Hi guys. First off, its my first post, and I have yet to even read much of anything here, but I am going to.

Hope this is the right place for this post...

My uncle bought a 69 Chevelle new. It is a 350 horse 396 SS 4 speed car. The car is 100% original with only 46,000 original miles. It sounds mint and it is indeed very nice, but it has not been started for a few years.. ( maybe 5-6)

After reminding him I'd like to buy it if he ever decided to sell it, he finally contacted me and I am trying to gather funds for it now.

Here is my deal. MY driveway is VERY steep. I live in a subdivision, but the house is built on the side of a steep hill and I kid you not, the truck doors will close on you if you do not hold them. The driveway is concrete and is only long enough for 2 cars end to end. If I get the Chevelle, I would love to get it in my garage.

I am wondering what steps one could take to prep the car for a short drive up the driveway. We can't push it... it's steep. I can't back it off a trailer.. I cant or don't want to push it with my truck. My buddy thought maybe a flat bed car hauler/tow with the tilt bed to level it out, but the car is 3 hours away and I don't really want to pay for somebody to come out for just that.

I was kinda thinking along these lines.

1. Change battery and all fluids
2. pour just a small oil cap full of oil down spark plug holes to lube the cylinders.
3. make sure it is not froze up by turning by hand
4. Seeing if it will start.


Is that completely foolish? Id really love to get it to move under it's own power if even for the short drive into my garage from the street.

What do you guys think?

Thats what I would do. Get it to your house at try to get to fire up. I bought a 73 mustang that sat for 10 years. We put in new battery, plugs, changed the oil, new selenoid, and it fired up. The old oil will need changed first. Ours came out like sap. It collects moisture from sitting. jemoore24

Smart money would be to trailer it to a towing company near your home have it loaded up and delivered to your home. You risk damaging a low mileage motor if you don't pre-lube it. You risk crashing the car with the possibility of losing the brakes. It's also possible that even if you get it running it may not run well enough to climb your driveway.
Mike

Welcome aboard Michael.

Here's what I would do.

On level ground:
1) put in a charged battery
2) check fluids
3) make sure brakes work
4) start it up
5) drive it home

I've started cars that have been setting for years, even a couple I had to pull with another car.

However, that was before gasoline was so crappy.
The last couple of cars had the gas lines plugged solid and had to be blown out and the carburetor cleaned out first.

On one old Lincoln I had to replace the pickup tube/sending unit in the tank because it was plugged up so bad I couldn't get it unstopped.

I'm with Mike on this. It's not worth the risk. Pay the towing company to do their job. It's cheap insurance considering the expensive damage that can come from it. There's too many things that can go wrong.

When you do start that engine, the safest way, in ADDITION to what you already mentioned is to remove the distributor and put in an oil pump priming tool on a powerful drill. Once it gets primed and you're moving oil through the system it takes some power to keep on moving that oil. This not only pre-lubes the engine with good oil, it verifies your oil pump still works and will keep the engine lubed while running.

You're one lucky guy. Don't blow it. ..and say hi to my cousins there in the state my dad was born.

Steve

Well guys, I have been trying to sell my 1980 Trans AM now for a couple of months to buy this Chevelle. Well it finally is pending a sale from ebay. The potential buyer clicked the buy it now option last night, so I am waiting to hear from him now to complete the sale.

Hopefully the Trans Am will sale and I can go get that car. I will definatly post up a few pics of it too! Just thought Id give a little update.

Get some pics together to show us when you can. Also, you may have to remove the carb and do some work on it before you can drive it.