jet1991`s 1980 Corvette L82 - (Huge pictures)

[Bram Turismo]

Just had my hair done(That haircut was free)

That's what you got when you drive a Corvette: Free haircuts!

Car looks sick! 👍

 

[jet1991]

Just joined gt planet a few minutes ago. I used to send cars to your beautiful country many years ago. I was a muscle car dealer and started sending them to Norway in 1984. We would mail video tapes long before digital cameras and the internet. I mostly sent GM muscle cars like Corvette, Chevelle, Camaro, Nova and also Buick,Oldsmobile,and Pontiac.
Your 1980 Corvette L82 caught my attention because I am purchasing one on Monday that needs some repair. It's a red 1980 L82 with all options and leather interior with the original engine that needs rebuild. Good luck with your first car, I can imagine how happy you must be. The Corvette you own is a wonderful car and will give you many years of fun while increasing in value every year.

Thanks. I`ll take care of the old gal...

And you have to show me some pictures of the car you bought .

Bram Turismo: That's what you got when you drive a Corvette: Free haircuts!

Got the hair cut 2 months before I bought the car. The 1. Engineer aboard the boat where I worked did it. Cheaper than paying for a hairdresser to do it. I usually have long or long-ish hair and you can imagine how short it was when it`s still a crew cut 2 months later (the picture). And my mother freaked out.

An update on the car:
Fixed the neutral safety switch and backup lights.
Adjusted the front head lights so they`re flush with the body.
Changed the distributor rotor and cap and the plug wires. Now the car Sounds different, gears smoother and runs better overall.
Fixed the passenger side power window.
installed new adjustable rear spring bolts and lowered the rear end to the normal height.

The car still needs new body mounts. I ordered the parts yesterday but I won`t have them until at least the end of this month, and I`m leaving for Aberdeen again around the 24th.

The rust isn`t too bad (only surface rust) and the car doesn`t get driven in rain and it won`t be driven this winter. But I`ll do what I can with wire brushes and sandblasting and I`ll have the car treated with Tectyl when the next season begins.

EDIT: I`ve recieved my bodymounts. These:

Will be going here:

I`m leaving for Scotland again the day after tomorrow so I won`t do this until I`m back again around 20th October. Just in time for GT5:tup: We have to lift off the body one side at the time. Here is some more information if anyone is interested: http://www.digitalcorvettes.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1419248#post1419248

I will update this thread when we have started the operation.

I`ve also started collecting these:

From left to right: `95 ZR1, `90ZR1, 1980 all, 1970 LT-1 and 1970 LT-1

Those were given to the buyers of new Corvettes since 1953. The only car ever to have original promo cars for each year is the Corvette. The 2 cars on the right are reproductions from 1993 (perfect copies by the same manufacturer.) but I think the others are original. I have the boxes for all of them behind the tv. I have 4 (+ one `82 in the mail) of the 56 years made and there are usually at least 2 colors for each year + special editions and coupes\convertibles. Which means my wallet will be empty for a long time.

 

[jet1991]

I`ve been home for almost a week now and I`ve parked the car for the winter and started fixing things. Haven`t done any proper repairs yet, but I`m getting the car ready for changing bodymounts and removing the rust (👎). I have to lift the whole body a few inches of the frame one side at the time. It`s actually not as hard as it looks, but it still is some hours of work. The rust isn`t really that bad, but I`m going to remove it before it spreads and does some proper damage. Here is the write up I`m going to follow when replacing those bodymounts: http://www.digitalcorvettes.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1419248#post1419248

This picture was taken one of the last days I drove my car this year:

This is the condition the car is in as of today :

And this is my new keychain :

I`ve also finally fixed that damn horn and got rid of the pepboys button used to short circuit it (You are required to have a horn to pass the EU inspections here.), the guy who did it could probably have fixed it easier by replacing the relay than shorting the circuit. I`ve got a list that`s close to 3 A4 pages long of things that needs to fixed so I have a lot to do this winter...

I`ll post more pictures in a few days when we (Me and me father) start changing out those bodymounts.

Anyone remember the receipt i found that said the car was tuned? It said the car had new cylinder heads (among other things), but the cylinder heads that`s on the car now looks to be stock. The engine has matcing numbers (matches the VIN) and everything else except the muffler looks to be stock. I don`t really know whats been done to the car.

 

[CaliBoy1990]

jet1991`s 1980 Corvette L82

• Just bought my first car ----------- Post 1
• More pictures ----------------------- Post 31
• Driving it for the first time -------- Post 47
• Amcar show -------------------------- Another thread

I bought my first car 3 weeks ago and yesterday my parents picked it up in Halden and drove it all the way to Karmøy. 700 kilometers in a 30 years old car. It`s an 1980 Chevrolet Corvette c3 L82. A real L82. 230 hp net and 370Nm torque from an 350 small block is not much, but it`s plenty enough for me.

