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Charred 1957 Corvette Fuelie

Charred 1957 Corvette

While I love a beautifully restored and shiny Corvette as much as the next guy, I would be highly tempted to leave this ’57 Corvette as is. Well at least leave the body and paint in their charred and fire damaged state. While it’s incredibly sad that this car caught fire, especially right after a complete restoration, the fire gave the car one interesting look and would grab far more attention that it ever would in restored condition. The seller doesn’t offer much information, so they could be the ones that restored it or they could have bought it from an insurance company. It is powered by the desirable 283 horsepower fuel injected V8, which they claim is matching numbers. Restoring this Corvette is going to be expensive, as fire damage tends to do a lot more damage than what’s visible, but fully restored these are worth considerable money. If you think you are up to the challenge, you can it here on eBay in Grand Rapids, Michigan with bidding just over $20k. So if you were to take this one on, would you leave the body charred or would you repair the body and repaint it?

Comments

  1. Avatar don

    an other flipper, probably got it from copart for a fraction of what it is selling for the currant bid price.

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  2. Avatar jim s

    i think seller is going to be showing this at the 2015 corvettes at carlisle. is up on ebay with a high reserve to let poeple know what seller has.

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  3. Avatar Walter Joy

    What sucks more with the Vette is its fiberglass. Can’t do a typical repair to the body.

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  4. Avatar Fred

    The fire must have been put out very quickly or there would be nothing but a frame.Might not be as hard to restore as it looks. I suspect the rear end, transmission, internal parts of the engine are fine. Needs hood, wiring, interior, hoses, etc.

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  5. Avatar Joe Gotts

    Nice Insurance Job,

    They Call That Greek Lightning Here In Chicago!

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  6. Avatar Mark E

    If you wanted to leave the body as-is you’d need the hood and trunk. Oh and look at the gnarly appearance of the back fenders. Looks like someone tried to brush off the char with a steel brush and got down to the raw fiberglass…

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  7. Avatar Ed P

    A former neighbor had just finished restoring a 1960 ‘Vette. It was stored in his basement garage. One night, a hurricane was coming thru. He could not get the car out due to rushing water. The next morning the water had been over the dash. He had to start over.

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  8. Avatar Charles

    That’s just sad! As Fred stated, “the fire must have been put out quickly”, probably means that the undercarriage is still in decent condition. Fiberglass resin burns hot and fast. If the body of this car had ignited, there would be little left of it.

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  9. Avatar OhU8one2

    Can you say Car-B-Que…………medium well please.

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  10. Avatar kenzo

    Gee maybe do what has to be done to get it road worthy and drive it and call the rest patina!!
    Currently at 20K + and reserve not met. What is it worth to somebody with a fat wallet. Ah well, if not this one maybe an overpriced porsche.

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  11. Avatar Tom

    That had to be hard to accept.

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  12. Avatar Jeff Myers

    Does anyone else think the burn damage doesn’t look natural?
    Just seems a bit too symetrical.

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    • Avatar leiniedude Member

      I agree Jeff. Joe could be onto something with the Greek Lightning thing going on down in the Windy city. I worked at a body shop many years ago. We had a guy from Windy come up to put vinyl tops on, back when that was big. He once told me he would buy cars, insure them, then park them in the hood, light a cigarette, stick it in a book of matches. He would stick it under the front seat and leave. When the cigarette burned down to the matches, boom. The cigarette fuse gave him plenty of time to scram.

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      • Avatar The Chucker

        My father was a banker in the Chicago-land area during the late ’70’s/early ’80’s. I recall him stating that many vacant building fires were started as the result of a couple of mortgages rubbing together.

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  13. Avatar Alan (Michigan)

    Sorry I don’t buy the “dash fire” bit. The frying is much too symmetrical over the top of the car, and the engine seems to be nearly untouched.

    Looks more to me like the car was yanked out of a structure fire, where the flames had rolled along under the ceiling and never reached near floor level. Yep, a burning garage that was doused before collapse is where I think this car came from.

    The good: Relatively untouched chassis/suspension/drivetrain.
    The bad: Sizzled wiring, fiberglass, interior, windshield.

    Like 0

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