[Darth Menace]

Hey guys, a couple months ago I bought a 69 tempest convertible (GTO clone) sight unseen for 12.6k. Pictures made it look better than it was, I was upset when I got it, but after looking at the parts it should cost me about $1500 for parts to fix it up. This price includes a new rear pumper, windowfelt, weatherstripping, and other odds and ends. In the long run I am not worried about the $1500 to make it satisfactory, but I am guessing the mechanical condition needs a bit of work too.

-The car starts and idles fine, but when you drive it, when you come to a stand still, it often dies.
-The car smelled like gas, and it was leaking out of the fuel line. This problem was solved with assistance of you guys.
-The e-brake light is always lit, so does this mean that there is a possibility that the brakes are slightly engaged? for being a 400 it seems to feel like it wants to stop the second I take my foot off the gas.
-The tach is messed and doesnt read right.
-Leaks oil. I assume this is the oil pan gasket

I am stressing here. Some of these odd jobs that might take you guys 10 min, might take me weeks to complete (I am new to this carbed world and am a novice at car work overall). When I see the car I become angry.

Am I legit in this worry or is it some minor tweeks I can likely work out over the winter?

[Keith Seymore]

I hate to be the first - but - buying a car sight unseen is very unwise. You can't properly assess the condition and are almost certainly going to be dissappointed.

Having said that: I bought my '63 GP sight unseen . It was sort of an accidental purchase, which I can explain later if required, but I'm pleased overall and everything has worked out.

Now that that is out of the way - I think these issues will work themselves out. Even for us super high powered mechanical gurus (...lol...) there are always 10 or 15 little things that require attention.

I hope that you can be patient and click these items off one at a time and get to the point that you smile when you see the car sitting in the garage. It's certainly possible because that's where I'm at (even though I can think of 10 things that still need to be done).

Best of luck with your new purchase -

K

[Darth Menace]

thanks for the info. ya I did buy my 98 viper sight unseen, and I was super happy with the condition and the price. I thought the same would work with this one, but far from it. I thought I got a great deal, but instead I don't think I got ripped off, but more of a regular deal.

My thing is I want to know there is means to an end with this thing. I am taking things apart (like the interior to spruce them up), but in the mean time avoiding mechanical stuff because it makes me hate the car. I look at pictures of all your guys amazingly hot sexy cars, and then I walk into the garage to my car....kind of hard to swallow...I just have to etll myself that if bought in the recent years, you cars would cost way more than 12.6k OR would require a tonne more work.

it's not that any of the problems thus far are big problems, but plenty of little ones that seem to drive me nuts.

To make matters worse, two days ago I started it and there was a puff of smoke tha smelled the garage for about 15 seconds then went away. It isnt there for good, but only for about 10 seconds after start-up. Like I said I am new to carbed world, and I dont know if this is the norm when starting in cold weather OR a bit of the fuel stabilizer burning off OR something bad like blown head gaskets, etc.

I guess look at everything one step at a time, and not the overall big picture which will cause me to go nuts.

[Ben M.]

Originally Posted by Darth Menace

To make matters worse, two days ago I started it and there was a puff of smoke tha smelled the garage for about 15 seconds then went away. It isnt there for good, but only for about 10 seconds after start-up.

That could be a wide variety of things from leaky valve guides to a mis-adjusted choke\carb to a little condensation in the tail pipes. My new '69 does the same thing, but it's choke related and that's getting replaced very soon.

I bought a '69 Lemans sight unseen a few months back and am just now getting around to it after finishing my dad's '72 and my '74 Catalina. I didn't pay crazy prices for it and I don't feel that I got ripped off, but everywhere I look on it I just get more and more annoyed that someone either screwed with something that didn't need to be screwed with or things that are just flat out broken or wrong. Like the speedometer doesn't work because someone removed the cable. The exhaust has these crappy 3 tube headers that leak and are halfway scraping the ground because the guy who did it did a horrible job. The firewall was painted body color. The engine was spray bombed Chevy orange. The reverse linkage is missing for the 3 speed. Everything in the dash that could be unhooked or removed has been so that only the lights and alternator light work. The tires are REALLY tiny and look good only because of tire dressing: they are dry rotted from sitting. The weather stripping is bad on both doors. When repainting the car they didn't remove the interior door panels properly so they sprayed them over (and ripped the holes out for the screw mounts on the base). The radiator is full of very brown nasty water. And the list just goes on and on and ON and ON. Just LOADS of little things that need to be done before I can drive it with any security\regularity.

