A lot has changed over the past few months, first of all we have a new ride! In December the black '99 C5 went to a new home. Early the next morning, Dad and I were on a road trip to Monterey to look at and hopefully buy a barn find 1975 Stingray. The pictures in the ad were not great and all we knew was that the car was white. After the 90 minute drive from the Bay Area we pulled up to see this gem.
From the pictures you (A corvette enthusiast) can already tell that the front and rear bumpers are not stock 1975 Stingray bumpers. The stock down sloping rear bumper was replaced with a catalog order piece that has a molded spoiler. The front bumper is also a catalog order special. The car had a color change from the factory Chevy Orange to a white pearl...yes the car is pearl white. The stock wheels were long gone and replaced with mint vintage Enkei aluminum wheels. The skinny rubber was ditched for some oversized P235/60 r15 tires. Under the hood was the number matching L-48 small block 350 matched to a TH400 transmission.
The family that we purchased the car from claimed the vette was a barn find with 120,xxx miles. Boy does their story actually add up! The husband said he found the car in a barn in the California desert exactly as it sat on that morning. Having only owned it for a few months nothing was changed other than getting it registered and a minor tune up. The story is believable after seeing how much hay, dirt, and creepy crawlies were hiding in the car during tear down. We will get to that eventually.....
Getting home....
After a few test drives through downtown Monterey and getting looks from all the ladies in this sex machine, we decided to start the trip back. Let me back up a little bit. That morning I was woken up at 0700 (Way too early for a saturday morning) and was told to get dressed and be in the car in 10 minutes. I figured we were just going to see another Corvette since my Dad had already seen about 6 or 7 over the past few weeks. What I didn't expect was the drive to Monterey or that I would be driving the car back. This may not be seen as such a hardship, I mean how many people get to cruise Hwy 1 in a '75 Stingray? Well thats what was going through my mind when I started driving back. Thoughts like "I probably look so good in this thing" or "I left single, maybe Ill find a girl by the time I get home", the car was bad ass until it got on the highway. If you have ever driven in a car with 120,xxx miles that sat in a barn for 20 years at 70 MPH, you know exactly what I went through. The pucker factor was off the charts, I couldn't even pass a fart.
For starters the clapped out suspension bottomed out on every bump, the steering was loose, and the car liked to wander at speed. By wander I mean change where it wanted to be in the lane, it drifted left then right. It even changed lanes a few times. The biggest scare was when I went over a bump at about 65 or 70, there was a bridge and some kind of transition from the pavement to the metal. The front tires left the ground for a split second, when the back end finally came back down I was driving in the service lane. So I kept it under 60 after that. After a lunch stop we got back on Hwy 1 headed for home, I think I made it 3 miles.... Back tracking for a second, when we picked up the car it had a bad belt squeal starting at 3500 rpm. I tightened the belt thinking it was loose during the lunch stop. So at the 3 mile mark on the highway the squeal just went away. At the time I thought "Oh maybe it just fixed itself", then the smoke screen of steam began rolling from under the hood. The belt broke shutting off the water pump and overheated the engine.
Now on the side of the road we went from happy Corvette buyers to sad tow truck waiters. After about an hour of waiting AAA finally pulled through and we got it towed home.
The ever degrading tow of shame...... But doesn't the car still look killer?
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