jjhoneck

Hello Everyone -- I've been lurking here during my search for a 1972 convertible, and thought I'd pop in now that I've bought one!

I have wanted the 1972 Stingray convertible since I was 14 years old -- and I'm 58 now. Not surprisingly, I was 14 years old in 1972.

I was a paperboy, tossing newspapers on 62 customer's porches every day, when I first saw it. Top down, engine purring like a tiger, cruising past. In Wisconsin, you get to enjoy a convertible for MAYBE 13 weeks a year, and a Corvette for MAYBE 18 weeks a year, so it was, indeed, a rare treat to see this amazingly beautiful car driving around my hometown of Racine, WI.

I never forgot it.

Fast forward 45 years. I've started a small collection of classic cars (a bone-stock '52 Pontiac Chieftain, and a highly modified '80 El Camino), and start looking around for that dream car from 1972. It turns out they are not so easy to find!

My parameters were:

- Convertible
- 4-speed
- 350 cu in engine
- Air conditioning

Why A/C in a convertible? We live in South Texas, and it gets blazing hot down here in summer, so A/C is a nicety that becomes a necessity in July.

Turns out that not very many convertibles came equipped with A/C, or at least few still had WORKING A/C units. So, when I found one in Appleton, WI, I immediately had an old friend go inspect it.

The seller was the second owner, a 75 year old gentleman who could no longer get in and out of the 'Vette. Every year he had dutifully put it away on October 1st, and kept it in storage until May 1st. In 2014, he had put $15,000 into the car, installing all new exhaust, cooling system, convertible top, and a bunch of suspension parts. The car had been resprayed (the same, original yellow) ten years ago, and looked perfect.

So, I made him an offer and he accepted!

Then, the question was: How to get it home?

A sane or logical man would have paid $800 and had it trucked the 1500 miles back to South Texas. That's what I did with the Pontiac, and it was great.

In this case, however, there was more involved than just a car. My son is full-time in the Iowa National Guard, based at Ft. Dodge, and we have only seen him three times in the last two years. He and his wife had bought a new house (that we had never seen), and this seemed like a rare chance to spend some quality time with him -- so I asked if he could get enough time off to join me in an epic Corvette road trip to Texas!

He jumped at the chance. Sadly, as it turned out, he couldn't get enough leave for the whole trip -- but he got enough to join me in the drive from Appleton to Des Moines. So, I flew to Des Moines, met my son, picked up a one-way rental, and off we went to Appleton.

The sale went smoothly, and we were off. Incredibly, I picked up a car that had not moved 50 miles in the last three years (or 500 miles in the last ten), and drove it 1,639 miles back to Texas!

It was not without difficulty. The tires looked new, but were hard as concrete and flat-spotted from sitting. We managed to hit a 40 degree day in Wisconsin, so the rubber was cold and hard as wood. We vibrated our way back to Iowa...

We also ran into rain. Lots of rain. The new convertible top was tight -- too tight, it turns out. The back popped out of the two rear retaining pins, leaving a 4" gap in back that could not be latched. That felt great, in 45 degree temps! lol

Luckily, the heater worked well.

The windshield wipers worked, and looked fine, but I hadn't thought to check the age of the blades. They may have been original to the car, as they quickly shredded into mostly useless pieces of rubber. As the sun set, we discovered that the headlights put out about 17 lumens of useful light. We were driving mostly blind.

Since we couldn't see, we had to slow down. Every semi-truck that passed us on that freeway sent a waterfall of water over the top of our belly-button-height Corvette, blinding us further. But we couldn't stop for the night, because of the aforementioned non-sealing convertible top. The car would have been full of water by morning.

We pressed on.

Those last two hours were some of the most harrowing I've experienced in a motor vehicle. My son was driving, thankfully -- at 26, his reaction time and night vision are superior to mine -- but there were many times when he simply did not know if we were in a lane anymore. It was insane.

Luckily, because no one died, it will be fondly remembered as an AWESOME father/son experience!

Unfortunately, the engine started running poorly after 90 minutes in that soaking rain, and has not really recovered. I'm assuming that the ignition system got totally soaked (probably for the first time since 1972), and the points, condenser, and spark plug wires are all of unknown age. It improved once everything dried out, but it's still not right.

Nonetheless, two days later that huge weather system moved East, and I drove the remaining 1,000 miles home by myself, uneventfully.

Since getting it in my shop, we've cleaned it thoroughly and addressed some of the little cosmetic problems that any mostly original 45 year old car will have. I'm taking it into my trusted mechanic tomorrow to have a complete tune-up performed (I will watch and learn), and hopefully the engine will be happier in a few days.

Now, for some questions:

1. Engine Condition. The seller dutifully went out once a month in the winter to start the engine. He would let it warm up, and then shut it down till next month. He did this for 40 years!

As far as I know, that is just about the WORST thing you can do for an engine. It never gets hot enough to boil off the water in the engine, and when it cools it just condenses again on things like the cam shaft, leading to rust.

