Category Archives: Auto History

Introduction to the C4

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Two days into 2010 and  everything seems to be going fine, so far.  :^)

I promised some details on my 1984 Corvette, so here ya go.

1984 was the first year for the new, much-awaited body style.  There were no 1983 Corvettes, depending on what you read, there were a few made but not in production and were sold.  Each generation of the Corvette has been placed in to generation categories. These were designated as  C1 (1953-1962), C2 (1963-1967), C3 (1968-1982),  C4 (1984-1996), C5 (1997-2003), and C6 (2004 to ……).

The C4 took a long time to develop, starting in 1978 (we’ll do more details another time), and was very innovative. For example, it had the Z51 racing suspension (a fairly new development), all digital dash with graphs as indicators for mph and rpms, extremely low drag co-efficient, and all electronic shifting transmission.  We’ll cover more later on.

My C4 is red and came equipped with 205 hp 350 Crossfire Engine (more on this engine later on), Z51 suspension, electric driver’s seat, traga top.  Here is a picture:

The story of how I obtained the Vette is a good one.  So go get a beverage and sit back and read.  This is one of those stories that I’ve always read about and said “What luck that guy had…nothing like that would happen to me.”

THE STORY

Actually, it’s a pretty cool story on how I came to own the Vette.

Purchased my 1970 Mustang a while ago (picture attached) and I wanted a fox body Mustang to go with it.

I had a cherry 1995 Toyota Celica with Bella Niche rims and I put it up on Craigs List offering to trade it for a fox body.

I got a call from a lady living here in Tucson that wanted the Celica for her daughter.  I told her I wasn’t interested in selling it and she said didn’t want to purchase it but to trade a 1984 Vette for it.  (I thought “No one trades a Corvette for a Toyota.”)

In the course of 3 months, it was an on again off again deal.  She wanted to give her daughter a car for Christmas, but her daughter wanted the Vette.  But props to Mom, she wasn’t going to give a 16 year old that kind of car. In our conversations it was revealed that the daughter tossed a fit and said she didn’t want the Celica.  Christmas came and went and in January the lady calls me again.

Finally, we set a time to meet, but still I was thinking either the Vette was trashed or something was up.  I was also concerned that the perception might be that I took advantage of her, to me who in their right minds would trade an American icon car for an import?  To my surprise we agreed to meet at her husband’s Auto A/C shop.  So I started feeling a little bit better, at least her husband must know something about cars.  So I showed up and things improved, the husband actually had a restored Ford Galaxy and another in the works.  They got better when he stated that the Vette was his wife’s  car and she wouldn’t drive it and it’s just taking up space.  She bought it but never really drove it.

I was even more pleased when I found the Vette in excellent shape (recent repaint that wasn’t great but not too bad, I grew up in an auto body shop, so I know good paint).  It was all original, only 32k miles with the Crossfire engine (I didn’t know much about the Crossfire..but I sure do now as I’ve recently rebuild the injector towers).  Anyway, both cars went up on the lift and we looked them over and test drove each others.  Vette had very good power, shifted a little hard, but not too bad.  We agreed to sleep on it and within a week I was the 3rd owner of the C4. Title swap only.

Yeah, I know, this was one of those deals you only read about in a car magazine.

Thanks for reading.

Tim

The Family and the Cars

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So I’ve “blogged ya” some history, now it’s time for some current stuff.  Of course my Dad is a car guy and my brother is pretty handy with a set of wrenches, but 24.2 years ago I married into a family that pretty much made most of the car guys I had known in my adult life (ok the adult part is debatable) mere tinkerers.

I have three brother-in-laws that were raised in the car business and not just a little bit of a car business, but a full-blown mechanic shop, engine building, stock car sponsoring, car show restoration, towing type business.  These guys knew more about cars by the time they were teenagers, then I did when I was 30 (yeah..I’m over thirty..and not just a little).  This guys know their stuff.  I now have nephews (their kids) that are even giving me a run for my money.

So I’ve set this up, pretty well, and keep it in mind because when I get to the physiological hurdles of restoring a car, you are going to understand my particular issue and you might relate.

