I'm still working on the first, but stuff just happens sometimes.

About two months ago a guy I bought a 78 ford truck from called me out of the blue and asked if I wanted to buy a 80's vette. I told him absolutely not, he said 2k and it's been in a garage. I says I'll go take a look.
So now I have a first year c4.

The interior is in pretty good shape. The fuel system was not, and the radiator was only marginally less corroded. I've since spent about 500 dollars getting it running and not overheating. Probably another 600 next week on tires that aren't square.

I guess the rarest option it has is cloth seats, so that's cool. That, the big radiator, and the slightly shorter rear end ratio.

I really kind of love this thing. With my 85 ford truck every time I work on it it's apparent that ford was just digging through couch cushions to try to put together a working vehicle. By today's standards this vette is under powered, but the quality and thought that went into it is really apparent. Rochester's folly aside, it seems like they really whole assed this car. It's easier to work on than I figured too. I was just going to pass it along as a working version of itself for pretty much what I have in it (if lucky), but now I'm thinking it's a keeper... also maybe it would be good practice for painting a fiberglass car as I'm gonna need it.

Above average none running c4 find around here, most of them are rotting in the AZ sun.


tires are brand new 20 years ago, never used

conversion van interior


sacrificial anode?





really, I had not even taken a wire brush to it yet in the below pic. The tank itself seems solid and isn't leaking. I think all that crud was just the fuel sender disintegrating, but I do have a small stack of cheap fuel pumps and filter socks. It may still require a new tank but at this point I just want to see if the engine has any real issues that would make me not want to sink a bunch of cash into it.



I don't know if gm was just making good rubber in 1984 or what. I replaced the fuel lines and water lines because it's easy and cheap ( way more expensive than I remember though), but it all felt like I could have used it no problem.
Door seals are also nice and soft. Maybe it's just a magic garage that hates fuel systems and likes everything else.


I'm sure you are all aware, but these lights are awesome.



Somehow the wood panels weren't glued/taped on and came off with just the removal of the screws, unfortunately there are a couple extra holes in the dash from the installation. The is the only old car I've ever bought in az that has a good dashpad.


Dash works,
Blinkers didn't, but they fixed themselves
windows work,
crazy stupid headlights work
rear hatch release works (and there were new struts for the rear window in the back)
after injector o-rings and throttle body gaskets plus a lot of cleaning and vacuum line chasing the engine idles and revs nicely
after a new radiator and a dozen flushes the cooling system works (230 degree fan switch wtf, really? )
transmission shifts nicely
power seat and mirrors - work!

Still needs all fluids
brake booster? Or maybe that valve that is inline. It holds vacuum though.
Tires are polygon
antennae was delivered out of the car, so that's probably a sign. Tape deck and speakers work!
ac almost certainly needs help

 

You're off to a great start! Glad to see this '84 getting resurrected instead of parted out!!!!! Trust me on this one, I've tried them all....but the fan temperature sender you want (especially in AZ) is a Standard Motor Products TS-136. They're spendy, but it'll give you fan-on at 210-215°F and fan-off at 195°F consistently! I HIGHLY recommend it! Keep chipping away at it, I vote for keeping it....but that's entirely up to you! Good luck and keep posting pictures and progress👍

 

Those Dash panels looked like Burwood panels are screws into place the old type, today it's glue.

Posted picture of my last Corvette dash, like the look of it.

Tell you that sending unit I would replace instead of clean, and the fuel tank are still on the market easy to replace.

Get it back on the road, should be exciting.

 

I would not drive on 20 year old tires no matter what the mileage or how good they looked.

Good luck with your restoration. It appears you are very enthusiastic about your 84. That will help tremendously.

 

Had to laugh at the "polygon tires"!

 

Yeah, not much to clean on the sending unit, it turned to dust in my hands. The tank will have to wait till I'm out of filter socks, but as of right now it's running.


I don't know what you are talking about, tires seem fine. Look how smooth they roll.


my favorite tire store is like 1/2 mile away and I'm contemplating just taking the wheels off the car.

