Keep that idiotic Chip Foose away from it! ... View more

Buy a Corvette and you will run into snobs like that everywhere.  If it isn't "Concours perfect", you'll hear them scream bloody murder and act like you just violated the Mona Lisa.  My attitude is screw them, it's my car, my money, my work, and my vision.  Don't like it?  Bite me!  If I wanted a museum piece, I would have bought one.  I wanted a thrill ride, and by God that is what it will be.  If they want a museum piece, good for them, and they won't hear criticism from me.  I sure as hell won't tolerate their snobby opinion without giving them a piece of my mind. ... View more

My second dream car as a kid was a Spitfire.  My step-dad was going to finance one for me, and I'd make the payments.  I ordered one through the KC dealer in 1973.  Dark blue convertible, white racing stripes, the biggest engine they offered, 4-speed, wire wheels.  To my 16 year-old eyes, it was the coolest, next to a 67 C2 Corvette (my first dream car).  Long story short, after waiting for the car to be shipped from England, the day finally came that it arrived at the dealership.  We got a call that it was in, and they were going to prep it, and we could pick it up the next day.  I was so happy, that late that night, like a fool, I celebrated by getting drunk with some friends.  Dad caught us, and like an even bigger fool, I mouthed off to him.  As my punishment, the next day, dad called the dealer and cancelled the purchase, forfeiting his deposit.  I was crushed, but I deserved it completely: I was wrong.  I learned my lesson the hard way.  I have had a soft spot in my heart for those little cars over the years, and often pondered what might have been.  One of the features I loved about it was that clam-shell hood.  In 2017, I sort of fulfilled both my old car dreams in the purchase of a 84 Z51 C4 Corvette.  It's not a 67 Corvette Stingray by any means, but it is a Corvette and it has that Clam-shell hood I loved so much in the Spitfire.  Considering how tightly my large frame fits that C4, I'm sure that I would have outgrown both that C2 and that Spitfire long ago.  And, at 60 mph, this C4 is just getting warmed up.  So, things worked out as they were supposed to, I guess.  Enjoy your Spitfire! ... View more

For God's sake, don't let Chip Foose get ahold of it.....   ... View more

I visited Disneyland in either 60 or 61.  I was either 3 or 4.  It's funny, I have no memories of the things I got to do, except the silly and lame teacup ride.  What I do remember fondly is the things I didn't get to do, which I thought were the coolest things there.  The ride I most wanted to go on was the submarine.  That just looked so awesome!  The cars were a close second, and the mountain roller-coaster was third.  Strange that I remember my disappointments more than what I did get to do. ... View more

Got to wonder what you have been smoking.  You refer to the C4 as " comparatively unloved" and then praise one of the very things that made it "comparatively unloved".  A great many C4 owners call them Atari clusters.  True, some people think they look cool, but then, some people are idiots too.  When I bought my 84 C4 Z-51 three years ago, the first two things I replaced were that butt-ugly steering wheel, and that wonky, badly designed Atari cluster.  My cluster was a replacement, and still worked, so I sold it to a fool who thought that restoring a C4 to factory original made good financial sense.  I got $200 for that cluster.  I proceeded to build my own cluster from 1/4-inch Aluminum plate and a beautiful set of Marshall electronic-analog gauges.  Every C4 owner who has seen my cluster has raved about how nice it is, and they are right.  The factory cluster was bad from the day GM invented it.  In each successive year, they modified it, and modified it, and modified it until finally changing it out for the late-model C4 style, and even it was wonky.  Chevy never could get one right.  If anything, the late-model version "looked" better than that early version, but like I said, even they were failure prone.  There is a whole cottage industry of people rebuilding those Atari clusters, and they still fail.  In the last three years, I have spent a considerable amount of time and money undoing the idiotic ideas that Chevy's moronic engineers implemented in the C4.  My C4 is very close to what their C4 should have been if their engineers would have had any brains.  Thanks for giving me a great laugh! ... View more

Honest truth.  Bought a car from the police auction.  Inside, was the previous owner's strap-on dildo covered in lube. ... View more

