Hey everyone!

After being welcomed by several members, I felt it was time to move on to bigger and better things here. I've been lurking and searching around for a while, and I've made probably 2 posts outside my intro thread, so I figured I'd start myself a project/progress thread for my car.

I Recently bought an '85 Vette with a 4+3 and 95k miles from a guy who lived in an apartment and recently got a job on the road helping out struggling car dealerships. He was taking up like 4 spaces in the carport at his complex and he had to get rid of a couple cars before winter and before he went on the road.

His asking price was $5400, and he bought it from the original owner's estate. He said it had a new clutch, breaks and suspension, a new top, and all the records and receipts since it was new. Long story short, I bought the car for $4900. That was about a week and a half ago.

I've been enjoying the car as much as I can before it gets put in the barn for winter.

Here is the list of things it needs and things I would like to do to it:
Water pump,
Valve cover gaskets,
Tune up,
Fix sloppy shift linkage,
Fix the inoperable horn,
Strip clay, polish and wax the exterior,
Wheels & tires,
Exhaust,
Paint valve covers and intake, and clean up the engine bay.

EDIT: Oh, yeah. And a new shift boot.


Here are some pics of the car:

 

Looks like it's in great shape! Hope you enjoy it.

 

Welcome to the 85 club. Yours looks a little better than mine did. Let's see how long it takes before you start talking modifications. There's lots of ways to wake that 85 up.

 

I know there's plenty I can do, but at this point I'm just looking to get everything up to snuff and have a good foundation for modification when I choose to jump off that cliff.

Right now this is more power than any car I've ever had, so I'm content at this point!

 

Gorgeous car, I hope to join the 85 club soon.

 

Mine use to look just like that (back in 2001 when I purchased it)

 

Wow. I've seen your car around a bit, I would have never guessed it was an '85!

 

Welcome to the forum. Good looking car. Suggest you get some form of manual to assist with your future projects. Even the Haynes manual is better than nothing...at least most of the torque specifications and some basic information.

Be aware that there is a in-line fuse behind the information center for the horn beside the main fuse in the fuse box (right door side of dash when door is open).

85 responds well to exhaust mods....

Good luck with your projects.

 

I work for my dad at our small sales/service shop as a tech, so we have access to Mitchell ondemand which lists all sorts of removal/installation procedures and specs.

I did find out from Mitchell that there was a fuse for the horn behind the dash, but I haven't even begun to dig into it at this point.

I don't know exactly how much of this project will take place this winter, but I will probably start trying to accumulate parts and whatnot so I can jump right on it when spring hits.

 

Hey everyone. I've been doing a lot of searching for info on swapping to some C5 wheels lately.

I haven't been able to come up with a cut and dried answer for what width adapters I would need in order to run these wheels.

Would anyone who has a setup like this be willing to lend me exactly what they did and maybe a picture or two? If I go this route, I would stick with stock C5 tire size for the sake of looks.

 

I used 1" adapters to mount after market ZO6 wheels on my 85.....

 

where did you get the wheels and what size/offset are your wheels? what about tire size? do they stick out the side at all?

 

I put '01 C5 wheels on my '86. I used 1" adapters on all 4, but I wish I had gone to 1 1/4. It depends on the tires you use.
If you use a tire like Sumitomo, they are narrower than say Goodyears or Nitto. These would benefit from the wider spacer, but if you go to a wider tire, they would stick out too much.
I used 1 1/4 later on the rear, and it was flush on the rear with Sumitomos.

My recommendation is to stick with the 1" adapters. You can find them on Fleabay for about $50 each.
I lucked out, some guy on Craigslist was selling the C5 wheels (all 4) for $225 and then when I got the wheels cleaned up about a month later, I got the adapters for $100 (all 4) from some guy on craigslist that needed thinner adapters, and was just getting rid of them.
Then some guy on Craigslist was selling tires that he bought for his car just before he wrecked it for $150, so all said and done, I got wheels, new tires, and adapters for $475.

 

I used 1 1/4 for my stock 04 ZO6 rims & tires.

 

I am using C6 ZO6 wheels on my 85. They are reproduction and I found them on eBay. I'm using 1" spacers that I also got on eBay. They fit great.

 

Thanks guys! This is just the info I'm looking for. I figure I have all winter to come up with the parts I need for spring, so I'm just trying to get a list together.

 

John A. very clean car. i may do a z06 rim too. my car will be a little darker and wheels maybe that argent color. but going in the same direction you have. also i have had mixed feelings on my early rear bumper and after looking at your pic i think the rite color can complement the rear. awesome car

 

Welcome to the to the 85 club! Nice looking car and it looks to be in good shape.

The horn on my 85 didn't work when I got it either. It turned out to be the contact plate under the steering wheel. A quick call to Corvette Central got me the parts I needed to get it back in working order.

The valve covers are fairly easy, on the passenger side. The driver's side requires removal of the AIR Pump or the wiper motor to get the cover to come out easy.

The tune up is fairly routine, however, some of the plugs are really hard to get to. Some of the members here go thru the wheel wells to get them out. I use a combination of tools depending on which plug and I can do a set of plugs now in less than a half hour.

So, you have some projects to complete and that's cool. We all did and still do. Most important is you enjoy the car and if you have any questions, feel free to post, we're here to help.

WELCOME!

 

Welcome Back To The Future 1985

 

Thanks guys!

As for the spark plugs, I took the car into my school where my partner and I did a series of engine diagnosis labs on the car so I had all the spark plugs out already

I found that I had 150 psi of compression on all the cylinders, pulled a steady 20 in/hg of vacuum, so I have a nice healthy engine! That made me happy.

Where I live it hasn't started snowing yet, but I just can't wait to get ripping on this thing in the spring.

I do have a technical question though. I was showing off for my friend the other day shifting through the gears and I was kinda slamming them hard. I grabbed fourth, and as I reached my desired speed I clutched and popped it back into neutral to coast for my street coming up.

Then as I accelerated to speed I couldn't get it into 4th. It would act as though I missed a shift and just grind when I let the clutch out like the synchro sleeve didn't get all the way over the gear in the trans.

My thought is a linkage problem. I had problems with the trans where if I tried to shift down from 3rd to 2nd it would get caught and stuck in 3rd gear. I would then have to lift the car and pop it out of 3rd by pulling on the rod on the side of the trans.

The reason I think it's a linkage problem is because when I have the stick in neutral and I go over to the 1-2 gate, as soon as I move it forward or back I can feel the gear start to engage. If I go over to the 3-4 gate, I have to move the shifter almost through its full throw before I feel the gear engage, and now with 4th I have all that "free-play" when I pull back, and I still don't feel it pop into 4th.

Anyone have any experience or hypotheses to offer?