I live in Lafayette,La and am having trouble Finding a mechanic that can work on my car. Every one i go to only knows how to work on Newer cars that they can plug into a computer. Mine is a 82 and has been changed over from the Crossfire to a regular 350 with Carb and Edlebrock carb. I need to find a mechanic that can adjust the timing and set the carb for me. Anyone have any ideas what to look for? This is harder to find a good older model car mechanic than i would have thought it would be. Thx

 

Are you in a Corvette Club ?? Any "old" car group / club will have lot's of names. I was just in the Hot Rod show in Bossier City with my T-Bucket... I think any of those members could field strip a SBC blindfolded !!! So look / ask around.. If you see another C3 in a parking lot or classic car parked somewhere.. Stop, ask, learn ...

 

I just went through this issue where I live looking for someone that could work on a Quadrajet. I kept getting the "sorry we dont work on them but try XXXX". The forth place I was sent to had a 1972 Vette in the bay and the owner of the shop was tuning her. I was sooo happy. Talked to him for 30 minutes and looked over the Vette. The shop owner is an old racer so I plan to visit him tomorrow with my vette if the weather holds out.

 

You become your own.

 

Most of the mechanics these days are plug and play computer oriented types. If they don't have a little gray hair they probably don't know how to work on them.

Find your local NCRS Chapter and ask, even if you're not a member. They will know. As was said, local Corvette club and owners of similar cars will know. Eventually you will learn to do it yourself. Watch them when they do it and you will soon be your mechanic.

 

C'mon, man! Invest a little time in getting smart about how a carb works, and how your distributor works. Get your hands dirty. Don't be afraid, it's not as hard as it looks. And you get a real feeling of accomplishment afterwards, can't beat that. Here's a couple of links to get you started.

http://www.fordmuscle.com/archives/2...ockCarburetor/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYGU7mTwsZc

If you don't want to get involved in all that, hey, it's a free country, right? It's really hard to find a good mechanic. Sometimes you'll hear about someone that people rave about, but he's not actually a good mechanic, what he's good at is making people think he's a good mechanic. It's tough to tell a good mechanic from a bad one, unless you are a fairly decent mechanic yourself, if ya see what I mean. Try to find a guy like this, and you'll probably in good shape.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltbGb...eature=related


Keep the shiny side up!
Scott

 

Although I strongly recommend learning how to work on your car, one way of going about getting your car in tune would be to go somewhere that has a dyno and have them give it a good once over.

 

excellent, I was gonna say most of the folks on here just look in a mirror

 

Best investment of time and effort a C3 owner can make.

 

Wait....I thought this was a joke and I was gonna hear a hilarious punch line. How disappointing.

 

Get online in your city and find the shop that makes a point of how long their shop has been in business. Go to the one that has been there the longest, (hopefully 20+ years)
and talk to the owner or manager. If you don't get a good feeling, go to or call the next and talk to them. When you get there, If they work on old or classic cars, there will probably be one or many sitting there. Good luck.

 

 

I look in the mirror.

 

Other car guys are your best resource. Go to a cruise night or classic car show. Ask around and look for some kind of consensus.
As for becoming your own mechanic, I highly recommend it. But buy a junker to practice on before you go mucking up your pride and joy. (take it from someone who's learned the hard way)

 

Or you don't buy a Corvette. Especially an older one.

 

You do realize that you will have to fix your car on the fly some day. Having a good working knowledge of your car will be invaluable. (Along with basic tools and duct tape)

 

Amen.

 

DYI...

 

Good question. Needing a 4 wheel alignment, and it took me 3 tries to find a shop who would attempt it, I found out that the tech only had metric tools.

Once you find the garage or shop from the above members suggestions, ask the mechanic if he has fractional tools as needed on C3's. That alone will not mean he is a 'good' mechanic. But it's a start.

 

Thanks for the responses Sorry i havent replied earlier but been working alot. I do alot of my own work but am just having problems with this carb timing setup and cant seem to get it right. I bought the car and the PO had the heads, carb and intake changed to Edlebrock and also had a cam and lifters installed and i dont know what Cam he put in and he wont return my calls. I ran the nummber one cylinder up to TDC and made sure the rotor was on number one plugwire to get me a base line...and i have checked the timing with a timing light but i just dont know where i should be setting it. BTDC or right on TDC or what. No matter where i set it it doesnt run good and wants to surge when driving down the road and either wants to backfire through the carb when i punch it or wont have much power. Ive tried advancing the timing and ive tried retarding it and neither works out. Ive adjusted the carb air mixture screws and still cant get it right. It Idles Fine sounds good..and when you race the engine it sounds great. Starts fine, dies fine. It only runs like crap while going down the road. So im lost. As far as the power curve and the overall advance and stuff like that i get confused reading that stuff so i just figure i need to find someone that knows what there doing before i burn a valve or something. Thanks for your responses i appreciate it.