My Friend Spent $2k trying to get his Project Corvette to Run. I Fixed it for $10 in 5 Minutes! 

Come on, Sam...with all the hard work that young man has done for you, sponsor some serious support for him.

Sage's biggest mistake was throwing parts at it instead of using the factory service manuals and diagnosing the issues.

I thought you were going to give him a big Christmas present there. C'mon Sam, give him a big boost!

I feel sorry for Sage, he deserves a nice Corvette. I remember the trial you gave him with that deliberately made bad car that he couldn't drive through the gate and lost the bet. He's a good kid. I wish he'll find a good C5 for himself.

Bought a flooded Mercedes that ran and drove when i bought it. Several modules later and I had $12k in it. When I decided to sell it, it would no longer start. Dumped it for $4500. That one stung

Sage has got a great attitude, what a good guy

13:05 just changing the starter because it's a no-crank is a parts-changer mindset, how about a proper diagnosis first, you can measure the voltage coming to it to see if it's the starter or something else that's broken

I owned a evo x for a year and had over $20k invested and sold it for $7k but the day I sold it I was so happy! Sometimes you just need to take a loss and move on

As someone who's rebuilt his C5 Corvette multiple times, I'm surprised he had so much trouble. Probably one of the easiest cars to work on. I wouldn't mind that car if the price was right.

@ 9 mins - I cannot believe how much money was thrown down the pipe on absolutely useless upgrades or replacements before determining if the entire drive system was stable and solid. The fact that it was running before it went for paint and not running after being painted should have eliminated initially spending any money on ECM's or any expensive engine parts since it seems pretty unlikely they would have failed randomly just sitting at the paint shop. On the plus side, it's getting an education in this way that makes the knowledge stick in one's head LOL.

Sage seems like a great guy and I get his enthusiasm; HOWEVER, get the car running properly and sort out the title issues before spending a single cent on all the other stuff ie wheels, tires, paint, stereo…

Poor sage I was really hoping his c5 was going to be fixed so he can drive and enjoy his dream car. My dream car was a c4 and a c5 and when they both quit running and I spent a lot of money on them and they still wouldn’t run right I was ready to burn them to the ground until finally after one more attempt both of them were back to running like a top

Sam I would love videos of you fixing this up, putting it back together & getting it back on the road! It could be Sage’s graduation present!

Learning from projects like this will certainly make him as sage as you Sam

I can totally relate, when you just spend so much time and money on a car you loved and instead of getting better it just gives you more trouble, you want nothing to do with it.

NEVER BUY anything with a PUNISHER sticker on it!

So a 05 X5 4.4i fell in to my lap. A buddy at my job owned it left the key in it and had It stolen. It was recovered a month later. The key was gone and the gas cap was too. The driver door panel was missing. It sat in his driveway for a year, he was trying to sell it but nobody wanted to gamble on it. I showed interest so he sold it to me for $600 + I had to buy the key $375. It started right up with the new key. It's a solid suv but it does need some work. I'm sorting it out now. I'm almost done but yeah it's a fun experience.

When I heard "washed, salvage title" I was like...NOPE!

If it came with the repair manuals, how come they weren't used to troubleshoot it?

Hey Sam, I've been buying these turds all my life. I always buy the cheapest car at the auction and most of the time you have to do a bunch to it. Every once in a while you get the diamond in the coal mine. A few weeks ago I bought two Saturn Ions just alike. One said ride and drive, showed minor bumper damage. The other said no start, engine fire. i thought if nothing else I could put them together and have one good one. Come to find out the ride and drive one had the oil pan knocked off by Copart and cracks in every body panel. The engine fire car was not an engine fire but a burned and melted headlight. I jumped started and found out that it Had over 100,000 less miles and didn't even burn the wiring harness. Fixed them both for under $500. Name of the game.

The real treasures are the friends we found along the way.

Saw the dry nitro lines, 1st thought melted pistons and bent rods 😂😂😂

Poor sage. That car has been to hell and back in a trailer park.

This Vette reminds me of the green Ferrari. Clapped out and over modified.

Yeah Sam.. be the support that he needs… some people just need a LITTLE push to get over the top.. from your videos, he’s been doing great for you.

Oh my god Sam help sage out with his dream project back to old school mechanicals needed start a fresh and figure things out like the goon squad guys cheers pal

A good lesson to learn. I appreciate Sam staying back a little bit to let Sage learn. I was in the same spot. Throwing parts at a car you "love" so much. I can relate. I bought a old Volvo for 7k, ended up spending 20k on it, just to sell it for nothing a year later at 5k. We all sooner or later learn that there is a fine line when we are on a budget.

that does NOT look like a new paint job

You definitely need to know when to call it quits on a car. I put $5k into a Subaru outback that was worth maybe $2k on a good day, only to have the engine let go a month or so later. A painful lesson, but one I needed to learn and now I know better haha

Loving all the content coming through lately… keep it going ❤🇬🇧

Lesson learned. Confirm the essentials before cleaning up the little stuff. Can you get it to run and drive and can you get it registered. I see the guys at JR Garage do this all the time. They clean and they fix minor stuff before they find out if the engine is blown. To their credit, they almost always win so I give them credit for being astute buyers.

that bushing is very common i had one that broke off from the back side it was definitely a tight fit to do it with out removing any parts on the under side but a lift helped a lot

Famous last words " It has a lot potential "!

