Hello. I'm new to the forum. I have
Chevy/Ford/Jeep vehicles but this will be my 1st Corvette experience. My uncle notified me he was selling his 1982 CE C3. He is getting older now and doesn't want to mess with his own cars anymore. It's a done deal if I want it which I do. I can't complain about the price either. He and I have worked on many projects over the years. I'm always pulling him in the garage to tinker on my vehicles or rentals. If we are not arguing about what goes where we are laughing making fun of each other. Never a dull moment and always a great time. He is a jack of all trades but the last few months his back and legs have caught up with him.

So his car is a 1982 CE driver condition. Clearly not original but not all that bad considering. I'll probably be stoned with boulders by other members but I'm not a big fan of the original CE paint jobs other than the price they bring when selling. If it still had it I would say yay. Since it doesn't I'm fine with it. Someone painted it before him and changed the interior some. Door panels and seats were redone. Swapped the wheels. Runs great and shifts great in spite of my not so favorite chevy cross fire setup.

It has a vacuum leak on the lights which I am not too worried about. What I am not looking forward to running down is the car will kill a new battery in roughly 2 days. I've done some research and read about the negative battery ground contact check. I've ran checks on other vehicles using the fuse check method with a volt meter. I am familiar with the woes of parasitic draws on vehicles. It can definitely be a process. My uncle mentioned the cars voltage gauge on the dash shows "a low charge" when the car is running. Possibly an alternator or connection. I know the fuel level gauge is stuck on full. Clearly the car was taken apart when painted. My uncles friend got into the dash a couple years back to fix "dim dash lights" that seem fine/fixed now but I have no clue what he discovered or fixed. Other than what I mentioned all other electrical components of the car work.That's not to say I won't find more lol. I haven't picked the car up yet but I was wondering other than running through the fuses looking for an electrical draw are there other things/areas I should look at to narrow it down that are a common issue with this year of car? With what was done to the car and what he mentioned to me it sounds like a bad ground but who knows of course. I want to get a jump on some research before I go pick it up. I'll post some pics if this site will let new members do so. Geez only 4 pictures allowed lol.

 

 

 

Another question. Is it worth the price of installing electric headlight motors opposed to repairing/replacing the stock ones? I did see the stock ones are rebuildable.

 

Welcome from California!
so for the electrical drain, start looking at the switches in the door that run the courtesy lights. Often a cause of parasitic draw.. Alternator diodes can also go bad.
Don't worry about what other people think about you modifying YOUR car. It's yours and you should have fun with it. It looks good by the way, and I would ditch the crossfire for a Holley 650 and Victor Jr.
As long as the headlights work good I would leave them alone. If they don't then update them to work better.

 

Courtesy lights, will do! The headlights are DOA as far as lifting up. They have been rebuilt before thus the reason I asked about the electric actuators. Now what is this Victor Jr and will it pass smog in cali??? Thanks for the info!

 

Welcome to the forum. I think Victor Jr is a manifold but not sure.

While measuring the current draw with a DVM, disconnect the alternator first and see if that's your problem. If the battery is getting killed in two days then it's probably more than just a parasitic draw.

 

Yes the Victor Jr is an intake manifold, don't know if it will pass California smog...
Dumb question, if the headlights don't go up at all have you checked the switch under the dash that locks them?

 

Will do. Thanks for the info. The car is about 1-1/2hrs from me. I'm going to drive it home but I'll check that before I leave. Man when I uploaded the pics I really looked at that engine bay. Holy smokes there isn't much room to work in there. I'm new to vettes. This car will be an experience.

 

Good question. I didn't even know they had that. I know they will come up manually if you push them up. Yeah cali ruins everything. Like the smog rules here will save the world.