1966 Chevrolet Corvette Long-Term Road Test - Maintenance

New Updates | Introduction | Cargo Space | Comfort | Performance| MPG | Interior | Audio & Technology | Maintenance | Miscellaneous

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1966 Chevrolet Corvette: Keeping Up With Maintenance

July 2, 2015

Part of owning a car like our long-term 1966 Chevrolet Corvette is an increased need for maintenance. Essentially, the car is old, so it's important to check things like oil level and tire pressure regularly. More important, we need to remember: No fancy digital read-outs with warning lights and maintenance schedules here.

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1966 Chevrolet Corvette: Can't Night-Cruise the Boulevard

June 29, 2015

Earlier this week, I took our 1966 Chevrolet Corvette home for the first time and I had lofty plans. There was an iconic image in my head of a windows-down jaunt up the coast. I toyed with romantic notions about seeing how far I could go before losing radio reception. Maybe I'd stop at some local diner and get a slice of pie or head towards Sunset Boulevard to re-live the kind of 60's Los Angeles experience that can only be found in a Walter Mosley novel. The sky was the limit.

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1966 Chevrolet Corvette: Back In Action With New Battery, Alternator

June 25, 2015

When last we checked on our 1966 Chevrolet Corvette, it was parked at our office. As suggested by the characteristic "tick-tick-tick" when we turned the key, the battery was dead. We had a few options.

The first option involved calling AAA. Our annual membership fee of about $50 would cover a tow truck coming to our office to test the battery and give it a jump. For the additional cost of the battery, AAA would also replace it if needed. We decided to try something different.

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1966 Chevrolet Corvette: Rebuilt the Carb, But Trouble Persists

June 22, 2015

In our last update, the carburetor on our 1966 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray was drooling fuel. We took it to John at C&J Engineering to rebuild the carburetor. While it was there, we asked him to dial-in the Vette.

In addition to rebuilding the carburetor, C&J gapped the spark plugs, set the timing and rebuilt the distributor. The car spent one full day at the shop, but was out of service for a total of five days, including four days spent marooned in Cameron's driveway.

After the tune-up, the Stingray ran great. And then it didn't.

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1966 Chevrolet Corvette: Broken Speedo

June 8, 2015

To be clear, that's a broken speedo. Not a broken Speedo. Shortly after being repaired, the speedometer in our 1966 Chevrolet Corvette broke again. Well, it isn't really fair to use the word repaired. It's more like we used a Band-Aid and then it fell off.

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1966 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray: Safety First

June 2, 2015

Before we enlisted our 1966 Chevrolet Corvette as a daily driver, we first took it to a trusted shop for a safety check. Coast Corvette has been in the Corvette business since the 70s and sits just off Interstate 5 in Anaheim, neighboring a small business called Disneyland.

Chuck, the owner, has spent decades in the automotive world and nearly as long restoring classics, primarily 50s and 60s Corvettes. Ken was turning the wrench on our car, and he has some 30 years of vintage Corvette experience himself. We were in good hands.

We had a few concerns going in, but another caught us by surprise.

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1966 Chevrolet Corvette: Introduction

May 28, 2015

In 1966, just as in 2015, every Corvette was rear-wheel drive, V8-powered and available as a coupe or a convertible.

After much debate and about six weeks of research we decided to pursue a Nassau Blue (the most popular color in 1966) coupe powered by the base and most popular engine, a 300-horsepower, 327-cubic-inch small-block with a 10.5-to-1 compression ratio, and a four-speed manual transmission.

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