new member, just bought 73

[Larry Langley]

Welcome!!

Hi Chad - you have entered a hobby which for most of us is rewarding and rejuvenating. I am 55 and have had my '72 for seven years. Bought it on "impulse" at an auction in Amarillo. Got it for $7,200. Have spent at least that much on it since then. I will have mine for the rest of my life - it is the hot car that I never had or could afford in my youth. Now that kids are grown and gone, I am having fun again. Yours was a decent buy as well given your description of it.

Just to clue you in, you will spend more time working on your car than driving. 30 plus year old cars need lots of TLC. You will love working on it as long as your finances last and your spouse allows you the time. The end result is something you will be very proud of. At some point there will be a suspension (front and rear) rebuild, power steering rebuild, brake rebuild, heater core replacement (PITA), engine pull, tranny pull and on and on. Not because you have to, but because you will want to (except for the heater core) if you have a reasonable garage to work in. I recommend, as I have, reading everything you can including topics in this forum regarding C-3 Corvettes. You will eventually recognize the names of those considered "experts" with Corvettes. Example is Lars Grimsrud regarding tuning. It is truely a wonderful world in Corvette Land! I do wonder though--where were all of those delicious girls when I was young enough to do something about it. Now its endless hours of beer and busted knuckles!!!

 

[WayneLBurnham]

Welcome to CAC!!! Great price by the way -

I paid right about that for my medium butchered/altered 3 or, now I guess, 4 years ago. (We won't go into the nearly eight times that money I've sunk into this sick project since then.) Normally, repairs less than perfect numbers matching pickiness and good performance upgrades less than insane supercar envelope level stuff are actually less expensive than for most cars and far, far more available from numerous competitively priced and reputable sources than nearly anything else. Our cars are strong, solid, robustly designed and generally easy to work on, with none of the compromising emerging technology of mid '80's cars and with performance potential to overall rival the newest out, as long as you don't care much about gas mileage!

Key weak points as others mentioned are brakes and cooling. There are several good suppliers for vette brakes upgrades (which really are a necessity), but I've had decent results with Vette Brake Products. If you notice a cooling problem, the key problem is airflow (and 30 year old radiators.) DeWitt's, another community sponsor, makes a damned fine line of radiators and deals in other makers too. Your water pump is a silly mutant of both long and short SBC styles but lots carry them. I recommend the Edlebrock Victor aluminum.

If suspension has some problems there are numerous incredible upgrade packages from great to revolutionary. The right ones can make your car handle as good as a C4, but even simple bolt on swaps like sway bars, springs and shocks make these beasties handle better than damned near any non vette or non viper current production US car. Numerous suppliers like VBP and Van Steel (another community sponsor) offer all types of packages for these.

I'd go down the list and get all the free cataolgs sent to your from all the major general vette suppliers like MidAmerica, Ecklers, Paragon, Corvette America, Central Corvette, Year One, The Paddock and some others I'm no doubt overlooking. Some of the smaller fry are also excellent and competitive sources like Rik's Vette and Volunteer Vette. I've generally gotten excellent service from all of these. Don't forget to get a new catalog from Summit, Jegs and the other overall big general car suppliers. Of course you also want to get the free catalogs of specialty suppliers like Vette Brakes Products and VanSteel, which I mentioned before.

There are about a dozen main reference books as you get deeper into the hobby. There are factory and factory based great assembly and maintenance manuals and the usual Chilton, Haynes, Clymer aftermarket repair manuals. There are four or five major periodicals dedicated to vettes, including Corvette Fever, Vette, Corvette and Chevy Trader and especially a nifty smaller publication I can't think of at the moment that is quarterly that I always find neat info in (I'm a subscriber and can't think of the name or find one in the nearest pile!)

Many of these are listed in the reference sections of those big major suppliers like MidAmerica Designs (now Motorworks), Ecklers, Central Corvette (a personal favorite for the nice diagrams) and Corvette America. All of these have good webcatalogs too - but order the free physical catalogs as these are great reference works as well (and give you a better overveiw when planning a major repair or upgrade than an on line source really does.)

Until the recent super inflation of early Camaros, Firebirds, Mustangs and Mopars, Vettes were one of the few car lines made than within 10 years cost MORE than they did new - and vettes both tend to have been better cared for (or wrecked and gone) and more widely collected by more. The lack of rust on the body panels (unlike anything they bolt too!) is also a plus. (Hey, a glass body means "bye-bye to the dent puller!")

 

[goertz]

I appreciate all the help guys, I enjoy hanging out in here. you know, it's funny, I've been into GM muscle cars all my life, so I checked out Year One for some Vette parts. Now if I need 4 door panels for my 1969 Firebird, which is a way more complicated door panel, they run about $300 for the complete set of 4, ready to pop on. but....if I want door panels for my 73 corvette, I'm paying like $400 for 2 of them. I guess they see the "vette guys" coming. same with carpet, carpet for the GTO or Firebird is $119 for twice the square footage, the corvette is $250+. I don't know how Year One compares price wise to others, but their quality is exceptional.