I think there are many readers here who dream of finding something like this parked in a barn! This 1962 Corvette is pretty close to the holy grail of Corvette barn finds. It’s a 327 V8 300 horsepower 4-speed car with 47k original miles in Tuxedo Black, you really can’t get much better than this. The seller just pulled it out of a barn and have already cleaned it up, but it’s going to need a lot of work. Given the value of C1 Corvettes these days, it might just be worth the work! Find it here on eBay in Virginia Beach, Virginia with a BIN of $35k and bidding at $22k.
While I’m not a fan of the wet it down for photos tactic, the seller seems to be upfront about all the issues though. They point out the poorly done bodywork, the seized up engine and the serious frame rust. Having been stored in a barn in Rochester, New York for nearly 50 years was not kind to it. Finding a replacement 327 shouldn’t be all the difficult, but given that this is the numbers matching original, part of me hopes it could be rebuilt.
Surprisingly, the interior doesn’t look too bad. The red seat upholstery looks to be in good shape and even the carpets don’t look too bad. I’d even go as far as saying that much of the interior could be reused as is! That’s not something we can often say about a convertible barn find.
This is going to be one heck of a project. It’s going to need a new chassis and probably just about everything else underneath, but think how great it will feel to take it out for a drive once you have it done! So would you leave the body and interior alone or would you go ahead and restore them while you’re at it?
Snow tires on a Corvette? Someone should be shot…and you are right, Josh, one could only hope that original 327 can be saved…
Ah dude, dudette….back in the days these cars were quite normally driven year round. Better snow tires than summers, in slippery conditions. Just sayin.
My first car was a 53 Chevy. The early Corvette undercarriage was the same as my 53. Things didn’t really change until 1963 when Corvette made a quantum change in suspension. I owned a 58 Corvette, dual quads, 4 speed and fast for 1961. Fast straight ahead and not so tough on braking or cornering. These early Corvettes were not classics but fun and, sorry, “grocery getters.” They even had a trunk lid until 1963. Pay $35,000.00 for this car and then stick another $35,000.00 in restoring it. If you are lucky you will have a first class 1962 Corvette worth 45 to 50 large. Buyer beware. Been there, done that good luck…
If not, I have a 62 corvette 327 wasn’t the 300 but who knows right
I am getting tired of seeing one Corvette after another.
There are a lot of different cars out there that are more interesting.
Miguel. There are HUNDREDS of cars out there that are more interesting! However, if you take away all the Corvettes and Mustangs, what are you left with?
“if you take away all the Corvettes and Mustangs, what are you left with?”
You are left with a lot more room to drive real cars, and by that I mean big cars that I love so much.
You are left with overpriced, clapped-out 1979 Firebirds. I need to see an overpriced, clapped-out 1979 Firebird like I need to hear “Stairway To Heaven” again.
Rusty early Porsches, Camaros
Oh look .. a vintage Corvette/Charger/Challenger/’Cuda [YAWN]
It seems that nearly all the ‘hot’ sports cars ever built are coming out of barns lately. Yeah, they’re great finds, yes, they generate a lot of buzz, but not many of us have the coin needed to buy [never mind restore] one of them
Would like to see more mainstream, mom & dad cars. I’ll take a 1970 Oldsmobile wagon, or sedan over a sports car every time [end rant]
I would like to see more cars that aren’t on the landscape anymore.
A few Grand Prixs or Lincolns, Cadillacs or Imperials.
Mustangs and Corvettes have always been on the landscape so we have never had time to miss them.
Hi guys,
I get what you’re saying, but as Dusty pointed out, we feature what readers send in as tips! We have a pretty nifty tool that you can use to submit tips here: https://barnfinds.com/tips/. It adds it to our queue so all of our staff members can see them and write them up. We try to track where interest is based on what comes in. So, the more interesting finds you submit, the more impact you have on what we feature!
Thanks for the input and happy hunting!
Josh
I’d really rather find a nice ’73-’77 Vega GT for a reasonable sum! Had a ’75 I bought used in Providence, RI and shipped to Europe in ’76; one of the best cars I ever owned. Drove it all over The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany and Austria-it never let me down even in the snow in the Alps!
I had a 65 Vista Cruiser bought from parents. Best car I ever owned bc it was really built well. My first car was 53 Vette and it was a real pain putting together, was stolen in NJ and stripped. I was too young and no money so sold it for $500.
Then find one and submit it. Why complain (on this site that’s free to browse) if you don’t contribute?
Jesus may love you, but your wife’s opinion after you bring this home may differ. (Even she would say “Whoa, snow tires mounted before long term damp barn storage? Danger Will Robinson!”)
Thanks for featuring this car.
I don’t get why people are upset about cars like this being driven during the winter. I don’t think many cars back then were treated like fake collectibles destined to spend eternity in a protective bubble. These cars were meant to be driven, they were, if they hadn’t been, how well remembers would they be today? Part of their appeal is that we saw these cars on a daily basis, that’s one of the reasons they are coveted today.
Steve R
Inflated tires make a car easier to move, the snows could have been put on there for no other reason than the fact they fit on the rim.
