Wow. This is seriously one of my number one dream cars. I'm not a wealthy man but I have been able to find cheap versions of my dream cars over time. But this one has not been one. They are not easy to find for reasonable money. Four speed 1971! So COOL!
Nice to see a vette from Dale Chevrolet Waukesha wi. Dale was the place to go if you wanted a muscle car. I once looked at a 69 SS chevelle there. Funny thing was I got married and lived in Waukesha for 42 years. Dale was gone by 1977 .
My first Vette was a Fathom Green 69 RSTR W/a White Top 300 hp 350 Muncie 4spd. I drove the U NO What out of it and sold it! Cried for a few years & my Wife said I could get another one so I ended up with a Sunfire Yellow 66 Coupe W/A/C & it had a Special Hi Perf 350hp 327 4spd 4:11 Posi , Knock off wheels, Black Leather, Teak wood wheel & Power windows. NO PB but stopped on a Dime! Fun Rocket ship! I was a member of the NCRS Southwest Chapter & the Scottsdale Corvette Club. It also made the 1999 March Mid America Corvette Calendar! This vettes pretty cool! Keep it orig! Have FUN!
I noticed you put a fram oil filter on it!!! On an engine and car like that i would put on a original gm or a wix or a k&n filter. Much better filter material and the anti drain back valve actually works! I used to use fram cause thats what they stock in canadian tire but have noticed on my 2valve 5.4 triton timing chain rotational noise on the first 3 sec of start up before oil gets pumped back up! Once i switched to a wix or motorcraft or k&n no rattle on start up meaning instant oil pressure! Probably something to do with the anti drain back valve in the fram. Also many engine experts will also say the same from extensive testing. Once cut open the wix and k&n and motorcraft filters are beefy with more filter material and better made. The fram is just a garbage filter...
Thanks for the info Darren. I agree with you! I put this cheap Fram one on for the short initial running to collect the very old, contaminated oil. Then a better high quality oil filter soon after.
EXCELLENT tutorial! I also have a '69 350/350hp 4 speed, same color (proves they were not ALL RED) Clock still runs ok, but nice to see step by step diagnosis/repair.
They're not all blue either. My father ordered his 69 L71 in LeMans Blue but when it arrived at the dealership it was Fathom Green. He decided to keep it instead of waiting a few more months for a blue one like he ordered.
I must say I am totally impressed with this gentleman his demeanor his calmness and his knowledge about this automobile is truly amazing to me he represents what America is all about of course I don't know him personally but I admired his presentation and couldn't stop watching great job keep up the good work I am a fan we need people like this out here to restore old american-made muscle cars God bless America 🙏👍💪😎🇺🇲
Great job Terry. I got a '73' I would love to get back on the road. It needs everything that you did to this one. I just don't have the money to do it.
Terry what great a find it needs your touch.i would have thought it would be an electric gauge with a sending unit.that gauge is called a Borden tube gauge very high quality .thanks for the video.mike
The Fram Oil Filter WAS TEMPORARY! I know it's cheap and I know that I would replace it shortly after the initial running. [I don't need any comments telling me something I already know!]
That is a very nice Corvette. All that jewel needs is to just keep cleaning it up, everywhere. Don't forget to change out the transmission gear oil with some 80W90 gear oil with the MIL-L-2105 B spec. You can use any GL-5 gear lube as long as [it] has the J2360 designation. Don't believe the 'hype' that these types of oils eat or corrode the yellow metal synchro rings in your Corvette's Muncie. They won't. Also, depending on how warm it is where you enjoy your Corvette, use a quality 85W140 gear oil with the same J2360 spec. for the differential. Your Corvette will love you for doing so, and don't forget the posi additive if so equipped. Happy Corvette-ing, Cheers!
Thanks for the kind words and detailed info Viking Mike! I did change the differential oil with the Posi additive and didn't post a video on it yet. Not fun without a drain plug or cover!
Good going, that differential loves that sort of stuff. Here's what you do. Now that you got some fresh oil in the diff mixed in with some of the old oil, drive it for twenty miles, then use your diff/trans oil fill gun and vacuum out as much of the mixed oil out, then put more new oil in again. Do this a couple of times to make sure you have ALL fresh 85W140 or 80W90 conventional oil in there. I removed my third member and had a magnetic drain plug installed. Way easier to do the changeover maintenance. If you do as I described every 6,000 miles, the diff oil if basically always 'FRESH'. Good luck and drive that Corvette.
