Okay, it doesn't look like much in these photos, but it is a 1976 Stingray.  Body wise needs little work but there are many things about this car that pushed me into purchasing it.  First it came with the usual "rebuilt" engine and transmission.  You know, those engines and transmissions people claim are "rebuilt" but never have the paper work to support it.  But the things that have been done are quite obvious.  First off there is no rust... anywhere!  The windshield frame was completely redone and it has a brand new windshield.

New calipers, rebuilt trailing arms, rebuilt front end, powder coated frame.... basically the underneath of the car is completely done and sitting on a set of brand new tires.

Obviously, there is a lot of work to go but it is still a cool car.  I was given every piece needed to put it together along with a brand new radiator and several other brand new parts.  My only item I may need are new headlight assemblies as this came with the recessed aftermarket headlights which I haven't decided if I will use or not.  I have always been very anti aftermarket headlights on the C3's, but I have really softened on that in the last year after seeing some pretty cool looking Vettes with some aftermarket accessories.

The one aftermarket piece I do love is the Stinger big block hood, which would cost about $1,000 by itself.  I always loved these hoods as they really give the Vette a animalistic look.

So, yet another project I have no time for, but I hope to piece it back together and get it going for Spring of 2018.  Hopefully I will be able to post a lot of videos of the process.

In the meantime I still have to finish parting out my 1979 Corvette and piecing together the red 1979 Corvette.... So many Vettes, so little time. 

Keep an eye on my C3 parts page as new items will keep being added as the 79 comes apart.  Need to get it done so I get my red one back in the garage.

Not much of a blog posting but just wanted to sort of show my newest acquisition.  A lot of work to do and I really feel that once I do what it takes to put this back on the road it is very doubtful that I will sell it.  It will be bad ass!

I have a real issue with Autozone and haven't been in one for over 6 months.  Although I focus my aggravation toward Autozone, there is probably little difference between it and O'Reilly, Advance or any of the other one-stop parts stores... although I believe Autozone is the worst. Where I used to live I only had two choices, Autozone or NAPA.  Since NAPA kept bank like hours, I was usually forced to go to Autozone.


I think the biggest strike against it are the people that work there.  I would say 80% of the people they hire barely know how to drive a car, let alone work on one.  I can remember walking in saying I needed a part for 85 Corvette and the girl asked, "Who makes Corvette?"  Really?  My three-year old grandson knows who makes Corvette and my car expert hasn't got a clue?  When I walked in I attempted to avoid the obvious idiots and tried to deal with the ones that at least knew how to work the computer... also tough to find.  Okay, Autozone rate of pay is shit so they are not going to get the cream of the crop, but you would hope that someone that applied for a job at Autozone would at least have an interest in cars.  My last trip there I was talking to one of the employees about fuel issues I was having with my 76 Vette, he was bewildered and quickly shouted out for someone in the back.  Out came this Hispanic guy I never seen before, told him my issues and he not only knew what I was talking about but pulled me to the back of the store and started showing me options to fix the issue as he had had the same issue with an old Chevy he owned.  He then handed me some free hose and wanted me to let him know how it turned out.  What a great guy, next time I came back he was gone.  Obviously over qualified for the position he held... he actually knew something.

I can remember when I was young and had to get parts for my 55 Chevy, I always felt uneducated at the auto parts store, Back then the stores were ran by people that knew cars inside and out, you came in with a problem they would diagnosis it and tell you what they would do to fix it.  Of course there would be five other grease monkeys standing around the store and they each give you their take on the issue and tell you "Joe is full of shit and you should do it this way!"  I guess it was primitive version of the Internet, instead of typing in "how to change a timing belt" you simply walked into the parts store and say "how do I change a timing belt" and 5 different guys would give you their version of how to do the job, along with plenty of horror stories of what happened when someone did it wrong.  It wasn't even unusual for someone to follow you home and help you with the job.  Most of the time you had to order the part and wait for it come in, pretty soon you would be sitting on a greasy stool and joining in on the pre-Internet banter while looking at pictures of half-naked girls modeling around car parts.  Great way to kill a Saturday afternoon.

