First Wash in DECADES: BARN FIND Corvette! | Satisfying Restoration

Buried deep inside this garage, they've been waiting. They're powerful. Itching to get back on the road. Okay, maybe this one actually doesn't want to come out. Some would say these define early American muscle. We found two classic C3 Corvettes. Oh. Well, well, well. If it isn't our favorites. Some Corvettes. Not one, but two. If anyone's seen Austin Power, they'll know what that's from. It's a 427 car, Mike. Dude. Big motor. We've never done a 427 car. We haven't, we haven't. I know those are pretty special. They are pretty special. We were told if we were going to ever get the chance to do the 427, we had to do the red one first. Somewhat of paying our dues. Yeah, I think he also wants to make sure we're not gonna mess anything up. He's allowing us to do this one, and it looks completely different than any of the other Corvettes from this time period that we've done. I believe this one is a 72? Yeah, it's older than the ones that we've done. It's older, so we did two 78s. So we've done a bunch, but the ones with really low miles, there was two 1978s, and then one 1982. So this is, I believe, the oldest one that we've ever done on the channel, because my uncle had one that was a 1974. And I'm being told that these are particularly special, well, because they were, I guess, the first iteration of the Stingray. And that's where you got the chrome bumpers, and I believe the back bumper is chrome as well. I haven't taken a look at it. I'd much prefer the chrome on the front end of this car. I can't wait to see the back end, because I don't have a lot of experience with these older Corvettes, but, oh, I get a peek. We got a little bit of the looks. It's complete, so it looks pretty good. It's just a little dirty, not too, too awful. A little bit of moisture here. Yeah, nothing that we can't handle. Dude, this thing's tucked in here. It is tucked in there. Look at how big that cobweb is. Okay, that's a barn find cobweb, actually. If you can make your way back here, Brent. They are huge. But man, look at this thing, too. I can't believe these are just, this one's got a fish on it. Oh, watch that. You're gonna hit the ceiling with his mouth. Billy Bass. Now we have to figure out how to get it out. It's extremely close to this garage and it's extremely close to this Corvette and we can't really pull it forward, but it has to go out that garage. So, I think we're gonna have to play musical cars. And now we're gonna start moving the car forward and backward, trying to get it out of this corner. But I wanna say, make sure you guys watch through this entire video because later in the video, we actually gave a car away for free. It was pretty emotional. You don't wanna miss it. And also, if you're not subscribed to our channel and you wanna see us do that blue 427 sitting right next to this red one, make sure you subscribe and leave a comment down below saying what your favorite part of the Christmas season is. Hang on, Brent, can you come bring the camera over here? I need you to see this. If that's not clearance, I don't know what is. We're not out of the woods yet, but I think it's gonna be close. As long as- Get over here. Brent, this is the closest we've ever had. Oh, and it's through. You missed it, Brent. We made it. Way to go. No, I'm kidding. All right, guys, that's the worst of it. Now, we just have to spin around and get into the trailer. Almost done. I'm having a great time. Now, the last thing I wanna say is if you guys have a car that's in this condition or you know somebody who does and you want us to come make a video on it, cleaning it absolutely for free, send us an email or an Instagram message with pictures of the vehicle currently and where it's sitting. If it's not super dirty and it's not at least something cool, we cannot make a video on it, but we wanna see what you guys have, so if you have a barn find, send it our way. All right, we're back with the Stingray, safe and sound. Thank God because the owner is very particular about this car. We're gonna get into that in just a little bit, but before we do, I wanted to mention a story about this car that reminds me of my childhood and I didn't even remember it until the car was here in the shop, but when I was young, I used to walk to school every day and you have the crosswalk guards that make sure that you get there safely and the one that I had was an elderly gentleman who had a 19, I'm sure, late 60s, early 70s. It was the one with the chrome bumpers, but he had a yellow Stingray that looked just like this. I remember looking at it with my mom and being like, mom, what kind of car is that? And she's like, well, that's a Corvette, honey. And I was like, man, I wanna get one of those one day. Although I don't really have the desire to own one now, this brings back a very, very long and forgotten memory. Looking at this Corvette, I love it a lot more than the other C3s that we did and I'm gonna tell you why. The chrome accents on the car, just like this bumper, make this car feel a