Your post is kinda vauge as to what condition Vette you are looking for. Are you looking for a good driver, are you looking for a true survivor, are you looking for a car for you to fix up ? Truth of the matter is older Vettes, C2's, C3's do have common problems that sometimes the untrained eye might not pick up. Result of that is you either get ripped off or disappointed. Replacement parts for these cars can be very expensive. Most are available aftermarket, some are even still available from GM.
First off knowledge is power, the more you know about the car the better off you will be. When you decide on an exact year do research on it. Learn what was available on it new and how to find out if there are incorrect repairs and parts on it. A good source for this information is a book called
" The Genuine Corvette Black Book". Filled with production facts and all the information you will need to know about a specific year. Another publication is the "Corvette Restoration Source Book'. This is a good book to help you identify correct and incorrect parts on a car. Another great guide which I use all the time is a book called "Chevrolet by the Numbers written by Alan L. Colvin. This book tells you how to identify and verify all V8 drivetrain parts. All this info is important if you are looking for a numbers matching car. If you are looking for a car just to have fun in and drive and work on you might not care whether the numbers match or not, but if your making an investment and hope someday to sell it and make or recoup your investment you really want to make sure what your buying is truly what is being represented to you.
There are a few things to look for when looking at a car.
First, do the numbers match. Does the car have the original motor and trans. For maximin resale value and originality this is a must.
Second, does the car have any rust. Thats right rust. These plastic marvels do rust in certain areas, like the frame, and around the windshield. The frame is an easy inspection, primarily the side rails. Holes and rot should be avoided. The windshield inspection might require the removal of some trim.
Third, the body. This is a little tricky. Big Block cars tend to show more wear and stress cracks due to torque. Pay particular attention to the door pillar areas around the striker. Look for fresh paint and stress cracks. Also you don't want a car that has been wrecked. The bodies of old Corvettes are pieced together. For example the front fenders on a C3 are really made up of three main pieces. The top piece which is the fender tops and the front header around the headlamps, the lower side piece, and a bonding strip which goes between the two main pieces. Now a lot of replacements are made up of one piece. For example if a car was hit hard in the front it might have been fixed with a one piece nose which means the fenders and header are all in one and then hung on the car. This type of repair certainly lowers the value of the car. To check the car for this type of repair you would look in the fenderwells and look for the bonding strip and goop between the fender pieces. This also applies to the rear quarters.
Fourth, on C3's the vacumn operated headlights and wiper cover can be a major headache. If there is something on the car that doesn't work research it and see how much it will cost to fix it.
And lastly if their are missing parts and you want to make the car close to original, do some research, you might be surprized at how much these parts are. For example if the car is missing the ignition shielding and you want to add it it might cost upwards of $500.00 depending on the year. Older Vettes have expensive calipers and hubs and rotors. A car thats been around thirty of forty years might require thousands of dollars of parts and labor if you want it original. As you are relatively new to Corvettes I think it would definitely be to your advantage to have someone who is Corvette savvy look at any potential purchases you might make.
Bottom line here is be careful as the money you invest you might never recover if you buy the wrong car. True it is a hobby, but there are certainly people out there waiting and willing to take advantage of an unsuspecting person.
If your looking for an original unmolested car a great place to look is in Hemmings Motor News. Online at
www.hemmings.com.