George,
You are right a C3 is 68 not 63 through 82 but 68 to 82 and I know that in my sleep just fat fingers and not proffing my text ,sorry. May I speak to your reply point by point.
Item 2 the parts are al 20 something years old but most people want everything they bolt on rebuilt-powder coated -painted and rebuilt anyway so not an issue .When I do a chassis I remove every part and send all nuts plates, clips out to a refinisher. They charge $85.00 for up to 300 pounds of hardware and 95% comes back looking brand new cadium silver finished. The 5% that was pitted or rusted I run through any how and throw into a bucket for those GOTTA HAVE times but replace with new. The frame and all Xmembers etc.. get powder coated for $350.00 total. All brake lines ,fuel etc.. are cheap and easy to bend with a bare frame and so on.
Item 3 = I offer rebuilt for (trade in) assemblies for everything. Or give you the part numbers to do your own and is all very STANDARD or easy to do stuff. Most people can or want to replace bearings ,seals and clean up/paint the easy items5 or there is an east 200 web sites to get these parts/assemblies. There is 2 exceptions to the entire chasis for most people. The rear trailing arms take about $700. worth of special tooling and EXPERIENCE to do right plus parts. I will charge you $800 per side or 2X at 1600.00 but that is everything new,rebuilt,powder coated and blue printed. The IRS or rear end is not Special but many do not want to rebuild themself if it needs more than just seals and freshened up. To be fair I have not described a path that you do not go through with any other donor car and because these are HIGH PRODUCTION parts we are talking about they are NO MORE COSTLY than any other kit build. When done you have a HIGH Performance= 4 wheel disc brake, 4 wheel independant suspension with Highly adjustable low sprung weight race proven performance chassis with the years of engineering and refinements of General Motors. For maybe 15% additional cost over standard rebuilt items you can get a total RACE SETUP from a great company I highly recommend Vette Brake Products
www.vettebrakes.com see page 9 for full kit. For $2000. bucks you get a suspesion that can outperform a brand new vette (C5) as a total package consideration. I have a full kit on one of my COBRAY-C3's and invite you to drive my car and tell me if your C5 drives and handles as well. All considered a total Vette rebuilt suspesion in stock form is no slouch in performance is NO more expesive than the typical build. You can spend an unlimited amount as you know, heck I know a guy who spent more than a grand per tire/wheel and bought 5. ya gotta have a spare!!