I actually bought this 1996 Corvette in March of 2019 and I'm writing this as of mid-November of 2019. So this first post will be covering that time period then subsequent posts will follow more regularly.
Sometime around 2005 when I bought my first house I had it in my mind I wanted to get a Corvette. I was 23 at the time and I'd told myself on my 25th birthday I'd get one. Twenty five came and went and it took over 10 years for me to finally pull the trigger.
I'd seen this one for sale before, had some cash in the bank, and I was willing to drop $5,000 for a fun weekend car.
I contacted the seller on a Saturday and he said to come by on Sunday. I knew the car had some hidden damage from a tire blowout per the add but no pictures of the interior. Still, I showed up on Sunday, took a quick test drive, grabbed the blue title, and I headed home.
Off the bat I knew that 2 new tires were in order (2 were new and 2 were used), there was a rip in the driver seat along the stitching, a crack in the windshield, and rubber compound in place of proper weatherstrip for the hard top. All things I was willing to accept given the price and age of the vehicle.
I stopped at the gas station to top the tank off and proceeded the 30 miles on home. About 15 miles from the house the check engine light came on. I stopped at Autozone to get the codes read. Turns out the passenger side O2 sensor was acting up.
Knowing it was just a sensor issue I drove home and proceeded to inspect the car further. I've read online and now firmly believe that these older cars are reliable but they're always going to have something going wrong with them.
So since end of March 2019 to now (mid-November) here is the work I've done on the Corvette so far. I've included approximate pricing for the parts too.
1. New passenger O2 sensor ($26)
2. New tires; the tires on the car were not OEM size and were 2 different brands. I switched to Nitto tires. ($850)
3. Serpentine belt ($20)
4. A/C Recharge kit ($35)
5. A/C Fan Relays ($40)
6. Brake booster ($175)
7. Battery ($65)
I also did an oil change and new air filter but that is routine maintenance so I haven't included that.
There are still a number of things to be done but they don't really take away from the use/enjoyment of the car so I haven't addressed them yet (read: things I'll do this winter)
1. New shocks; when 2 adults are in the car you can bottom out easily
2. Fix headlights (I bought new bushings for the headlight motors and that worked a few times then the motors started binding; so I have to take the headlights out and see what is going on there.
3. Front air dam replacement: I noticed the front air dam is looking a little worse for the wear.
4. Fix driver seat rip along the seam
5. Replace weatherstripping on hard top
6. New plug wires & plugs (I had a few misfires where the spark plug wires were routed too close to the engine and it melted the wires; I covered the melted wire with liquid electrical tape and rerouted them but I'll replace when I do the plugs as it is a bit of a pain to get to the Optispark plugs.
7. Need to figure out why the washer fluid pump isn't working
8. Need to figure out why cruise control isn't working
As you can see a healthy list of to do items. I'm sure brake pads will be on the list soon, tire rotation, etc. So on a $5,000 car I've spent about $1,300 in parts. If you take the tires out of the equation about $60/mo to keep the car in driving condition or around $170/mo including tires and routine maintenance (oil and filters).
Honestly, I'm okay with that because you can't get a car that does 0-60 in 5.5 seconds for $60 - $170/mo; especially not such an iconic one.
After the Thanksgiving holiday I should be back with an update on where some of these other maintenance items stand etc.
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