That you don't just run screaming from these projects is an amazing testament to your patience and confidence. I'm not so much bothered by the LED's -- which are a technological improvement, assuming rough correspondence to the original incandescents -- as I was by the black gum stuff. I've never seen that and it made my skin crawl. We'll add "bravery" to your list of attributes.
Wow! That looked just like what my car looked like when I pulled the dash panels out. I chose to restore the harness myself vs. Spend the money on a new harness. 65 hours later I ended up with something that was like new and safe to use without fearing that my car would burn to the ground. It is not for the faint of heart or for anyone who has no working knowledge of automotive electrical systems. Keep up the good work!
Dude, Thank you for all the Videos and your Love of C3's. I've owned 3 of them(2 new back in 1980 & 81. I traded my 80 Black auto for a left over 80 Red 4 speed) and got an 81 in 2013 which I put in a ton of work in before and sold it and I left CA. One day I'll find another 1980 4 speed. Until then I'll watch your vids.
Howdy Ben......I am loving all your videos. I especially can't wait to see you work on the oldsmobile you got several months ago. Beautiful looking car. You always do a great job on all your projects. Thanks
Thanks for the concern guys but i knew ben could get most of it together for me..i seen him bring vettes worse then mines back to life..i bet if some of you had a vette in this shape, you would have tried to save it as well..i have seen a channel where a guy took a very old Model T Ford that was totally rusted in that running for moving at all and bring it back a very old Model T Ford that was totally rusted in that running for moving at all and bring it back to life
Wow! Bubba must've gotten overtime on that car. You definitely have your sh#! together! In your place i would have told this customer to jack up the radiator cap and drive a new car under it. Best of luck. I really hope ypu can get this one running!
That thing you were saying might be a fan display is a temp controller that is used in industrial equipment. Thermocouple input to the control and control fires a relay based on what temp you set it to. Probably for cooling fan. Bubba way to do it for sure!
That's the problems you run into on a 40 year old car that has passed through the hands of several people. Many of the people that install aftermarket products go the quick and easy route of twisting the the wires together and miles of black tape or just using solderless connectors that have questionable crimps because of the cheap crimping tools used and that applies to some of the "experts" that install stereo systems or the after market air systems since time is money to them.
That fan is a two speed. Usually the guys who install aftermarket A/C on old cars use them, with the second speed being activated by the A/C. Some other installations use an auxiliary fan to the stock equipment. Most new cars have two fans, one for the normal use of the car, and a second one that engages when the A/C is turned on. The power steering pump is badly misaligned. It will eat up the belt if used like this. Oh the fun of dealing with 41 years of messing up with the wiring on a car...
The craptacular flea-bay HID kit probably murdered that poor headlight switch. I can imagine “Bubba” just wanting to get that sh*t going for the Walmart parking lot cruise-in that night. Actually, that seems to be the theme here. I’m with you on the Chairman Mao’s Dollarama LED bulbs, too. They get nuclear hot.
It's a two speed fan motor. You wire the low speed to the ac compressor circuit. The hight speed to a cooling temp switch in the intake manifold coolant passage. This way when you turn on the ac the fan comes on at a slower speed, then when the engine reaches 210 degrees the fan switches to high until the engine gets back to 185 degrees. Or you can even get the temperature lower. Keep Rocking!!!
wow what a scrambled up wiring nightmare. Now you can see why people who think they can rewire a car arent playing with a full deck when they screw around with wiring like that. There must be dead shorts all over the place just by looking at the way that wiring looks not to mention that light switch getting hot and smoking that's another dead short. Definitely needs a complete rewiring job. Good Luck tackling this job Ben
This is just a wild guess but, I think Bubba got all kinds of aftermarket parts to perhaps turn the car into a traveling boom box complete with led and neon underlighting which might explain all those little boxes, maybe.
I can't believe that the customer wants this thing fixed. Seems like it would be cheaper and easier for him to have you find and fix up a whole different car.
Well Benjamin, you sound much much better Mrs Benjamin must have been working hard on her Chicken soup recipe. lol All the nasty wiring must have come from the shop that installed the stereo n speakers. Some teenager that did not have a clue about what he was doing.