My cousins 72 stingray was a blast, and is still in the family and being restored. My scariest car to date has been my other cousins 66 Chevelle SS 396 turbo jet, my knee's were shaking as it was just so much raw power and torque with the 4 spd rock crusher. Grew up with the Monte Carlo's 454, gto's, 442's, 350cu, just simple cars, and simpler times going to the beach and getting thumbs up by all people who love old muscle cars.
Great job on getting everything done to get er road worth again Terry. When I was 10 yrs of age , 1970, my favorite Hotwheel was a 70 Corvette that looked like this car. What's a car like that worth these days Sir? Might be in the market for it. Great video. Keep um coming. Truck Driver Ray ✝️
Thanks Ray! I had tons of Hot Wheels too. Fun stuff for sure. I would value this Vette at $28-30k because of its originality. I've seen some go for far less than that though, so it really depends on condition. Thanks for watching 👀!
Don’t forget to drain the block. When you bench bleed the MC or bleed brakes, never push the piston to max or you will tear the seal. 32:53 that copper band is the same thing you see in tire pressure guages. The clock points will usually be worn or need filing. If they are worn you can add solder then file flat. I had to do that on my 70 Z28.
Impressive craftmanship. Not many would bother to rebuild the gauges DIY. And the clock repair, congratulations. I knew the clock worked on a similar principle with spring driven action and electric rewind of spring in my 1039 Mercury; who'd'athunk it. Was once advised I could refresh a vintage oil pressure gauge with hot Marvel Mystery Oil injected with a small gauge hypodermic syringe. It seemed to have worked.
I didn’t catch how you may have acquired the vehicle. I know it said barn find, did you run across it during some estate sale or word of mouth? I had the same vehicle and year, motor and tranny, gold convertible hard top. I sold in early 81, wished I hadn’t, but you know how that goes. You can’t keep them all. Nice video and relaxing to watch, even though you were meticulously working. Thanks for posting it.
Hey Stanley! Glad you were able to own one of these Vettes and thanks for the kind words! I updated the video description above with the details on how I found it. I have many friends that are into old cars and motorcycles like me so I started asking them and hit the jackpot when Dave gave me this lead! "It's not WHAT you know, It's WHO you know!"
Fram ,I wouldn't run it on my lawn Mower ,Wix or Baldwin filter, flush the radiator Though you can't go wrong with a new aluminum rad and a 160 thermostat .I own a 66 stingray roadster Numbers car L79 327 350 hp ,4spd ,with a 4:11 posi with 62 k on the clock will be following along to see what you do ,get rid of the plastic line on the oil gauge and change it out to copper tubing you will hate life if that plastic line lets go while cruising ,A very good explanation on cleaning the clock ,You need some hard Runs put on it to clean the cobwebs out of the motor ,go for it
Thanks for the comments Richard. NO MORE FRAM FILTERS FOR ME! I just put this cheapy one in knowing I would be replacing it with a Wix shortly after running it. Your '66 sounds awesome!
Geat find. And onky 8k. Guy obviously didnt kno what he had. I used to have a 1970 red on red vert l46 that I bought used with a ton of miles from my Dad's friend it ended up blowing a valve or something so I sold it but that thing was awesome my dad told me his buddy cud get it up to 85 mph in 2nd gear I used to get rubber out of second gear and a little chirp out of 3rd I love that your car does not have the luggage rack and itsa coupe. Love that dark green color too Also small block more balanced and less nose heavy that the 454 You will be a hit at cars and coffee with that bad boy
Hey Yardman, thanks for the cool stories. They are fast rides as you know! The seller, Mike, took out a $3200 loan for this Vette in 1971 so he didn't have much money invested so he was happy with my offer. I was taking a gamble, as I didn't know if it had any major drivetrain issues or not.
