This 1974 Chevrolet Corvette is described as a barn find, but it certainly seems slightly better than that, with a straight body, clean interior, and running 350 under the hood. The Corvette also sports the preferred manual transmission, T-top roof, and under 50,000 original miles. The only headscratcher is the paint, as the VIN tag indicates this Corvette left the factory wearing “Dark Brown” paint, which this clearly is not. The paint job looks thorough, reaching into the door jambs and inner fenders. Still, for $9,000, you could do far worse. Find the Corvette here on craigslist in Buffalo, New York, and thanks to Barn Finds reader Ikey H. for the find.

The body looks nice from front to back, and the paint job was certainly thorough. I feel like Corvettes from different years could be ordered in this color, which amounted to a saddle or sand-tone that wasn’t very popular. Dark Brown was more of a cross between brown and copper, and really is quite sharp. I wonder if this open hood shot shows the original color on the underside of the panel, but it’s hard to tell. Regardless, if it’s a factory color, a previous owner clearly liked it enough to paint over a more popular color with one that didn’t find many takers, from what i recall. The Corvette otherwise appears to be in stock condition, with not even an aftermarket exhaust sticking out.

The interior is a definite highlight, with a saddle colored cabin in fine shape, especially nice for a car that’s presumably been sitting. The seats don’t reveal any tears, the door panels aren’t cut up for speakers, the dash isn’t cracked, and even the original radio looks to still be in place. If this Corvette has been in the Buffalo area most of its life, it likely didn’t suffer from relentless exposure to the sun, which is why the cabin appears to be so well preserved. Combined with the low miles, it makes you wonder if a previous owner knew it wasn’t worth driving the Corvette year round given Buffalo’s propensity for harsh winters. Hopefully, that means the undersides look as nice as the top layers.

Even the air cleaner remains stock, which is shocking considering how many C3 Corvettes are usually sporting some sort of chrome aftermarket piece by now. I can’t tell if we can just make out the masking line on the inner fenders where the original paint still resides, but it’s certainly not dramatic in terms of looking sloppy or poorly masked. The seller claims the Corvette runs great but that it needs some TLC; that’s a pretty vague way to describe a barn find, as it could be any number of things it needs to be road-ready. But what we can see is encouraging, and the price seems fair for an example equipped like this one, provided it’s not rotten underneath.