I bought a "project" type C5 about 6 years ago , I would have been out of luck if I hadn't found the Corvette Forum , if there wasn't already a thread that covered any problems I was having I could ask a question and someone would be more than happy to help , a lot of VERY experienced , knowledgeable and fun People on there , hope things go good with the ZO6.....

Great job diagnosing it, Sam. Also, hilarious Stamps ad. 😄

Very cool!!! Would love to see more work on this car!

Love the deer running across the field in the background at 10:42

Good job Sam ! He's still just a least amount of experience kid ! When someone says it's only in reverse then one would assume it's a transmission problem and don't bother looking else where !

Sam, you know more about these issues, surely you gave him some guidance when he was doing these repairs rather than let him go on his own? It would have saved him a lot of money that he cannot afford.

I had the same problem with my 2010 corvette. Dealership wanted $650 service plus $90 parts. The dealership would only replace the cable that connected the shifter to the transmission. I spent $11 on a new bushing and fixed it myself.

Thank you for the yellow arrow, I wouldn't of seen the car without it.

I had loose shifter bushings on my 1979 Mercedes Benz 300SD just like this Corvette same problem. Wouldn’t start unless you fished the shifter around to get the neutral safety switch to activate because the bushings were sloppy and worn out. Like $10 in parts, a bushing press tool from Mercedes Source and about an hour or so of time and had it working great

sage is lucky to have you as a mentor, and you are lucky to have sage, hard to find kids these days that are trust worthy

Come on Sam, you can help Sage... He is been loyal to you man!

I have a 50 year old 450SL. Pretty useless here in Florida most of the year because the AC is junk (from new) Every time it leaves the garage it needs another wad of cash spending on it.

Heavily modified usually means some kid beat it to death

Hope you get it going again. Welcome back to the channel sage

Good episode - shows the value of 'back to basics' diagnostic checks 👍. I have a question - if you aren't able to register it for road use, what's the point? Or were you preparing it as a track car? I'm unfamiliar with USA rules, so maybe I misunderstood the problem with the title?

Definitely a good lesson...ALWAYS make sure you can title / register a car before spending any money on it. We all have lerned the hard way over the years. My best rebuild story i guess is of a 2014 Ram 2500 bought at IAAI. It looked beat all over but not bad. It had no keys but I found the previous owner and he sent me both keys and it fired right up, perfect. After taking some measurements i found that the frame was bent and twisted from a hard front left impact into a ditch. So at that point i was either out $6k and part it out or go all in. So, I ordered a new frame from the Ram dealer and swapped everything over in my yard/ shop with an engine hoist and my tractor. It ended up needing front end sheet metal, all 4 wheels were bent, and a front axle... plus thousands of other work. In the end, I put 10k miles on it before selling it (and making a little on it), but it's still one of the best trucks I've ever owned. I made some RU-vid videos of that project.

I bought my dream C5 two years ago. Few issues but nothing major. Since that one is a 98 if the knock sensors go bad good luck lol. That's the main issue I have now.

Good luck, and next time try to prioritize the spending a bit better -- like don't fix the radio until you know you've got a running keeper

A true friend would help get his first one done b4 talking him into another pos

I have 2011 328i that I bought and driven home 3 and half hours and ran for less than a week. Check engine light came on due to broken vanos, oil pan gasket leaking. After 6k in repair she runs fine with. I learned my lesson

first time I have seen a pair of dumpers like mine I love the look of them.

Over the years I've learned to buy cars as close to stock as possible

I had this exact problem happen on my friend’s 03 mercury marauder years ago. Ironically got stuck in park outside of a parking space. Ended up pushing balanced on top of jack into a parking spot where it was promptly fixed within an hour after the parts stores had opened.

It looks so much better with all that horrific aero removed! A factory hood would help it a ton too.

Sage believe me when I say this every single person who buys and sells cars have always had issues like you so we learn and move on that's 1 way for a person to be successful in life so wish you all the best and you got a good mentor and even he makes mistakes for example Sam's 360 FERRARI

You both have great attitudes!

Now that it's running and driving with a new paint job, keep the car. Sam you can sponsor Sage a bit. He deserves it. Greetings from Germany, Martin

Good lesson Sam, you can’t win them all. With a little elbow grease and the determination anything can be achieved

Man, around '98 we were camping and my mother-n-laws's Ford would not turn over. I was like 25 and was a young shady tree mechanic so I tried jumping the solenoid. nothing. we tried other things but ended up having to get a tow. Of course the shifter wasn't completely set.

I feel bad for Sage. But I guess we've all fallen into the "cart before the horse" scenario on a car we WANT to believe in. Always get them running right before making them pretty!

This looks like every car near the Norfolk Naval Base !

