Cars & Coffee @ Gateway Classic Cars Orlando 9/24/2016

This morning I drove the Vette down to Lake Mary for the monthly Cars & Coffee at Gateway Classic Cars of Orlando.

Great attendance as usual and here are a few pics of today's event.

The $10 Restoration

You don't need to look at the whole car when you think about restoration.

A car is nothing more than the sum of thousands of parts and, sometimes, breaking it down into small components is the smart thing to do.

Of course, a frame-off restoration is what we all want, and according to most current reality-TV shows, it can be done in a matter of weeks (if not days).

Well, some of those shows really qualify as science fiction, but I digress.

I can promise you one thing, though; if a project is small enough, you can do it in a matter of hours.

Rebuilding and Upgrading the Corvette L-48 Engine | Part 6

I took my Vette out yesterday (Sunday) for a longer test drive of approximately 30 miles.

The car performed beautifully although the idle seems to be a bit on the high side for my taste. That, of course, can be easily corrected so it's not a big deal.

Since I was told by Mark at Sunrise Automotive not to exceed 3000 rpm, I drove the car gently making sure the tach did not go over 2500 rpm. And everything was fine. That is until I was about a mile from home.

As I came to a stop behind another car at a traffic light, I thought that the car in front of me was making a lot of noise. But, as I made the right-hand turn to come home, I realized it was my car making the racket, which really sounded like a lifter gone bad.


At the next traffic light, I also noticed the car was running very rough and threatening to stall and die, so I made sure it kept running since I was less than a 1/4 mile from my house.

Rebuilding and Upgrading the Corvette L-48 Engine | Part 5

WEDNESDAY

Finally! After a few weeks of preparation and one delay (I was out of town for one week), my 1976 Corvette Stingray is back at Sunrise Automotive and the freshly rebuilt V8 is back home in the engine bay.


I am keeping my fingers crossed that I connected everything correctly when I detailed the wiring harness and that my steering column rebuild is up to the task.

Especially the ignition switch harmonica connector swap I was forced to make so everything would plug properly with the factory wiring harness.

C3 Corvette Magazine Ads

Regardless of who said it first, the axiom, "Nothing happens until someone sells something" applies to all products, Corvettes included. And to that end, Chevrolet has probably spent more money promoting their products than most of us will see in a lifetime.

So here is a small sampling of ads used in various magazines in the past, to promote C3 Corvettes of various years.