You triggered the butt-hurt folks with TDS!  Best president ever! ... View more

LMAO ... View more

Timely article!  Recently bought two vehicles from the police auto auction.  A car for my wife, and a truck for me.  Both were in reasonable shape for what I paid.  Pay the invoice from the private auction company.  City later issues me a bill of sale.  Now, I have to present the vehicles to the state highway patrol, so they can verify the VINs.  If the city police impounded the car, and the city sold them, why doesn't the state trust them to have gotten the VIN's right?  This isn't a one-time thing, they hold auctions regularly.  Once the HP verify's the VINs, then I can apply for titles, either as salvage or original.  Since the vehicles are not plated yet, I will likely have to pay to haul them out to the HP facility to be inspected.  This is getting more expensive than I expected! ... View more

Hagerty, PLEASE stop promoting this idiotic cartoonist.  His ideas suck. ... View more

Whilst in the middle of rebuilding my Corvette, I participated in a police auction just last week, and bought my wife a 2007 Toyota Avalon, and bought myself a 96 Chevy Silverado truck.  The auction lists vehicles by the reason they ended up in the impound yard, such as Stolen, Abandoned, Arrest and "Other".  Both of my wins were "Other".  What is "Other"?    Cars may or may not have keys, and really, you don't really know much about what you are buying, so it is a gamble.  The Toyota was the most expensive, but turned out to be the best condition.  It did come with its own collection of bullet holes and a master chipped key.  And, cleaning it out at home revealed that the previous owner was a real peach of a criminal female who kept all sorts of bizarre items in the car, including her sex toys.  I even found an expensive gold watch in the car!  It needs a new set of tires.  Since my wife's birthday is coming soon, I also ordered her a new set of wheels for it.  The only parts it really needed was a wiper washer pump/reservoir, and a pair of hood struts.  Oh, and a $125 chipped spare key from the dealer.   The truck is more of a project.  It didn't have a key. and the wheels are locked in a right turn because of the steering wheel lock.  So, when the tow driver unloaded it from the flat-bed, he had to constantly pull it sideways to keep it from rolling off the side of his flat-bed.  Then, as it came off the truck, we discovered that the transmission wasn't holding in Park, and it rolled backward into my driveway gate, damaging that badly.  Before I can really assess what all it is going to need, I have to drill out the old ignition cylinder and install a new one with a new key.  But, it is a Chevy truck, and they are almost always worth rebuilding.  Considering what I paid for it, I am not too worried about what it will cost to restore.  I am a glutton for punishment. ... View more

When I was a teenager, learning to work on cars, the local NAPA was the only place to get parts.  It was also a font of wisdom in learning to wrench on cars.  The old guys who worked there knew every part they sold, how it worked, what other cars it would interchange with, how to get the old one off, how to get it on, what other things you were going to need to make that happen, etc.  I learned more mechanical knowledge from those long-gone old guys than from any other source in my lifetime.  Nowadays, I dread going to local parts stores.  First, their prices are almost always much higher than online sellers, but the 16-year-olds who work there are complete morons.  Unless they can punch the make, model and year of a car into their computer, they are lost.  I am in the midst of rebuilding an old Corvette.  Since I don't have a garage, my wrenching season is limited to good weather.  So, winter becomes parts ordering time.  A couple winters ago, I filled my basement with enough parts to start my own auto parts store, then went crazy until Spring anticipating getting them all installed.  Naturally, my dreams were bigger than my ability to remove old parts and get the new ones installed, so by the end of that wrenching season, I still had more parts left in the basement that needed installed.  Then the winter parts ordering season came again, and my hoard grew yet again.  And the vicious cycle continues....  The Corvette is getting better day by day though! ... View more