My 1st flip i made about $2000 profit on a $700 auction bmw. Ez peasy. I bought a 2004 cayenne and an 2010 srx to flip and lost about $12,000. Lesson learned.

Same; you help Sage out SO much. Teach him well. I hope he aint learning woke crap at College !!!

Great point, you live and you learn. Sell that one and hook him up with the yellow Z06!

I cringe whenever I see someone replace a part without cleaning up the debris. Uchh. And a year ago, that tape residue should have been cleaned off with oil or goo-gone, first thing. Now it's had time to sit on there and eat into the paint. Some people tell me it was foolish to buy the 1st year C6, but I see the C5 and never regret it. A secret of the 1st year C6 is a fuel feedback line which saves gas on each start/shutoff. You get a used car, get a list of things to replace before you do.

never, ever, EVER, fire the Parts Cannon until you're positive of the diagnosis.

"It's got a brand new Optima red top battery". Ooof! Sorry to hear that. Oh well, just 1 more thing to replace.

I don’t know why he removed the carbon fibre shin severing blades, they were one of the only functioning parts of this classic

I see you're following the AAR RU-vid model. Loving the extra videos Sam keep it up

I've bought a couple cars with title issues. Usually case where previous owner signed title on purchase but never retitled in their name. Thankfully Texas makes it easy to get a bonded title. I've got a branded title for a truck I rebuilt and it was just a basic inspection too. Some states make it more hassle than it's worth.

No one: Sage: "Yeh!"

When I was growing up my parents had a couple cars with automatic transmissions where the neutral safety switch (auto trans start cutout) failed. Whenever I have an automatic transmission car that’s no crank no start I always check if there’s anything funky with the shifter. Sucks that the linkage completely disintegrated.

This video just reminds me there is no substitute for experience!

I'm REALLY looking forward to if the "Grinch" is going to make a comeback this year before Christmas.....

The C5 might have problems starting due to the loose pins by the main power circuit door driver or passenger. It happens to me, and it fires back on. Changed starter, knock sensor, battery, and alternator didn't fix it but still got new parts

get the thing pressure washed, clean it out, and make a few videos on it

Sage loves that big beast of a motor 🤘🇬🇧

Man it ducks he got his dream car & it was a lemon! Hopefully he can get close to what he spent & get something good

Same shit different day with Sam. I'm honestly fedup of the same cars that sam loves then hear him complain about his builds

Nice of you to support that young man. Hi to your stepmom 👋🏻😁

Oh keep that car. I love my C5.

4:31 rolling stop😮😮

I remember a long time ago when Sam was giving away a car (can’t remember which one) if he could fix it. When ppl got pissed off cause he couldn’t get the car fixed and therefor didn’t get the car. Sam clearly said that he drives a McLaren…Yet he had to save up to get a busted ass C5?

Never try to turn a parts car into a driver...

Bought a mini at Salvage with front end damage. When I got it, it was full of mice and they ate the wiring harness. I bought another one with opposite end damage and swapped over the parts and sent the first one to salvage. That was my only horror story I have purchased two minis, two land rovers, one Jeep and a Ram 2500. The others went pretty well. The Jeep Wrangler was scary at first. It was advertised as a roll over. Reality was it hit something with enough force to bend the front axle and control arms, then rolled. Front springs popped out of their seats as well. When they brought it out my daughter told me she could see the horror in my face. It actually came out nice and she has been driving it four years now.

You’re getting the pull key wait 10 sec code on the screen,$50 lmc5 module will fix this. Very common its a steering column lock malfunction causing the no start/crank.

10:40 biglike for the photobombing deer :D

there's no better way to learn than the classic "throw parts at it until the problem is fixed".

2:41 Those anckle slicers need to go! 😅 🎉🎉🎉❤

I think Sam is trying to mentor Sage, and have him understand what and why he needs learn from this life experience. Someone fixing your problems doesn't mean you won't make the same mistake again.

maybe i can see a newbie throwing some parts at a no start situation but someone going through the trouble of replacing a starter (especially a starter where you have to cut out the exhaust to do so) without even testing the starter first and then also going to the hassle of hot wiring a bypass starter switch in while the whole time never catching the whole problem was something as simple as the shifter cable being disconnected is someone who should probably choose an extra curricular activity requiring abilities that are less mechanically inclined.......

I've always loved the corvette but my fav is the 90's model

Love the Dallas intro.

Ugh i am learning the same kind of lesson, i bought a project car too. A Matra Murena, its got a different engine inside and wont start

I had this EXACT problem with out 2006 Chevy Venture van. Wife went to the library with the kids and it decided to break. Had to use a wire tie on the tranny shift fork to get it home. Mine broke on the tranny end.

This channel should be called, we do not look before we leap. Or, we just leap. Or, let's just leap and hope for the best.

2 years ago I bought a mk6 GTI with starting issues and no rear brakes, changed the pcv, brake fluid, brake pads and it worked, got it for $3,500 dumped it $200 and now it runs nice (here in my country are rather expensive though)