Looked at: 1988 Corvette

SnakeEyeSS · September 8, 2004

I've been playing around with the idea of a C4 for a second car(thanks to Mervz), and I looked at one:

1988

112K miles

auto( )

Black, red leather

$8700 asking

the GOOD:

1.)built 350, only 11K on the new motor. only thing original are the block and I guess the bare head.

_____a.) New Balanced Crank

_____b.) a "mean" crane cam, he didn't remember the exact specs, he said If I call him back at home he'll look at the card. I know it's mean, it idles at 1200 RPM and it brutually loud, thanks to:

2.)B&B Exhaust,. looks to be in great shape

3.) All engine accessopries were replaced with the motor, except for the compressor, which was replaced a year before

4.) all electronics work(the climate conrtrol flickers, but stops if you touch it, he believes the wires may need tightening). Has the stock 1988 "Bose" system, but a newer CD Bose deck out of a 4th Gen F-body(although looked pretty stock to me, although they due all have the same size deck.)

5.) runs great, strong, and smooth

ENGINE SPECS

11.0 compression

Crane Cam as listed above(he said it's the meanest, or one of the meanest vailable, I believe)

Balanced, new crank

new Piston's, valve's, etc

he said he never had it dyno'd, or took it to the track, but the guys who built the engine for him said without a doubt it should be running around 370(ish)HP.

It idles LOUD, buying a good stereo would be a waste of money.

Also, he never was able to get the Computer work to optimize the LT! for the mods, he told him the shop that dd the work told him there was a Guy in town that was good at it, And I realized he was talking about Ed Wright of Fastchips,m who is only a few miles from us both. You may know the guy from the Award winning LT1 work he is famous for. the guys at the shop said the reprograming should be good for around 30 HP or more, Easy.

the bad:

1.)ripped leather(though not too bad considering it's an 88, my BMW is much worse under the wet-okoles)

2.) cracked dash

3.) some fiberglass damage on the back driver's side, needs repairinhg(cracked)

4.) front noise cone has under-par paint job due to previous owner.

5.) has "very small" oil leak from main seal. he said it's was the only questionable thing he notcied from the engine work(someone else built did it)

6.) some paint chips on the headlights when raised

-----

SELLER BACKGROUND:

HE just bougth a new Z71, and now realized that he dosen't need two payments. he said it was a struggle between the Vette and a Motorcycle he has, and choose the Vette(my guess: probably because it is worth more, and the Vette drinks gas like, well you think about it 11.0 compression LT1!) But hates to see it go. He was a little stressed that he didn't finish the wax job(b/c of his job, had to do it at night), and didn'yt get it off properlly. nice thing to see in a seller.

He is works for the police on weekends, and security on week days, really a nice guy. HE pointed out many little things that were wrong. He needs its sold fast. He said he's got the next payment in 7 days, and was hoping to have it gone by then, and is willing to negotate.

Wingnut · September 8, 2004

Aren't you 18 or so? I would look to see how much insurance is going to be on that thing.

Your insurance would be twice your car payment, even with no tickets.

SnakeEyeSS · September 8, 2004

Anyone know how much to fix the crack, it's about 4" long. no fiberglass is missing, just a crack.

Any educated guesses?

The SPEEDY · September 8, 2004

I'de have to say it would cost around $1k to have fiberglass work done to fix a crack. I've seen fiberglass work on vetts before and there are a lot of things that have to be done to do the job right. It's nothing to teribly hard just requires time and thats why it would cost so much.

scooter70 · September 8, 2004

Are you sure it's an LT1? They weren't put into the Vette until '92. If so, 11.0:1 isn't that much compression. They had 10.5:1 stock. A half a point isn't that much more.

I have a medium sized cam in the LS1 in my Corvette and without tuning it didn't run too well. With a BIG cam, I wouldn't want to have to drive it without tuning. especially with an automatic. I have HP Tuners, which is like LS1Edit but better. If this car is an LT1, you could find a dyno tuner with LT1Edit and have them tune it ($500+). If it's an L98 (which is the original motor for the '88) then you have to find someone to burn a custom chip. This is more of a PITA.

I've heard good and bad things about Ed "Right". If you're local then you can go directly to him. I don't know if he does any dyno tuning. I've only heard about his mail-order tunes where you tell him what you have in your car and he does his best to guess what the car needs.

If you can get it cheap then it might be a fun car to mess around with but it sounds like it could need some TLC (and $) to get it running just right.

My 2 cents.

-Matt

NOS#9BIGMAC · September 8, 2004

your definately looking at shelling out some cash to have the body work done. I worked in my dads body shop for a couple years and its not cheap lucky for me I do all my own body work so I look for the cosmeticlly challened vehicles. Just cause people know how much it cost to have vehicles painted. you can get some smokin deals. I just rebuilt door sills, floorboards, and cab corners on my mothers boyfriends 87 ford dump truck.( but family gets a discount) I only charged him $500 I should have charged him more cause it was a ford though. anyway as for the seats I don't know the rates around your neck of the woods but up here I could get both seats reupolsterd for like $250-350 depending on the fabric. leather would be more costly And really there's not that much to repairing fiberglass. it's the fine tuning/sanding and paint prep that takes time (and money) I prefer to work with fiberglass vs the rusted out pos fords anyday I think your biggest concern should be the main seal leak. well that would be my biggest concern anyway but either way I'm sure you can talk him down if he's really desperate to sell. that is unless you get into a bidding war with another buyer. sounds like a bada$$ car though Good luck on your decision, hope my input helps

Truckman031 · September 8, 2004

The seal leak sounds like what happend to my Blazer. To get the seal replaced, was an all day job. HOWEVER, I chose to have them put a glue-like substance on it, which hasn't failed yet.

SnakeEyeSS · September 12, 2004

I ran the numbers through my heads, and the Vette would be a money pit, becuase I would most likely get right to fixing everything wrong(it's what I do!!!!)

Oh yeah, not to mention around 3000 a year for baseline full coverage.....

SO I decided I'll look for one of these instead, and look for a vette again when I'm 25(and insurance prices drop):

Okay, so this is a Sport Evo(Euro only model), but it wouldn't be hard to add teh chin spoiler to make it look the same.....

millerwd · September 13, 2004

the LT1 debut in Corvettes in 1970, it had solid lifters. In factory stock configuration it was rated at 370 HP. Does this have solid lifters? If so have the lifters been recentlly adjusted?

There many variations of the "LT1" engine code.

All in all it sounds like a rathole for money.

Just my 2 cents.