This thread will be the home to my '79 Corvette L82 repair and update project. I'll have a ton of questions. I'll appreciate any advice. It's many years since I've worked on cars, ...like when this car was new.
Here's some details about the car. I bought it recently. As far as I could tell the frame is fairly solid, though it's hard to check the birdcage. I did check a few easy to reach spots and it looked fine, but I'll have to dig deeper once spring rolls around. (Someone say spring rolls? I'm getting hungry.) The car is wrapped in my driveway for the winter but I might have pictures kicking around.
Here's some details about the car. I bought it recently. As far as I could tell the frame is fairly solid, though it's hard to check the birdcage. I did check a few easy to reach spots and it looked fine, but I'll have to dig deeper once spring rolls around. (Someone say spring rolls? I'm getting hungry.) The car is wrapped in my driveway for the winter but I might have pictures kicking around.
- It's GM Light Blue (aka Frost Blue, though Frost Blue looks a bit darker to me, nicer too). It's covered in a matte black with white racing stripe vinyl wrap currently that will be peeled off.
- It's got an L82 engine which is correct for the VIN. I don't know if the engine is numbers matching or not. The block pad has some overlapping stamps which look like a bad attempt to modify it. It runs well, as near as I can tell without diving in. The engine bay looks fairly stock, not all chromey, 'cept the Edelbrock air cleaner. I do have the stock dual snorkel.
- There's a loud howl coming form the rear-end. Not sure if it's the diff or the u-joints or what, yet. I'll have to fix the next problem first, so I can hear it properly.
- The exhaust system currently consists of headers, short pipes, and a pair of cherry bomb style mufflers situated before the read end. These gotta go! It's insanely loud. I'll replace all that except the headers with something more normal.
- An oil leak near the rear of the engine. So, rear seal probably or maybe something else.
- Steering system leaks. Hoses, control valve... I don't know yet. It's also got a lot of "steering slop" that needs tweaking.
- It's been lowered and it's not even left to right. Not sure why yet. I checked the leaf spring hang bolts visually, and they look like they're the same length. I'll probably put it back to stock, because it's already too hard to get into the cockpit. But then, the front is lowered too, so it wouldn't match. I might remedy that too.
- Speaking of that, it's got a non T&T steering column. Bummer. And a '76 4-spoke steering wheel. Bummer.
- The rear carpet is faded compared to the front carpet, which looks somewhat newer. Maybe a can of dye will fix that.
- Lots of worn out bushings and other rubber parts, though the PO did replace a bunch of them. I'll have to take an inventory of bad ones when I climb underneath it next.