  Disclaimer: This is not my car, but looks exactly like my car did.   I was born in 1957, and wanted my first car to be a 57 Chevy.  In 1972, at age 15, my step-dad told me he would buy me my first car as long as the price was within his means.  I started shopping around and found a 57 Chevy at a used car lot in Kansas City.  They wanted $500.  We went to look at it.  The body was in excellent condition, and it started and ran.  We test-drove it, and it seemed fine.  We talked the guy down to $300 and bought it.  We got it home, and parked it in the driveway.  With no license yet, I could not drive it on the street, but did pull it forward and backward in the driveway a few times.  Then one day it would not move.  Then one day, it would not start.  Dad was not a car guy, so he had no clue what was wrong.  I had fixed bicycles and lawn mowers before, so I tried to see if I could fix it.  That didn't work.  I got a family friend to look at it, and he said the dealer had put saw-dust in the transmission to keep it running temporarily.  The carb was shot, and it needed a complete tune-up.  I had no money, or knowledge of how to fix it.  So, there it sat.  It seemed like it just self-destructed while sitting there.  Finally, we sold the car for the $300 we'd paid for it, and my step-dad got his money back.  I got my license and learned to drive using dad's 1971 Buick Le Sabre.  I started teaching myself how to do simple work on the Buick, and little by little the things I learned to do mechanically grew.  A year later, I got a job as a junior mechanic and quickly learned to do all sorts of mechanical work I never dreamed of, and I got paid for it!  By time I got the next car of my own, a 67 Ford Galaxy, I could do everything to maintain it, except transmission work.  I still credit that old 57 Chevy for motivating me to learn to work on cars. ... View more

You shouldn't be bad-mouthing Schumer like that! ... View more

That sexy  American Graffiti Coupe! ... View more

Beautiful work! ... View more

When I saw that red 84 C4 Corvette in your article, it caught my attention fast.  See, that was me in 2017.  I bought a old 84 Z51 C4 exactly like that.  I knew when I bought it that it would need work.  But, I'd wanted a red Corvette since I was 10 years old, and it took me 50 years to get one I could afford.  Little did I realize just how badly that car had been neglected once I bought it.  The list was staggering.  At first, I had the foolish notion that I needed to restore it to factory original condition.  Then a wise friend made me realize that unlike a C1, C2 or even a C3, it would never be worth a fortune restored to concours condition.  He reminded me that I bought it to make a dream come true, so I should make it my own, and do what I wanted with it, and not try to live up to what Corvette elitist snobs think should be done.  That idea opened up a whole new realm of ideas and inspiration for me.  In my first year, I spent it undoing the neglect, abuse and half-measures previous owners had done (at least, the obvious stuff).  All the while, I cussed them and wished a plague upon them and their ancestors.  The second year, I began redoing the interior.  This year, I am doing a make-over of its mechanicals.  So far, I have spent roughly $12,000 on this car.  Many might scoff at sinking so much money into a 36 year old car that will never be worth much.  Scoff if you will, but I am building on a childhood dream, and this is my last hurrah.  When I die, one of my grandkids will inherit this car, and appreciate their "Papa's dream".  And yes, I have it insured with Hagerty.  I knew that the car had at least two owners before me, and I blamed the guy who sold it to me for most of its problems.  I finally got a Carfax on it, and discovered I was wrong.  The guy who sold it to me only owned it a year, and couldn't be blamed for the decades of neglect I found.  He just bought it to flip it.  I am the car's fourth owner.  The original owner bought it from a now-defunct dealer in Kansas.  It seems he had dealer service done on it while he had it, put very few miles on it, then traded it in for a new car.  The dealer sent it to auction, where the second owner bought it.  That guy owned it the longest, decades in fact.  Considering the abuse to it, it still didn't get all that many miles on it, and he certainly neglected it.  The list of stupid repairs he did is dumbfounding, from the house doorbell button for a horn, to a fender held on with electrical wire, this idiot had no business owning a car.  It is now safely in my loving hands, and is wholly another car altogether.  I plan to finish the mechanical work this season, and by next season, give it an awesome paint job that it truly deserves.  Excuse me now, I have some Corvette work to attend to! ... View more

When I was a little kid, my uncle had one of those Jeeps.  To him, it was a fun toy.  We were at an aunt's rural home for a family gathering, and he was showing off his Jeep's ability to travel rough terrain.  I begged him to let me ride along.  He bopped along through the fields with ease, then decided to really show off.  He headed for the farm pond!  I freaked out, sure that I was about to drown.  He had exhaust stacks on the sides, and back then, I didn't understand why those were important.  By God, he drove right down into the pond, across, and up the other side.  We were going uphill, so his wheels spun a little as we exited the pond, but right there and then, I fell in love with that ugly little truck! ... View more