That’s not really the point, one of the previous posts seems to have issues that the car was ever driven in the snow. That line of thinking is ridiculous.
Steve R
Was just attempting to approach it scientifically, just because a car has snow tires on it doesn’t mean it was actually driven in snow. As to the “Why would someone drive this in the snow” comments, I might.
I would have if I lived where it snows. I also would have taken it regularly to one of the local drag strip.
I just find it a bit unrealistic when people post remarks about how these cars should have been treated like delicate flowers when they were driven like ordinary used cars. There was no indication back then that they would turn into collector items 50 years later.
Steve R
A locked up motor is not a death sentence. I’ve put several back in running order that had been stored for years with water/antifreeze in the cylinders. Even if it wasn’t locked up, on a car like this, you’d want to pull it and do a complete tear down, re-gasket, new oil pump, and inspection anyway. So, just remove and repair the rotating assembly as needed, put a clean hone or .010 overbore, add a new timing set, and you’ve got a good correct motor again.
Can’t get .010 pistons, 020 is the first oversize, And .010 bores with std pistons makes a lot of noise. Besides if it were that rusty it may not clean until .030 or more.
@Norman Wrensch.
Here’s a trick I did when I was much younger and near broke back in South Africa. I had a Ford Laser 1500 that was smoking quite badly so I decided to fit a new set of rings. When I took the head off I discovered that it needed a rebore but being broke knew that was not going to happen. Then I had a clever idea that everybody told me couldn’t work, and that was to fit 20,000 os rings in a Standard (Worn) bore. It worked perfectly and a couple of years later I sold the car to a friend of mine, who knew the score, for his son who used it to university for another two years before selling it on to another student! Where there’s a will there’s a way heh?
I like original when the stars align, this is not one of those times IMO. Take the body and fix the issues. Pull the frame and drivetrain and put them aside. Get something like a Roadster Shop frame, SBC, Tremec 6 speed, disc brakes and with the updated suspension you would a very street able car. Doesn’t appear the frame may be saveable so figure that’s gone. Current engine may or may not be saveable. Now add the transmission and differential and you’re looking at a very non-original car so why not make something that drives and handles like it should? Additionally it likely would be cheaper in the mean time to replace those things than try and fix them.
For the purists, you’d have all those original parts to refurbish at your leisure so work on them when you can plus be able to enjoy the car in the mean time. You can always take it back to stock some day if you decide to.
My 2 cents
This car was at Carlisle, two weeks ago. I had the opportunity to look it over, and walked away. It’s an extremely original Corvette, but it’s also very, very rough. The pictures make it look a better than it is.
I think the asking price at Carlisle was $29000, and at Carlisle it had a hardtop. I know the seller, and he’s not the person who had the car for sale at Carlisle, so I assume he bought it there, or shortly after.
The ad describes the car pretty accurately. Unfortunately, 62’s don’t have trim tags, so being black with a red interior, doesn’t have the significance that it has on 63 and newer Corvettes. It’s a car that probably deserves to be restored, but I doubt it’s worth restoring, at least not at $33000.
This is one you buy and build/restore because it’s what you want, not because you’re going to take it to a Barrett-Jackson show and get $200,000 for it.
Tim, When you add the purchase price plus restore costs, you can do much better buying a car in much better condition.
https://classiccars.com/listings/view/1087451/1962-chevrolet-corvette-for-sale-in-atlanta-georgia-30340
You would have way more than $40K in the New York rust bucket, and less headaches, just saying.
What is the point of storing this car in a barn if you are going to let it rot. The owner should have sold it at the time he decided to store it. That way it might exist to day with a clean engine compartment rather than the hull of the Titanic. The yellow one in the back ground looks more appealing to me.
We used to use snow tires for burnouts because they were cheaper and easier to spin on dry surfaces. Although’62 is my least favorite solid axle Corvette, I like this one for it’s originality.
DRV, yes, snow tires were great for burnouts. More rubber per tire right ? I remember doing killer burnouts with my Mom’s 63 Dodge wagon with snow tires.
Here is what you do with it.
You guys featured this car March 20, 2018. I remember it cause of the snowtires. Looks like a lot of cleaning happened but still the same sh1tb0x.
Regardless of what you say, I like seeing the old Vettes, Chargers, Mustangs, etc. even if they are featured a lot. I like the mom and pop cars too…RV’s, old trucks…all of them. What I don’t like or can even try to understand is why cars like this just sit in a barn for 50 years and no one does anything with them!! Maybe it was mom’s car when she was alive and they don’t have the money to fix it right now and “we’re gonna fix it up in her memory one day”…that’s all fine and good but take care of it in the meantime until you do have the money to ‘fix it up’. Why let a beautiful car like this rust away to the point where you’re spending thousands and thousands of dollars on it when it is time to start working on it?? I’ll never have the means to own a classic probably ever. If I ever did, I wouldn’t…couldn’t let it get this bad. It’s ridiculous. Blows my freakin mind!!!
Rusty way overpriced E-Types, early Porsches, Camaros ETC.
Snow tires?
Didn’t marketing feature ads of people driving these cars to the ski slope?
As for the variety of cars featured; some I like, some I don’t. I skip over the ones I don’t care about.
