I'm currently intertested in getting another C3, but I am very cautious of rust isses and you see a lot of this generation that have sat outside for, so many years some folks don't remeber how long it was since the son or someone parked in the backyard. So I think I need to ask all of you what was the rust issue you ran into, or how many C3's did you look at before you found the one rust-free Corvette. This doesn't mean all C3's or that the ones are riddled with rust. The Chassis and birdcate is the one that scaes me the most .

 

You will need to give the prospective car a good solid look through. I have seen too many Corvettes parked in the side yard where they slowly sink up to the frame and corrosion takes off munching away at the frame. Our soil is naturally more acid (in Virginia) and it is awful what can happen to your frame if it was sitting on the dirt. Finding a Corvette that has lived in a garage would increase the chances of a solid frame but will cost a premium.

My wife and I bought a 1968 C3 from out of a barn 33 years ago. Neither of us had any experience with Corvettes so we took a "big" chance. I put the car in the air on a gas station lift and could not find any runaway rust. My birdcage is great and the frame is strong. The worse thing I found was a petrified Mouse in the air box, without AC that means I was breathing mouse for years. Fortunately without AC I never drive the car with the top UP.

After 56 years on the road there are a lot of things that need to be checked out. How many Bubba's worked or tried working on that car? The more Bubba's, the more potential for questionable repairs and problems down the line. I am the fourth owner of my C3 and the 2nd owner restored the car and painted it Daytona Yellow. It was not too affected by Bubba's and I was lucky, the car was very much like it was when it was built. The one repair I had to do was a crack in the drivers side fiber glass floor near the clutch pedal. I repaired the floor crack with fiberglass and matting which made the floor much stronger.

If you have a NCRS group nearby or even a Corvette Club might have members to be a second set of eyes. If that doesn't work take lots of pictures and let our Forum members take a look and give you pointers/questions.

 

Some folks will automatically say to look for a car in the west or south, but that's not necessarily good advice anymore. It was good 30-40 years ago but these cars traverse the country pretty regularly these days. A salted frame New York car could just as easily have been taken to California as a California car ended up in New York. My own '72 first sold in Georgia and stayed in the south for about 10-15 years until it was sold and taken to Idaho, then sold and moved to Arizona, now in Oregon. Bottom line is that every car needs a thorough inspection no matter what.

 

there are a few areas you can see really quick and easy, but before even considering a vette, because they leak and rust where its hard to find, if they say it was parked outside for a while, dont even consider it. Let someone else deal with it. Heres some places that dont require any trim removal that are indications of bad rust that dont require lifting the car. If these are good then by all means, pull the kick panels and lift the car for further inspections...

1. windshield...any rust there at all, abandon even bothering..windshield is part of the birdcage
2. hood open look in the wiper well, that part of the birdcage indicates windshield and front mounts may have rust
3. open the doors and look at the sealant below the window that holds the fender on, rust here is part of the windshield frame
4. take off the T tops and look where the T intersects the windshield
5. the rear kickups, in front of the rear tire. If that cap is rusted to a point that theres a hole or is soft, pass on it
6. visually look at the mount in the rear tire well. You can see it easily with a flashlight. If its separating or is collapsed, dont bother.

These are all reparable but would require extensive labor, possibly a frame off and definitely a lot of time and money... If you can afford it look for a Texas, Arizona, or New Mexico car. Less likely to have any frame or birdcage issues at all. Other than that hopefully your intended vette lived in a garage and was a summer only car. Even in the Northeast a vehicle parked in a barn will rust if the floors are dirt. The moisture coming up from the earth is enough to rust out a vehicle from the ground up. These box frames will also rust from inside out. My Dads maxdz truck is a once a week driver and has been in a barn its entire life...its rusted so badly that the rear spring mounts were totally gone and the brake and fuel lines have been replaced 3 times.
Age of the car really doesnt have much to do with rust except for the internal part of the frame as that takes a long time rusting from humidity. But a vehicle just sitting on a dirt driveway will rust out in 5 to 6 years. My 2001 Ford F250 Utah truck that I could read the frame chalk numbers on was rust free until I brought it to Massachusetts. It lived on a dirt driveway for the last 9 years and didnt get driven all that much has rusted so badly that its probably done as a driver. The frame was completely covered in rust in 5 years and the doors have rotted out so much whenever they shut they leave piles of rust. 4 years later theres holes growing everywhere. :Like I said it gets driven thousands of miles less than the corvette ever did.