Howdy!
12-09-2018, 11:44 PM
#1
Heel & Toe
Thread Starter
Howdy!
Hello, new member here, but I'm sure that's obvious. Well I've just entered the world of Corvettes, beyond owning Hot Wheels.
I'm located in the middle of FL, somewhere NE of that famous mouse. I actually worked for him way back in the day. I'm currently a M/C mechanic at a local mom and pop resale and service shop. I also turned 54 today, so I'm not really sure if this a midlife crisis thing since I dove in head first into motorcycles almost 9 years ago. I think it is more of fulfilling a long awaited dream. I'm a vintage kind of guy with 90% of my bikes from the 70s and 80s. Hence my name GSRICK as I have quite a few Suzuki GS motorcycles. It's also my name on multiple forums.
When I decided it was time to finally get a Vette I wanted a first gen C3, but there are quite pricey, so when I saw the '77 I bought, it was on Offer Up at a good price. I contacted the guy to see if it was still available and he told me that it was and he would give me a killer deal on it. He was looking to sell. Well he was right, I couldn't pass on it. It had the shape I was looking for and had some attitude and a lot of the mechanical work already done to it. That saved me a ton of money. I know it's not one of the most collectible Vettes, but that allows me to do custom touches without ticking off the purists.
What I got was a maroon 77 t-top automatic that was being built up for SCCA, vintage racing or Autocross. The list of mods as he could remember it, is the following, original 350 4 bolt that has been line honed and increased to 355 with a 30 over bore and Speed Pro pistons. Summit Racing 1065 cam. Stock reconditioned heads, valve job, aluminum roller rockers, lifters, Z28 double valve springs. Gear drive timing set and new balancer. High volume oil pump and pick up, steel oil pump shaft and an aluminum oil pan. Fuel Tech 400hp EFI with command center, hi rise aluminum intake, new high volt distributor and alternator, headers, aluminum radiator w/duel fans and Evans waterless coolant.
It has been converted from an automatic to a manual four speed with a rebuilt Super T10 tranny, low first gear and a 1:1 final and the rear was rebuilt with a 3.70 posi with all new bearings, drilled and slotted rotors. The suspension has been rebuilt with new coil springs up front and a fiberglass mono spring in back. It came with stock steel rally wheels, stock vette mags, a set of steel race wheels and long track tires and I bought an optional set of Jegs SSR wheels and short track tires. He said that he had to use spacers fro them to fit on the front and provided the spacers, but I've decided they will be going on a '77 F150 father and son project I have.
The body looks stock except for the massive 8" cowl induction hood and it came with the stock hood. I love the look, but even at 6'3" it's hard to see over that scoop. It has an aftermarket top section of the front clip with solid headlight doors molded onto the stock fenders. No headlights, just some fog lights in the grill area. I've been thinking about 92-97 Cutlass Supreme/Camaro small rectangle head lights down behind the mesh grill, but I'm not sure if I'll run into trouble with laws regarding head light height. Florida doesn't have a whole lot of restrictions, but if I take into another state, that may get me in trouble. I also just saw the chrome bumper bolt on tail section on another forum I was checking out. That may be a must have as it would give me that early gen look and still be able to reverse it if I wanted to restore it to stock. I almost forgot, it came with a four point roll cage that needs installing.
So one of the reasons I bought this is I live in between Sebring and Daytona and would love to be able to take it on the tracks every now and then. I've heard that there are Vette clubs that have get togethers and have track days. Does anyone know about that? Maybe get into some form of racing, though nothing really too competitive as that may be out of my budget. Something that is more for fun with a little competitiveness, like vintage car road racing.
Well that's enough I guess. Here is a couple of pics of the car.
This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x819.
This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x819.
I'm located in the middle of FL, somewhere NE of that famous mouse. I actually worked for him way back in the day. I'm currently a M/C mechanic at a local mom and pop resale and service shop. I also turned 54 today, so I'm not really sure if this a midlife crisis thing since I dove in head first into motorcycles almost 9 years ago. I think it is more of fulfilling a long awaited dream. I'm a vintage kind of guy with 90% of my bikes from the 70s and 80s. Hence my name GSRICK as I have quite a few Suzuki GS motorcycles. It's also my name on multiple forums.