You can get rid of just about all that rust on the exhaust and ground molding if you lightly dampen an SOS soap pad and scrub. In my youth i used to take old bicycle rims totally coved in rust and make them look almost new that way. But mind you, lightly tap the pad in some water to bring out the suds. Too many people over moisten the pad which removes most of the rust arrestors from the SOS pad which is makes the pads so great at removing rust.
One of my dream cars is this very year and spec of Vette! Well bought and great video! Thank you for all the hard work in making this excellent video and bringing us all along for the ride! That car is a peach! I would imagine they put Posi Trac rear ends in all of the Vettes and probably still do but I'm not really up on that. Is she a to wheel peeler?? Oh and one more thing. FLATHEAD TERRY ROCKS!! LOL.
Thanks for the kind words Greg. Greatly appreciated! I don't do any burn-outs, donuts, burning rubber, etc., anymore like I did when I was a wild teenager. Why? Because then I gotta fix whatever I just broke! I spent a lot of time rebuilding and replacing broken parts back in the 70's. (WAIT! that's what I'm still doing!)
I have a homeless friend. Well homeless. He lives in a 30 something motor home. Changes streets every week or so. Which means he also has to move two box trailers 1 corvette oh his other smaller motor home. Then his old international flat bed truck. Plus his 2 40’s Harleys and a Norton. His corvette is a 1969 small block 4 speed convertible. It right below a daily driver. It runs and drives well but it needs a garage so he can work and clean it up. He hasn’t worked in years yet has all of these vehicles.
A cup of wood bleach in the radiator, run it for a 1/2 hour, drain it and put a cup of baking soda to neutralize the wood bleach (acid). flush good. You wont believe how good it works.
I would've had original brass radiator repaired.. i did that instead of replacing with an aluminum.. aluminum radiators might run a little cooler, but once they go out their done with. Originals can always be repaired.. i chose to have mine repaired at 110 bucks versus 300 for aluminum. Classic car radiator shop said smart move by me..
As I mentioned before, my two local shops wouldn't touch it as they said it was too old. I DID NOT SCRAP THE RADIATOR. Its going to stay with the Vette so it could be re-cored and restored in the future. I know there are radiator shops that can do this but quite a distance from me. Take note that I save ALL restorable parts off camera for the future. The original Q-Jet and water pump have been restored and back on this Vette.
Great video thanks! I have a question for you.. getting my father’s c3 back on the road after it’s been sitting 15yrs after a restoration and rear main seal leaks like a sib. Can i reach out to you?
That's my Unrestored, original 1937 Plymouth P4 Business Coupe. I have several videos on it on this Channel. Check 'em out. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-KyWrpHYGTJw.html
YES it did! (my '68 Camaro did too!) The previous owner, Mike, removed it and the original exhaust manifolds. And then installed the headers and side pipes in the early 70's. The Air Pump in this video is "correct" for 1969 350's.
Maybe as a poor kid I don't understand owners like this. Wash it, start it, make some DIY stuff during 1 day or weekend and add 5-7k to the sell price. Who says NO to extra 5k for 1 or 2 days of wrenching?
It's hard for me to understand as well. The battery went dead on it 18 years ago, so he (the owner) just let it sit there. He got some health issues and couldn't work or afford to keep it running. In these video's you can see that it got to the point of needing major effort on my part to get it back on the road. He's very happy to see me get it driving again. Thanks for watching!
It's odd to me too, but for a lot of people life happens and a car may not be a priority. Then by the time they get around to making it a priority the work required is beyond their aptitude, or the time it would take exceeds their motivation. On classic cars if you can't do the work yourself it can often be prohibitively expensive to get someone else to do it, because there's really no "book time" when it comes to getting a neglected old car running
Thanks for the comment. We all have different methods for this. This procedure has worked for me many times with great results. I don't have a vise in my remote garage, so I perform it in the car. That way I don't have to transport a full Master. Thanks for watching.
Luv your simple solution to getting your Vette back on the road. I had a 1970 LS5 (454)four speed Vette thirty years ago and did the same updates. It even had your Hooker Header leg melting side pipes.
43:00 please don't let a foot ride on the clutch; that's the absolute reason that clutches burn out so quickly. BUT, that's a really nice job, really nice explanations and really nice footage of how to get it all done. Hats off!!!
