Vehicle Description
I bought this car with my heart and not my head from a Dealer who
claimed it was one of the nicest C1's he had ever owned. Yes I
bought it over the phone had no inspection - took the guys word,
which I never do,but I've wanted a C1 since I was maybe 10 years
old and just bought it. Yes I bought it, by far I did not steal it
because I was assured it was in Great condition. #8203;So the car
shows up, they pull it off the truck and it is puking antifreeze
like crazy. I call the Dealer saying something like "I think you
sent me the wrong car" and he promptly tells me he will never do
business with me again, which I have to admit I determined that was
the only piece of information this guy had given me that I should
believe. #8203;My specialty is collecting and selling Porsches,
mostly vintage air cooled ones. I really knew very little about
Corvettes, but thought gee, maybe I'll start having a few C1's to
broaden my collection. #8203;So starting at zero I called a friend
that does some minor body work and painting and asked if he knew
anything about C1 Corvettes. To my surprise he said actually he
knew quite a bit about them, and agreed to look at the car. He
discovered the car had a cracked radiator, bad radiator cap, the
hoses were not correct, and the clamps were wrong which made the
hoses weak. After telling him to fix and replace everything with
period correct equipment, I said do you see any other issues? My
friend informed me the doors need to be realigned, the trunk was so
far out of alignment it would not close, the windshield needed to
be adjusted so the the top would close, and the gas gauge did not
work and to fix it he needed to take the gas tank out. Again I had
him to address all of those issues, which he did. The day I was to
pick it up he told me that while driving the car to see if all was
well it had died. He had figured out that the generator was not
working and it would have to be taken to a friend of his who could
rebuild the generator. It also needed to have the twin four barrel
carps worked on as well. #8203;I picked the car up with a smile on
my face, finally all was fixed and I had my vintage Vette to show
off! However on my way home I discovered that when one down shifted
to third or second it would come out of gear. Now I'm thinking,
"what was I thinking?" but I called another friend who said call
Vern at Chevy Service Center, he's and artist with C1's and he is.
Vern agreed to take my beautiful C1 and fix the transmission.
However finding the correct parts took time and I decided while
there to take the Firestone tires off and put the vintage
appearance steel belted tires on which did make a huge difference.
#8203;Finally done new tires installed at Tires Plus and the open
road before me! Well, for a mile or so until the two left side hub
caps came flying off like weapons! My first thought was, I'm in a
James Bond movie with that Asian guy with the hat! After damn near
dying trying to find my hub caps in the middle of a four lane
expressway I'm back to Vern's, hat in hand, with "what the F---?!"
on my face. Well he says whoever put the wheels on did not know
that they do not have the required nipples on the wheels that keep
the hub caps on, GREAT order new wheels. #8203;New tires, new
wheels, everything fixed, a dream come true. Well not exactly I now
notice that the outside tire in a turn was still dragging. Vern had
already looked at the rear end and determined that it was basically
new and had hope after a few miles it would loosen up. WRONG, so
Vern took the rear end apart this time and discovered that whoever
had put in the plates, was probably the same guy who did not know
about the nipples and had not measured them and thus put them in
too tight.Now fixed, new head lights added, dome lights fixed,and
oh yes a new electoric ignition I've driven the car the last few
days and it is a dream boat! This is what I had pictured as a young
boy! The only issue is I can't stop at a light without people
wanting to talk to me about the car, or perhaps how good I look in
it. I'm leaning towards the later, what the heck I am a car dealer,
sort of !!Believe it or not I'm now looking to buy another C1, yes
I'll put Vern in my plane this time to go check it out before
buying it. I figure what the heck these are beautiful pieces of
American art, what could possibly go wrong? And besides it 's fun
bringing them back and making them something to be proud of.
#8203;So if you;re looking to buy, not steal, a beautiful driver
that has every issue addressed, give me a call I don't think you
will be disappointed! Oh it is a matching number car!! #8203;
Charley