I have the first year C3 '68 and have been thinking about picking up a C3 last year '82.

Nice looking in the photos.  Buy the best quality one you can find....it's cheaper in the long run.  If you scan the threads in any Corvette forum it's easy to find many who paid $4,000 and $10,000 later it's still not as nice as an original one like this appears to be.  Now many like bringing one back from the near dead and kudo's to them.  

|UPDATED|2/21/2014 7:55:49 PM (AZT)|/UPDATED|

Old cars are worth what you're willing to pay for them.  Not trying to sound like a smart***, but there is no real valuation tool other than what your heart tells you.

Hagerty's says that the average value of a non-CE '82 is about $13K.  This one certainly looks above average, with low mileage.  As with any car, have it looked at.  These cars can hold lots of (expensive) surprises.

The big increase in gas mileage was the addition of the four speed automatic transmission.  I've been trolling eBay looking for a crossmember from an '82 so I can eventually do a tranny swap.

Many C3 snobs pooh-pooh the later cars because they weren't fast.  Hell, was anything fast in 1982?  In my opinion, the later C3s are gorgeous cars.  More luxury cruiser than sports car, but still drop dead beautiful.  What other car can say it had a 15 year run and didn't look dated?

LOL,

Thing about crossfire is few people know much about the crossfire. I know even in San Diego the 7th largest city in the USA there is maybe one person that knows them the other 15 corvette only shops want to swap out the crossfire intake for you.    Overall I like mine that said I have never been able to get it to run smooth at idle.  It does not run real ruff but I have friend that has a crossfire and it is idle real smooth. 

Second my mileage is about half of what it should be both problems are most likely tied together.   I do like not having a choke fuel injection is nice for cold or altitude issues.   What I would do besides checking the frame for rust and corrosion is see if it idles when warm around 550 to 650 rpm and is it smooth.  If it does then the crossfire TBIs are most likely balanced.  Having them balanced is an issue that can drive you up the wall.   The inside looks good and if you had to do that (I did) that would run you $2000 easy for carpets, seats, and door panels.  I paid $3000 from mine with most ever thing bad but no corrosion.  I will have $20,000 or more spent on it before it is done.  

I will own a Collector Edition that I could have purchased for a few thousand less than it cost me to restore it.

Summing it up in my book if runs good and frame is sound it looks like a good deal.

I have an 1982 and love my car.  It is unique in my opinion.  Last of the c3 body style, first corvette with electronic fuel injection, and it is a drop dead gorgeous car.  I have made a few upgrades that have improved performance to a respectable level for a thirty year old car. I told my fiance that I was thinking about selling it and buying an 06 Z06. Her reply was "if you do, you are going to have to trade me in too!"  That being said there are a few things that you need to look for that I have dealt with while working on mine.  1.  One of the main areas of concern on the car are the dual throttle bodies. This setup works well until Bubba gets ahold of it.  The throttle shafts tend to wear out around 60,000 miles and cause a rough idle and throws them out of sync with each other.  The only solution to this is to have the shafts bushed in the housing or replaced all together.  Unfortunately alot of these cars have been touched by the hand of bubba thinking that bending the throttle linkage is the way to balance them, opening a whole other can of worms. 2. They sporadically have transmission issues related to the ecm.  I had a shift kit put in mine and that drastically improved the 10 second gas saver 1-2 shift.  I had all kinds of trouble in the beginning with what I thought was bad sensors, but turned out to be a faulty ecm.  I replaced the ecm and the PROM and have not had an electrical or mechanical problem since.  After I worked all the kinks out and reversed all the bad that had been done by previous bubba mechanics, my car has run flawlessly for the three years I have owned her.  Cranks on the first turn of the key every time.  My advice is if you are going to buy one, do the best you can to make sure that the people maintaining it knew the difference between electrical tape and properly connecting wires..... that is a story for another day!

Here she is....


(modified large image to link-aapple)


|UPDATED|2/28/2014 10:13:08 AM (AZT)|/UPDATED|

I completely agree with everything but the 16psi.  11psi is way low the guys at DCS like it in the 13psi area.  I was having problems with the engine running rich. so I went with 13psi and have not found any issues with performance.  

|UPDATED|2/22/2014 8:01:11 PM (AZT)|/UPDATED|

Thanks to all of you Guys for you input!!!

My '82 just turned 80,000 miles with no issues. Crisp, immediate starting, no hesitation on throttle up, and no dieseling when shutting down. Replaced TBI and metering units right from the start. Another preventive fix you might consider is pulling the fuel pump from the tank and immediately replace the teflon hose clamps with steel. At one point in time, my car would not stay running until my mechanic and I troublshot the system back to the pump and found rotten teflon.

|UPDATED|2/28/2014 9:38:26 AM (AZT)|/UPDATED|