Your new apprentice

R

ricktrav

New Member
Hi Grumpy, I am brand new to your site and corvettes as well. I had previously bought a 58 chev pick up to restore when I retire in couple of years. Although it was original and in fantastic solid shape I realised I needed somethig a little quicker(ok a lot quicker), so I sold that and bought my other favourite car - a corvette. I was looking at the 74 - 78 era because that was where my snack bracket fit. Then I came across a beautiful 73 chrome bumper, convertible (bonus). It has some minor things that apparently others did not want to put up with but I am ok with them like standard steering, Stand brakes and roll up windows. So I got a fairly good deal on it. Its not the original motor either. It has a 283 out of an older corvette. I had it checked over by the corvette shop in my area. He agreed it was a great deal. I bought it in the fall so I didnt get a lot of time to drive it before I had to tuck it in for the winter. By the way I am from Mississauga Ontario and can't wait for summer. Anyway, it has new paint new roof, new interior,frame repaired. I just had new shocks and some bushings put on the back. Rides much better now. I hope to do some of the minor stuff with your help, but things that are more complicated or need special tools I'll leave to the Vet guy in my area. Hope to talk to you soon
Rick
 
welcome to the site!
the 1970-1973 corvettes are a great choice in my opinion because they had optional engines like the 427-454 big block series available and finding one of the steel bumper cars without power steering and power windows makes it in my opinion highly desirable!
I had a 1968 corvette with manual trans, manual windows and a 427 engine that I replaced with one of the first 496 cubic inch strokers I built.
it sounds like you have a really nice project car to start with, you didn,t mention the transmission or rear gear ratio?
 now you can start planing for a significant power upgrade with a better engine, you have lots of potential choices.
you certainly have the option of building a serious small block or a really nice big block engine if you have the cash flow available, for either to replace that current 283 sbc engine
I am a bit confused thou?
I might be confused , or wrong but thinking back, 1972 was the last CHROME BUMPER YEAR CORVETTE, so if you have a 1973 with that chrome bumper its a repair done with an earlier year front end

72cov1.jpg

74cov.jpg

1972 ABOVE


1973 BELOW
73cov.jpg

73cov1.jpg
 
welcome to the site and nice car! post some pictures of it when you get a chance, i fell in love with corvettes through a 1970 lt-1. hope your stingray is nice to you.
 
Hi guys, Sorry it has a rear chrome bumper only. Sorry to mislead you. Rear chrome only. In 1973 there were new (Canadian ? - or Can and US?) laws that required cars to have a 5 mph front impact bumper. So 73 got the front rubber bumper but the rear is chrome.I gues that may make it more collectible because it was the only year to have one chrome bumper.I think 2 chrome bumpesr looks better but much more expensive. There were only 4900 convertibles that year. It has an automatic tranny, and I dont know what the ratio isor how to figure that out. Or horsepower. But its shiny as hell and great fun to drive. I'll post some pic's as soon as I have time to figure out how. And yes it will need some more powersome day but will do for now.
Thanks Rick
 
Hi guys here are a couple of photos, And by the way I have few skills and fewer tools. Hope this works
Rick
 

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yep american vettes got the rubber nose in 73 also, still a beautiful car though.
 
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