little bit more elegant and unique, sort of exotic, especially with this car in red. Kind of reminds me of a Ferrari of the day. I know that you're gonna murder me for that one, but actually, one second, I actually have the color of this car, the actual red, I want you to read it. You said it feels exotic, almost like a Ferrari, like an Italian sports car. Read the color. Oh, Mille Milaga, Milaga? Migala? Magali? Mille Miglia Red. Chevrolet totally ripped off Ferrari's colors probably, but I think it does look much more elegant as you come along the side of this car, Brent. I like this chrome accents in this fender well, how it has this big vent and the earlier cars didn't have anything like that. They did have a sill down here that was also black. This is chromed out too. A lot of the early Ferraris were just red and had chrome accents and it was just very pretty and elegant car. As you come towards the rear here, I didn't even notice this until I came into the shop this morning, but the Ferrari that we did before had big sills in the rear just like this one, unlike the big glass that was on the other Corvettes that we did. And then coming to the back of the car, which I think is the best part, are these separated bumpers. I just think it just brings the back end together and just makes it look a lot more unique than the Corvettes that we did previously. It's also the last year it had the metal bumpers, the chrome bumpers like this before they went to that urethane plastic bumper. You have the, I think the 73 and 74 had the split in the middle and those bumpers are notorious for becoming very brittle and falling apart. I don't know if they did that because it was saving them money, but it was a poor design choice and this looks so much better. And it holds up longer and that's what you want with a classic car. You wanna be able to keep something nice for a very long time and that's hard to do if the bumper's falling apart. But there's actually one more thing that's really cool about this that the other Corvettes that we've done on the channel did not have. And if you come down lower, you have these sweet exhaust tips. And I don't know if those are OEM. They look aftermarket to me, but these cutouts are original so they look a lot better. It looks a lot meaner. It does look very angry. Now it's time to go over how we have to wash this a little differently than we've washed other cars on our channel. The owner is very concerned about getting water not only inside the car through the seals of the T-tops because they do leak over time, but he's very concerned about water getting in the engine bay so we're not gonna be using any pressurized water or even hose water. Instead we're gonna do a waterless wash on the engine bay and also we're not gonna be pressure washing anything past this point on the hood because apparently this area right here collects a lot of water and can rot out some of the metal components, the very few that are in this car. So we're gonna avoid that as well. We're gonna be doing a waterless wash pretty much from here all the way back to right here. And we're gonna wash this part of the vehicle down away from these vents right here. Apparently these vents are supposed to have filter drains that come out to the sides of the Corvette where all the water will flow off as you're driving in the rain. He has since removed those funnels or those tubes and so this would just go right into the back of the Corvette. And I really don't want to cause this gentleman any issues and I really wanna do his 427 four-speed Corvette. So we're gonna abide by all the rules that he has set for us and we're gonna be doing the waterless wash. It's actually something that we've never done on this channel so we're kinda excited to show you guys how it's done. But with that being said, I guess we should probably start where we always start, the wheels. So first things first, we're gonna get started on these wheels. And to clean this tire, we're gonna be using our tire cleaner. And to clean the actual wheel, we're gonna be using our Purple Rain wheel cleaner. But first, I have to actually get these rings off. These are unlike the other wheels I have done on Corvettes previously. I think they're a steel wheel. Yeah, they're made out of steel and then they have these beauty rings that look like they're made out of chrome. So I'm gonna try to get these off gently. I don't wanna damage any of this stuff. That's stubborn. Yeah, I know. I'm gonna break my plastic tool doing this. I wonder when they got rid of beauty rings. Well, they didn't get rid of them, they just changed them into hubcaps. You know, plastic hubcaps. At least I think. Like I said, hubcaps like Teslas, those wheels are interesting looking and then they just have that plastic beauty thing that makes the wheel look completely different. It's not an actual steel wheel that they use, but I guess that would be considered one. Other than that, I really don't know. You can let us know online if you know of a car that does, but I don't think there is one. There we