I recently reached out to the winner of the 1963 Corvette Split-Window Coupe we auctioned to make sure the car arrived and that he was happy with his purchase, and Joad’s response is pretty incredible. We’ve had lots of wonderful BF Auction success stories, but this one might be one of the more impressive ones. The seller sent us photos of the car shipping out (seen above), and the buyer sent pictures of it upon arrival and of it after its first drive! That’s right, he already has it back on the road, but I’ll let Joad tell you about his experience in his own words below.

From Joad – The ’63 made it to Kansas (11/11/25), and it got unloaded here around 7:30 a.m. So far, it has proven to be as amazing as I had hoped for.

When I ended up winning the auction, my gut said that, without too much trouble, I guessed the ‘Vette could be driven back to Kansas. This was based on the backstory that was included in the good write-up you did for the listing, all the pictures, and talking to the sellers. I’m not saying that any of you guys alluded to the fact that it might be drivable. This was just based on my sense of the car based on these things. At this point, my daily involvement at our business isn’t conducive to me being gone for any length of time, so I wouldn’t be involved in the trip to Cali or the drive back. I was ok with this, and we were developing a plan to move in this direction. But, in the end, it was decided (for a number of reasons) that since I wouldn’t be able to go on the adventure personally, we would do the practical thing and have the car shipped.

We contacted the shipper you guys mentioned and, in the end, this didn’t seem to be a good fit. We pivoted to another shipper, and everything came together. At this point, I will say my gut has been proven accurate about the car! In less than an hour, the engine roared back to life! This was with a splash prime in the carb without the fuel line being connected to the gas tank. It was pretty straightforward to get it to this point. With a battery, the engine was found to be free and cranked right over. We found all the spark plugs out (this seemed a bit odd and concerning), and some of the primary ignition wiring disconnected, with some odd, temporary-looking wires connected. It looked as though someone might have done some troubleshooting on the ignition system at some point in the past. We just put this wiring back to its original state, installed a new set of NGK plugs, filed & gapped the points. We found it to have spark at this point so we splashed some gas in the carb and it roared to life!!  After this, the fuel system was plumbed to a gas can. With that, the engine would start right up and, amazingly enough, would idle and sound solid when revved a bit. We found the clutch to be free, but no brakes. The master cylinder was mostly removed, so we assumed it was bad. O’Reilly’s had one in stock (and most of the rest of the factory brake system parts if needed), so it was ordered and installed. With some relatively easy brake bleeding, we got a decent pedal, so it was backed out of the shop! I did a couple laps around the parking lot, snapped a couple of pictures, and then headed around the block!! This went well so I made the short trek home and then back to the shop. So, a little more than 12 hrs after it got unloaded, I got to drive this thing for a few miles after what sounds like not being driven for 25-35 years.

I must say, this thing is amazing! The AM/FM radio works, the clock works, the glove box light works, and it looks new inside. Looking up behind the dash, the wiring and everything look like they haven’t really been touched since it was new. While bleeding the brakes, I cracked more than one brake line with just a cheap 5/16 open-end wrench. Anyone who has messed with old cars knows how incredible that is! I have dragged home a lot of old cars (mostly Chevys) over the years, and this is by far the most unmessed-with survivor that I have ever seen.
And to imagine that is on a ’63 Split Window basically leaves me at a loss for words when I try to describe the coolness of how it feels.  About the only thing that would make it much better at all was if the paint was original. It looks to have had probably one repaint over the years and was obviously getting prepped for another.

As crazy as it may seem to some, this car is damn near perfect for me just the way it sits. At this time, the plan is to chip away at the normal things to get it solid enough mechanically that I can pretty confidently hit the road in it.

I want to personally thank Chris for giving us a chance to find a good home for this Corvette, and I want to wish Joad the best of luck with it. It’s pretty incredible to think he got it running and driving in less than a day! There’s still plenty of work to be done here, but he’s off to a great start and is already enjoying it. So, who else is as jealous of Joad as I am?