First 'vette
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6th Gear
Joined: Jun 2015
Posts: 6
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First 'vette
Always been more of a Camaro person, but I came upon a good deal....and so I took it.
Spent all day Saturday bringing her home. Bought it not running.
1980 Corvette L-82 -- It's a shame the current state of the car because it was pretty loaded when new.
144k miles on the odometer.
First, the bad...
Pictures make it look 10x nicer than it really is. It's one of the worst paint jobs I've seen.
Car was originally black with a black interior. Someone painted the red OVER the black (and half of the chrome trim) and swapped half the interior for red, as well.
Nothing lines up. Front clip sits an inch too high.
No chin spoiler. Front-right hit something and cracked the bumper cover and broke the reinforcement along with the grill. Left rear quarter has a small tear in it.
Left rear and front right brake calipers have been replaced...along with the pads. So, none of the corners match up. Rotors should be replaced all around.
Sway bar bushings have been replaced and a crappy paint job applied to the sway bars (clearly someone didn't believe in cleaning them first). Right rear sway bar bushing is constantly pressed against the brake line -- threatening to break it.
Floors have been cut out and replaced with sheet metal which was riveted in. Driver's seat has no seat tracks. Originally electric powered tracks. I see they sell for around $500. Someone yanked them and left the switches behind. Seat was mounted with a 3/4 inch bolt drilled through the bottom of the seat and into the floor pan.
Jack damage on cross member and in front of the right-rear. Oil pan leaks and looks like it took a blow from something, as well.
Gauges are cheap replacements and garbage. Entire center console has either been hacked to pieces or needs to be replaced.
Most of the interior wiring does not work (power locks, passenger side window, etc).
And I'll stop there...
Now for the good news...
Got her running within an hour of getting her home.
Battery was drained -- seems to be a good battery after taking a charge.
Determined that the coil was getting power but power wasn't going to the ignition switch. Started it first with a starter button connected straight to the starter. Found a bad connection in a connector. Now starts as it should.
Hooker headers (fabrication will be needed to make them fit right) Exhaust is all new (and sounds excellent -- looks like it was professionally installed -- it's all welded together and they're solid welds).
Tires all around have at least 90% tread and are in good condition.
Motor runs rough. Turns out it's freshly built. No inspection stickers so I've no idea when it was last legal.
Trani shifts good and the clutch feels great.
Ran the VIN and found out that since this was an L-82 car that they only came with automatics. The car now has a 4spd manual trans in it.
Ran the VIN on the engine and found out it's a 350 from a '73 Camaro. Probably also where the 4spd manual trans came from.
Now for the best part...
Heard some rocker noise so I took off the new msd plug wires, unscrewed the t-handles holding the new edelbrock valve covers, and took a good gander at some brand new Holley aluminum heads. Did some research and this is what I've learned...
The guy I bought it from tried to get it running by installing a new starter...so, the starter is brand new.
The head kit on it is a Holley kit that use to sell on summit for $1900. It included just the alumimum heads (made by a company called Brodix), the intake manifold, and a mild cam. It has some alumimum roller rockers on it, as well, which I have not yet identified (see the pictures). It has a Holley 4bbl 750cfm carb to top it off. The heads look like they were just installed yesterday. Not even broken in.
That's about all I know so far...
I paid $3500 for the car. I suspected the engine was worth something, and I'm glad I was right because the rest of the car is a disaster.
I won't be doing a full restore to it....it's going to be more of a 70/20/10 car. 70 Street, 20 track, 10 pure awesome.
But here's to my first Corvette and a serious money pit. Looking forward to it.
Spent all day Saturday bringing her home. Bought it not running.
1980 Corvette L-82 -- It's a shame the current state of the car because it was pretty loaded when new.
144k miles on the odometer.
First, the bad...
Pictures make it look 10x nicer than it really is. It's one of the worst paint jobs I've seen.
Car was originally black with a black interior. Someone painted the red OVER the black (and half of the chrome trim) and swapped half the interior for red, as well.
Nothing lines up. Front clip sits an inch too high.
No chin spoiler. Front-right hit something and cracked the bumper cover and broke the reinforcement along with the grill. Left rear quarter has a small tear in it.
Left rear and front right brake calipers have been replaced...along with the pads. So, none of the corners match up. Rotors should be replaced all around.
Sway bar bushings have been replaced and a crappy paint job applied to the sway bars (clearly someone didn't believe in cleaning them first). Right rear sway bar bushing is constantly pressed against the brake line -- threatening to break it.
Floors have been cut out and replaced with sheet metal which was riveted in. Driver's seat has no seat tracks. Originally electric powered tracks. I see they sell for around $500. Someone yanked them and left the switches behind. Seat was mounted with a 3/4 inch bolt drilled through the bottom of the seat and into the floor pan.
Jack damage on cross member and in front of the right-rear. Oil pan leaks and looks like it took a blow from something, as well.
Gauges are cheap replacements and garbage. Entire center console has either been hacked to pieces or needs to be replaced.
Most of the interior wiring does not work (power locks, passenger side window, etc).
And I'll stop there...
Now for the good news...
Got her running within an hour of getting her home.
Battery was drained -- seems to be a good battery after taking a charge.
Determined that the coil was getting power but power wasn't going to the ignition switch. Started it first with a starter button connected straight to the starter. Found a bad connection in a connector. Now starts as it should.
Hooker headers (fabrication will be needed to make them fit right) Exhaust is all new (and sounds excellent -- looks like it was professionally installed -- it's all welded together and they're solid welds).
Tires all around have at least 90% tread and are in good condition.
Motor runs rough. Turns out it's freshly built. No inspection stickers so I've no idea when it was last legal.
Trani shifts good and the clutch feels great.
Ran the VIN and found out that since this was an L-82 car that they only came with automatics. The car now has a 4spd manual trans in it.
Ran the VIN on the engine and found out it's a 350 from a '73 Camaro. Probably also where the 4spd manual trans came from.
Now for the best part...
Heard some rocker noise so I took off the new msd plug wires, unscrewed the t-handles holding the new edelbrock valve covers, and took a good gander at some brand new Holley aluminum heads. Did some research and this is what I've learned...
The guy I bought it from tried to get it running by installing a new starter...so, the starter is brand new.
The head kit on it is a Holley kit that use to sell on summit for $1900. It included just the alumimum heads (made by a company called Brodix), the intake manifold, and a mild cam. It has some alumimum roller rockers on it, as well, which I have not yet identified (see the pictures). It has a Holley 4bbl 750cfm carb to top it off. The heads look like they were just installed yesterday. Not even broken in.
That's about all I know so far...
I paid $3500 for the car. I suspected the engine was worth something, and I'm glad I was right because the rest of the car is a disaster.
I won't be doing a full restore to it....it's going to be more of a 70/20/10 car. 70 Street, 20 track, 10 pure awesome.
But here's to my first Corvette and a serious money pit. Looking forward to it.
Last edited by Archaeon; Jun 26, 2015 at 05:08 PM.
Le Mans Master
Joined: Dec 2012
Posts: 6,196
Likes: 58
From: Denton, Texas
Welcome and looks like a pretty good project for the money. I would say that you could pop the trim off and polish the paint off. For the price and what it looks like, I think you got a pretty cool project.