go. And then I believe this come off as well. There we go. But let's get this cleaned up. And if you guys missed it, we just launched WD Auto Supply, which is our own brand of detailing products that we are so proud. Our website looks amazing and that's all thanks to our website developer, Jimmy. But Jimmy is very confident and also very expensive. And that's why we wish we would have known about this video sponsor, Odoo. And of course, we're thrilled with the results, but not everyone has the budget for a Jimmy or a very high-end website developer and that's where Odoo can be of service. Odoo's website builder gives you all the tools to create a professional, beautiful website without the high cost. It's free to get started, includes unlimited hosting and support, and even comes with a free custom domain for a year. And get this, it's so simple, you don't need any technical skills. Just drag, drop, and go live in minutes. Plus, their built-in chat GBT integration can help you write content with ease. If you're running a small business, Odoo is a game changer. You get all the perks of a high-quality website without franking the bank. And you also get a bunch of other features including accounting, inventory, customer research management, and much, much more. While we love our web developer Jimmy, Odoo is a smarter and more affordable choice for most businesses. But hey, we just got an order. Odoo, build your website, save your budget, and build your brand. So if you're ready to get started, click the link in the description below and see what Odoo can do for you. And we wanna thank Odoo especially this time of the year because we are going to be taking all the money that they gave us for this ad and we are going to be doing something very nice for someone that is in need. So stay tuned. It's gonna be in this video. We're really excited for you guys to see it. Now let's get back to the Corvette. Now it's time for the waterless wash, which is something that we've never featured on the channel. And to be honest, I've only done a waterless wash twice or three times in my detailing career because I believe that waterless washes scratch the vehicle's paint. I don't think that there's any way that this product, the waterless wash, in Griot's case, they call it spray-on car wash, but I don't think that it does a good enough job of lifting up all the dirt from the paint to wipe it away without scratching the paint underneath. But, you know, in this situation, I'm going to be polishing this car anyways, so any damage that is done with the waterless wash, I will be able to fix later on. But the process is as simple as it sounds. All I'm gonna do is use this compressed air to blow away any debris that's already sitting on the paint. And now it's time for the actual wash process. So I have a high GSM microfiber towel. The goal is to have the softest towel I don't mind destroying. And I'm going to generously soak my towel in the waterless wash, and then I'm gonna do the same with the paint as well. And then the trick is, is that you're just gonna do one even motion, wipe away all that dirt, fold the towel to the inside, use a brand new piece of the towel, spray it again, and there you have it. That's as simple as it gets. A waterless wash. So we're gonna go ahead and do that on every piece of the car that we were told to be very careful of. Yeah, I hate doing it, but it is what it is, and it's the request of the owner. So we're gonna do that, and make sure that I remove any scratches that I probably am inducing with this method. All right, now it's time to clean the engine bay. And like I said, this is gonna be a different way than we've ever cleaned an engine bay, because the owner wants us to be very, very careful. He's worried about grommets and electrical connections. He does not want any water getting into the engine or into any of those connections. So we're going to be doing another waterless wash on the engine bay, which I've never done before, but it's gonna be as simple as how we did it earlier. But first, before we get into that, talk about the engine a little bit. We have the 350 cubic inch engine from Chevrolet, the small block. I believe it put out what, Mike? Like 220-ish horsepower, roughly? But I believe that this was the first car that gave you the net horsepower instead of the gross horsepower. And if I'm not mistaken, gross horsepower is at the crank, and net horsepower is at the rear wheel. So that was 220-ish horsepower to the actual wheels that are propelling the car forward. Obviously we have an aftermarket airbox. We have an aftermarket distributor and rotor. We have aftermarket valve covers that say the heartbeat of America. It looks like we even have a beefier fan. So this thing probably got at least another 20 or 30 horsepower. I think we found those aftermarket exhausts on the rear too. So I bet you this thing's souped up a little bit and probably a good time. But we're gonna go ahead and vacuum out all the debris that's sitting here, all these dead bugs, and we'll go ahead and blow it out with