1987 Corvette Convertable

The photo below shows my 1987 Corvette. I have a new pickup truck that I drive around town. Its nice, but not fun to drive. The truck gets 14mpg around town and 16 on the highway. The price of gas is low today, but we all know it won't stay here. After discussing things with my wife, I decided to shop around for a commuter car; something with a manual transmission that is easy to park and gets good fuel economy. Used was OK as long as it had low mileage, maybe 35000 miles or so. I can buy a new roller-skate for a little over 10k, so I set that as my upper limit for a used car. Last week, I visited several local car dealerships to inquire about a good used car that fit my needs. All came up blank when it came to a stick-shift. The last dealer I visited was the local Chevy dealer. The salesman searched through his computer inventory and came up blank. Nothing with a stick shift. Doesn't anyone know how to shift anymore?? I was just leaving my chair when he said "we have a used Corvette with a 4+3. It has 35k miles on it but it’s a 1987." I figured that there was no harm in taking a look. The thing was 22 years old. The last thing I need is yet another project. I took one look at the car and made up my mind. It’s a give-me-a-ticket red convertible with a few options on it, Bose system, power passenger seat, and a dealer installed radar. There isn't a scratch on it and the thing looks like the day it rolled off the showroom floor. You could eat off the engine. With only 35k miles on it, the previous owner could have only driven it less than 2k miles each year. I needed to add a Ham radio and a satellite receiver. The next pages describe that process.