 

It would shock many people if I told them that I've managed to fix about half the tiny switches in my 84 by simply just exercising them (and probably knocking some corrosion off in the process). Mine was sitting a while before I bought her too.

For some reason, some 84s are nightmares and others just love to be on the road. My 84 is currently outcompeting my Celica right now in terms of ease-of-maintenance and reliability. Imagine that, 80s GM beating out 80s Toyota in the long run. I'm sure I'm a unique case but it is still a testament to how robust some 84s left the factory (and how straightforward they can be to upkeep, especially an auto). This one should be interesting.

 

Looks like a lot of fun

 

GM TBI in general is pretty robust and forgiving I've found. Not high power but they seem to just work. CFI just happened to be the beginning bits of that.

 

Huge improvement. Tires are now round. Also replaced the radiator cap and now it's not bubbling constantly, still need to do another flush and put in real coolant. Drove it around the neighborhood for 20 minutes and I think it's car like enough to try to get it registered.



Oh and I probably need to remove the tint, it's not clear, but I like how it's faded to be the color of the car.

 

I also cut free the sheep skins. They certainly had a scent. I'm glad they were there though because the seats are in pretty great condition underneath.

 

I visited my mom's house and stole a diagnostic tool.



I thought maybe my fuel pump sock was already full since the transition from idle to part throttle was getting weird, but then the idle really started to get rough and it threw a light. 2-2 tps sensor low.
Also ordered a fsm on ebay. It was easy enough to search for the part number for that.





After years of diagnosing mid 00's BMW with cracked Russian software, a stolen German manual, and two google translate windows open it seems wild to me that there
was a time where they wanted you to know how to fix things. I also like that it gives the pn for the manual I'm getting the part numbers from.

 

Ordered a tps sensor and brake booster. It's going to need a water pump too, it likes to weep and squeak. Not going to put actual coolant in it till I take that on, but I don't have any parts today so I'm just making it less gross to work on in the interior.

I took the rear bins out and found the lug wrench and top tool. Finally I know what to put in this spot in front of the radiator.


Since I now have the tool I decided to take the top off to make roof for while cleaning.

Top was put in place carelessly 20 years ago... luckily it doesn't rain much here, and it's not going to spend much time in the weather.


I'm so happy to get rid of the wood and sheepskins , Honestly I think it looks great like this. I think I'm going to try some hot glue to get a couple sagging carpet bits back in place.


Found a prize in the vacuum cleaner. I think these are for the back. I like having the oe looking stereo, but I've never liked that Amar guy's idea of what music should sound like. Not that I should think of any of that before all of the rest of the car.

 

Hopefully flowmaster 40s are on order?

 

Given it's age and the reputation bose has... I was actually pleasantly surprised with the sound quality of the stock system. Not world class by any means but better (still) than a lot of factory systems I've heard.

 

Very cool, My 1st 2 C4's were 84. Here is a great read and links to the L83.
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...solutions.html

 

Maybe... further down the list of things to do. Somewhere after change all fluids, get ac working, brake booster, and probably water pump.

It's gonna stay stock for a while. If anything major did happen it would be something with the injection/intake system + cam and exhaust... and a manual. I don't think that is where this car is headed.

 

TPS sensor came in and I did some kind of black magic ritual. So one step forward. I immediately broke the brittle clip on the connector though. waiting for the other step back.
The throttle response was great, until it started to sputter and wouldn't idle anymore. After another half an hour of diagnosis I found that a 80's corvette won't run without gasoline.



Works well in all gears, needs brakes.

 

This car is schizophrenic .
Front lights.. The engineers cared so much about you in their design that you don't even need to get your hands dirty.


Rear lights. Step 3, Blood Sacrifice on the eve of the Waning Gibbous.

 

Cool, Looks way better without the Wood Grain Interior Panels.
I'm going to Take my Interior Instrument panels and repaint them also.
Alot of paint choices to spark up the Interior.
I used A Hammered Rust oleum Dark Bronze last time.