More pictures here: http://s926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jet1991/Corvette - hjem fra Halden/
And these are the sellers pictures: http://www.rbauto.no/1980 Corvette svart-rod indiana.htm

The car is in pretty good condition and completely stock (EDIT: D`oh! Stroker, but everything else is stock, even the exhaust) and it`s going to stay stock, but there is a few small (read: a lot of) things that needs fixing up:

• The car has a higher clearance on one of rear wheel wells. Needs new body mounts. Ordered
• The exterior is really dirty and the interior also needs a good cleanup. - DONE! Washing, polishing, waxing and cleaning the interior took me around 20 hours.
• There`s a little surface rust (thats what it is called, right?) on the frame. I`ll get a workshop around here to treat it when we have removed the rust.
• The horn doesnt work The horn button doesn`t work
• The front air dam needs to be replaced - DONE!
• The washer pump doesn`t work It works but not well.
• The right power window seems to be stuck, but the motor works Fixed
• The seat covers and carpet are new, but not installed correctly
• The rear end of the car stands taller than it should. new rear spring bolts could fix it - After some driving the car now sits level.
• The heater makes some really bad noises, probably needs bearings or just grease. Temporarily disconnected
• The paint on the nose is damaged, but you have to take a close look to find it. The car has probably been driven into something.
• There is a small white dot of paint on the inside of one of the brake lights. I`m hoping I can remove it without ruining the paint - DONE!
• All the wheel bearings needs to be replaced
• The belts needs to be replaced
• The t-top weatherstriping needs to be replaced
• The left side mirror is slightly loose. Fixed
• There`s a lot of paint chips that seems to have been "repaired" with nail polish...
• The center wheel caps are from a earlier c3 corvette and needs to be replaced with correct ones. ordered correct ones.
• The aftermarket radio\casette works, but the speakers are blown.
• The lower radiator hose has a small leak. Might be the radiator.
• The reverse lights doesn´t work Fixed
• The power locks unlocks one door and locks the other. Fixed
• The neutral safety switch doesn`t work Fixed
• One of the front lights stopped working. The whole light is just one big light bulb. Ordered new + spares

I think that is all. at least for now...

The car cost me almost 30000 dollars here in Norway. The insurance cost my father about 300 dollars. It would have cost me 3000 - 4000 dollars for a similar insurance! My drivers license cost me around 6500$. You can`t get your license for less than 4500$ here in Norway, IF you do everything perfectly. which isn`t really possible.

I would have loved to drive it home myself but I`m at work in Aberdeen right now and I`m returning home in the beginning of May. I`m going to attend an amcar-show the 8th of May and I`ll post the pictures here. I`m also going to update this thread when I get home and start fixing up the car

I`m sorry about my lack of proper English. I work in Scotland but I still can`t talk the damn language...

Hey! You are so lucky, my good man............I've always wanted a Corvette{especially a C3/4.}

 

[jet1991]

Hello again. Haven`t posted in a looong time but I`ve worked on the car.

And I got a second job. Now I deliver flowers in the worst car I`ve ever driven, a Citroen Berlingo with flowers on the side and on the hood. nasty POS. Avoid it like the plague. And the last day delivering flowers before I left for Scotland i broke the blinker switch in half. Modern plastic crap. But enough about that "car"

We lifted the body of the car and had to change our plans because of the brown death that was all over the frame. The rust hadn`t been there long enough to do any damage, but if we had just ignored it, it would have eaten up the frame. The manual says the car was built to be able to rust without falling apart. It sounds silly and I thought they only meant the parts that weren`t painted from the factory but the frame is 3mm thick! That`s a lot of steel. And it`s 3mm everywhere on the frame. No wonder why the car is so heavy. But the frame is still very soft on these cars. The inside of the frame is almost completely free of rust. Don`t know why but it`s a relief alright. check out the pictures later in this post.

Other things we found that were hidden on the car:
The cushion for the front was a total wreck
small crack in the radiator
The car had been in a small collision earlier and the bumper was apparently fixed by "bubba`ll-fix-it inc."
The mounts for the front sway bar were bent in a very weird way. The sway bar looks undamaged
The bushings on the trailing arms has to be changed soon. Probably next year
The seller had attempted to adjust the doors. And only made things worse
The radiator frame had rusted to pieces from the inside and mounted witout shims (= ruined)
There was a hole in the fuel vapor box. I can`t explain how that has happened
Rust on the fuel and brake lines
The tank had rusted from the inside and had two small holes
The frame had been rustproofed on the outside but not on the inside
"Bubba`ll-fix-it inc." had rustproofed my wheel wells and other PLASTIC parts
The motormounts fell apart in my hands
The transmission mount had been flattened and fell apart in my hands
The brake fluid was a color it was not supposed to be...
The front end had sunk 3cm or so from what it was when it left the factory

This will all be fixed this season. Except for the trailing arm bushings. Those will be fixed next winter. Here are some pictures of the work we have done. The grey stuff on the frame is just dust from the sandblasting. The color of the frame is half-matte black:

Pictures of the new tank and the new brake and fuel lines. All the lines are stainless steel. On the third picture you can get a glimpse of the inside of the frame after we rustproofed it.

