So I made a quick checklist of things to look closer to when looking at a corvette (Early C4) things that I should of paid closer attention to before I purchased my 84. This quickly thrown together check list might help some people out here I'll be using this when I go look at the 89 this Sunday, any comments will be taken into consideration and possibly added to this list
This list consists of some things that are generally looked over (or were by me at least)

Corvette Checklist

Exterior:
Wheels
Lugnuts
Tires (Same brand, same age?)
Center caps
Front lip
Check trim pieces
Check battery cover panel
Windshield glass/trim
Driver side/passenger side glass/trim
Rear hatch glass/trim
Weather stripping
Look for uneven panel gaps
Check paint color all around
Look at door handle wear
Inner wheel wells
Targa top chips/cracks

Interior:
Check seat wear
Look at pedal wear
Steering wheel wear
Shift **** wear
Armrest wear
Check dash for cracks from sun
Check sides of dash for cracks
Check passenger side dash for wear on fuse panel cover
Storage compartment wear
Carpet condition
Targa top hardware
Check ALL interior pieces in dash for cracks and screws, this includes:
Crystal light display cover
Crystal light film (for sunfade)
Heat/radio bezel cover
Breadbox
Shift boot leather
Cup holder plastic
Plastic cover surrounding cup holders/shift boot
Interior (Continued)
Door panel/carpet
Door jams
Rpo sticker (if there)
Speaker Grills
Passengers floor for moisture (leaking heater core)
HVAC changes from hot to cold and back (blend door operation)
Check floors (possibly broken fiberglass)
Check rear defroster tabs (make sure none are broken)

Electrical:
Flip up headlights
Low beams
High beams
Turn signals
Brake lights
Hazard lights
Door lights
Interior lights
Armrest storage light
Radio/speakers
Power antenna
Power windows
Power mirrors
Power seats
Under hood lights come on
Windshield wipers work
Cut wires under the dash
Loose wires
Wires that aren’t original
A/C
Heat (smell for coolant)
Clock
Crystal light display Readout:
Coolant temp
Oil pressure
Oil temp
Odometer (Technically mechanical)
Speedometer
Tachometer
Gas gauge
Gas range
Average MPG
Turn signals


Fluids:
Look at coolant
Look at oil
Look at transmission fluid
Brake fluid
Power steering fluid
Windshield wiper fluid

Locks:
Doors lock
Armrest storage lock
Storage compartment locks
Gas cap locks
How many sets of keys?
PKE fob / how many / working or not (confirm both doors lock/unlock and horn chirp)
Test alarm system (roll down window, set system, reach inside and open door)

Other:
Hood struts
Hatch struts
Hood release
Hatch release
Receipts for work done
Run A Carfax or Auto Check

 

Nice. This could be the start of a "Before Buying a C4" sticky

 

U getting close to pulling the trigger again Bran?

You will be a great person to author this list because we all know you have been looking for a long long time!

 

You guys are going to have to wait and see, looking at a car sunday, had my eye on this car for 10 or 11 months now.

 

excited for you!

 

If the car is good, hope you and the seller can work out a deal! Awesome, I can't really add anything to it.

 

I'd add:
passengers floor for moisture (leaking heater core)
HVAC changes from hot to cold and back (blend door operation)

neither is fun to change

 

That is a very impressive list indeed...Thank You!

Only one thing I do that I didn't see listed: "Run a CarFax"

- this should be made a "sticky"

 

further to this ^ add turn on heater and sniff for the coolant smell. many times a slow leak will be soaked up in the foam and that will be nice and saturated. you can smell it though.

 

Updated my post, added what you guys said. ALSO i'm not sure if any of you have had this problem, but the passenger side floor seems to break very easy in the right corner. My 84 was broken all the way through, and water could come up from the street. This is the second draft of my checklist (the first one I wrote in pen and paper). I'll continue to add to the list!

 

I should of added see if the heater core is bypassed. Mine was so no coolant in the carpet.

While repairing it I did find it soaked into the panel under the dash like VikingTrad3r mentioned.

 

from po's jacking on the fiberglass???

 

Check both sides, people have tried to lift these with the jacks/lift improperly placed on the floor. Also, take a look at the rear defroster tabs on the hatch. Good luck with the car

Gary

 

I don't think it was from a previous owner, If you tried to jack there i'm pretty sure it'd go right through the floor with very little resistance, it was broken in the corner. I assume from road wear overtime, or hitting something while driving and never noticed. Here's a pic. Keep in mind I was the 8th owner, and the car had 180k miles, so who knows what actually caused it, but I remember reading somewhere on the 84's these spots were pretty weak from the factory, and made stronger over the years. I remember on mine the fiberglass floor was very thin in general, didn't really matter where it was. Yes that's the ground you can see through the hole!

 

Good idea, forgot those were there as they never worked on my 84

 

The checklist actually was VERY helpful, even more then I thought it would be, I purchased the car!

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...post1594239294

 

Locks: PKE fob / how many / working or not (confirm both doors lock/unlock and horn chirp)
Locks: test alarm system (roll down window, set system, reach inside and open door)

 

Added

 

I always look under car to check for rust repairs or anything unusal. also feel inside lips of all fenders for repairs.

 

No PKE on early C4s.