After thinking about it for a while, and finding out that my odometer had been rolled back, i am thinking of using the car as a learning experience in taking apart the engine(dont know if its the original motor or not) cleaning it up, and rebuilding it.

The car itself has 160k on it. I want to get the car on a lift and see how the chassis itself is doing, and if its worth building up the motor and using the car as a learning experience.

For those of you who have done such a job, what kind of shape was your original car in? and WHERE did all of you guys learn to do all this work? I figure i can use my days working on the car as a hobby and just having fun with it. Any type of good books, online places, anything will help.


Thanks to all who help

 

 

what are you planning to do??? Just rebuild the engine? Restore the whole car and make it a project?

If you want to know if you car is worth rebuilding/restoring, maybe look at the frame...see if its rusted through really bad, or hopefully just some surface rust....also the floorpans, they rust very easly in our cars. Thats what I look at when I buy a car. Really you have to decide how you want it in the end, then decide how much money you want to spend.....then compromise.

I think its definatly worth it if you end up with a really nice thirdgen thats quick as hell....because our cars are going to be like classics in so many years....hopefully people will look at them in the future like I look at a 69 camaro. Other then vettes, there are NO newer cars that I like. Thats just my opinion...because i plan on keeping my car forever, and I would love if it could be an 11 second daily driver.

Also I'm restoring my 68 vette, its very rough right now, and i figure i'll be spending $20k to get it how I want it....so thats going to be my 15+ year project car.

I know pretty much everything I need to do to the vette from the MANY restoration/automotive books and magazines I have read, and all the corvette gurus I have spoken to.

...man...am I a windbag or what

 

well, the car is definetly going off insurance. I am only 18 so i wanted to rebuild most of the car and do/learn lots of stuff on my own, mainly building and dropping in my own crate motor.

I am not looking to make it a race ar or anything, just a fast excellent looking 25th anniversary car that i can drive maybe once every 2 weeks or so and take it to car shows in the future once i am out of college.

I guess i will take it to a lift and find out whats the deal under the car.

Thanks for your info. and are there any specific books that i can learn about restoring a car, but i mostly just want to learn to build up a crate motor and put one in the car in my garage/driveway whichever...

 

your car is pretty sweet looking from your pics. Definatly worth building up if you have the time/money...

I dont know of any 3rd gen specific books, thats probally why this site is so popular. You could easily find generic engine rebuilding books from amazon.com. I learn everything from my Car Craft magazines and from this site.

Maybe you can just look at what other people have done and copy what they did...like for what parts combinations. Really, you just gotta do it...and learn as you go along. You know that if you run into a problem, you can post a question w/ a pic and would have everyone here to help you.

Here is a site if you need to learn the real BASICS!!!!
http://www.howstuffworks.com/category.htm?cat=sc-engi