a compress there and then wipe everything down and we will be very, very careful because I don't want to mess anything up and I really want to do that 427. So let's get to it. All right, now it's time to wash the car and we can't use the foam cannon because we don't want to spray all the areas that we already mentioned that we're not allowed to or supposed to spray on this car. So we're going to be doing a bucket wash, which is a perfect time to show you guys how we use our cherry suds. In the buckets, we do about a two-ounce pour, but sometimes I go a little bit more because I like extra suds, into our wash bucket. This is a two-bucket method, by the way. This bucket will have our soap and suds. This bucket will just have water and what we're going to do is we are going to wash our mitts in between every single pass, re-soap them, do one section of the car, come back, wash the mitts again. These mitts are microfibers, so when they touch the water, the microfibers release any of the sediment or dirt that we're washing off the vehicle's paint. They go all the way to the bottom and end up getting caught underneath our grit guards. So the dirt stays underneath, the clean water stays on top and that way we can make sure that our mitts are as clean as possible every time they touch the car. Guys, wait, wait, wait, wait. We have to hurry up because before we do the interior, we have to do that one thing we've been planning. The giveaway car? It's time. All right, let's do it. So during the Christmas season at WD, we like to give back and this year we've decided to do something special for a young lady. She has had quite a tough time in life and I'm going to tell you her story now. Her name is Lauren and her father recently passed away. She's been saving up money to buy a car and sadly her father passed away and didn't really leave her much for his funeral and so she had to use all of her money to spend it on her father's funeral which set her back quite a ways on getting to the point of buying her own car. But that just didn't sit right with all of us here at WD so we pulled together and tried to do something really special this year that we've never done before. We band together and found her a car and we're going to be cleaning it with all of our supplies. She has no idea any of this is happening. Hopefully this is going to be a huge surprise for her and give her some independence because this will be her first car she's ever had and this will be a way for her to get around, a way for her to travel, just a way for her to experience life. I've had a car since I was a teenager and I know the independence that having your own vehicle bestows upon you. She's never had this experience in life and she's always had to have rides to places or use Uber or things like that. So we really hope that this gives her a new level of independence and gives her a little bit of hope during the Christmas year. Just we feel terrible for her losing her father and we hope that this can bring a little bit of cheer to her life. So when we purchased this car we knew that we couldn't spend a ton of money and get something absolutely perfect and brand new. But luckily the Power Performance guys had agreed to help us out and make sure that we get her a car that's gonna be running good for a few years. So you'll see them help us out with this process hopefully. And help us out they did. So like we mentioned earlier in this video we took all the money that we got from our brand deal that's in this video and we bought her a Honda Pilot off Facebook Marketplace. And then all three of us, RJ, Mike, and I pitched in to help clean it up and make it look almost like brand new. Detailing it inside and out and making it sparkle again. And then the Power and Performance guys donated their time and came by the shop to not only look over the car completely mechanically from top to bottom, but they also installed new brakes on it for us. And they did it all for free just out of the goodness of their heart because they wanted to help us with this surprise. And we just wanna say in the spirit of Christmas thank you guys because we could not do something like this without you. Without your support we'd never be able to do anything like this. But now as RJ's nervously pacing around the garage Lauren's finally pulling up and we got her reaction to giving her the car. How's it going? Good. What's going on? Good. Yeah, a little chilly. I'll keep you guys. Great to see you. Absolutely. We actually don't need your help today, Lauren. Yeah, we actually don't need your help. I need you to come this way though. Jasmine has told us a lot about you so I'm not gonna say too much right now but we have a Christmas surprise for you. Can I put this microphone on your lapel? Yeah, for sure. All right, I'm gonna put it right here. Are you ready? I'm nervous too. I don't think so. All right, let me do it. Wait. All right, ready? Wait. Lauren, are you ready? Oh God. Here we go. What? Stop. Ah! No freaking way. That's your new car. My new car? That's your new car. Oh! Thank