Good evening everyone,
I started looking for corvettes 20 years ago, but life always had different plans. I have to under the knife soon so I decided it was time, even so that was almost a year ago. I have never purchased a car for pleasure, it was always for neccessity, so this was and still is an uneasy feeling in a way, I just got it in the garage an hour ago. I found a couple of guys my age selling another mans 1987 coupe for his estate. I had read everything I could for years about corvettes but somehow had passed up c4's. I thought I wanted a C3 but bird cage and frame stuff was always a concern. I would get my hopes up , start looking and then it would fade for another year. About 2 years ago I read the road and track article about the lateral load record the C4 achieved. Bit by bit I started to fall for the C4 and one day I looked at the body design and I was hooked, it feels as though the C4 was the first vette actually meant to be a sports car. Then my health went south, I decided it was time and I started my real true search. It took almost a year of heavy learning and reading and watching and jumping at C4's thats ads were only hours old until finally everything fell into place and I was the first one on scene. But I am sure you know this C4 is not perfect. It needs work but the basics, Body, paint, mileage, interior, door gaps, perfect dash pad, new tires, no wiring hacks, garaged, it is just so absolutely unmolested I know the big guy upstairs sent me to this one. It was an estate find, held in the same garage it lived in for 1 1/2 years while the estate was settled. Elbow grease, money, blood, sweat, tears and tools are going to be needed in abundance to get her right. But tonight I got it home and all the uneasy feelings are starting to fade, ( except the $100 a month minimum insurance quote for a 63 Y/O good driver). I have written a lot here I know but it was for me without a lot of money find the right one and I did. The folks that sold me the car were three of his friends, neighbors of the deceased owner tasked with selling it. We couldnt really come to a price and I had to walk away but when I got in my car the came up to my window and said OK its yours, $4800.

My first questions if you have time, The dash pad is perfect, what should I do to preserve it and the seats?
It smells terrible, what is the best approach?
thanks for your help.

I want to say thank you to this forum and it's members for the many many pieces of information I gathered here.

Sincerely
Donny

 

Welcome to the Forums..

 

Congrats on finding your C4 and welcome to the forum. I am going to move this to C4 General where other C4 owners can assist you with answers to your questions.

 

Welcome lot good information here for your help!

 

To preserve the dash I'd get one of those black carpet liners. They are very common. They velcro to the dash, but I would not bother using the velcro. On my 89 convertible the PO put one in and the velcro pieces were barely hanging on and made a mess. I removed them and the carpet stayed in place just fine in a convertible top down windows open on the freeway. I would recommend removing the seats to clean the carpet thoroughly under there. Who knows what you'll find. You could recoup some of your investment with loose change. Another recommendation is to change the brake fluid. Obviously all the fluids should be changed. Brake fluid is one that is most over looked. It becomes acidic over time and ruins the seals. Pull whatever you can out of the Master cylinder with a turkey baster and then add more, and flush it all through. I think this is the first year of the ABS pump and you don't want that going bad. For insurance I am using Hagerty. I know there is a lot of discussion on here that the classic car insurance don't come through as good as regular insurance, but I really don't care. I pay $180 a year with them for full coverage on my 92 convertible. They didn't give me a mile restriction. It just can't be my primary driver. I have several other cars on a regular policy.
Looks like a great car and with just a bit of cleaning will be a really fun car.

 

Thank you all and topfuel67. The master cylinder is already gone I believe, it was ordered this morning. I will remove the rest very soon, thanks.

 

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OP (JSoup) Congratulations on your GS. Aww the silver w chrome wheels, chrome will get you home. I know your frustration with finding that special car as I've been buying these Vettes since the 80's, my current 12 GS has 6k miles , i searched one year for that special color in & out, pay once cry once Lol. Enjoy your new ride.