You may say C4 Corvettes are a dime a dozen, and to some extent, they are – but how many are sitting with just 500 miles on a rebuilt transmission with heavy duty torque convertor and a rebuilt long block? This one is, and it’s just $1,500 and posted to the Santa Ana, California, craigslist page. While the pictures are terrible and the seller offers no interior shots, it still could be worth a look if you’re hunting for a Corvette project of this era. It will need a new battery, so pick up a used one at the junkyard and hook up a trailer. Find the Corvette here on craigslist, and thanks to Barn Finds reader Brian F. for the find.
This Corvette is just the latest chapter in the book of, “How I Rebuilt my Car and then Proceeded to Never Drive It.” It’s amazing how many projects we see listed with some real heavy lifting done and the seller admitting they never drove it. When you find them in condition like this car is, it seems unlikely that the seller would lie about the lack of use, as the car is so cheap and needs so many other issues addressed that it’s not like a falsehood about the miles driven after a rebuild will make a difference. I have to believe these are often weekend-only cars that never see much use to begin with, and then an owner falls ill or grows too old to enjoy it.
The Corvette appears to ride on update wheels from an early 90s C4, and the rear spoiler is a take-it-or-leave-it affair. The dust tells a sad story about how long this one has been parked, which the seller pegs at being around four years. Given it’s been in California for at least that many years (and probably more) is a good indication that rust hasn’t been a factor in this car’s history. Plus, I doubt an owner would spend the time and money rebuilding the drivetrain if it had serious rot issues or poor previous collision repair work. Sure, it’s not a super desirable car as collectibles go, but for a weekend’s worth of elbow grease, you could have a great cruiser or quick flip candidate. Which would you choose?
Clearly, this is too cheap, and being sold by someone looking to clean out the garage, post haste. Interior “needs work” probably means “needs complete replacement” thanks to rodentia.
Wonder if it comes with the light-up Rudolf?
A 1984 vehicle with a CHMSL (Center High Mount Stop Light)
That does appear on any car until 1986 (Fed Requirement)
Am I missing something?
good catch–but it also has the 84-only (thank goodness) crossfire injection.
Previous owner found an easy way to make it look like a later model. People used to add side marker lights to pre-68 cars also.
I used 68 Charger side markers on several customs I built over the years.
Well the post has been deleted by author. But I did noice the right front wheel is not normal width. Either this sold asap or another BS showing. 🙄
And she’s gone. No surprise. Gotta be 1500 in parts in their even if you decide that you don’t want to wade in chin deep.
Nice feature Jeff ! As stated above by Jcs, gone ! Really don’t see how you lose at the price. My guess is the seller was unhappy with the price a salvage yard would pay and wanted to see it go to an appreciative owner. Maybe spite ? Could really see this one reappearing soon…
Someone went to a lot of trouble to make this 1984 Corvette look like a 1988 35th Anniversary Edition model. Re-painted monochromatic white (including door handles, body side molding, etc) roof & pillars painted black, newer style wheels, center brake light, etc. Just a hot mess at this point.
My neighbor has one thats been sitting for 7 or 8 years now, says it needs a pinion seal. I told him I can fix it for him, but 2 daughters, 1 in college and 1 a senior in HS got it still just sittin there.
Probably the most unloved of Corvettes.
I don’t like to say this, but this is what they call a cross-fire injection car,meaning they were problematic from the start, although this potentially is a pretty good 😉parts 😉car,the 😉25-35 anniversary idea, 😉pretty cool stuff, maybe somebody got a good deal on a parts car.
LS swap candidate.
Looked.staged lot of outside look. Leafs etc. Why did they park it.
And it is gone….easy $1500 in parts alone!
My best friend of 50 years had a ’84 better back around ’90. When I showed up to visit in a Mustang Ecoboost he asked if I thought it as fast as his Corvette had been. I didn’t have the heart to point out that his minivan was probably as fast as the ’84 Corvette.
I know I’m a heretic here but I’d love to do a C4 with a Ford 3.5 Ecoboost swap.
Lighter, more power, infinitely tunable, and better MPG to boot.
What manual gear box to hook up would be another question.