And the irony here, is that the heat problem in C4 Corvettes wasn't an engine problem, it was Chevy's moronic body design that turned the engine bay into an Easy Bake Oven; an idea they stole from Kenner toys.  Let cool air in, and hot air out, and the problem goes away!  Corvette's idiotic engineers just could not grasp that concept. ... View more

This clown should stick to drawing cartoons.  Have never seen one of his drawings I like.  Hagerty, please quit supporting this buffoon.  Don't care what his ideas are, one bit! ... View more

A great suggestion.  I am rebuilding an old Corvette.  One of the things I had planned for this season, was to replace the old steel transmission pan, change the filter and fluid.  The tranny leaked fluid.  Well, imagine my surprise when I climb under the car to remove the old pan, and reach up to undo the first bolt, and it just freely turned.  Thinking I imagined things, I grabbed it with my fingers, and spun it out by hand.  Before picking up my wrench again, I tried the next bolt by hand.  Sure enough, it was not even finger tight either.  And the same was true with every last bolt on the pan.  Every last bolt came out easily.  "Well, gee, I wonder why it leaked?"  A previous owner had screwed in all the bolts, then neglected to tighten them with a wrench.  Lord knows how many years it was like that.  I could see someone forgetting a bolt, but all of them?  It happens! ... View more

My thoughts exactly!  I call BS on this excuse too.  As much as they have been marketing that car to anyone who will listen, if the car stood any chance at LeMans, they'd move heaven and earth to be there.  LeMans is an endurance race.  My bet is, C8 can't cut the mustard! ... View more

Who has time for this?  When warm weather comes, I am out all day wrenching on my old Corvette, rebuilding it.  By time the sun goes down, I am eating aspirin for my aches and pains, eating dinner and falling asleep.  In cold weather, I am shopping for parts for said car.  I could care less about other people's cars because I am too busy dealing with my own.  I am only indoors now, replying to this, because it is a rainy day, and I am taking a break. ... View more

Exactly!  The news, and even Hagerty is treating this brat like he is some kind of a celebrity, laughing and with this "oh, isn't that cute" attitude.  It's not cute, not funny, and he put people's lives, and property in danger.  The boy needs his butt whipped and to do some kind of community service to learn that driving is a privilege, not a right for every spoiled little brat who takes a mind to.  I've seen several news stories of cases similar to this in the last several years.  Think kids don't pay attention to stories on the news?  "He did it, so can I" ... View more

So, if Dave McLellan is going to stand up and take credit for the good that went into a C4 Corvette, is he also ready to take the blame for the countless stupid things he and his team did?  I own and am rebuilding an 84 Z51 C4.  I have spent as much time undoing, or improving upon the completely idiotic things they did to my car, as I have undoing the neglect of previous owners.  I won't go into detail about all the cussing I have done, or the momentary fantasies of inflicting torture upon the Corvette Engineers for the myriad of really stupid things they did.  Don't get me wrong, I really love my C4, but I could write a book about all the really dumb ideas that went into building it.  Yes, I understand that the suits at GM HQ played a role in how the design played out, and certainly deserve some of the blame, as do asinine government regulations.  Yes, they got some things very right in the design, and the C4 does not deserve the bad reputation that many Corvette snobs have heaped upon it.  But, if I were one of the engineers who were responsible for designing this car, I would change my name and go into the Witless Protection Program!  They even had an extra year between the end of the C3 and the release of the C4 to get things right.  Despite the bad engineering, my 84 keeps getting better day by day, and some day, it will get passed down to my grandson. ... View more

My mom worked at the North American Aviation plant in Kansas City during WW2.  She was 17, and it was her first job.  They built B-25's.  Today, the site of that plant is now GM's Fairfax Assembly Plant.  Mom was a riveter, and developed pulmonary fibrosis from breathing in the asbestos dust while working there.  Still, she was proud of doing her part for the war effort.  Her middle name was Rose, so I used to teasingly call her "Rosie the Riveter".  May she rest in peace. ... View more