Ben..from me doung household air con.work..i used to get squirrel box fans from old units we replaced..the fan had 2 power wires coming from the motor..110..of coarse..one slow speed..one high speed..reminds me of that with your fan..by the way you need one for your shop..moves alot of air..find someone in the buis.and ask for one to buy...cool..cowboy..montg.ala..
Nice video. Do you believe it is really beneficial to add an electric fan to these C3 corvettes? What are the main benefits and do you need to get a stronger alternator to run the fan?
Ugh... I hate dealing with leaks and weird wiring. The turbo 400 on my RV caught 🔥 when we bought it from leaking. Then I replaced it in a Safeway parking lot. Now the new trans is leaking from the converter seal. If you have to replace or remove transmissions. Always do the pan filter/ gasket with gasket and rtv along with the front and rear seals. Also tell your customer to buy and install a fire extinguisher in that car. Once you get it running. You might need to adjust the choke too. Looks like the choke is opening too loose and locking the secondaries like mine did. You can drill or pry off the top tab and rivet then adjust it with a penny and pliers once you loosen up the 2 other tabs with a flathead.2 other things I noticed we're the belts seemed like they were on wrong. Ac is usually on the outside and power steering on the inside or something like that. Hopefully someone didn't use a hammer to install the pump and blow out the back of it. Good luck with all of that :) it was interesting to see how bad they did that thing up with Auto zone LEDs
Man that is the car from hell! What a nightmare... it looks like some jealous girlfriend got a hold of that damn car... if you can get that thing back together it would be a miracle👌
I'm getting ready to take out the R.P.M. cable on my 74. It has been converted to HEI. The conversion kit I got from zip corvette for the RPM gauge has 3 wires. 1 main power, 1 ground, and 1 that goes to the HEI tach plug in on the distributor cap. Question is the main power wire. It needs to be a power supply that turns completely off so I don't drain the battery. You got any suggestions as to where I could hook it up to?? Main fuse block? I got the factory assembly manual, but that doesn't help in this situation.
Sorry for my poor englishskills (i'm from Germany) but i have only one Question. Who or what is the famous Bubba you're always mention in your Videos. Anyways I like your Videos so much and I learned a lot and so God will I'm able to buy a C3 this Year.
Would the fan be fed by 2 12volt sources, one via resistor to run at slow speed? A lot of 1980's Mercedes were setup this way ,before the processor controlled fans which run at variable speeds, depending on load.
If that's an aftermarket electric fan rather than one that was factory equipment on something and has been re-purposed for the 'Vette the chances are the two power terminals run the fan in opposite directions, so one will run it as a puller fan for mounting behind the radiator and one will run it as a pusher fan for mounting in front of the radiator for vehicles that have limited space in the engine bay...
How do you pull out the gauge clusters from the dash? I loosened up all the bolts I could find but it still is in there pretty good it feels like the steering wheel still holds it on but looks like you didn't touch it
I hope to take on the impossible, I'm 3 years now in remission from stage 3 colorectal cancer, that's the good news. I want to get my UA-cam channel going, so this is the problem, I'm in low income housing and on SSDI . The plan is to build from the ground up (2) 1966 Corvettes side by side, So I'm on SSDI income and no garage no tools, as I get the tools, I'm looking for resources for parts for C2 Corvette, I'll do small block 327, HT with auto and a Convertible/Roadster with the 4 speed. For now I'm in my planning stage and a friend has 20 acres and should let me store parts in a shed till I find a garage to rent. Any resource for part would be a big help. Thanks
I would think twice about restoring cars, expecially c2 corvettes, on a low income budget. If you haven't done it before you really have no idea how much parts for the c2s cost. Only think that will be cheap are your tune up items on the engine, the rest are pretty much c3 specific and you will have a hard time affording those parts. A large reason why I haven't gotten into those cars.
My 77 puked out all the power steering fluid one time, hasn’t done it again since, I don’t like the 74 rear bumper on a 77, but then again I wouldn’t have taken that car had it been free, should have become a parts car.
TheCorvetteBen. You're right. And how much is your time to the customer? And if you muss something in that rats nest of bucthered wiring and the car burns up. Been working in the business sunce forever, and sometimes the easiest route for both you and the customer is to replace the harness and be done with it.
