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Welcome to the forum! We are in the Napa area, North/East bay. You may want to reconsider keeping the ac. If you drive a few miles inland, the summer time temps increase rapidly. It's not uncommon for us to have 100 plus degree days in the summer. Our average can be in the low 90's and without ac it can make for an uncomfortable afternoon ride. Nice looking 87-78 C3. LOL
Welcome to the forum! We are in the Napa area, North/East bay. You may want to reconsider keeping the ac. If you drive a few miles inland, the summer time temps increase rapidly. It's not uncommon for us to have 100 plus degree days in the summer. Our average can be in the low 90's and without ac it can make for an uncomfortable afternoon ride. Nice looking 87-78 C3. LOL
There are more reasons to get rhe AC out (E.g. not wanting to pay for repairing it) and it will be a "sunny day, take off glass top and feel the wind" kind of car anyways
Give it a summer season of driving your new toy before doing the modifications you plan to do. I purchased my first Corvette about 7-8 (no not 78) months ago with a definite plan. After driving it I found that my original plans have changed as I gained more knowledge about my 73 regarding how it drives, power curves, drive train options, and suspension needs. My ac doesn't work either, but my wife has told me that should be one of the things on the top of my list. And, so it is...
Welcome Nave! I'm in the central valley, but commute into the South San Jose area daily. As carriljc mentioned, smog is your biggest concern. Hopefully your vette has most of the original equipment. If the car was originally sold in one of the 49 'other' states, then it's probably a 'federal emmisions' car, and might not have the air pump (my 79 doesn't) - and won't require it to pass smog. It will have to have a functioning cat, heat riser, EGR valve, etc.
The problem is that the belt to the AC is already gone and multiple lines of the AC are broken.
There are so many other things I already plan to renew/install to this car that I have to set priorities....right now it's the brake lines and brakes.
And all the small things that noone ever took care off e.g. Left light doesn't lift up/down....
I bought the car in Ohio from a nice lady who let that poor car stand in a garage. She got it out once a year or so to start it but else all other stuff was not taken care off and the weather there is WET....and when it was transported here it looks like the gearbox was damaged.
I hope to add the fiberglass front spring system and fiberglass rear spring, changed headers and exhaust, changed cooling, changed air intake (would like to add air compressor and intercooling) etc.
There is a lot on the list, so I guess I will work on it quite a while
But that was one of the reasons I bought it...
...changed headers and exhaust, changed cooling, changed air intake (would like to add air compressor and intercooling) etc...
For the headers, make sure to get the smog legal ones with an E.O.# (meaning they are smog legal). ChromeVette has a recent thread regarding headers - both he and I went with Hedman (67308 were the ones I bought). Air intake is another possible issue with smog, so do your research before spending big $$). Even adding a simple aftermarket chrome air cleaner will cause you to fail (no warm air fed to carb during initial startup).
I just did an 83 GMC 4X4. The smog on the motor was going to be a nightmare and prevented me from getting the truck where I wanted it to be. The end result was to drop in a smog legal motor and be happy with it. At least I was able to buy a 350 create motor that was smog legal and put out more tq and hp than the original 350 did. With the additional power, 700R4, new 373 gears front and rear, it ran better than I expected. Do a lot of research so you don't have to do the work twice.