1978 Pace Car

Welcome HotJay18 -- looking forward to hearing all about your pacecar project.
As Graham says there's many on here with a lot of knowledge especially the C3 era cars.

Let's see some pics please.

C.
 
Alright guys, for pics checkout my profile, there is an album with a couple pics.
First question, in Canada, did the pace car come with a power antenna? All the american I have seen has it, but not mine.
Second question, how do you call the part that is under the door? It's like a chrome board, you have it on your 75 nascar03. You'll notice mine is black.

The story behind this all is my dad got into an accident with it in 1990 and the guy that rebuild it, to my opinion, wasn't a corvette specialist, and I believe some parts are not for the pace car.
 
welcome to the site hotjay18. The corvette is built in the states. Only basic difference is for the Canadian cars they used the speedo in metric when that hit our country. I know a guy with one he bought brand new, as of today it has 39 miles....yeah it is a new car still. Anyways , if available for that year then the power antenna would of been an option that was ordered above the std features that came with the base car, some cars had them some did not. Even the decals that are on the pace car came in a box with the car and were supposed to be dealer installed from what I know. There is one in Saskatoon that his decals were never put on and has them still as such. The chrome board you describe is a body sill molding or commonly called a rocker panel molding. Some years were chrome like the '70 I'm working on right now, my 82 is black. I'd have to look up what is correct for yours. I have a parts book and supply you with GM part numbers should you need some help in that area.
 
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Hi hotjay...
xfire is correct about rocker panel colour..Your '78 would have been black.
My '75 was a polished finish.
The power antenna option, U75, would have been standard with the pace car package.

Your car looks great. Nice ride.
graham
 
some info I dug up on the 78 Pace Car. It had a special serial number to identify it, and it was a full option car, so yours if a real pace car should of had the power ant . Maybe someone changed it up to a non power when the original failed ??? , the wires would be there in back to prove it.


Pace Car Serial #'s...........1Z87L8S900001 - 1Z87L8S906502 (Corvette Pace Car)


Limited Edition Corvette Pace Car (1YZ87 / 78) - The base price of the 1978 Limited Edition Corvette Pace Car without any additional optional equipment.

A 350 cubic inch, 185 horsepower engine, 4-speed wide ratio manual transmission, power windows, power door locks, removable glass roof panels, rear window defogger, air conditioning, sport mirrors, tilt-telescopic steering column, white letter SBR tires P255/60R15, heavy duty battery, AM-FM radio/stereo with 8-track tape, power antenna, dual rear speakers, aluminum wheels (red accent), convenience group and special seats were included in the base price.

A total of 6,502 Corvette Pace Car replicas were built.







Production Options

RPO Description Price Production
1YZ37 Base Coupe $9,351.89 40,274
1YZ87/78 Limited Edition Pace Car $13,653.21 6,502
A31 Power Windows $130 36,931
AU3 Power Door Locks $120 12,187
B2Z Silver Anniversary Paint (Includes sport striping and two-tone paint treatment) $399 15,283
CC1 Removable Glass Roof Panels $349 972
C49 Rear Window Defogger $95 30,912
C60 Air Conditioning $605 37,638
D35 Sport Mirrors (LH remote and RH manual) $40 38,405
FE7 Gymkhana Suspension (Included with ZN1 trailering chassis equipment) $41 12,590
G95 Optional Rear Axle Ratio $15 382
K30 Cruise Control $99 31,608
L48 350ci. 200hp engine $525 34,037
L82 350ci. 220hp engine $525 12,739
M21 4-spd, Close Ratio Manual Transmission. $0.00 3,385
MM4 4-spd, Wide Ratio Manual Transmission $0.00 4,773
MX1 Automatic Transmission $0.00 38,614
na2 Standard Emissions Equipment $0.00 N/A
na6 High Altitude Emissions Equipment $33 260
N37 Tilt-Telescopic Steering Column $175 37,858
QBS White Letter Steel Belted Radial Tires - P255/60R15 $216.32 18,296
QGQ Black Wall Steel Belted Radial Tires - P225/70R15 $0.00 N/A
QGR White Letter Steel Belted Radial Tires - P225/70R15 $51 26,203
UA1 Heavy Duty Battery $18 28,243
UL5 Radio Delete $0.00 N/A
UM2 AM-FM Radio Stereo w/ 8-track $419 20,899
UP6 AM-FM Radio Stereo w/ CB $638 7,138
U58 AM-FM Radio Stereo $286 10,189
U69 AM-FM Radio $199 2,057
U75 Power Antenna $49 23,069
U81 Dual Rear Speakers $49 12,340
YF5 California Emissions Certification $70 3,405
YJ8 Aluminum Wheels $340 28,008
ZN1 Trailer Package (Included heavy duty radiator, and FE7 Gymkhana Suspension) $89 972
ZX2 Convenience Group (Included delay switch for dome, headlight warning buzzer, underhood light, low fuel warning light, interior courtesy lights, color keyed floor mats, intermittent windshield wipers and RH visor vanity mirror.) $84 37,222
 