That said, I didn't pay "done car" prices so I'm not mad or feeling ripped off and I've already had multiple people walking by wanting to buy it (this is my first ever "nice paint" car) so it's not all bad, just annoying that I have to spend so much time taking care of "little things." Take it in stride ;-)

[heups1629]

Our stories are similar - I bought a '69 LeMans convert on eBay 2 years sight unseen. It too had some of your issues: Died after a stop (and idled unevenly), leaked oil, and it died on the freeway when I picked it up due to a leaking fuel line (which was easily fixed). The leaking oil was fixed by replacing a valve cover gasket. I bought and installed a rebuilt carburetor which completely solved the idling and dying problems. It had been repainted at some point, and they removed all the trim and emblems, and filled in every hole before they painted. That was a lot of work finding and redrilling all those holes (at least 40!). But the funny thing is - I enjoyed working on all these things. I have a list of more things I want to spruce up, but that's my fun times for later!

[gto4evr]

Don't stress! and first off, let me point out that all these beautiful cars you see in pics on this site are just that, PICTURES! just like your car seemed less in person than the pics of it when you bought it, all the members cars you appreciate benefit from that same upgraded quality! I can show you some pictures I have of a 68 GTO I owned 20 years ago that make it look like it was in very decent condition....reality was that you could crawl into the trunk through the side of the quarter panels they were rotted so badly. Back bumper came off due to the frame snapping behind the rear end and the trunk lid was kept open with a piece of 2x4 because the springs wouldn't stay in their brackets due to the body flexing outward when you opened the trunk! I'm not taking away from the MANY cars on here that really are stellar amazing works of art as well, just saying that you're probably not as far down the ladder as you're pushing yourself! And here's a better angle. If it's not a museum piece, you'll drive it more! I run the crap out of my 71 Lemans as a daily driver. It's definitely starting to fall apart but I can relax when I'm driving it. My 69 vert sees way less road because I'm always trying to keep it clean and don't want to have to keep at it all the time. I'm sure I had more fun in that car when it was that $800 beater I bought in 1989. I ran that car everywhere and kept a bucket I'd place on the console to catch the rain coming in through the rip in the top right there!

Anyways, on to the issues. As far at the brake light being on, two possibilities to look at. First, check the switch on the parking brake (follow the brown wire that goes up to a door jamb style plunger switch on the bottom of the pedal assembly near where the cable attaches. Make sure your pedal is up all the way and the plate is pushing down on the switch to break contact. If you're not sure, unplug the wire from that switch and see if the light goes out. If it doesn't then the next spot to check is the tan wire going to the proportioning valve. I'm guessing you've got good brake pressure on the pedal or you would have mentioned it. If the brakes are good with no air in the lines, it's possible the valve is stuck. Unplug that brown wire with the black rubber boot off the valve and see if the light goes out.

Oil leak....probably the rear main. Very common with these. I'm surprised the motor in my 69 which I did a few years ago hasn't started leaking there but all my other ones do. Just a bad design on the seals and I think I read somewhere that the newer rear main seals that come in the kits are actually undersize.

On the tach, not sure there's much you can do there if everything's wired correctly. Might just be a bad tach. I had an aftermarket one on one of my earlier cars that always read about 1k rpm lower than reality.

On the carb gas thing, it's probably an issue with the choke. Are you running an original quad with mechanical choke on there or is it an aftermarket carb/electric setup? I had a brand new holley on my 71 for the first 5 years after the motor rebuild. Always rough starting, gas fumes, black smoke.....one day I decided to put my freshly rebuilt quad I'd done for my vert on the car and was amazed how much better the car ran, all the other issues disappeared. Holley went into the junk pile and I'm a quad lover now.

Don't fret, you'll have this stuff solved in no time....remember it's a hobby so have fun working on it and you're on a great site filled with guys deep in knowledge!

[Greg Reid]

The problems you mention are all relatively minor things. Fixing that kind of stuff when you purchase a new 'toy' is what makes it YOURS.
I will say that for the price you paid, I hope that at least the body work and paint is good, interior nice, etc. Paint and Body is very expensive so if it's nice in that regard, you did OK. Regardless of that, the deal is done now so....
Get to work so you can enjoy the car!
PS- Post the problems one at a time in the proper areas. You'll have it done in time and learn a lot along the way.