What is with all of the messed up bond-o inside of the drivers side door. Might be better to get rid of this and just buy a better car. Might be fun to push it over a cliff. But you're doing a great job.
you know you never see these car modders actually mod anything that matters on these things, like where are the monte carlo bars to help brace the front, where's the extra bracing to stop the chassis flex, as theirs no real bracing in the middle of these cars, hence why they added that and complete redid the rear end for the next generation of car ala 22:33 here ua-cam.com/video/n8BRwn9TwBA/v-deo.html as its all up to the body to do that, plus bigger brakes, better tires its always a stupid stereo and interior bits that dont matter, hell about the only thing they'd really have a reason to mod is the clock and the oil pressure gauges to fit them with more reliable units, but with how bad this is, even that might be taking it too far like it seems like the best corvette is an unmodded corvette to start out with, or one that's just an engine, body and interior if you want to build one up properly.
Ben, you have the patience of a saint. I hope you're being paid well for this "ridiculousness".
So....its turning out really nice...thanks ben for having patience with my car
What a mess you had to straighten out! I can't believe that car didn't burn to the ground before you got it! Kudos to you and your Corvette skills!
That you don't just run screaming from these projects is an amazing testament to your patience and confidence. I'm not so much bothered by the LED's -- which are a technological improvement, assuming rough correspondence to the original incandescents -- as I was by the black gum stuff. I've never seen that and it made my skin crawl. We'll add "bravery" to your list of attributes.
Well ben you are da man for taking on stuff like that thanks for sharing
Ben, please start giving these Vettes a Bubba score :-)
It'd be like a Doug Score. Except worse!
Wow! That looked just like what my car looked like when I pulled the dash panels out. I chose to restore the harness myself vs. Spend the money on a new harness. 65 hours later I ended up with something that was like new and safe to use without fearing that my car would burn to the ground. It is not for the faint of heart or for anyone who has no working knowledge of automotive electrical systems. Keep up the good work!
Dude, Thank you for all the Videos and your Love of C3's. I've owned 3 of them(2 new back in 1980 & 81. I traded my 80 Black auto for a left over 80 Red 4 speed) and got an 81 in 2013 which I put in a ton of work in before and sold it and I left CA. One day I'll find another 1980 4 speed. Until then I'll watch your vids.
Howdy Ben......I am loving all your videos. I especially can't wait to see you work on the oldsmobile you got several months ago. Beautiful looking car. You always do a great job on all your projects. Thanks
Thanks for the concern guys but i knew ben could get most of it together for me..i seen him bring vettes worse then mines back to life..i bet if some of you had a vette in this shape, you would have tried to save it as well..i have seen a channel where a guy took a very old Model T Ford that was totally rusted in that running for moving at all and bring it back a very old Model T Ford that was totally rusted in that running for moving at all and bring it back to life
Ben I have the same buba wiring in my 81. Getting ready to do the same thing you doing. Thanks for the videos.
She actually runs pretty nice. Can't wait to see the test drive after you get those leaks sorted.
Amazing to see the spaghetti under that dash, what a nightmare! Great video man!
Wow! Bubba must've gotten overtime on that car. You definitely have your sh#! together! In your place i would have told this customer to jack up the radiator cap and drive a new car under it. Best of luck. I really hope ypu can get this one running!
That thing you were saying might be a fan display is a temp controller that is used in industrial equipment. Thermocouple input to the control and control fires a relay based on what temp you set it to. Probably for cooling fan. Bubba way to do it for sure!
that wiring makes me feel so much better about my 1980, lol
Great video. Thank you. I would replace the complete harness.
That's the problems you run into on a 40 year old car that has passed through the hands of several people. Many of the people that install aftermarket products go the quick and easy route of twisting the the wires together and miles of black tape or just using solderless connectors that have questionable crimps because of the cheap crimping tools used and that applies to some of the "experts" that install stereo systems or the after market air systems since time is money to them.
That fan is a two speed. Usually the guys who install aftermarket A/C on old cars use them, with the second speed being activated by the A/C. Some other installations use an auxiliary fan to the stock equipment. Most new cars have two fans, one for the normal use of the car, and a second one that engages when the A/C is turned on.
The power steering pump is badly misaligned. It will eat up the belt if used like this.
Oh the fun of dealing with 41 years of messing up with the wiring on a car...
This Vette is one basket case. you do great work in rehab!
The craptacular flea-bay HID kit probably murdered that poor headlight switch. I can imagine “Bubba” just wanting to get that sh*t going for the Walmart parking lot cruise-in that night. Actually, that seems to be the theme here.