But, back to Autozone.  My best parts horror story is the starter I had to buy three times for my 85 Corvette.  The Vette would just click, the starter was bad. Took it off (to find it was an Autozone starter that was on the car when I got it) and went in and paid for new Autozone rebuilt starter.  No, I didn't buy the lifetime warranty one as I am sure that it is the same as the cheapest starter just in a different box with the word "sucker" stamped on the bottom.  Had it on for a couple weeks and once again, click.  Took it back... of course they gave me a replacement and this one worked for only three days.  As I was driving the car the starter engaged and would not shut off (talk about a frightening noise). Smoke started pouring from the engine bay, had to disconnect the battery to get it to stop... pulled the car home and took it off again.  The funny thing is they never seemed surprised when you bring it back, even for the third time!  They just hand me another one.  It is like playing the lottery.  Will it work this time?  This warranty is pretty worthless when they just keep throwing shit at you hoping something will stick.  How about all the lost hours pulling and replacing starters?  Pay me for lost hours on the warranty and then you have something.

I have been told that Autozone buys cores by the truckload, like starters, alternators, etc. They do not refurbish the entire part, just replace what is bad.  So you may be getting an old part with 100,000 miles on it with one new piece.  They really don't care about quality as they know each time you come in to get your replacement you will probably need some shop towels, hand soap, and that two year-old Snicker bar from their antique candy selection. Or that $2.50 bottle of soda that makes no pssshhh sound when you unscrew the cap and has the consistency of the AutoZone recycled oil. "We are running a special on Injector Cleaner" they tell you as you just bought parts for your carbonated car, making one last pitch to sell you anything before you walk out the door. FU AZ!

I think the time I really figured out that Autozone did not care is when I bought 8 spark plugs for 76 Vette and started to put them in.  I got to one and saw it was different than the others.  Started comparing and found they gave me 4 spark plugs one size, and 4 more that were different size... but not only were they different size, they were used!  Someone obviously replaced their plugs and put the old ones back in the new box and returned them.  I went to Autozone and put the plugs on the counter and said I was given not only the wrong size but USED spark plugs.  The guy laughed and said, "That doesn't surprise me."  Wow, how can you argue with that.  When the everyone from the employees to the manager just don't care, the whole place is like that two year-old Snicker bar... with one bite already out of it!

Autozone sucks.

I have always had a weird fascination with cars, and my favorite has always been the Corvette... particularly the C3 Corvettes.  Never made much money so the idea of owning a Vette seemed out of reach for me, but it never stopped me and my girlfriend (now wife) from driving down to the Rolls Royce dealership in St Louis, Missouri to check out their car lot on a Saturday.  This place always had high end used cars, which always had at least four or five Corvettes on the lot.  One time, only 17 or 18 years old, the used car manager let me take the yellow 1974 Corvette with the 454 4-speed for a test drive... that was all she wrote!  Although I couldn't afford the then hefty $6500 price tag at the time, it did make a ever lasting impression.  Little did I realize that I could have been investing in my future if I had scrapped together the money to buy that low mileage gem....

The sad part is used Corvettes were really not that expensive but it wouldn't be until I was 38 that I got my first Corvette.  My wife swore to me that she would buy me by the time I turned 40, two years before her deadline she did buy me a 1978 Corvette for my birthday.  This car needed a lot of work, but it was a driver and it did get driven, and a lot of alterations, for the next ten years.


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 (The above photo is my first Vette.  In the ten years I owned it I swapped it over to 4-speed, put a 400 hp crate engine in and did a ton of other things to it.  Wish I had kept it)

At some point I convinced my wife that we should be a newer Vette as a daily driver.  We purchased a 2001 Corvette convertible 6-speed for close to $30,000 from a Hummer dealer. Only 18,000 miles on the car it a was a dream.  But my idea of buying such an expensive car as a daily driver seemed to go south.  Every time it rained or weather looked bad, I would bum rides to work so I wouldn't have to subject my pristine condition car to the elements. And after the car got broken into when I was attending a fund raiser at a bowling alley, I then became paranoid.  I had already sold the 78 Vette a few months after getting the 01, but with the high monthly payment, the high insurance and my paranoid state of someone screwing with my car, I sold the 01 for what I had paid for it.

