welcome

I like the name of this forum, sure it will be really popular (not!).

Anyway, thanks for rolling out the welcome mat.  I just sent "Adam Apple" a message cause noticed he was from Duncanville Texas.  Thats where I grew up and spent nearly 30 years of my life.  Family stil there.  Small world.

Anyone else here buy their Vette off ebay like i did?  I think I got a great deal!  Bought it for $9650 out of Mississippi last August.  Nearly everyone on there sets a reserve but this guy didnt and I spoke to him about 3-4 times before making winning bid.  Plus, his pics didnt do the car justice, so Im sure that didnt help his cause either.  But a really nice good ol boy I bought it from.  Apparantly he had owned it for about 8 years but mostly it just sat in his large garage.  He figures he drove between 500-1000 miles a year for all those years he had it.  The guy he bought it from had it restored and had put a new engine and transmission in it plus repainted it in its original warbonnet yellow color.

Since Ive owned it, Ive put about $3500 into it.  When it was driven off the truck on delivery and parked in my driveway I couldnt get the drivers door to open (even though it had just been opened minutes ago by the truck driver to drive it off his truck)!  What I spend the next few weeks doing was trying to find someone who could repair the lock.  After trying 6 different places to fix it (body shop, two car dealers, stereo restoration place, and two locksmiths) I finally gave up and called Corvettes Of Dallas.  Good move!  All the other places were too scared to try to get door open after realizing they were going to have to remove the door panel... and that the door panel screwed in from underneath the door (ahh, the catch 22).

Anyway, Corvettes Of Dallas (COD), said it was a pain in the arse but that they could fix the problem.  They did!  They also tuned up the car and fixed many little small issues.  Lets see:

1. Replaced lock in drivers door, and bolted both door interiors to the frame (previously there was about a 1.5 inch gap on the ends)

2. Bolted the seats down correctly.  Oringinally, the seats were not bolted down in the back (COD says they had seen this before with restorations where the restorer couldnt get the seats to go back in correctly).

3. Fixed parking brake

4. Got water pump for windshield wipers to work.

5. Got my A/C to work much better.

6. Found numerous wiring issues that were not correctly redone (things not wired at all, others wired wrong)

7. Replaced door jam light switch thingy, replaced bulbs, and got some interior lights working that were not working previously.

8. Tune-Up, sparkplugs, distributor, adjusted carborator, etc

9. Replaced radiator overhlow hose, radiator cap, and blower hose.

10. Glued on one of the Stingray emblemes that was very loose.

11. Tightened up the loose steering (had a scary amount of play in it.  I could move steering wheel from 10 to 2 postion and still go straight line previously)

12. Resealed/Reset drivers side mirror

13. Tried a simple fix to get mileage odemeter working (didnt work, but they tried.)

All the above set me back about $2700 but feel it was well worth it, and these guys were good!  When they were all done, the guy told me that mine was one of the quitest, smoothest runing Vettes he had been in that were that old.  Plus, I get a lot of compliments which only adds to the pleasure of ownership!  In fact I had a complete stranger knock at my door a few weeks ago asking if I was wanting to sell it.  Hadnt even thought about it, I told him.  Then happily showed him the car, engine, etc.

Things Ive done to car:

1. Added sunvisors (not exactly sure why they were not there to begin with.  The guy I bought car from wasnt sure either)

2. Replaced the rocker panels (showed their age)

3. Had seatbelts completely restored (re-webbed and re-chromed).

4. Bought Corvette floormats and a custom cup holder that slides over parking brake.

4. Replaced Alternator (was probably not neccessary.  see below)

5. Unhooked relay found underneath passengers side of dash after determining it was bleeding excessive amounts of juice from the battery (the car would not start if I let it set 3-4 days, would have to jump start it... if not replace the battery completely).  Im thinking the relay may have already been unhooked when I took it to COD but that they probably rehooked it.  After doing a little research, determined that this relay was associated with a 71 emmissions thing.  It was designed to shut the motor off quicker after the ignition was turned off.   Since unhooking, car battery now holding complete charge for weeks on end and car still turns off just fine!

Whats next:

Noticed when A/C running and Im in stop/go traffic that it pulls too much voltage and/or power from the engine and seems car wants to hesitate a little... or maybe even die completely if Ive just started the car and put AC on full blast.   The friend that found my relay problem told me what he things problem is, but I cant recall at the moment.  He seemed to think it was an easy fix though.

Things Im thinking of doing to the car next:

Replacing the stereo and adding speakers and subwoofer.  Ive already bought a replica dash face plate to carve on to fit a real stereo unit with CD capabilities.  Just not 100% sure what I want to do with the limited space behind the seats yet.  If I put in a sub, either I will do a single that takes up less than half the space (to leave room for T-Tops turned sideways, stacked in double stacked holder I have bought) or go duel sub and add luggage rack to rear of car to hold T-Tops or small luggage if need be.  Who knows!  I might do nothing... but probably not!

So, there you have it~!

Very good to have you aboard.   I also bought my car off of E-Bay.  It wasn't started in over 6 years, had no paint, interior out, no brakes, did not run, and the list goes on.  But I knew that going in.  The frame etc is excellent.

Now it runs very well, new brakes, new front suspension, and much more work.  All done in my driveway.  Gravel at that.  Still not paint, and not much interior, but it does down the road.  A work in progress.

Thanks for sharing the story of your car.  And our stories never have an ending, unless we sell them.  And often not then.