Well, heres the results of the inspection of that 1981 Red Vette I went to see today near me. Turned out the day ended up being a very nice ride to the mountains for some last minute Christmas nik-nak shopping for the wife. The Vette, well, thats another story.........
Upon our arrival the car was sitting pretty and looked good from 20 feet as described by the seller, wheels shiny and it was clean. However upon closer inspection the car had literally hundreds of spider/stress cracks all over the body in the weirdest of locations. Not only in the stress areas but in places that you would not expect stress to be. Really weird. Turns out the car had been repainted before and the paint prep was so bad that the original paint was cracking from underneath. The inside of the rearview door mirrors had so much over spray on them that it was visible while sitting inside the car. They hadnt been removed during the repaint. Really looked bad. Now the seller did tell me the paint was not that good but I guess he forgot to tell me that it had a very bad repaint in its history. I understood it to be the "original" paint and it needed to be redone from age. Any halfway knowledgable car person would have known that this paint was not original and was a cheap job from the past which would require much more labor the second time around to be redone, costing more than expected. I guess he's not as Corvette smart as he thinks he is.
Anyway this gets better folks..... Opening the car I found that the drivers door key would not unlock the door. The seller told me that one set worked better than the other so I tried the other set? Let me ask you, how could one key work better than the other when the actual door lock mechanism is broken inside the door? Oh well it did open the passengers door just fine. And the tires! They were completely bald with the wear indicators even worn off! There was no tread at all! Now I expected to see worn tires but this was ridiculous!
Then after a quick inspection under the hood I quickly noticed the smog pump had the pully removed from it so there was no belt attached to the pump. And there was some kind of fitting, air maybe, removed from the back of the pump basically rendering the pump useless. Now it did turn under "finger power" but that was a big concern of mine to say the least because in NC we still have a state smog inspection and in this condition the car would definately not pass an inspection to be registered into my name. And the cost to repair it? I dont know.....do you?
Anyway I decided to take it for a quick drive just for the hell of it as I had driven 100 miles to go see it and to give the car one or two more chances. The car ran OK but as you drove it down the road the front end was soooo loose that you could move the steering wheel from the 10:00 o'clock position to the 2:00 o'clock position and the car would still go straight! Really! At that moment I knew that I was just wasting my time. The car showed only 68,000 miles but it drove like 168,000 miles. Now I just cant see a car driving this badly with only 68,000 miles on it even if the car is over 20 years old and the tires are worn out. Things do wear out but not that bad. Well anyway, as mentioned above, the drive to the mountains with the Mrs. was fun and gave us a break away from the rat-race for a few hours with a nice lunch in a mountain retreat.
The moral of this story is even though you think you are dealing with a person that says they "buy and sell Corvettes all the time and he knows them very well" I dont think this guy did a very good job of telling me the "real scoop" about his car. I think he could have been more truthfull. I expected to see "an original" car needing a paint job with only 68,000 miles with "all" the smog stuff operational, as discussed, and tires needing replacement sometime in the future, but not NOW. I only spent 10 minutes with this car and found out all this stuff rather easily and I am only a pilot for gods sake. Made me start to wonder what else this expert forgot to tell me about the car. Really sad if you ask me. I guess he thought that "the low price" would make me buy it. Guess again.........
I was offered the car for "X" amount, in the $7,000's, then lowered another $200.00 for the smog pump issue. But, after I drove it, I left the car and didnt even make him an offer. After thinking about it all the way home and 100 miles later I guess I'll e-mail him an offer of $1,500 less than his "low price" to buy it from him "ONLY" if he delivers it to me with the smog pump issue resolved and the car inspected. Thats the law here by the way. You "cannot" sell a car if your a car dealer with an inoperative emissions system in N.C. Maybe I should remind him of that....
I guess I'll switch my thinking to what Greekman said above. I might be better off raising my buy price and go for a better car from the very beginning.
Does anybody have any other cars, 79/80/81, for me to possibly consider buying NEAR to me in Charlotte, N.C.????? The price is still somewhat an issue to me at this point but I am willing to consider more expensive vehicles than this one. Its just too rough at the current price......
Thanks for your ears folks. Sorry to be so winded in my long story but any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
This Corvette buying thing is going to make me start drinking!
Jeff
Looking to trade two of my cars for a 79/80 Corvette. NO project cars please. I need a driver. I have a 93 Z-28 and an 87 300ZX to trade. Both cars are in much better than average shape and it shows. I am an adult and have owned these cars long enough to have replaced many parts. So both cars are very dependable and also look very good. They are garaged too.
