Like many dusty half-finished projects we highlight here on Barn Finds, this 1969 Chevrolet Corvette was once intended to be the subject of a full restoration. The third owner has had the car for 28 years and began the restoration eight years ago, but now has lost interest. It’s been stored inside in Tallahassee, Florida and is listed for sale here on eBay, where bidding is below $4,000 but has not met the reserve. Thanks to Jim S. for this find!
Although I find the Ontario Orange paint attractive, especially against the Saddle Tan interior, the car was originally painted Fathom Green. Although the paint doesn’t look bad in these low-resolution pictures, I’m guessing there will be some areas that aren’t perfect.
We don’t see much of the interior in the pictures, but enough to tell it’s a four speed manual, and the seller tells us it has factory air conditioning as well. It also has electric windows and power brakes, but not power steering. Apart from the carpet, the rest of the interior is original. I wish the seller had included pictures of the seats!
All the documentation is included, so it will be easy to find out exactly how the car was manufactured in case you want to complete a concours restoration. Included are the Protect-0-Plate, warranty card, original tank sticker build sheet and even the original keys!
You’ve got a lot of work to do before you get there, though, with the engine having been pulled out and bolted to a stand for quite a while. The seller tells us it’s an HX code 350 HP/350 cubic inch V8, and since the car has less than 41,000 miles, I’m hoping it’s in pretty good condition. I’m guessing the seller had the car listed somewhere else and then copied the advertisement into the eBay description, because the first description in the listing shows $10,500 or best offer. I’m calling on our Corvette expert readers to tell us if that’s what it’s worth!
What a beautiful car. Unsold at $6200. Wish I could buy it!
Listing ended. Someone scooped it up and I bet it was for $6000
Car is no longer available. probably negotiated a deal early. Someone got a realistic project car (not something requiring Herculean efforts to restore) at a decent price.
Something about the chrome bumpered C3 which has appealed to me since I was a kid. Values and prices on those are still semi-affordable and – while they aren’t exactly on my radar right now – I could see owning one in the near-ish future.
I,ve got a 68 that’s a roadster with the removable hardtop. 350-4spd 4:11 posi body is a little rough, int. desent. runs and drives nice. I don’t really ever want to sell but might have to. I always wonder what its worth. Seems the prices are super high or crazy low for a pos.
Haters would hate, but I’d love to see a GM Vortec 4200 straight 6 put into this generation Vette just to be different and be able to say that a Vette 6-cyl just crushed a V8
My guess is in the end the interest drove up the price and the Seller made more money selling it than he originally hoped to get for it.
If only we knew the things yesterday, that we know today.
A lot of people are not real happy with eBay, and while CL brings out the loonies (And im not talking Canadian coins) I am seeing more and more where sellers are selling vehicles and using eBay as advertising to drive sales off of FeeBay. Notice the codewords “For sale elsewhere” which means check the CL pages in the sellers area. In some cases shops with a website are just driving traffic to their website. Im seeing a lot of bikes and cars advertised at high prices on FeeBay and yet the advertised prices on their websites or cash sales in person are much lower. This guy got a live offer and cancelled the listing pure and simple. Everyone i know with vehicles on ebay is getting those kinds of emails. Some follow the rules, but this is why you are seeing so many cancelled listings ended early.
A local guy in our vintage club just sold a high end collectible motorcycle. He is a stickler for the rules but he got 12 emails over the course of the listing (7 day auction) asking “Whats your Buy it Now?” (BIN) or whats your cash price? He ended up doing well because it was a exceptional investment quality vehicle but this is not an isolated example. Lots of people getting those kinds of offers. Some local big shot ebay guys i know say the market trend is towards BIN and run most of their listings that way.
But more specific to this car, I love the 68-72 Vettes and a small block with manual trans is a great combo, No big surprise this car sold. Look for big gains in the coming years on cars like these.
erikj: I had a ’70 convertible, both tops, base 350/300 4 speed,tank sticker, matching numbers, no modifications, 20 year old paint in “decent” shape, okay frame for a northeast car. Everything worked except for the clock (of course).
I sold it via CL in June 2014 for 21k, was asking 22. I had 3 guys come look at it and the 3rd bought it on the spot. Fortunately, I did not have any crazy scammers or low ballers contact me. Maybe it was because I put no phone number down, just email(?)
I think part of the reason was that the guy who bought it said that there was nothing but junk out there if you wanted to buy a chrome bumper car from anyone locally.
Hope this helps.