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Hi All, Just joined the forum after having read many threads as an outsider. Just took possession of a 1978 Pace Car, bought from a dealer in the Netherlands who imported it from the USA and now safe in Spain on the Mediterranean coast, out of the wet weather. Herewith a big thank you already to all those that have posted on a variety projects on C3s. Very helpful. My first projects will be a thorough upholstery deep clean and front and rear suspension upgrades/restoration. Most bushings show significant cracking and tearing and the car doesn't handle very well....all over the place after going through uneven sections and dips in the road.Not looking to go all out in high performance, preferably returning as close to stock as possible with some allowance for practical improvements as products have evolved (poly bushings instead of rubber, etc). That brings me to my first question: On my front spring coil I found a label ANY 362150. Saw some replica labels like this on the zip-corvette website, but with different numbers/letters. Anyone have any idea? Looking forward to the communication and perhaps suggestions.
Welcome. Post some pics of your vehicle and the parts you have questions about.... lotsa folks here that will know a lot about 78 that can assist you.
Originally Posted by rtjsusa
Hi All, Just joined the forum after having read many threads as an outsider. Just took possession of a 1978 Pace Car, bought from a dealer in the Netherlands who imported it from the USA and now safe in Spain on the Mediterranean coast, out of the wet weather. Herewith a big thank you already to all those that have posted on a variety projects on C3s. Very helpful. My first projects will be a thorough upholstery deep clean and front and rear suspension upgrades/restoration. Most bushings show significant cracking and tearing and the car doesn't handle very well....all over the place after going through uneven sections and dips in the road.Not looking to go all out in high performance, preferably returning as close to stock as possible with some allowance for practical improvements as products have evolved (poly bushings instead of rubber, etc). That brings me to my first question: On my front spring coil I found a label ANY 362150. Saw some replica labels like this on the zip-corvette website, but with different numbers/letters. Anyone have any idea? Looking forward to the communication and perhaps suggestions.
Hi, thanks for the quick reply. Here's a picture of the label that was on the front RH spring coil. As I am looking at replacing all suspension bushings, coil and shocks. Would love to know what the specs of this original coil were to get right replacment/upgrade.
Here's some more pictures. Although decent on first impression and a solid car, it has suffered from neglect over the past 7 years and interior, suspension and underside are letting the car down at the moment. it's all surface rust you see. The car comes with decent historic paperwork, invoices, etc. and seems to have had two or three good longtime owners that looked after it well until about 2018, when it changed hands to a dealer in Nevada and since then it seems to have been used mainly to buy and sell on for more, without doing the work to keep it up. Up to me to provide the TLC (and money!) to get it looking it's best again.
Welcome to the forum! Lots of us from all over the world. I haven't a clue on your spring tag. There were a lot of different springs used over the years.
would beg to differ on the use only rubber argument however. I run energy suspension poly in a number of places on my car. Car handles fantastic, no squeaks that many claim will happen. Just a really tight handling car. Just keep those trailing arm bushings in the rear rubber.
Looks good. Hope you inspected the birdcage area...if not, then do it now. I am not an originalist so I'd be POR-15ing all that surface rust. I think it looks really nice.
Great choice of a C3. That was a smokin hot version when I was in high school.
Have you done the basic safety stuff like Date Code check the tires, inspected brake hoses for wear/cracks, look very carefully at your steel brake pipes. I once had a 91 from a salt environment where the steel brake line had rusted and failed on me while driving. No fun.
rtjsusa
and here is some more info. looks like you have the HD Suspension....this info is from the gmpartswiki dot com webpage....you might wanna FAVORITE / BOOKMARK it for future searches:
Hi all, thanks for the great responses, info and suggestions. To answer a few questions:
1.the birdcage is fine. Checked!
2. The brake lines are good, brake fluid replaced, but will double check this specific point again. ( to get the car registered in the netherlands it had to go through a technical inspection called APK (similar to the UK MOT) and now still has to go through a similar
, possibly tougher Spanish one called ITV)
3. No, the AC doesnt work. Blower does come on but very little airflow and certainly not cold
4. (Before anyone asks): Cruise control doesn’t work either
5. Interior lights and spare wheel well light were permanently on and drained the battery during transport. As a quick fix i them out for now. They worked on the windows before transport and may have inadvertently messed up the door switch wiring?
6. Tires are good.
7. For some reason there were no bulbs in any of the side marker lights. i put hem in (ITV item) and seem to work just fine. Go on with parking and full headlights and blink with turn signal. If anyone knows of a good reason not to put them in, let me know.
The ITV in Spain is a technical inspection to check whether your car is roadworthy or not. The first four years new cars are exempt, then every two years until the car is 10 years old, then annually until it reaches 25 years of age and the time span goes up again gradually up to every 4 years of age. Pretty much should ensure no rolling wrecks are on the roads.
As for the tire age: It seems these tires don't have a DOT code on them at all, at least not on the outer wall. That would place them pre-2000. Upon closer inspection I do see some cracking in the wall of one of the tires, so I guess it might be time for new ones as well once I tackle the suspension. Thanks for pointing this out to me. Below a picture of one of the tires.
If your tires are 24 years old (or older), I would trailer it to a tire shop before I did anything else!
I had an old tire separate on me while driving many years ago in a Nissan Stanza. It tore up the inner fender well and puts scrapes on the outer fender.
I prefer Spain’s inspection process to ours here in Louisiana. We get checked every year for emissions (mostly), brakes, bulbs, until car is 25 then it can be registered as an Antique then no more inspections.
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Newcomer in Spain
): Cruise control doesn’t work either