you. Guys. Come here. I thought we were getting food. This is so amazing. We had heard about your father passing and how you had to use the money for your car for his funeral. And so when we heard that, we figured there was nobody else that deserved a car more than you. Hi guys. I'm so blessed. Thank you guys so much. You're welcome, you're welcome. You're very welcome, absolutely. Merry Christmas. Now I gotta pit my ride. So let me tell you a little bit about it. It's a 2003 Honda Pilot. We found the lowest mileage car we possibly could for you. It has 74,000 miles. So it's gonna run for a very long time. We did the brakes on it. We had mechanics come and check it out. It has new tires and it's in really, really good condition. It's stunning. I love it. It's so neat. Like I just told her on the way here, oh my God, I'd love like a big car. I'm a small girl. And I have a big car for a small girl. Yeah, you actually have not one row, not two rows, but three rows of seating. So you could fit you and seven of your friends in there. Yeah. Road trip. You guys can come. Thank you guys so much. I mean, seriously, this is like life changing. So I'm not gonna cry on camera, but I'm really happy. Thank you. Also, if you'd like your face blurred, we're more than happy to do that. If you don't want to be on camera. Just show it to me first. I'm sure I won't mind. All right, no problem. Also, Lauren, we dropped our new detailing product, Supply Company, WD Auto Supply. So we're hooking up with the full package so you can keep the new car. Bless you, oh my God. Squeaky clean. Yeah, you gave the best reaction in the world too. Oh, thank you, man. It's genuine. I'm really happy. That was the whole point. We were hoping that was good. I hope you both and your followers have a great freaking Christmas, because I sure will. So now it's time to polish the hood of this Corvette, but usually that's RJ's job, and I'm not sure where he's at. Oh, oh, oh, oh. Someone told me that was naughty paint. Naughty paint? That's what you came up with? This paint actually isn't all that naughty. At the end of the day, it looks like it just has some surface scratches and some oxidation. I'm going to be using a dual action polisher, a foam pad, and some light polish. We're just gonna remove that top layer of oxidation and some of the light scratches, and make this red Corvette very, very red again. It's gonna be beautiful, and I'm gonna wear this suit for the whole entire process. And it's already getting hot. Don't get polish on it, dude. And while we're in the Christmas spirit, I wanna give a quick shout out to Brandon and Amari, two kids that stopped by the shop. We gave them a tour, gave them some stickers and some soap, and then after they left, Brandon's mom had mentioned that their other buddy Miguel wanted to come, but unfortunately he's been having some health issues in and out of the hospital. So Miguel, the shout out for you, man. Keep fighting, buddy. Stay strong. You got this. We'll be here supporting you the whole way through your recovery. And then when you're able to, come by the shop, come check everything out. But Merry Christmas, man. All right, moving on to the interior of this Corvette. Now, this is a little bit older than the previous Corvettes that we've done before, and the interior's a little bit more simplistic, I'd say. Even the door panel, it's a little bit more simplistic. But in a way, I like it more. I kind of love simplistic interiors, just like how the 240 was simple. I like this interior for being very simple. And one thing that I do also really like about this car, the other Corvettes we did always had that big back area that you could store a lot of stuff. Made it feel more of a hatchback than a performance car. And this has a very tiny area where, I'm not sure we haven't gotten into this spot yet, but where you can hold almost nothing. Actually, you know what? Golf clubs would fit in there pretty nice. But one thing I will say about this Corvette that I love way more than the previous ones is the speedometer. This car goes up to 160 miles per hour on the speedometer. Now, no, this car won't do that, and probably never will do that. But there's just something inside of me that loves seeing a high top speed in a car. When it says 85 miles an hour as a top speed for a Corvette, it drives me nuts. Another thing that I have a question about this interior that was not on the previous Corvettes that we did are these two buttons right here that both say closed. Just push forward to close. Now, I see that there's aircon here, so I'm assuming that has something to do with that. But let us know down below, is that for aircon or is that for something else that I'm just missing? All right, so we have just been defeated in trying to remove these Corvette seats. What we realized is that, like all the other C3 Corvettes that we have done, is we have two bolts up front here that you peel back the carpet and reveal. And then I thought it was the same for the rear as well. I don't know if someone swapped these seats out. We have the