[Darth Menace]

Originally Posted by Greg Reid

The problems you mention are all relatively minor things. Fixing that kind of stuff when you purchase a new 'toy' is what makes it YOURS.
I will say that for the price you paid, I hope that at least the body work and paint is good, interior nice, etc. Paint and Body is very expensive so if it's nice in that regard, you did OK. Regardless of that, the deal is done now so....
Get to work so you can enjoy the car!
PS- Post the problems one at a time in the proper areas. You'll have it done in time and learn a lot along the way.

Overall the interior is nice...there are a few panels here and there that need some dye or something, but overall i'd say it's nice. The paint is crap....it is foggy paint for sure. I;m going to get some higher grit polish and see if I can make due for a couple years. The body overall is nice...very solid and no rust to be seen really.

[Darth Menace]

Originally Posted by gto4evr

Don't stress! and first off, let me point out that all these beautiful cars you see in pics on this site are just that, PICTURES! just like your car seemed less in person than the pics of it when you bought it, all the members cars you appreciate benefit from that same upgraded quality! I can show you some pictures I have of a 68 GTO I owned 20 years ago that make it look like it was in very decent condition....reality was that you could crawl into the trunk through the side of the quarter panels they were rotted so badly. Back bumper came off due to the frame snapping behind the rear end and the trunk lid was kept open with a piece of 2x4 because the springs wouldn't stay in their brackets due to the body flexing outward when you opened the trunk! I'm not taking away from the MANY cars on here that really are stellar amazing works of art as well, just saying that you're probably not as far down the ladder as you're pushing yourself! And here's a better angle. If it's not a museum piece, you'll drive it more! I run the crap out of my 71 Lemans as a daily driver. It's definitely starting to fall apart but I can relax when I'm driving it. My 69 vert sees way less road because I'm always trying to keep it clean and don't want to have to keep at it all the time. I'm sure I had more fun in that car when it was that $800 beater I bought in 1989. I ran that car everywhere and kept a bucket I'd place on the console to catch the rain coming in through the rip in the top right there!

Anyways, on to the issues. As far at the brake light being on, two possibilities to look at. First, check the switch on the parking brake (follow the brown wire that goes up to a door jamb style plunger switch on the bottom of the pedal assembly near where the cable attaches. Make sure your pedal is up all the way and the plate is pushing down on the switch to break contact. If you're not sure, unplug the wire from that switch and see if the light goes out. If it doesn't then the next spot to check is the tan wire going to the proportioning valve. I'm guessing you've got good brake pressure on the pedal or you would have mentioned it. If the brakes are good with no air in the lines, it's possible the valve is stuck. Unplug that brown wire with the black rubber boot off the valve and see if the light goes out.

Oil leak....probably the rear main. Very common with these. I'm surprised the motor in my 69 which I did a few years ago hasn't started leaking there but all my other ones do. Just a bad design on the seals and I think I read somewhere that the newer rear main seals that come in the kits are actually undersize.

On the tach, not sure there's much you can do there if everything's wired correctly. Might just be a bad tach. I had an aftermarket one on one of my earlier cars that always read about 1k rpm lower than reality.

On the carb gas thing, it's probably an issue with the choke. Are you running an original quad with mechanical choke on there or is it an aftermarket carb/electric setup? I had a brand new holley on my 71 for the first 5 years after the motor rebuild. Always rough starting, gas fumes, black smoke.....one day I decided to put my freshly rebuilt quad I'd done for my vert on the car and was amazed how much better the car ran, all the other issues disappeared. Holley went into the junk pile and I'm a quad lover now.

Don't fret, you'll have this stuff solved in no time....remember it's a hobby so have fun working on it and you're on a great site filled with guys deep in knowledge!

Ya, I have always wanted a project car to tinker on, but I didn't expect this to be the one. I had a provincial inspection all lined up for the day after I picked it up. I quickly changed that appointment.

Thanks for the giant write-up on all the problems mentioned. Don't get me wrong, in the short time I've been here people have been extremely helpful in my threads, and have never thrown insults my way (like what seems to be common in some of my other car forums). Don't get me wrong, I pretty much will have a thread going about every problem I have because you guys are very knowledgeable and ready to help. I am sure I will have a heck of a time when it comes to taking the dash apart for the tach cleaning/tach cable replacing. Thanks for all the info...

[Darth Menace]

Originally Posted by heups1629

Our stories are similar - I bought a '69 LeMans convert on eBay 2 years sight unseen. It too had some of your issues: Died after a stop (and idled unevenly), leaked oil, and it died on the freeway when I picked it up due to a leaking fuel line (which was easily fixed). The leaking oil was fixed by replacing a valve cover gasket. I bought and installed a rebuilt carburetor which completely solved the idling and dying problems. It had been repainted at some point, and they removed all the trim and emblems, and filled in every hole before they painted. That was a lot of work finding and redrilling all those holes (at least 40!). But the funny thing is - I enjoyed working on all these things. I have a list of more things I want to spruce up, but that's my fun times for later!

