Thank you in advance to anyone who is willing to read this list and offer their expertise. Bought the 1970 vert juat about a year ago. LOVE it. Took it to a local Corvette only specialist who spent about 2 hours scouring the car for problems per my request. Here is the list. Looking for recommendations on what to get fixed ASAP, what to get fixed when you have money, etc.? Not sure how imprtant or severe some of these issues are...some are obvious, but others are not to me.

-master cylinder leaking
-right rear caliper leaking
-left front inner & outer tie rod ends loose
-right front inner tie rod end loose
-transmission shift shaft seals leaking
-radiator support rusted through
-lower control arm bump stop broke right front
-front control arm bushing cracking
-steering sag joints worn
-front wheel bearings loose
-right front lower ball joint excessive play
-left front upper ball joint some play
-other ball joints are marginal

It sounds like I should never drive this car but it runs great. Looking for what you guys would do first...what is not that big of a deal, etc.
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Anything with the steering, brakes, and suspension needs to be fixed before the car is driven at any length.

I would say, buy a new rag joint and fix the steering problem. Very important.

Just as important is the brakes. Autozone sells S/S sleeved calipers, with a lifetime warranty, for $69 each if you take them the core. A reman master will be $35, and order some S/S braided soft lines from one of the parts vendors. You'll want to check the rotors for wear and either turn them true or buy new ones...they are cheap too. I would suggest:
4 new/turned rotors
4 new S/S braided lines
4 reman calipers
1 reman master

The suspension is another thing you don't want to skip out. The easiest way, since it woulds like you're dealing with a lot of original equipment, is buy a front end kit. Something that includes all the joints, bushings, and bearings. You can probably do all this work yourself, and many of the vendors have these full complete kits for right around $200 or above.

The transmission leak I'm not familiar enough with, but that entire list is important for you to get done before you drive the car a lot.

 

Great looking car. I would do the brakes and the steering componets before I'd drive it much. You should be able to check to verify for yourself what brake parts are leaking. I'd get a second opinion on the steering items, especially since you say the car handles well. Best of luck with it.

 

Thanks for the help guys! Keep the recommendations coming!

 

Another tip. IF you don't want to buy all new calipers at once than I would suggest doing them two at a time. If you buy one to replace the leaky one, do both on the same system. Rears and fronts. If you do the rears only, make sure you do discs, pads, and calipers. Skimping will only mean you have to do all this again later.

 

Auto zone rotors suck. They are made in China and warp. Their pads suck too. If you don't want to degrade the quality of the car, consider brakes from VB&P, or another quality vendor.

 

looks like the smart call would be to cancel my Epoxy Garage Floor contractor and spend that $1,800 on having some of these items fixed, huh?

 

All typical wear items on an unrestored corvette. A front end kit, Brake kit and rag joint would be my immediate concerns. About $700 in parts and a weekend of work will get you in good shape. Make sure to check your runout on the rotors and align it after the front end work. Nice looking car!

 

I would do that for sure. A new garage floor would be awesome...but driving the Vette in a dangerous condition like it's in could end up costing a lot more if it goes into a ditch or a tree.

 

 

Sounds like typical age and wear items. Not bad. Can you do the work?
If so then you save a lot on labor and know what you get.
As for parts these days you should be aware more and more are imported, I don't like it but it is fact USA mfg is going off shore.
For brakes I use Muskegon and would buy their front end kit, most of the vendors gets their parts from some common sources, ie Lone Star does a lot of the brake systems on the market. There are a couple of USA suspension kits on the market but the best parts are MOOG's and I have not seen them in kit from. Some of the problems I found in the kits are cheap boots, wrong ball joints, imported part mixed in with USA parts so you should do some research first.

Rag joints are about $90 list from GM.

Rotors- I used both chinese and USA and both need to be checked for runout out of the box. I setup 2 yesterday, 1 had .010" runout and the other had .003" Do a search here and you should find the post I ran on bolting these in place- I recommend you do this in addition to checking bearing endplay.

For Front bearings, they might just need an on the car adjustment, if not then use Timkens and set them up.

Good luck with the car, if you can wrench we can tell you how to do it.

 

Great looking '70 vert, welcome to the '70 club! I know I love mine.

Spend the money on the car....the garage will look great with the car parked in it, with or without an epoxy finish. If you have a leak, get a drip pan at Walmart until you can get the floor done.

 

Sent you an email on this.

 

Thanks everyone for the suggestions!!!!!

 

Document everything well, and include your links to what you buy. I like to think of it as being the new thread that someone will find when doing a search in a few months when someone else goes down the same road.

 

that's a good idea...i surely want to help out others on here the best i can

 

Nice 70 convertible. I have a original owner 70 coupe and have just over 160K on it now. Reason for stating this is I still have the original front disc brake rotors, the rear rotors are not original to the car, but they are original GM rotors. I once had the rotors turned to get rid of runout, wasted money and my labor. The largest Chevy dealership in Dallas, TX really screwed up my runout when under the new car warranty replaced some wheel bearings. It was never right until I sent the spindles and new disc rotors to Bairs in PA and had them rerivet the disc brake rotors to the spindles and true the assembley. No problems with runout since, and that was 18-19 years ago. The rear wheel bearings can be serviced without removal of the retaining rivets holding the brake disc to the spindle flange. The orignal rotors on Corvettes last and last, my original owner 68 has all 4 original ones and nearly 100K on them and original rivets retaining the rear rotors to the spindle flange. I did the rear wheel bearing service on it after buying the tools from Kent-Moore.