Wrap your ass in fiberglass

I remember walking the boardwalk as a kid and seeing those tshirts in the stores. Remember the cartoon images of a muscled up vette? I think I may have even owned such a shirt. Well last night I actually got the chance to stop and drive the Vette I have been eyeing up. The car needs a lot of TLC. It has some big warts. It was left out in the deluge of rain that we got on Wednesday. The weatherstripping along the removeable top is deteriorated and as a result leaks badly. As a result, the floor was a wet mess. I asked to drive it and the guy warned me about the soppy conditions, I didn’t really care. I hopped in and fired it up. It came to life with a grumbly roar and then shuts off. I repeat the cycle a few times, the guy tells me how it is rough until it warms up. I quickly got the hang of working the brake and gas to keep it going while it went through the warm up phase.

Driving a vette is different. You are nestled in like the cockpit of a plane. These model years have the digital dash and a couple dozen switch’s and buttons everywhere. (which I love) Out on the road I took it easy, only stepping on the throttle mildly, but even so it was impressive. It has power to boot and just sounds grumpy and mean. At the stop light I could detect another wart, the front brakes pulsate badly, going to probably take front discs. I had it out maybe 10 minutes total. It did run better once it heated up a little. During the drive the owner was talking pretty much non-stop. Some things related to the car but mostly not. I pretty much tuned him out while I tried to get a feel for the car.

I pulled back into his driveway and did more inspections. The car is going to take the weather stripping, brakes, new rugs, new center console cover as well as many miscellaneous parts, mostly small. The motor runs ok but the rough behavior when cold probably is a result of other things that could use maintenance. I had him remove the glass top which turns the car into an open roofed cruiser. Again I was I was doing my walk around, the guy was chattering incessantly. If I didn’t know better I would peg him as a car salesman. He reminds me of some of the guys I worked with when I was in the profession. I showed the owner some information I printed off the internet that pegged the value of the car significantly lower than what he was trying to sell the car for. It sobered him up a bit and slowed down the flow of words.

I left it that I wanted to do some more research and I would get back to him. Today I got some more answers I was looking for and called and left a message with his wife with an official offer. It is a lowball offer, some 2500 bucks lower than what he was asking when I first talked to him. However, all things considered it more than fair offer, whether he realizes it or not. So, maybe I’ll join the Vette club this weekend, maybe I won’t. But if he balks at the offer, at least I think can finally put it to rest in my mind. If he accepts, cool, I got a car that is rough now, but could be a sweet ride with a little sweat work.