Ya, and to think my ebay viper purchase went without a hitch. I'm Canadian so keep in mind we will pay another 25% at least for the same car. It's worth the import/export hassle for me.

[Peje]

Hi! Tempest=33 No convertible
CustomS= 35 Convertible
Le Mans= 37 Convertible
GTO= 42 Convertible

They only made 2.379 CustomS Conv.

So,is it cloned from a CustomS or a Le Mans?

[Simple Man]

Just remember, one thing at a time. When you start thinking about ALL the problems, you go into overload. Concentrate on one item.
Take the brake light. It's probably, as mentioned, something simple. Then go after the next problem. Feeling stressed? Walk away for a while, it will still be there.

[paint guy]

Originally Posted by Peje

Hi! Tempest=33 No convertible
CustomS= 35 Convertible
Le Mans= 37 Convertible
GTO= 42 Convertible

They only made 2.379 CustomS Conv.

So,is it cloned from a CustomS or a Le Mans?

Yeah, please post the 2nd and 3rd digits from the VIN. You might have a relatively rare car cloned into something not quite so rare.

[Greg Reid]

Originally Posted by Darth Menace

I am sure I will have a heck of a time when it comes to taking the dash apart for the tach cleaning/tach cable replacing. Thanks for all the info...

The dash/instrument removal is not that bad in the '68. You just have to know where every screw is before you start tugging on that 45 year old piece of brittle plastic.
For things like that, posting in the '68/'69 A-body section will get you plenty of instructions and a few pics to go along with them.
Like they've said, pick one problem at a time and knock it off your list.

[robz]

Hey Darth Menace...from I read above I think the first thing you should invest in is a Service/Shop Manual for it (either an original or copy of GM's or a generic one like Chilton's)...These to me are a must...A Fisher Body manual is nice to have as well...After that, take each problem one at a time...Do not tackle them all at once...You will see they will get resolved as these are not complex (good info from others above will help you get thru I'm sure)...With that and the guys here, you will become better at it you'll see...Reach out anytime you need info that you cannot find in the manuals...Good Luck!

[Darth Menace]

Originally Posted by paint guy

Yeah, please post the 2nd and 3rd digits from the VIN. You might have a relatively rare car cloned into something not quite so rare.

The VIN is 235679B608017. Last time I looked it was a 6 cyl 69 tempest custom convertible. Likely not rare...far from it.

[MD79TA]

You have a custom s car based on that number. I think they only made about 2000 of them This is a fairly rare car but I will let the experts chime in. As I told you before I thought your price is good for a running convertible. Drive it and enjoy. Doug

[pugslyx234]

Sounds to me the brakes are being activated even with no foot on pedal or emergency brake cable to tight , just raise rear of car or one wheel at a time to see how much resistance by spinning tires by hand, should only spin maybe one full revolution if not theres your problem check all four wheels. Woody

[Darth Menace]

Originally Posted by robz

Hey Darth Menace...from I read above I think the first thing you should invest in is a Service/Shop Manual for it (either an original or copy of GM's or a generic one like Chilton's)...These to me are a must...A Fisher Body manual is nice to have as well...After that, take each problem one at a time...Do not tackle them all at once...You will see they will get resolved as these are not complex (good info from others above will help you get thru I'm sure)...With that and the guys here, you will become better at it you'll see...Reach out anytime you need info that you cannot find in the manuals...Good Luck!

Robz- this is what I have http://www.classicindustries.com/ima...mg/l/l4469.jpg . I have it in searchable PDF format if anyone wants me to upload it to google cloud just tell me. It is about 850 pages and seems kind of old school compared to my haynes manual for the viper, but I can't complain for $13. What bugs me is that the manual says (for example) "unscrew this part, and do this and this...." and I dont even know what/where that damn part is!

Thanks for the advice guys. I really have to stop looking at the big picture or else I will want to light it on fire!

[Darth Menace]

Originally Posted by pugslyx234

Sounds to me the brakes are being activated even with no foot on pedal or emergency brake cable to tight , just raise rear of car or one wheel at a time to see how much resistance by spinning tires by hand, should only spin maybe one full revolution if not theres your problem check all four wheels. Woody

I agree in my uneducated way. This is my next on the to do list now that I got that gas leak fixed (again all thanks to you guys).