feet where the bolts usually go top down, but instead, this is zipped up from the bottom. So this rivet here has a nut on the bottom of it. Very hard to access, and I did actually access it on the other side, but it is just spinning the rivet inside the seat rail. We're just gonna do our best to clean the car with the seats in it. But, while I'm back here, we did find this guy who never made it out, so we're gonna put him in his forever home and vacuum out the rest of the car. So since we can't get these seats out, the best way for me to get all the crud that's under the seats out of there is with compressed air. So I'm gonna blow everything forward, and I already vacuumed the front, so this will give you a good idea of how much stuff is actually stuck under these seats and what we can get out. That's a lot of stuff under there. And now we're gonna clean the windows, use our tire shine, put a ceramic sealant on the paint, and the car is good to go. All right, Mike, you ready to see your car? Yeah, let's see it. All right, let's do it. Oh, wow, that looks sweet, wow. Came out pretty good, huh? Yeah. We made sure no washing from here all the way to here. We did not wash the engine bay. Everything was waterless outside, well, with those areas, but I thought you came out pretty good. Yeah. Definitely my favorite Stingray that we've worked on. We've done quite a bit on this channel. Well, we're hoping to do one other one as well. We found a lot of dead mice in there, too. Really? Like five. Really? A lot of skulls, a lot of carcasses. There's a story about that. About the mice? Yeah, the exterminator buddy came over, and he left us like a pound of that stuff that kills them, and I kept seeing one eating it, and he kept losing hair, and I said, Travis, I think I just got one mouse. He said, no, there's like 20 of them, dude. There was a lot, for sure. You got a whole village living in there. But now that it's all cleaned up, what are the odds we can get it to start today? I don't know, let's hook a battery up. And really quickly, now that it's clean, the last question I wanted to ask you, how come you didn't want water on the front, middle, or the rear of the car? Well, this part of the car, there's a whole bunch of that gets down in there. I've had several of them clips off, and there's leaves, and they always rot out right here around the birdcage area. This holds moisture for a long time, and if you don't plan on driving it on a nice, hot, sunny day, then you're just gonna get rust, and it's gonna eat away at the birdcage, which is this whole general area right there. So this, I didn't want water because there's a pipe that diverts water off the back of this, and it goes through the car and comes out in a wheel well, but mine are rotted out, and I figured that out one day after I washed the car, and the whole interior was soaked. So I'm assuming that's your plan to do next, now that we have it cleaned? Yeah, I bought the pipes, I just haven't put them in yet. All right, let's see if we can get it to run. All right, so what are we doing now? Sucking the gas out, because it's about eight years old. Oh, nice. That's pretty cool to see. It has something to do with the pressure of, never mind, I'm not even gonna try. I'm a moron. Now we're gonna fill it with fresh gas. We're gonna drain the gas out of the carb first, hook a battery up, and see if she runs. We're about to hit release here. Oh yeah, look at that. That's what ethanol does to your carb. This should really be rebuilt, but I'm gonna try and see what I can do here. All right, let's see if we can get it to kick over. Nope. Nope, she done. No power? Nothing. Try again. Oh, she got nothing, dude. She dead. There's a battery and everything on it? Yeah, yeah, brand new battery in it. I think there's a ground issue, because the cable, it's oozing some white crap out of it, and I don't think it's grounding. All right, well, unfortunately, we weren't able to perform a Christmas miracle and get the Stingray started today. I think there's a grounding issue, which is causing zero power to get to the starter, and this video goes live tomorrow morning, so Brent has to go home and do a lot of editing, but I want to say thank you so much, Mark. I know that you were very particular in the way that you wanted this washed, but I appreciate your trust in us and allowing us to do this car, and maybe in the future we can do the 427? Yeah, absolutely. Awesome. You guys did a great job. Thank you very much. Guys, check out Mark's channel on YouTube. He doesn't necessarily clean cars or restore them. He likes to blow them up, so it's the opposite of what we do. And Mark, we also have a gift for you. We have our full detailing product line. That way you can keep this Corvette looking like it does right now. Amazing, thank you. Heck yeah, absolutely. Appreciate it. And thank you so much, you guys, for watching and supporting this channel. If you did like this video, give it a thumbs up. If you want to see more like it, subscribe. And we hope that you all have a very Merry Christmas.