I'm hoping that a tune-up will help, but what are the odds that this engine (63,000 miles on it) will need a complete overhaul?

2. Anti-pollution stuff. 1972 was one of the first years for anti-pollution stuff. This thing has a PVC hose that goes straight into the bottom of the air cleaner, and then into the carb. It is visibly wet with oil, which, of course, can't be helping the engine to run smoothly. Can I cap that off, and, if so, with what?

What else can I remove? (It's licensed as an antique, so I don't have to worry about passing any inspections.)

3. What's the best source for C3 doo-dads? I've got a non-functional electric clock -- anyone rebuilding them? The tuning **** on the working FM radio looks fine, but it's broken internally so you can't manually tune it. Anyone sell replacements? The plastic around the triple compartments in the back is broken. Anyone sell replacements?

4. How to fix the engine? Here's what it's doing: It is very, very cold-blooded. Until it is fully warm, it will stall when you let out the clutch. Once it's warm, you still have to feather the clutch too much -- if you let it out normally, the engine will bog and buck.

Once driving, it's pretty okay above 2500 RPM. Below that, it bogs. If you give it too much gas, it will pop through the carburetor. This goes away once it's really, really hot. It does not seem to be making the power one would expect from a big V8.

My guesses: Vacuum advance on the carb is shot. Old gummy gas from sitting may have made the floats sticky (although the carb looks almost new). Any other things to look for?

Here are a few pictures of her. She's called "Yvette", of course...

Vetteman Jack

Great story and a beautiful car, but your questions would be better answered in the C3 Tech section. Moving this thread over there for you.

Alan 71

Hi jjh,
Welcome!
What an interesting tale and a great looking convertible!!!!!
I hope it gives you a lot of pleasure!

I'll try #2:
The 72 engines originally have a crankcase breather in the right side valve cover (toward the rear) with an elbow hose that leads to the bottom of the air cleaner base.
They have the pvc valve in the forward side of the left side valve cover with a hose that leads to nipple on the base of the carburetor. Also in this area is a hose that leads up from a canister behind the left side wheel well that is part of the vapor control system for the gas tank.

When both of these systems are operating as they should they have no negative effect on how the engine runs.

I'll post a couple of photos so you can see how these parts are currently connected on your car.
Regards,
Alan

The operation of the pvc system:


Typical routing for the hoses for the pvc valve and vapor canister.


Crankcase breather:

bradleyb66

Cool story, and it looks like you found a good vette! Father son moments like that are priceless. My son and I rebuilt our vette together, and I'm hoping that's something that my son appreciates too! (I think he knows more about fixing vettes than I do now!)

I wouldn't worry about rebuilding the engine until you've gotten everything tuned up properly (plugs, wires, cap/rotor, points, etc). Most likely it will be fine. I'd recommend getting the carb rebuilt by someone that REALLY knows carburetors (those people are getting hard to find). Look up Lars here on the forum - he's the expert. He wasn't rebuilding carbs when I needed mine done, so I found Ole's in San Bruno who seemed pretty good also. Cliff Ruggles is another expert.

You've already found the best source (the forum)! Just do a search. I think you can get the clock rebuilt, or replace it with a quartz unit that looks like the original. Check out Willcox or Ecklers for the rear compartment frame/doors (or make a 'WTB' (want to buy) post in the C3 Parts forum for anything you need).

And lastly - listen to EVERYTHING that Alan says!

jjhoneck

Thanks for the responses, guys. It was an epic road trip that I will never forget.

Regarding that engine diagram, it seems to show that air from the air cleaner should be flowing out of the air cleaner and into the engine, yet I am seeing oil on the screen in the air cleaner tray. That implies that things are flowing BACKWARDS, no? What could cause that?

My mechanic says the grommets that the hoses plug into are old and loose (they don't snap in so much as just lay in the holes), but I can't think of how that could make the airflow backwards out of the engine.
Regarding the aforementioned popping through the carburetor: Could that be forcing some oil up from the breather and into the air cleaner tray? What causes that popping to happen?

Thanks!

Alan 71

Hi JJ,
A build up of 'sludge' in the engine will cause what you're seeing.
Starting the car and running it only briefly for all those years likely contributed to the build up of sludge.
Taking off one of the valve covers and seeing what's under there will begin to tell you if the engine has a lot of sludge build up.
'Popping' through the carburetor may be caused by the timing not being set accurately.
New grommets and a new pcv valve are readily available.
Is your mechanic familiar with working on carbonated engines from the late 60s early 70s?
Regards,
Alan

Perhaps a couple of photos of the engine compartment may give folks a clue as to what's going on.

jjhoneck

Yeah, my mechanic is old school. He remembers timing lights, and everything.

I will see if I can find a decent picture of the engine compartment. It's actually quite pretty.

jjhoneck

Here's a bad pic of the engine compartment that my inspector shot. That big ol' A/C compressor actually blows cold. I have replaced all those belts since the pic was taken.