Most of us have a dream car we have quietly given up on. For one family man in the countryside, it was a Corvette. He had settled for an Opel he called his miniature Corvette, only to find it was too rusty to save. Then a stranger in Florida sent him a C3 Corvette as a gift.
The man behind @Sleeperdude, who fixes up old cars with his family, says the Floridian emailed after seeing how disappointed he was about the Opel.
“he said he had a Corvette that he wanted to send me.”
He says he tried to turn it down, then offered to pay for the delivery. The donor insisted it was a gift. The car arrived on a semi-truck, and he hid it behind the pole barn so the kids would get a surprise when they came home from school.
What Arrived On The Truck
“Now, it’s been parked for 18 years.”
The C3 Corvette wears two-tone blue paint with stripes and T-tops. He says only 1,682 were made in that color, that it was the first year of electronic fuel injection on the car and the first year with no manual transmission option, and that it was the last year of the C3 body that started in 1968. The odometer shows 96,000 miles.
Someone had already modified it. He found an Edelbrock carburetor and intake in place of the factory fuel injection, an HEI ignition and long-tube headers, and he says the donor told him it also has a cam and a built transmission. The donor had even pulled the spark plugs before shipping it.
Waking Up A C3 Corvette After 18 Years
A borescope down the spark plug holes showed some surface rust but visible crosshatch on the cylinder walls, so he oiled the cylinders and turned the engine by hand. It rotated.
The rest of the list grew quickly. Two tires blew out just sitting there. He found a dragging brake caliper, a bone-dry rear brake reservoir and no shocks. He mounted new Cooper Cobra tires, swapped in two new rear calipers that came with the car, and cleaned out a carburetor with brown deposits in its fuel bowl.
The fuel system held the biggest surprise. He says the tank in the car is from a carbureted 1980 Corvette, with no in-tank pump. He set up an electric pump and treated the tank, which had heavy deposits at the bottom.
First Drives Around The Yard
The engine started and sounded good. Oil pressure and the tachometer worked, though the windows did not and the brake pedal felt soft. The family took turns driving it around their property.
“This is something I never thought I’d have, you know, a Corvette.”
Then it stalled. He traced the problem to the fuel pressure regulator. By his research, that model is a dead-head style that is not meant to return fuel to the tank, but it had been plumbed with a return line. Plugging the port brought the pressure up, and the C3 Corvette ran again, with a fuel drip from the open return line still to sort out.
The day ended with one more twist. A family member clipped a small tree while turning the long-nosed car in the yard and knocked off the rearview mirror. Nobody suffered any injury, and they parked the car.
What To Do Before Driving A C3 Corvette Or Any Car That Sat For Years
- Replace old tires even if the tread looks good. Age can make them fail while parked.
- Check every brake caliper and the master cylinder. Sticking brakes and empty reservoirs are common after long storage.
- Learn what fuel parts are actually on the car. Earlier owners may have mixed parts from different years.
- Follow the maker’s plumbing for regulators and pumps. The wrong layout can starve the engine.
- Get it registered and insured before it leaves private property.
Where Things Stand
The Corvette runs and drives on his property. He says it still needs brake work, some suspension checks on the lift, and a tag and insurance before it goes on the road. He thanked the donor at the end of the video and says he plans to cherish and drive the car.
“Really never expected to own one, you know, out of my price range.”
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