I’m with you on the Chairman Mao’s Dollarama LED bulbs, too. They get nuclear hot.
The a pillar is what is scaring me. Lol
Need to jack the radiator cap up, and run another car underneath it. This thing is a breakdown or burn down ready to happen.
It's a two speed fan motor. You wire the low speed to the ac compressor circuit. The hight speed to a cooling temp switch in the intake manifold coolant passage. This way when you turn on the ac the fan comes on at a slower speed, then when the engine reaches 210 degrees the fan switches to high until the engine gets back to 185 degrees. Or you can even get the temperature lower. Keep Rocking!!!
This is how our old rides nickle and dime us to death...still worth it!
what a mess,. That car's gonna keep you busy for a long time. Good progress though. Looking forward to the next episode :)
That box looks like what they used to help with radio interference. I had a 77 and there was one in that car to. Those were popular back then.
wow what a scrambled up wiring nightmare. Now you can see why people who think they can rewire a car arent playing with a full deck when they screw around with wiring like that. There must be dead shorts all over the place just by looking at the way that wiring looks not to mention that light switch getting hot and smoking that's another dead short. Definitely needs a complete rewiring job. Good Luck tackling this job Ben
That car is rough, good luck, your going to need it
Another Bubba car, you have more patience than me !
This is just a wild guess but, I think Bubba got all kinds of aftermarket parts to perhaps turn the car into a traveling boom box complete with led and neon underlighting which might explain all those little boxes, maybe.
I can't believe that the customer wants this thing fixed. Seems like it would be cheaper and easier for him to have you find and fix up a whole different car.
Some bubba wiring for sure. Great video Ben
One terminal is for engine cooling and the other terminal is for the ac system to control the fan as well.
Well Benjamin, you sound much much better Mrs Benjamin must have been working hard on her Chicken soup recipe. lol All the nasty wiring must have come from the shop that installed the stereo n speakers. Some teenager that did not have a clue about what he was doing.
I know I wouldn't have the patience to tackle that rats nest of wire, God bless you!
You are so knowledgeable! I am looking at a 74 C3. What are your thoughts?
Ben..from me doung household air con.work..i used to get squirrel box fans from old units we replaced..the fan had 2 power wires coming from the motor..110..of coarse..one slow speed..one high speed..reminds me of that with your fan..by the way you need one for your shop..moves alot of air..find someone in the buis.and ask for one to buy...cool..cowboy..montg.ala..
Nice video. Do you believe it is really beneficial to add an electric fan to these C3 corvettes? What are the main benefits and do you need to get a stronger alternator to run the fan?
You might want to try a book called 1973 to 1982 Corvette Electrical Waring Diagrams ⚡️ I hope this will help you out
Ugh... I hate dealing with leaks and weird wiring. The turbo 400 on my RV caught 🔥 when we bought it from leaking. Then I replaced it in a Safeway parking lot. Now the new trans is leaking from the converter seal. If you have to replace or remove transmissions. Always do the pan filter/ gasket with gasket and rtv along with the front and rear seals. Also tell your customer to buy and install a fire extinguisher in that car. Once you get it running. You might need to adjust the choke too. Looks like the choke is opening too loose and locking the secondaries like mine did. You can drill or pry off the top tab and rivet then adjust it with a penny and pliers once you loosen up the 2 other tabs with a flathead.2 other things I noticed we're the belts seemed like they were on wrong. Ac is usually on the outside and power steering on the inside or something like that. Hopefully someone didn't use a hammer to install the pump and blow out the back of it. Good luck with all of that :) it was interesting to see how bad they did that thing up with Auto zone LEDs
You need to have the temp sensor on the engine side of the thermostat.
It is a two speed fan , normal driving and with air on.
Man that is the car from hell! What a nightmare... it looks like some jealous girlfriend got a hold of that damn car... if you can get that thing back together it would be a miracle👌
I'm getting ready to take out the R.P.M. cable on my 74. It has been converted to HEI. The conversion kit I got from zip corvette for the RPM gauge has 3 wires. 1 main power, 1 ground, and 1 that goes to the HEI tach plug in on the distributor cap. Question is the main power wire. It needs to be a power supply that turns completely off so I don't drain the battery. You got any suggestions as to where I could hook it up to?? Main fuse block? I got the factory assembly manual, but that doesn't help in this situation.
