'On The Road Again' (almost!)

[Eric76]

Hello everyone! I'm new on here and this is my first post. I proudly own a 1976 that taken out ot of duty after a couple successful years showing in the DelMarVa area.

I moved to New York City and had to leave the car parked in a garage in Maryland for what I thought would be a few years until I had the $$ to bring it up to NYC with a safe place to park it.

Well, took a little longer than I expected - 16 years to be exact. I'm sure you can imagine what 16 years can do to a car.

Finally it was time to move the car as the space it had been occupying was soon to be unavailable. Question was should I sell it "as-is" or get her back on the road. So I took the plunge and decided it was time to drive again!!

I did some research on-line and found a place in PA (County Corvette) that does restoration work. Had the car shipped to them and work began a few months ago. One of the nice things about using County Corvette is that they will create your own custom web page with pictures of the restoration process.

My 1976 Restoration Pictures

It's almost done - just working on the detail (clock, temp gauge, hood release, etc.) have secured 24 hour attended indoor self parking, tags, registration, insurance. etc.

I opted to not do any performance upgrades at this time, so it still has the original L48 (90K) with 4 speed.

I have some questions I'd love some feedback on:

1) Is modifying the L48 worthwhile or should I go with a new crate engine? Looking to get into the 350-400HP range.

2) If I go with a new engine, I was considering a BluePrint engine - anyone have any information/experience with them?

3) Wheels - I need 'em. The ones on the car now (as seen in the pictures) need to be retired. Without going through major mods underneath, what's the largest rim that will fit? 17"? 18"?

4) Any recommendations for wheel styles for this car?

5) Radio - the one in the car is completely shot and needs to be replaced. When I drove the car in the '80's, I had an Alpine system with Boston speakers. They tried shielding the radio but playing a tape picked up tons of noise from the gauges above. Have there been improvements since then to eliminate the noise?

Thanks to all who respond - looking forward to being part of this forum!

- Eric

 

[78SilvAnniv]

Welcome Eric76!

Welcome to Corvette Action Center.
I replaced my tired old L48 for a GM crate engine several years ago and have been very happy with it. You can build your L48, but if it is numbers matching, I'd just set it aside and install a crate engine. They're ready to go (don't have to wait while building them) AND have a warranty!
Heidi

 

[Culprit]

Hello Eric,

My car is pretty much stock so I can't really answer your questions, but I wanted to reply and tell you that I'm from West Chester, PA pretty close to County Corvette (but am a Marine currently stationed in South Carolina so I only get home for major holidays). It's a small world.

I would side with Heidi about the crate engine. Several folks here at CAC have gone that route and I'm sure they'll speak up to answer your questions. The GM ZZ4 crate engine is the first to pop up in my mind (maybe because subconsiously I've already decided that when it's time to re-power, that's the road I'm taking, who knows).

As for the radio, I would guess that the interference noise was coming from the ignition system under the hood and not from the gages. My 78 has shielding around the ignition system and does a pretty good job of cutting out interference (stock radio). I don't know if the ignition shielding was put on 76 Vettes or not.

If you're not going with stock 76 wheels, my personal opinion would be to find a set of factory aluminum wheels from the later C-3's - or look around for pictures of Killer. Killer is Chris' (69MyWay) baby - black like yours - and he has some good looking wheels on her.

Semper Fidelis,
Culprit