(My 2001 convertible)

I was now Vetteless.  A state that did not agree with me.  I was out on the prowl for another Corvette and purchased a 1984 Corvette that was in less than desirable shape.  Actually, the car ran good, interior wasn't bad, but the guy did a primer job on it, going as far as to primer over the see through targa top.  He wanted $4,000 for it, I offered him $2700, which was all the money I could put together... with a little help from a credit card.  I really thought he would tell me to go to hell, but instead he said, "my wife wants me to get rid of it, I'll take it."  I reluctantly bought this car, but it turned out to be a great daily driver.  Although I only drove it for six months before I was offered $3500 for it, so I sold it.  Did nothing to that car but drive it.

(My first 84, the previous owner went a little crazy with the spray can primer)

Once the 84 was gone I went on a little spree of buying cars I just wanted to drive.  An 87 Iroc, an 84 Trans Am (that I planned to turn into a Knight Rider car) but it wasn't long until I was back in the Vette, yet another 84.  This one I paid $3000 for and it looked a lot better than my last one but had a lot of issues with the Cross Fire injection.  I was against putting a carb on the 84, although it may have been cheaper since I had to replace the fuel pump, both injectors and miscellaneous parts to get it run right.  And even though this car looked pretty cool red, it had this white stripe down the center that really bugged me.  Bugged me so much that I had the car painted black, and it then looked awesome.

(My second 84 with a fresh black paint job)

I then ran into a deal that I could not pass up.  For $9,000 and my 84 I could get a 1999 Corvette 6-speed.  This car was awesome and did become my daily driver.  I drove this for about a year when I had a bad mishap that ended in a head on collision.  The Vette did not survive, I walked away with a fractured nose from the air bag.  The car basically saved my life and I still miss that beauty.  Speed, comfort and great gas mileage, what more could you want.  I remember driving it work and we were hit with an ice storm, people kept saying I would never make it home.  But the government mandated 1st to 4th gear shift (to get better mpg) came in handy when driving on ice (those that owned the 6 speed know what I am talking about).  Made it home without an incident while others driving supposedly safer cars didn't.

(My awesome 99 with chrome Z06 wheels)

After the wreck I bought a Durango to drive, but it wasn't a month or so before I had to get back in the saddle again with another Corvette.  I had been looking for a C3 Stingray, something pre-1976 and found a 1975 that had been sitting for some time.  I traded this guy my Durango (that I got for $2500) and $1500 cash for his car which I had to drive over an hour home after purchasing it as I just traded him my only car.  The speedometer didn't work, the gas gauge didn't work, the brakes didn't work and the key was stuck in the ignition.  The brakes went to the floor where you would get just a hint of brakes.  So I drove it home in the rain (oh yeah, the headlights didn't work either) with a speedometer app on my phone trying to see how fast I was going but could only get it to work in kilometers... and prayed I didn't have to make any sudden stops.  I made it home safely and then spent the next two weeks fixing all the issues stated above, plus rebuilt the front end, it then became my daily driver and the short-lived C3 Stingray theme car.

(My blue 75, another car I wish I had kept and continued to fix up. Nice looking car)

I don't remember why or how much I sold the 75 for.  It was a nice looking car but still needed a lot of TLC.  It ran great but the interior was pretty shot and someone must of offered me a some decent money for it and I sold it... can't remember why or for how much.  But I was instantly on the prowl again, this time I got a 1985 Corvette for $2,700.  It had been on Craigslst for some time at $4,000 and after much talking I was able to get it for $2700 and drove it home.  Interior was bad (as is most C4s) and the paint was faded, but it ran pretty well.  It had some annoying features, that puff of smoke that blew out when you first started it in the morning forced me to change the oil seals.  I lucked out and was able to replace all the o-rings and swap it over to R134 and the compressor kicked on and the AC worked great.  Starter went out three times, but this is what you get with Autozone starters and what you get with most of Autozone parts.  It is a gamble.  I also replaced a blower relay, because the blower quit working, with a new one from Autozone and it did not fix the problem.  I then spent a day going through wires and connections and anything else that would not cause the blower to kick on (as I had tested the blower and it worked fine). After all that wasted time I got another blower relay and it kicked on... Autozone sucks... but that is different blog. I kept messing with the car, reupholstered the seats and got new carpet.  Repainted it white.  It was an awesome looking and driving 85.  Ended up selling it for $5500 some time later.