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wow thanks for all the info guys! This forum is more resourceful than I ever imagined! For the antenna, I put the car on the lift and there is a bolt just sitting there close to the current antenna, I imagine the bolt holding the power mechanism. As for the serial number it doesn't match the pace car numbers, it's 1Z8748S906239
 
Just did a quick search and the 4 is fine, it means I have the L82 engine, instead of the L48 (letter L in serial number). So power antenna must of been swapped in the repair after the accident. Another question for you knowledgable guys, the center caps should black or chrome for the pace car?

Thanks for all you help guys!
 
Here are the non pace car and pace car serial numbers range :

1978 CORVETTE VEHICLE IDENTIFICATION NUMBERS (VIN)
1Z87L8S400001 - 1Z87L8S440274 (Corvette Coupe)
1Z87L8S900001 - 1Z87L8S906502 (Corvette Pace Car)

1 (First Digit) - Make/Manufacturer. 1 - Chevrolet
Z (Second Digit) - Model series. Z - Corvette
87 (Third and Fourth Digits). 87- Corvette Coupe
L (Fifth Digit) - Engine type. L - Base Engine / 4 - L82 Engine
8 (Sixth Digit) - Model Year. 8 - 1978
S (Seventh Digit) - Vehicle Assembly Location. S - St. Louis, Missouri
4XXXXX (Eighth thru Thirteenth Digits) - Plant Sequence Numbers.
 
here are pics of my 82 , should be the same as your car. Bolted on just behind the rear wheel and nothing going up except for the chrome nut on top of the fender that turns into the tube. The wiring is clear to see where it comes out from and plugs into the motor.

the caps should have a black center , they went to chrome in 82.



 
Brian..
thanx for the correction on the colour of the rocker molding..
I went by the info in the Corvette Central catalog and it listed black for the '78-82 cars, with no specific reference to the pace car.
I checked a bunch of on-line images and Ecklers catalog and it appears that the pace cars are chrome/silver.
thanx

graham
 
XFIRE82 said:
here are pics of my 82 , should be the same as your car. Bolted on just behind the rear wheel and nothing going up except for the chrome nut on top of the fender that turns into the tube. The wiring is clear to see where it comes out from and plugs into the motor.

the caps should have a black center , they went to chrome in 82.



Click to expand...

I'm gonna look closer for these wires. Thanks a whole bunch for all the time and effort you guys are putting into helping me!
 
Brian Keery said:
Caps are chrome with a black stickered logo, lower sill plates are chrome, they went black in 1979. This is what you're working towards.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niXC-Y7aSsI
Click to expand...

great vid! thanks a lot.
On a parts website, they said that I could remove the paint from my current rocker moulding and it would be chrome underneath...any sense to that?
 
BE VERY CAREFUL......If those are the originals, replacements aren't readily available. You'll want to use a stripper that's not too caustic, such as Citristrip, due to the fact that the plates are anodized aluminum and very susceptible to damage......especially the clear coat finish.
 
Brian Keery said:
BE VERY CAREFUL......If those are the originals, replacements aren't readily available. You'll want to use a stripper that's not too caustic, such as Citristrip, due to the fact that the plates are anodized aluminum and very susceptible to damage......especially the clear coat finish.
Click to expand...

Will be very careful, thanks a lot for the advice!
Currently redoing the wheels, degunking the inner wheel from brake dust from the 80's is a hard job. But it's done, now painting black the pockets of the wheels.
pics to come.
 
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