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Update: (New owners taking it away) 9/20/03 - Today, two years and 1 month after I purchased the car, I sold it. That was the plan all along and the car has served its purpose well by teaching me what I needed to know to complete my next car, the '69 big block convertible. The '79 now has a Houston address so with the exception of 18 months in NY this car has spent its whole life in TX.
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Hello, and welcome to my site. Before we get started into the history of this car we have to get a couple of things straight: 1) I am not going through any kind of mid-life crisis, I'm too young. 2) I am not "compensating" for anything whatsoever by owning a corvette. This car has been a passion of mine since I was little....or a kid....or, you know what I mean.
With that out of the way let's start at the beginning. Two years ago I started looking for a C3 (third generation vette for you lay people) that needed some TLC. For me the fun is in the work. I have worked on cars since I was financially motivated to in high school, but never a total restore. Because of this I backed off the idea of doing my absolute dream first, a '68 - '72 big block. That focused my search on the '79s and '80s. I liked what the '79s had to offer in general over the '80s, but liked the '80s style front bumper cover for ground hugging looks and the 60% more airflow through the radiator. I looked all over the country, but finally struck gold in my own back yard. 20 miles away was an ex-military guy starting a new career and getting married to a lovely girl I'm sure, but that hated this corvette. His days were preciously numbered and when the price fell to $2500 I had a project car and he had a happy fiancé. The funny thing about this car was that when this car was still a pup the original owner cut the fenders and put a modified '80s style front end on. Since I'm not going for total originality this was perfect for me!! The picture at the top of this page was taken the day of purchase.
The car barely drove home. There were absolutely NO shocks or rear spring. A strong bang from the back when I would go around corners proved to be missing bolts from the U-joints on the half shaft. The exhaust pipe was smashed on both sides from the rear spring hitting it after bumps. I drove it to the wash the next day and then began the disassembly process. When taking the engine apart I noticed that one spark plug wire had been cut completely, one plug was missing the electrode altogether, and another cylinder had anti-freeze in it. I figure I drove home on 5 1/2 cylinders. The timing chain just lifted off by hand, so mechanically the car needed some love.
The interior had undergone punishment almost not mentionable. The same owner replaced the door panels and seat covers with red crush-velvet! How did anyone survive the 80's!! All will be corrected so except for the initial shock, no real damage. Other than worn carpet and a couple of rust holes in the floor pan, the inside was ok.
The body needed attention that I found I just couldn't give it. Bodywork for me is like asking a tree trimmer to perform heart surgery. I worked on some of the body repairs, but eventually the body came off and went to the very slow, but capable hands at the local Collision Shop down the street.
I tried to include interesting milestones from the different phases of the project so please enjoy. This site is called the Lazarus Project because if all goes well, this car will have been raised from the dead. There are many other pics (about 300) detailing different parts of the process so if you don't see what you need here email me at a79vette@attbi.com and I'll try to find what you ask for and send it to you.
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