Sorry for my poor englishskills (i'm from Germany) but i have only one Question.
Who or what is the famous Bubba you're always mention in your Videos.
Anyways I like your Videos so much and I learned a lot and so God will I'm able to buy a C3 this Year.
Would the fan be fed by 2 12volt sources, one via resistor to run at slow speed? A lot of 1980's Mercedes were setup this way ,before the processor controlled fans which run at variable speeds, depending on load.
If that's an aftermarket electric fan rather than one that was factory equipment on something and has been re-purposed for the 'Vette the chances are the two power terminals run the fan in opposite directions, so one will run it as a puller fan for mounting behind the radiator and one will run it as a pusher fan for mounting in front of the radiator for vehicles that have limited space in the engine bay...
The connector actually says Ford, so I think it has two speeds, one for ac and one for rad cooling. It only blows one way
My headlight switch did same thing ,and I replaced It ,I think the porcelain part is meant to take the heat..?
Part 2 ? Where
How do you pull out the gauge clusters from the dash? I loosened up all the bolts I could find but it still is in there pretty good it feels like the steering wheel still holds it on but looks like you didn't touch it
You have to drop the steering column
Electric Bubba gone wild. What an electrical mess.
In need of a rear end for my 79. Any suggestions?. Live in lower Alabama
That Old Wiring is an absollute mess
That thing is bleeding!! Call 911
I thought split bumpers were only on '74's?
Was this thing running when Branden bought it? I pray he didn't spend much for it!
That Poor Corvette
I hope to take on the impossible, I'm 3 years now in remission from stage 3 colorectal cancer, that's the good news. I want to get my UA-cam channel going, so this is the problem, I'm in low income housing and on SSDI . The plan is to build from the ground up (2) 1966 Corvettes side by side, So I'm on SSDI income and no garage no tools, as I get the tools, I'm looking for resources for parts for C2 Corvette, I'll do small block 327, HT with auto and a Convertible/Roadster with the 4 speed. For now I'm in my planning stage and a friend has 20 acres and should let me store parts in a shed till I find a garage to rent. Any resource for part would be a big help. Thanks
I would think twice about restoring cars, expecially c2 corvettes, on a low income budget. If you haven't done it before you really have no idea how much parts for the c2s cost. Only think that will be cheap are your tune up items on the engine, the rest are pretty much c3 specific and you will have a hard time affording those parts. A large reason why I haven't gotten into those cars.
That thing should have been in the crusher!
compressor too far rearward ?
My 77 puked out all the power steering fluid one time, hasn’t done it again since, I don’t like the 74 rear bumper on a 77, but then again I wouldn’t have taken that car had it been free, should have become a parts car.
Dude, gut the cars electrical system. It'll be better for the customer in the long run.
Dash harnesses are $600. People do have budgets when it comes to these cars
TheCorvetteBen. You're right. And how much is your time to the customer? And if you muss something in that rats nest of bucthered wiring and the car burns up. Been working in the business sunce forever, and sometimes the easiest route for both you and the customer is to replace the harness and be done with it.
Miss something in that rats nest.
He opted out of the dash harness.
What is with all of the messed up bond-o inside of the drivers side door. Might be better to get rid of this and just buy a better car. Might be fun to push it over a cliff. But you're doing a great job.
It has had a new front clip installed in the past.
you know you never see these car modders actually mod anything that matters on these things, like where are the monte carlo bars to help brace the front, where's the extra bracing to stop the chassis flex, as theirs no real bracing in the middle of these cars, hence why they added that and complete redid the rear end for the next generation of car ala 22:33 here
ua-cam.com/video/n8BRwn9TwBA/v-deo.html
as its all up to the body to do that, plus bigger brakes, better tires
its always a stupid stereo and interior bits that dont matter, hell about the only thing they'd really have a reason to mod is the clock and the oil pressure gauges to fit them with more reliable units, but with how bad this is, even that might be taking it too far
like it seems like the best corvette is an unmodded corvette to start out with, or one that's just an engine, body and interior if you want to build one up properly.
i like this channel and like corvettes but this doesn't make me want a c3
This car is a shit box! Great videos tho!!!
Bubba on roids!
these cars were junk when new.