Just sayin’
The condition of the interior over the rest of this car raises the red flag for me…
Barn Find? Looks like it was on the bottom of a lake!
All that glitters is not gold! From what the pix show there is no way a sane person would even bid. It is a shame that cars like this one have for all intents have been ruined. One should run, not walk from this project!
I drove a 59 Corvette in the snow of New York. It was my daily driver and ran just fine through snow. Great car bought it out of a junk yard in 72. And yes I’m old. But I still drive Corvette’s
Thanks Barn Finds. Cant wait for the next find regardless of what it may be.
one paragraph all caps spikes my li”bid”o
Car that a friend just redone.
Snow tires?
Yeah. If you put a dress on a pig, it’s still a pig. Lipstick, dress, etc. Bones are brittle.
I drove this year round in the early 80s. Even in the big snow storm, we had in Detroit. Me and a 4×4 truck where the only ones that made it to work. I was a garbage man at the time for the city of Detroit.
David,
On the rear right bumper:
Is that a “locator pole ” for when the snow is really deep? They come in handy in Minnesota too !
Good eye!! Here is when I was racing in the snow. This is a LT1 4 speed car. I power shifted 2nd gear and did 3 donuts and hit a Do Not Park sign.
Seems many people are tired of seeing another Corvette barn find. Me personally, I never get tired of reading a good story of a car found in a barn or garage or field regardless of what it is. I even get excited when I see a clean well taken care of AMC Pacer. Ok I wont get too carried away.
Bottom line, I like cars and I like old cars.
I see comments often like “ buy a better example”, and in some cases I agree, but there are some of us who get more pleasure from saving and restoring a car like this than we do from the finished product. Though ‘‘tis car is rough, if the frame is ok,it’s doable. The asking price on this is optimistic, and that’s being kind! Chalk that up to all the millionaire collectors.
I bought my 61 vette 30 years ago for 10 grand red with white coves, I like the 61 chrome package better than the 62,I love the rear view mirror, but these cars are a lot of work to steer and stop,great cockpit , fiberglass doors shut like a tank or a Mercedes 123 or Pontiac post car. But getting in made your hip almost dislocate . I’m glad I did it but glad I sold it,I like see all this old stuff here. Been there done that
I drove my ’54 Vette in the winter, in CT, with snow tires, from 1966 to 1968 (three winters), it was a $600 car when I bought it, and a $1400 car when I sold it (had those big 16″ rim snow tires on it). Of course I could not drive it far since I had to have the Plexiglas sidcurtains off in order to see out the sides, and to provide enough ventilation to keep from getting asphyxiated (previous owner had defeated the GM fix for having the exhaust roll up over the trunk into the car – exhaust ports through the rear bumper although looking “cool” allowed this – fix was fake exhaust tips) through the bumper and real ones just inside the body aimed at the road below. (I found out about this manufacturers defect years later.) And it was the worst winter car I ever had, it just wanted to go in a straight line, and I added several more fiberglass cracks and crazes to the front to prove it. But it was as reliable as only a mid-50’s Chevy 6 could be.
To those who think BF features too many Corvettes, Porsches, Mustangs, Camaros, Chevelles, Jaguars, GTOs, 442s, Challengers, Roadrunners, 55-57 Chevys, Model As, Model Ts and Ford V8s I have a suggestion.
Start your own BF style site and feature your beloved obscure cars (all four doors of course) and see how long you last.
I despise all Corvettes! But I would seriously dump every penny I had and bring this beauty back to original spec! If nothing else surely you could still use the original block? Maybe, but this is a keeper even though it wears that ugly bow tie! You just can’t cover that up! LOL, have a great evening gentleman!
Did in Dallas too….and the bumper was REAL bad when I got it…so off it came ! My old GTX….man that car ran good……
restored a 62 years ago-couldn’t afford to do it again. just bought a 87 dodge ramcharger, very low miles, original interior, perfect body. will probably have 15 in it when i finish. daily driver. drive it for years and get most of my money back.
Bob, Ramcharges from that era are actually worth something in the US?
I assume it is a 4X4.
We have them here in Mexico and they are almost all 4X2. I can pick up nice ones for anywhere from $1000.00 USD to $1500.00 USD.
People here just won’t buy a Dodge and even less with a 318 or a 360.
As a reference, our gas prices are over $1.00 USD per litre so we are paying over $4.00 per gallon, when the oil actually comes from here. This is crazy.
I do not think I will ever own a vette simply because I cannot bring my self to ride around in fiberglass. Having said that they are beautiful cars. Today as I was packing up my tools to head home I was looking down into my back seat of my truck. Then I hear a Chevy V8 coming down the street I look up in time to see this exact model car and year in the same exact colors. But the one I saw was in Cherry nice condition. It was beautiful. Then in the same hour as I was driving home I see a Cherry 68 Mustang and a really nice 66 Mustang. 3 classics in an hour. Today was a good day.
When the sun comes out the classics come out!
No worries. They are now made from Sheet Molded Compound and Carbon Fiber.
Current bid:US $27,300.00
Reserve not met
[ 41 bids ]
Price:US $33,000.00