(I seem to start a lot of sentences with the word “So”.  So I’ll try to limit the use of it.  You might also notice that I use ‘…..’ between words.  I do that for to give emphasis on a larger more dramatic pause the you get from the run of a mill comma. Nope not grammatically correct…but a habit I might break….if I get enough comments about it from the readers of this blog.)

So here is a quick introduction to my cars.

1.  1970 Ford Mustang Coupe.  I’ve owned it for approximately 4 years and I love it.  This is my first real restoration.

2. 1984 C4 Corvette. First year for that generation, everything is unique.  Although not my dream generation of corvettes, I love this car.  Ever since my uncle put me in his Corvette, I’ve wanted one.  When I joined the Air Force my goal was to finish up by second degree become an officer and by a Corvette.

Ok enough for this evening.  Tomorrow I’ll give you the run down on each.  I have a great story on how I got the Corvette.

Thanks for reading.

Tim

A little background

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So some background coming your way.  No not my life’s story, just a little car related history.  Grew-up in up-state NY – way upstate.  My Dad was a body man by profession, working for various dealerships and auto body shops as well as owning a couple of his own (moderately successful).  He was a premier body man, the way he did it was artful.  He also fancied himself a mechanic, he was pretty good at that, but not nearly reaching the level he achieved “working on fenders”.

You can see that I was brought up with cars.  When we owned our own shops – (4 of them, I think) I worked weekends and summers in each one and learned the skill. I also learned that I didn’t want to work this hard for a living. But I got a very good respect for the craft. I also loved the Chilton Manuals and the body shop books.  Each had depictions of front(bumpers/grills/headlights) and the rear (bumpers/tail lights). I memorized as many as possible and I could pick them out on the street and site the make, model and year.

In addition to the constant exposure there were four specific events that helped to set the seed for what would become my passion now.

The very first occurred when I must have been 3 or 4 at the time when my uncle owned a 1958 blue and white Corvette.  I remember him puting me in the car and I remember the image of the steering wheel and the two-tone paint.  Family legend has it, that I was the only nephew he allowed in the car…don’t know if that true or not, but it makes for a cool story.

The second was the a Chevy II Nova.  My Dad often let folks use a garage bay sometimes when they wanted to do a little work on their own.  I don’t recall the guy’s name but he used the garage for a couple months to work on this awesome drag car. I believe it had 396 engine with triple carbs and it sounded beautiful.   I must have been 12 or 13 at the time and I remember hanging over the fender while he worked on it.  I also recall helping him put out a gas fire when one of the gas lines sprang a leak while starting her up.

The next was going to the stock car races at Fond-Foultonville track.  My Dad had a buddy who ran a car there and we got to go into the pits. I remember the smell of fuel, exhaust and burned oil. I remembered how hard that dirt track got at the end of a night of racing.

The final event was my first car.  I was graduating from high school and my parents presented me with a fully restored (my father’s work) 1966 Chevy Impala Convertible.  It was the prettiest car I had every seen and the 2nd coolest (the first coolest was my friend John DeLong’s 1972 (I think) Mach I Mustang..beautiful car and fast.  The only way I ever beat him in a street race was by running a red light, when he slowed..I didn’t.

So you’d think I would continued to work on cars and I did for a bit while in college.  I drove the Impala to death, wrecked it twice and sold it cheap. Bought a Plymouth Duster and did all the body work and sold that.  Then I stopped.

I grew to dislike having to work on them.  Maybe not that, as much as I was afraid that I’d be trapped in what was (in my thinking and at the time was) a depressed industry and family problems gave me the impression that it was best to leave that all behind.  Which I did.  For many years I wouldn’t touch a car, unless I was just jump starting someones or I need a quick repair of my own. During that time I did manage to own a 71 Chevelle and a Burlinetta Camaro, but those were short-term and at the time I was glad to get rid of them.

That’s it for ancient history.  The next posting be a bit more recent and I’ll introduce you to some family members and my cars.

Thanks for reading. Please feel free to drop me a comment or note.

Tim

Post Script:  We’ll get more into the cars and issues soon enough, but without this background you might not “get where I’m com’in  from”. I’ve got some cool stuff to share and a feature where there will be a daily auto related ‘FACTOID’ and or some real auto news.