I called my father to wish him a happy Father's Day, and he punished me by giving me a '79 Corvette that he bought in 1980. It's not a bad car, but it needs some attention. I need to rebuild the front end first, cuz it's making some very dangerous-sounding clunking noise.

I have all the Eckler's/Mid America catalogs, but I'm looking for a local fix. Should i get the parts from GM, or go with the catalog guys, or. . . ?

How much of the front end rebuild can be handled by a mere mortal? Should I pony up and sub the work out to a qualified shop?

Excuse my ignorance. This is the first time I've ever owned any Detroit iron. (Beyond trucks, that is.)

Gold chains and a leisure suit.

don't you mean detroit fiberglass?

i had a 66 convertible once. i wish i still did. a guy asked me one time if it was one of the fiberglass ones or one of the steel ones. :scream:

You gotta get me a pic of you in that ride. Is it that two tone brown on brown? Is it an official pace car of any type? I'm just busting you JP I bet that car will be a lot of fun when you get it all dailed in. Hey, atleast it's not pink I hope

Ive had good customer service with Mid-America. But check around for better prices. when I needed some body parts, GM parts were actually cheaper than Mid-Am. Also check with Napa or other reputable parts stores for parts they may carry if you do it yourself.
Good luck, Walt

I had a '79 vette. Nice car, always got loads of looks. I replaced most of the front end STEERING parts myself. The upper and lower A-arm bushings and ball joints MUST, MUST, MUST be done by a professional. This is because when changing these parts the front springs will be let loose. The front springs in that car are about DOUBLE their inplace length when removed. HUGE amounts of preload on them. When the guys did mine, the spring compressor slipped and moved a mere 1/4 inch around the spring, we thought someone shot a rifle in the shop. Very scary. Don't even mess with any perts connected to the A-arms.

The steering stuff is easy though. The only thing you need to do after that is get an alignment. Get everything changed before you get the alignment because every part changed will mess it up.

The '79 is a pretty car as I think all the Vette's are but it is pretty dissapointing in the power department. Not telling you to do anything illegal, but a test pipe in place of the CAT will add a bunch of power. The car only gets a little louder, (sounds nice) and it accelerates much better.

MikeT

I helped an experienced friend (mechanic) do the front end on my 80 Firebird. He put safty chains (to keep the springs from poping down all the way should something go wrong), and a hydralic jack under the bottom A-arm to farther stop it. We poped the Ball joints and the took the chains off and let the jack down slowly to release the pressure on the springs. If you have experienced help it will be a good thing, but if you feel uneasy about the job I would have it done by a good shop.

Definitely get the bushings, etc. done by someone in the know. They'll cuss you since you're bringing 'em a Vette, but if you have the fenders off they'll probably give you a big ol' kiss.

If you get into the bodywork, you'll find out what it's like to be a real "glassman"!

And not owning the Detroit Iron? For shame . . .

Fenders off? Forget that. That would be a true pain unless you have to take them off and this is a ground up restoration which wouldn't be worth it on a '79 as they are not rare or desireable.

The whole front end couldn't be too tough to take off, could it? I've personally never worked on a Vette, but on my pickup we took out about 8 bolts and could remove the front fenders, inner fenders, grille, and core support all together. I think it could be done on the Vette as well, and then you'd have easier access to the engine if there was some work to be done on it as well.

Just what I'd do . . .