find the hidden bolt under the EGR valve diaphragm on the intake though, that was a small struggle.
Once I got the intake off I noticed the crack in the head mating surface I posted above. I'm 50/50 on whether I caused the crack trying to pry the intake off with that bolt left in or whether the previous owner cracked it since it looks like they had a lot of sealant around that port. Either way, I had the spare set of 993 heads from the 4 bolt block i bought around the same time, so I quickly decided to go with those instead.
After removing the heads, I got my first look at the pistons on this motor. I'd say 6 of the 8 look fairly decent, with 1 or 2 even looking brand new from the tops after a lot of scrubbing with gasoline and brushes. There are 2 that don't look so hot, however, with major divots and chips taken out of the tops. I didn't notice any damage on the underside of the heads, so I'm assuming something made its way into those two cylinders and caused the damage.
Since I'm further than just a simple clean and maybe refresh at this point, seeing this has me thinking I should continue to strip the engine down and check everything else I can, and then take it to a local machine shop and have them check all the measurements I'm unable to.
Since they'd have it, I would have them go ahead and hot tank the block at that point, plus any other highly specific stuff that would save me time and headache down the line. I'd hate to put the whole thing back together to find out one of the cylinders is out of round and it burns oil.
This also has me thinking I might as well use this opportunity to get rid of the dished pistons and replace the cam. My original plan was to just clean it and run it as stock for awhile before making any major upgrades, but we're in the operating room already so I guess we might as well.
Project Thread: 1977 Corvette