The old tank with a picture of one of the holes. The hole was a lot smaller and round but we expanded it to check how much rust there was on the inside of the frame. There was a lot:

Some picture of the inside of the frame before we rustproofed it:

I have a lot more pictures on the other side of the North sea. Forgot them at home. Among them pictures of the front of the frame after sandblasting and painting and some pictures of the frame from before we sandblasted it. These are the only before pictures of the frame i have:

And this bodymount shows you why we did this:

And finally here are some pictures of what we found in my transmission oil. Don`t think that is supposed to be there:

EDIT: Forgot to mention that I`ve ordered a complete dual exhaust system with an h-pipe and magnaflow mufflers. I`m probably going to keep the dynomax super turbos because it`s really fun to set off car alarms just by idling past parked cars. And I ordered a stiff rear sway bar (no rear sway bar on the car originally) and some other smaller parts. I`m not going to miss the cat and the severely asthmatic single exhaust.

 

[mustangGT90210]

Get your tranny looked at! There should not be shredded metal in there. Aside from that, nice work!

 

[jet1991]

Update.

The car has been back on the road for almost two months(think it was the 10th of april) and I drove just over 1000 miles or in the three weeks I was home. Which means my car might be the most driven Corvette in Norway. The car works and we had very few problems after we put her back on the ground. The gearbox works perfectly, no weird noises and gears when it`s supposed to. We`re still going to rebuild or replace it sometime. The new poly mounts (body, engine and transmission) makes the car shake when the engine is running and I`m still young and stupid, so I like that.

I`m currently in Scotland, here:

But I`m going home this wednesday and the national Corvette meet (wrong word?) is this thursday - sunday and I`m going to post pictures of that too.

Here are the pictures i promised to upload a month ago:

The engine looks like it was dragged out of a pond or something.

The rust on top of these frame rails was what made us decide to do a frame-off. We were only supposed to blow the bl... I mean change the body mounts. The black stuff on the frame is actually not paint, but something called tectyl. There were a lot of spots with grey untreated metal all over the car. The old paint had gone bad and just fell off. If it had been driven in the rain, these spots would have been brown. The frame is by the way 3mm thick everywhere. That`s a lot of metal.

My father managed to fix that dent with that scary looking tool. Bubba had probably made that dent with his garage jack.

Those were probably made when the car was strapped down and shipped over "the pond". My father used to be a welder, so he repaired it easily. There were several similar wounds on the car.

The tectyl looked and felt like paint (was probably old and had hardened) but you see what was hidden under it. We already knew there was some rust on the car so i didn`t come as a surprise to us.

Here you can see there still is a lot of bare metal. We don`t understand how so much paint could just disappear and still the rust hadn`t taken over.

The only parts of the frame we didn`t sandblast and paint was the front crossmember and the part of the frame where the front suspension is mounted. We will paint these parts when the engine is out and the suspension is overhauled. Hopefully this or next winter.

Have anyone of you seen the top gear episode where clarkson makes fun of the new zr-1 by pushing in the rear bumper? On my car you can also push the bumper cover in half an inch or so, but that thing behind it is a lot more solid. That`s only one of the reasons why I don`t like Clarkson.

That`s the only part left on my car that can shows it has been damaged before. Is it possible to decode that stamp and find out when it was shipped?

This is what the interior looked like after the sandblasting. The car was completely covered, but the dust came in from all kinds of weird smaller openings.

New bolt-in exhaust system. The sound is excactly the same at idle, but the car sounds a lot more aggressive at higher rpms. It`s still very silent. When I`m inside our house and the car is outside idling, you don`t hear anything. But when my parents VW Touran (1,9 diesel, 2005?) is idling outside you can hear it in every room of the house.

Sitting on it`s own wheels for the first time since October.

EDIT: a few more pictures taken the same day. The phone I took these pictures with is now 5 years old and still has the same battery.

You can also see the smaller license plates I got from my parents for christmas. They are the smallest legal size and are made with the same materials and by the same machinery that would have made plates for this car in 1980.

 

[jet1991]

That`s me driving the first car (not counting the lightning). Nervous as always, look at my hands. I`m sorry about the music, but I wasn`t the one who filmed and posted it.



My car is also at :40 in this clip. My father is driving it.