DeeVeeEight! more than a nightmare...

I didn't realized that persons in the US could purchase cars from quite far states, just relying on pics and description. I supposed that there are so many Vette all around you that you have just to choose the year and the colour you prefer...
I would never buy a car just from pics, unless the seller is a store who certifies the jobs done on the car.
I bought my 79 only after driving it and after doing some checks. actually I haven't been so careful in the checks because It was my first Vette ( no corvette knowledge at all )and I became "blind" for love at first sight. Of course I had many surprises when I brought it at home , but nothing serious, just usual things, in respect to your experience and to other experiences i heard , also in this Forum.

When I bought my car , I didn't know the difference between an OEM engine and a mildly modified like mine. I thanks God every day for having on my Vette the right engine and running good, the 4 speed manual trans, nice headers...

Recently i have fallen in love with 68-69-70 Vettes. I found here just 1-2 till now...But now I know what to check on a Vette and avoid bad surprises. But how to depart from my 79? I can't...I should have both a 69 and a 79. Let's see...

 

I understand Aldo, sucks when a car has things that you don't see until the drive home. Discovered my 'Vette has a back rear passenger tire that leans in a little more than I think it should, and I don't know to much about the Corvette rear axles, and the power windows were "fixed" by the guy who I bought it from, but they don't roll up all the way and don't line up, and the drivers side window wiggles a little more than makes me comfortable. T-tops don't line up and alternator went bad (which is cool, I guess, because EVERYTHING on the car is factory, even the spark plugs and distributor cap [man! was that thing nasty, I'm surprised it even ran!]). I hate for something to $50 you to death.

 

I've had mostly good experiences on eBay but I had a bad one concerning a front end on a 3rd Gen Camaro I was restoring. The guy sold me the fenders, facia, and hood and then a couple of days later had the whole car listed for sale . I realized at that point I was not going to get the parts so I filed a complaint with ebay and paypal. This was just before ebay bought paypal. Ebay sent me an e-mail that basically said that they just connect the buyer and the seller and and weren't responsible. Paypal made me go through a complaint process and said they would only refund the money if it was in his account at the end of the complaint process which took like 30 days. In the meanwhile, this guy still had the engine listed and a poor guy bought it even though this clown didn't even have the car anymore. Luckily for me Paypal locked his account right after the guy bought the engine so I got my money back because of this poor guy. I was able to track him down and let him know what was going on (which ebay will ban you for if they catch you doing it). We kept in touch and luckily he had purchased the engine with his credit card because both ebay and paypal blew him off. Paypal told him the money wasn't in the account so they wouldn't do anything. I felt kind of bad because I knew It would have been me if he hadn't bought the now non existant engine. Luckily his credit card company took the money away from paypal which is why paypal tries to get you to use your bank account instead of a credit card. So for me everything turned out OK but it could have been disasterous if the timing hadn't been almost perfect. My wife is a paralegal so I had contacted the California Attorney General and the Internet fraud division of the FBI and guess what, I never heard from either of them. I won't make large purchases on ebay anymore unless I can see it in person and the person has outstanding feedback (which can still be decieving). Ebay and Paypal pretty much look the other way even though they try to convince you everything is safe and it's hard to get the authorities to do anything because they are probably overwhelmed. Oh, and the jerk sent me a ranting e-mail with a virus attached (which I caught so no damage) and was dumb enough to tell me that Paypal was now taking him to court. Of course this was only AFTER the credit card company took the money away from Paypal. The whole experience left me with a bad feeling about some of the jerks out there ripping people off and how little help you get when you need it from these companies and government. Buyer beware I guess.

 

I understand were you are comming from filstoy that was my biggest fear when i bought my vette that the guy was going to screw me...but in the fine print the seller only said they wanted a 100$ deposit within a 48 hours of the end the auction so i used paypal for that and i went picked the car up and pay the seller with a check so if the car wasnt what he said it was i would not complete the sale

 

You can adjust the camber on the rear wheels at the inner strut rod attachment. Just loosen the nut and when you turn the bolt, thecam moves the strut rod in or out. Spec is for a slight negative (leans in at the top) camber.

 

When I bought my vette I saw it before I got it and knew the paint was bad. It was repainted and now the paint is cracked from front to back. I took pictures of it for the insurance company so i can drive it and get any bugs out now that the driveline is all rebuilt and then I'll start the bodywork. The pictures look great but I know the paint is junk! I told myself I will never buy a car from a picture. My friend bought a Cuda from pictures that look great and we all told him for the money he is paying he'd better look at it. Now he has a 50K car that is worth about 10k if he is lucky. It's amazing how people can screw you and not think twice about it!

 

Thanks! I was wonderin' if it could be done by myself. I need to find a nice loving friend with a flat garage (thats heated...) and work it all out with a tape measure. I can't find a shop that wants to do it, says they are a bear to work on. Any shop that I would trust doesn't want it sitting on there lift for days... :/

 

I do mine with an indicator I bought at Sears that has a needle that always points up and a dial showing 360 degrees. I cut a 2X4 to bridge across the wheel and taped a metal strip to it as the dial has magnets. You don't even need a level floor as you can lay a 4-5 foot straight edge on the driveway and see what the degree reading as and use that to compensate when you are checking the wheel camber. You also almost have to get it in the air to loosen the nut on the camber bolt. It's not really hard to do, just a royal PITA.

 

So, you're saying theres hope....

 

This is the exact reason i would NEVER buy a car site unseen!! i have drivin countless hours to go look at supposedly rustfree cars only to find massive blobs of bondo or the panels cut off of the car and to hear the moron state well there aint no rust in the car i cut it out!!! or cars with all new drive trains only to stick my finger in the oil fill hole and pull out thick black sludge and smear off the fresh paint over the greasy engine!!! I have found in 20 plus years of messin with old cars 9 out of 10 people think a show car is a fresh coat of wax on old crap and more recently that if they sold a mint clean one on BJ for 100 g then my rusted out hunk of sh&$ is worth at least 10 grand!!!!
Congrats on getting your cash back !!!!!!