The list for my 1976 Stingray #SR76 continues to grow. That’s too be expected. It’s a project and for the amount I paid, well let’s just say…it was a great deal!
Now, if you are squeamish you might want to have someone else watch this first. There’s some good, some bad but there’s is a lot of ugly!!
I begin discussing ALL the work that has to be done to #ProjectSR76 1976 Stingray. There’s a lot!! Spreadsheets are being created and mini projects planned out.
Of course, everything is subject to funding. As you know, Average Guys have Average Budgets. There is no magic number, but no corners are cut for safety.
I created an Eckler’s project and started adding my NEEDS for #SR76. The entire carpet package is $430.00. Which isn’t bad. But the roll of the looped black carpet was only about $30. Can I make it work? Well, you’ll be the second to know.
If you have an idea or have a comment make it here or on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLWYRoUPd_SANVjRj77cwkw) or our FaceBook page.
Here is part of my discussion (with myself) on my To Do List:
Numbers matching means that a part (or parts) have a number that matches the VIN or a portion of the VIN. Often it only refers to the engine, in some cases other parts as well.
Watch a Barrett Jackson or Mecum Auction and many of these “Numbers Matching” cars bring higher prices. It is a unique attribute especially muscle and sports cars that were often modified over the years. For example there were just over 46k 1976 Stingray produced and having the original engine adds it to a much smaller number.
Since the L48 for #SR76 is the lower performance of the engine available in 1976, one might guess that they were replaced for more horse power over the years.
For #SR76 my intentions are not to create a contours level restoration, so it really isn’t that much of benefit but would be cool to know.
Who doesn’t love coming home and finding new car parts waiting at the door???!!! OK probably my wife…but who else?
New Carpet (Black) New E-Hand Brake console.
The plan for the interior -at this moment is to replace all the ugly carpet (what’s left of it) with Black.
There is no carpet in the front. You see remnants of the underlayment and some surface rust in the front.
And this “no idea what color that is’ carpet in the back.
At this point the seat belts and the seats will be black (or maybe red — Thoughts?)
I don’t know what to do with the rest of the car that has this off-white (without the details from an invoice or window sticker, I have no idea what the carpet color options were in 1976) – I don’t think this is going to come clean enough to suit me. I had luck painting some parts of my 1970 Mustang’s interior, I might consider that again.
I have already pulled off one of the kick panels, and I’ve scrubbed it pretty well. It did not clean up well. See —>
Maybe more elbow grease on the hard plastic but I don’t know about the fake leather.
I started this blog, many years ago. First it started out as just sharing some car information, like Parking Lot Spotlight, pic of cars I’d see parked and AutoFactoids – usually facts on a specific car and even did a serices that give the development of the different engines. You might still see these pop up from time to time.
But about 15 years ago I started recording some of the work I was doing as I restored my 1970 Mustang. You can still see those here on these pages (some of the videos have disappeared). I kept it going with work I did on my 1984 C4 Corvette and some work I did on my C6 Corvette. Then I went all out with the restoration of my 1973 Mustang – #ProjectSportsRoof (#ProjectSR73). It was tough in the beginning because YouTube was a not really thing yet and storing videos somewhere and retrieving them for display was not as smooth as it is today.
My naming conventions (at least for the last Mustang and now the Stingray) came about based on the car’s sub-model and my work in the USAF with the SR-71 Blackbird. The 1973 Mustang wasn’t a Mach I nor a fastback, it was technically called a SportRoof. The project started out as #ProjectSportsRoof but as I typed it over and over again, I toyed with shortening. I eventually realized that SR73 would be cool as it sounded a bit like SR71. Of course you when think about the SR71 you think of the Mach 3+ at which it could travel (actually it was closer to Mach 5) and everyone wants their muscle car to be fast!
As I was driving the Stingray home, I of course planned to record my work on it and need a name for the project. If you wanted the video for #ProjectSR76 you’ll know I decided just that day. You don’t need me too, but I’ll spell it out – SR is for Stingray and 76 is the year of the car.
That’s a little background.
Coming up next will be quick inspection of the undercarriage of #SR76.
We begin creating the list of thing that need attention on the 1976 Stingray. We start by inspecting the car. This video the interior.
Now you might have go to back ways in the list of posts and videos to find those showing the condition of my last project 1973 Mustang (#ProejctSR73) and the Vette is in much better shape the than the Stang. Vette is 90% better mechanically and 80% better interior wise then the 1973.
I grew up loving the C3 body styles. I share the same birth as the Corvette (although the brand is a bit older than I am) and 1976 was the year I graduated high school.
So take a look at the interior.
Thanks for checking and there’s lot more coming up.
If you are following a long you know I’m on the hunt for my next project car and boy are my fingers tired and I can’t get this thing off of me:
Maybe WD40?
It’s a lot of work when you search nationwide. Setting up searches on different web sites and on those that don’t offer that feature you are continually recreating the same search. Then there are emails with questions like, “Is it still available?’ and other questions that often get ignored. Here’s an actual example: (Setup – the ad said make an offer)