(My 85 Corvette. Was never a fan or white cars but this one was really good looking)

I still wanted a C3 Stingray car and when a 76 Corvette came up on Craigslist for $4,000 I looked at it with more enthusiasm than I should have had.  It was an older guy that seemed honest, but he pretty much screwed me over with this car.  His story was he bought it from a friend and thought it was running funny when it drove it home and decided to rebuild the carb.  He took the carb off, had it in pieces, and then let the car sit for 8-10 years!  What was weird was he had a 77 Corvette in his garage that had been sitting equally as long.  I bought the car, hauled it home and began the job of figuring out what was wrong.  Had to replace the gas tank and some of the lines, put another rebuilt Quadrajet on it and the car fired right up and ran great.  I then had to rebuild the front end and replace wheel bearings and calipers.  Got it running and driving good, but in the mean time my title came back and it had REBUILT stamped on it!  I sent the clean Missouri title in and it came back as REBUILT title in Illinois.  I couldn't justify putting any more money into the car with a rebuilt title so I put it up for sale or trade and my Corvette history continued... (much longer story than I thought it would be).

(The cursed 76. Had a large cowl hood on it which made it tough to see out of the windshield)

I got someone that wanted to trade for a car with a rebuilt title, he had a 91 Corvette.  This car was pretty nice and I believe was a decent trade, despite that it has over 160xxx miles on it. Black automatic, last of the L98s, I am still driving this car, been well over a year since the trade.  Was my daily driver up until a couple months ago when my daily commute became much longer after I moved, so I bought a Mini Cooper as my daily driver for the gas mileage, The 91 has a few issues, but they are all minor and I hope to straighten them all out before this summer.  It is a good car though and I wouldn't be scared to drive it anywhere... and often do.

(My 91 black beauty. Has a nice DVD player touch screen in it)

Although I still have the 91, we still have two more cars to go in my Corvette history.  My next was a fluke.  Happened to read about a 76 Corvette for sale on Craigslist for $2800, no photos and no phone number.  I emailed this person at least 6 times before he finally responded to me about a week later.  He had several people coming to look at the car but I was the first on the list and was only about 20 minutes from his house that night. This was a black car with decent interior, no rust, but running issues, it would run for about a minute and then die.  I didn't even dicker with the price, gave him all the money I had on me ($70) and told him I would be back first thing in the morning with a trailer and the rest of the money. The car just needed a tune up and I put a rebuilt Quadrajet on it, ran fine for about a month when and then started dying again for no reason.  Thought it was the fuel pump but after replacing that it still died.  Turned out being the only thing I didn't replace, a bad ignition rotor. I drove this car off and on for a few months but had to sell when I needed money for a new house we bought. 

(My last 76 I sold to a guy who was buying it for him and his son who liked to dress up like Batman and needed a Batmobile)

Which brings me to my latest Corvette.  Was set to purchase a 1980 Corvette from Indianapolis that looked really good in the photos and I believe was going to be good buy at $3,300.  I was to leave the day after Christmas 2016 to pick it up but despite the fact the guy said it he would hold it for me until then, on Christmas morning I got a text telling me that his wife sold the car while he was at work... really?  So I went to a local guy that had a 1979 for sale for $3,500 and got it for $3,000.  I have not had the opportunity to even start on this one, needs a new headlight assembly, power booster and other odds and ends.  I am hoping to get this one ready for spring to drive around to the car shows.  Even bought another 1979 Corvette parts car to help me put it together.... will probably be writing and doing videos on the 79 resurrection.

(My latest purchase for 2017, my 1979 Corvette... still dirty from sitting for the last couple years. You can see my 91 in the background)

This wraps up my Corvette history. This story doesn't include Corvettes that were just parted out, just the cars I actually licensed and drove.  So yes, I have Corvette fever. And the only cure is another Corvette, until I get my dream Vette; a 1974 Corvette convertible with a 454 4-speed... I don't want much.   I'm sure I am not the only one with this disease with no cure....