This is the second in a series of blogs on my rebuilding the rear end on the 1977 "Little Red Corvette" my wife and I bought for ourselves several years ago. Today we'll deal with the search for parts. Click here to read my blog about the epic dismantling of the rear of our car.
About a week ago I dropped off the differential and drive shafts for the Corvette at a shop near our home here in Cleveland that specializes in such things. They called me yesterday with an estimate to rebuild the differential of around $900. Ouch. That on top of my having them replace the universal joints on the drive shafts will have "the differential" part of this project coming in around $1,200-$1,300. I assured my wife that the whole project would come in under $1,500 - that budget has now been ground to shreds like the stub axles inside my differential.
I found several differentials on Craigslist between $350 and $500 that were available from folks parting out their 1968-1979 third generation Corvette's; 1980-82 C3's use a different carrier. Quite the savings and even though a couple came with more aggressive gearing than ours has, it's a 3.08:1, what stopped me from getting one was no guarantee they didn't have anything wrong with them either.
The crux of the entire project, again, was the trailing arms. After determining that they both needed more than just replacement of their bushings and shims, I again tried to find replacements from Corvette's that were parted out. No such luck there at all. Most of the ones I looked at were in the same or worse shape than mine. Rebuild service on my trailing arms started at $699. Each. Brand new ones coming in at around $949. Again, that's for each. Oh, brother. Years ago we should have bought a Chevelle. Would have been cheaper in the long run.
I think I lucked out finding a Corvette junkyard of sorts about an hour or so east of Pittsburgh that had a pair of freshly rebuilt trailing arms out of an '82 Corvette for $275 each. I say "lucked out" because I won't know how good they are until everything is back together. While the differential on '82's is different than the one on my '77, the trailing arms are the same. They also had a pair of re-manufactured strut rods for $50. It was a solid eight hour round trip but my wife and I were able to stop by the Flight 93 Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania on the way home. A road trip during a pandemic? Mask up. BTW, if you're ever in that area and see the signs for it, you must take the time and visit. It's magnificent.
Next up on the parts hit parade was the leaf spring. Brand new, which is recommended, the nine-leaf spring that my car came with costs about $149. Plus shipping and handling. I was seriously thinking about going with a composite or "mono-leaf" spring that 1981-1982 Corvettes' came with but they run between $350 and $500. What's more, because apparently the spring rate on the composite spring, known officially as the "filament-wound-fiberglass-composite automotive spring" has a different spring rate than the steel spring, I'd have to get high-performance shocks that run around $125. Each. I found a steel, nine leaf spring on Craigslist for $50 from a guy who had bought it from a parted-out 1969. I scraped what surface rust there was on it and spray-painted it black. I know, I know. What could go wrong going with a fifty-year old leaf spring? Shocks ran me around $100 for a set of four. My differential guy recommended I not go with anything more exotic than what the car came with originally. Thank you, Amazon Prime for the free shipping.
I did buy some ancillary parts brand new from Corvette America that ran about $125. A shackle bolt kit with polyurethane bushings, shims for the trailing arms and a new Snubber bushing, yes, a "Snubber" bushing, that connects the differential to the frame of the car. I know I have to rework the parking brake cable so there's that expense to come too. I'm sure they'll be more. And it's not like the rear end of the car is the only thing that needs work. I have a sneaky feeling all this work to the rear of the car is going to highlight how much work the front end is going to need.
Let's get crackin' putting this thing back together. Onward and upward.
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