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The Story of EPARMOMy 1977 Corvette (C3) is named Eparmo. It's a long story how she got to be named Eparmo, and I'm not going to go into it! I bought Eparmo in 1984. I believe I'm the 3rd owner. It's an interesting story how I got her. I saw her advertised, and stopped by for a look. I was living in York, PA. at the time, and the owner was in a little town next door, Dallastown, where I went to High School. Anyway... She looked nice, but when I took her for a test drive she missed, and bucked, and was just rough. He said she was working just fine the previous weekend, and didn't know why she was acting up. I said, "Well, I'll give you $6K for her", and he jumped on it! By this time I had already been neck deep in my 70 GTO Judge restoration, had rebuilt my friend's 351 Cleveland for his 70 Mercury Cougar, and dropped a fully rebuilt and upgraded 351 Windsor with an FMX into my 77 Ford LTD II. So a lil' bucking out of a SB Chevy didn't worry me much! I handed over the cash, and back home Eparmo went. I popped the hood and got elbow deep... Left bank, 1 plug wire hanging in air... Right bank, another plug wire hanging in the air! I put them back onto the plugs, fired her up... Smooth as a kitten. Took her on the road. Perfect run! So, I got a perfect, 7 year old Vette for $ 6K because the owner couldn't find 2 plug wires that were off! How they got off, I have no clue, but it made for a good deal! --- MOVING ON --- I drove Eparmo when I could, but as with many Vettes they tend to sit more then they get on the road. By 1989 I'm living outside Atlantic City, NJ. and Eparmo is sick. Her brakes are leaking like a sieve, all her rubber suspension parts are cracked and brittle, her steering parts are weeping all over the place. Time for Eparmo rebuild/restoration Number One. I bought a full rebuild kit from Corvette Brakes. New Stainless calipers, New sway bars, New tie rods, new carbon fiber transverse leaf, new Shocks, springs, A-arms, ALL Poly bushings, EVERYTHING steering, brakes, and suspension... NEW, and polyurethane! Fast Forward 1999 Eparmo was a good girl for the next 10 years, and as normal, I didn't pay as much attention to her as I should have, but circa 1998 she started to run like crap. I found the Quadra-junk was dried up like a prune, the AC pump was dried up and dragging on the belt, and she was leaking oil out of every seal, plus the TH350 was getting slippery. Time for what I do best! Driveline rebuild! I had a house in York, PA where Eparmo lived, and was working, and living in MD. On the weekends I was headed to the house in York to build the new driveline. I pulled the old Small Block and TH350. Then designed a new small block, bought all the parts from Summit Racing, and assembled it. In my move from PA. to WV. I lost all my notes and spec. sheets, so I can only generalize from memory as to what the build was. A new small block with 4 bolt mains, crank, rods, and Speed Pro 10:1 pistons against Trick Flow aluminum heads, a Comp Cam with roller lifters and rockers. An Edelbrock performer manifold with a Holley 4BBL (650 Vac Sec Carb MISTAKE!). High volume oil pump, new aluminum radiator, aux trans cooler, high flow water pump, high output alternator, Headman headers, dual straight through exhausts into turbo mufflers. Yadda, Yadda... I yanked out the AC set-up since it was frozen, and I never used it anyway. I'm 6'6" tall and new drive it without the T-Tops off! A new TCI TH350 with a TCI torque converter on the ass end, and we're ready to rock and roll! She cleaned up well under the hood, the new engine got a coat of yellow paint to match the body, and it all went back together. She took off and purred like a new born kitten. Ran like a raped ape! Didn't quite meet my top end expectations because of the 650 carb that ran out of juice too soon. I should have gone with a 750 double-pumper! Dumb-ass mistake on my part! But, pretty damned good still! 2003 I'm driving Eparmo and suddenly the TCI tranny lets loose and just barfs all the fluid on the pavement leaving me sit with no gears! I dunno what happened, the front pump blew, some seal went kaboom, WTF? The bottom line is that Eparmo has been sitting in the driveway every summer since, or up on the lift with some other car under her during each winter ever since. --- 2014 Phase 3 of Eparmo's Rebuild/Customization --- OK, so here we are, 2014. Eparmo is 37 years old, and she's starting to show her age. Her yellow is getting faded. She has stress cracks. Her underside is getting rusty, and is covered in road crud and old oil, tar, and yuck. All the new steering, suspension, and brake parts I put on in 99 are chipping paint, and getting rough looking. Hell, even some of the steering parts are starting to weep fluid again. I need to do something about the power wall I hit because of the undersized carb (see my hints link for a discussion of proper carb CFM sizing), and I need to deal with the barfing TCI TH350. In neither of the 2 previous rebuilds did I do anything with the rear-end, or the trailing arms, and the trailing arms definitely need some attention. Over the last 10+ years I sold off my 70 GTO Judge, and my 69 Firebird Convertible, as well as all my other cars and projects. Eparmo is all that's left. So, 2014 dawned and I decided it's time to put her back on the road with one big, last, top to bottom, rebuild, and customization.
I'm going to pull out the interior, and re-carpet, and re-seal the cockpit. Pull off the body and send it to the shop
for a new coat of yellow, and stress crack repair.
Thanks for dropping by! You can email me & Eparmo if you like, and I'll get back to you when I can. EMAIL: vette@eparmo.com |
