my1976corvette
a c3 restoration
Recent News
November 2009
Completely rebuilt site, making navigation easier and cleaner. I hope it is easier to use now!
my 1976 corvette c3 stingray restoration
This is the story of a tired, worn out, old 1976 Corvette C3 Stingray L-48. The car was driven hard, worn out, and left for dead..until I came along. The car has lived in the Gulf Coast Texas area its entire life. The car was driven approximately 127,000 miles in and around the Gulf Coast Texas region, and undoubtedly saw many sunny days on the local beaches with the T-Tops off. Luckily, this car is fiberglass so the body wasn't destroyed by the sun and salt and the steel frame somehow survived unscathed. It remained a great driver until 2001 when it was retired to a barn in Friendswood, Texas.
The 3rd known owner of the car was a hot rod builder, primarily specializing in 20's, 30's, and 40's model cars. He was using this as a daily driver, until such time he decided the old Vette was too tired and was ready for the scrap heap. The car was laid to rest in a barn in 2001. His friend stumbled onto the car in 2005, and decided it would be a fun project, so he pulled it out of the barn and assessed what needed to be done to make it into a driver again. At that time, the decision was made that 'it was too far gone' and would never see the streets again.
It had rotted floorboards,
a leak in the windshield post,
the paint was completely ruined,
the electric options didn't work.
there was a short in the wiring,
the interior was rotted,
the engine didn't run,
the transmission was worn out,
the entire brake system was rusted,
and the suspension was rusted and rotted out.
It would require too much work to make it nice.
The initial thought was to sell it as a parts car, or to a drag racer who could use the body. They realized that someone out there would probably be interested in such a car, so the car was put on auction at a popular auction site online. I found the car on the auction, called the owner, and arranged to take a look at it in person, since I live 20 minutes from where it was resting. I purchased the car that same day, and had it trailered over to my garage a few days later in July 2005. I have been collecting parts and doing work on the car since then, and hope to have it completed someday
soon.