Something a lot of people wouldn’t have given much thought to is a headlight dimmer switch. For the redesigned, smaller Chevys in 1977, the dimmer switch was moved from the floor to the turn signal stalk on the left side of the steering wheel as most of them are today. That’s just one fun fact about this 1979 Chevrolet Caprice Classic Landau Coupe that’s posted here on eBay. It’s located in the beautiful capital city of West Virginia: Charleston, and the seller is asking $7,900 or offer.
Headlight dimmer switch locations: let’s hear it! Whoo-hoo! Seriously, I’m a huge trivia guy and I know a lot of you are, too. Things like that are gold when talking about the various generations of vehicles, whether they’re Chevy, Ford, or anything else. Chevy offered the third-generation Caprice from 1976 for the 1977 model year until 1990. Yay-or-nay on the white-letter tires and Corvette Rally wheels? You already know it’s nay from me as I like things original spec. And, a Caprice isn’t exactly a sports car even if it is a two-door, but hey, we’re all allowed to like what we like, at least for now.
Perhaps the biggest things, or the coolest things, about this car is that it’s a two-door “coupe”, and it has the famous hot-bent-wire rear window, a more conservative version of what Oldsmobile offered on its Toronado XS models. We’ve seen a few of them here on Barn Finds, such as this gorgeous one in a somewhat similar color to this Caprice. It’s a really interesting feature, and, sadly, the seller only included one photo showing it. The seller refers to this car as an “Aerocoupe” more than once but I’ve never heard of the Caprice Landau Coupe being called that, just the later Monte Carlo and Grand Prix. The exterior with its Carman Dark Metallic paint could use a repaint as it’s faded and some trim is missing, etc.
They did include one (just one) interior photo, and here it is. Is eBay charging per photo now?! What am I missing with people only taking a half-dozen photos when they could be showing so many more for zero dollars? In any case, you can see some wear on the edge of the velour driver’s seat, but I bet the back seat looks great. We’ll never know.
The engine is Chevrolet’s trunk, wait a minute. Yes, there are no engine photos either, sigh. It has Chevy’s 350-cu.in. OHV V8 with around 170 horsepower and 270 lb-ft of torque spinning through a three-speed automatic to the rear wheels. They say that a previous owner changed out the rear gears to 3:73 and it has a new carb and a few other things, but they don’t say how it runs at all. I’m assuming it runs fairly well but you’ll have to get in touch with them if you’ve always wanted a cool two-door Caprice Landau Coupe with the unique rear window like this one has.
Cool car. I like the rally wheels/raised white letters on it, rallys make everything look better lmho. The interior is worn but its clean. Good choice on the rear gears, but I would switch to an overdrive. The obvious flaw is the shabby paint. Address the paint and enjoy.
It’s gone! Didn’t care for these too much years ago but in retrospect they didn’t look that bad. Drop a healthy small block built turbo 350 and enjoy the ride.
I took my driving license test in a blue 1978 version of this. I always thought the two doors were cool, didn’t see many of them!
Joining in to get updates. I wish they still made cars like this. I like the look of a two-door car but I’m not aware of any full-size ones being made any more. Years ago I had an 82 Diplomat two door, and someone who worked in the same building where I worked came to work in a Chevy like this one. I complimented him on the car and he said he too liked it because it was a two door. I guess car guys tend to think alike. It was the first one I had seen at that time. Someone else must have liked it as It is “no longer available” per EBay.
Weird. Seeing this made me remember part of a dream last night. There was one of these in the same color with dark tinted windows, wide fender flares and staggered, squatty wide tires. Think Formula 1 or those funky Japanese low riders. But wait…it also had a rumble seat.
Hey Scotty, these Caprice coupes always remind me of an ’85 Caprice coupe I saw at a dealer in Monticello in the late ’80s. Yeah, I know the rear window was long gone by then, but at 28,000 miles, full dual exhaust, black outside with blackwalls and rallies , and a burgundy interior, fully loaded. Oooo-Weeee! If I only had the dough back then.
The Road Warriors of wrestling fame used to do commercials for this dealer! “Lissen up, St. Small!” Lol!
BFG white letters out/MasterCraft Avenger GT black wall out
I liked the 79’s I was working at Chevy back then. You can tell it’s a 79 Caprice because for one year only the backup lights are under the tailights and absolutely gorgeous! Real highway cars!
I had a ’78 Impala like this. 2dr. with the rally wheels and white letter tires, 275-60-15 in the back and 235-70-15 in front. I bought back in early 90’s for 1600 bucks. That included a new paint job and removal of an ugly vinyl top. Mine had the 305 in it and was kind of anemic, even more so with the A/C on. I bought it just for a summer toy as I always liked the look of these. But we used it when any of our other cars were down. And the Impala never let us down, even when it sat for months at a time, it always started right up. It sure liked gas though.
i was excited to see this ‘find’ and searched for pics to determine if had power windows.. it does ! =D
Oh, and heck YA to the rallys. This car, as ive had to vouch for the last time BFs presented one, is a ‘muscle car’ / sport, and RWLs are perfectly appropriate. This body with the aero glass was built for the race track.
I had one, loved it, and am looking to buy another; with power windows ;)
This one sold fast. Hopefully it wont get molested by the ‘donkers’ or hydraulics ‘clicks’.
I found one guy on ebay parting multiple solid specimens to build a donk; sigh 🙄
This one deserves a respectful home.
I retired from GM. I started in Saint Louis, then moved to Bowling Green, KY. We built massive amounts of these babies. My Dad had a 78 and a 79. Both were the Caprice Classic 2-door. I bought the 79 from him in 1980. It was a great Highway cruiser. The only thing I disliked was that it had the 305 with a small transmission. But it had a big radiator, anti-sway bars, and a limited-slip rear end I drove that car back & forth every weekend from Bowling Green Ky. to Saint Louis for a year before I finally moved to Bowling Green. I tried to restore it in early 90’s but you couldn’t find interior parts & the parts you could find where higher than a Cats back…lol
Man, sometimes 1979 seems like yesterday….. Other times…… Not so much!!!
I remember these when they came out, but for some reason the 4 doors always seemed to be more popular. But yet, yoh always seemed to see 2 door Delta 88s or 98s, Coupe Devilles, even 2 door Lesabres and Electras, but for some reason, not too many of these. While I appreciate what they were aiming for with the Vette rims and bigger tires, it just doesnt fit here. Not tobme anyways. I agree with Scotty, get the original wheel covers and absolutely needs white walls. Besides paint, it looks pretty solid.
@Scotty, I liked your point about the headlight dimmer switch moving from the floor to the turn signal stalk. I havent thought about that in years. GM cars and trucks all had it on the floor. I remember when they were transitioning to the turn signal arm.