When I decided it was time to finally get a Vette I wanted a first gen C3, but there are quite pricey, so when I saw the '77 I bought, it was on Offer Up at a good price. I contacted the guy to see if it was still available and he told me that it was and he would give me a killer deal on it. He was looking to sell. Well he was right, I couldn't pass on it. It had the shape I was looking for and had some attitude and a lot of the mechanical work already done to it. That saved me a ton of money. I know it's not one of the most collectible Vettes, but that allows me to do custom touches without ticking off the purists.
What I got was a maroon 77 t-top automatic that was being built up for SCCA, vintage racing or Autocross. The list of mods as he could remember it, is the following, original 350 4 bolt that has been line honed and increased to 355 with a 30 over bore and Speed Pro pistons. Summit Racing 1065 cam. Stock reconditioned heads, valve job, aluminum roller rockers, lifters, Z28 double valve springs. Gear drive timing set and new balancer. High volume oil pump and pick up, steel oil pump shaft and an aluminum oil pan. Fuel Tech 400hp EFI with command center, hi rise aluminum intake, new high volt distributor and alternator, headers, aluminum radiator w/duel fans and Evans waterless coolant.
It has been converted from an automatic to a manual four speed with a rebuilt Super T10 tranny, low first gear and a 1:1 final and the rear was rebuilt with a 3.70 posi with all new bearings, drilled and slotted rotors. The suspension has been rebuilt with new coil springs up front and a fiberglass mono spring in back. It came with stock steel rally wheels, stock vette mags, a set of steel race wheels and long track tires and I bought an optional set of Jegs SSR wheels and short track tires. He said that he had to use spacers fro them to fit on the front and provided the spacers, but I've decided they will be going on a '77 F150 father and son project I have.
The body looks stock except for the massive 8" cowl induction hood and it came with the stock hood. I love the look, but even at 6'3" it's hard to see over that scoop. It has an aftermarket top section of the front clip with solid headlight doors molded onto the stock fenders. No headlights, just some fog lights in the grill area. I've been thinking about 92-97 Cutlass Supreme/Camaro small rectangle head lights down behind the mesh grill, but I'm not sure if I'll run into trouble with laws regarding head light height. Florida doesn't have a whole lot of restrictions, but if I take into another state, that may get me in trouble. I also just saw the chrome bumper bolt on tail section on another forum I was checking out. That may be a must have as it would give me that early gen look and still be able to reverse it if I wanted to restore it to stock. I almost forgot, it came with a four point roll cage that needs installing.
So one of the reasons I bought this is I live in between Sebring and Daytona and would love to be able to take it on the tracks every now and then. I've heard that there are Vette clubs that have get togethers and have track days. Does anyone know about that? Maybe get into some form of racing, though nothing really too competitive as that may be out of my budget. Something that is more for fun with a little competitiveness, like vintage car road racing.
Well that's enough I guess. Here is a couple of pics of the car.
This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x819.This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x819.
12-10-2018, 01:00 AM
#2
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Welcome and good luck with your C3.
12-10-2018, 12:13 PM
#6
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Welcome to the forum, and congratulations on a great birthday gift to yourself! 
Lots of great members and helpful information in the C3 section of the forum at https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...s-1968-1982-5/.
For local club information you may want to check out the Southeast area of the Regional Discussion section at https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...-discussion-9/.
Sounds like a "fun" engine. You'll have a nice "performance" sounding idle, a nice horsepower bump, with a soft ramp rate so it should be easy on your valve-train.
Enjoy your ride and save the wave!
Cheers, Larry
Lots of great members and helpful information in the C3 section of the forum at https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...s-1968-1982-5/.
For local club information you may want to check out the Southeast area of the Regional Discussion section at https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...-discussion-9/.
Sounds like a "fun" engine. You'll have a nice "performance" sounding idle, a nice horsepower bump, with a soft ramp rate so it should be easy on your valve-train.
Enjoy your ride and save the wave!
Cheers, Larry
12-10-2018, 12:16 PM
#7
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Member Since: May 2000
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Welcome to the forum and say hi to Mickey for us.
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12-12-2018, 05:36 PM
#10
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Welcome to the forum!
Congrats. on your C3!
Congrats. on your C3!
12-13-2018, 09:54 AM
#12
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Welcome to the CF!