For Barn Finder Sid C, the story behind a classic car is as important as the car itself. The whole story behind most classics is a mystery that will never be known, but Sid was able to uncover the entire story of his 1959 Corvette Barn Find. As a matter of fact, he has known this car since he was just a boy. He has decided to let it move on to a new home and has listed it for sale.
As a boy growing up on a farm in southern Idaho, the only way Sid could see a Hot Rod or an Exotic car was to look at them in magazines. On one special trip to town he caught a glimpse of a white 1959 Corvette with a red interior parked in the local Chevrolet dealer’s showroom. After pleading with his mother, he was allowed to go into the dealership to take a closer look at the Corvette.
The dealer allowed him to sit in it, which was a moment he will never forget, although he still remembers being disappointed that the car had an automatic. Once he was back in the car he told his mother that he just got to sit in his dream car. She told him that maybe he would own one of his own someday.
Sid kept an eye out for the white Corvette, but he never saw it driving around his town. He would on occasion spot a black one with a red interior driving around though. As the years went on he would often think about the Corvette he had dreamed of as a boy, usually wondering what had happened to it. He eventually left his home town, but in 2010 he returned home for a family reunion.
While spending time with his new son-in-law, they decided to go visit a salvage yard he knew about on the edge of town. They arranged to go take a look at the old cars, but they had no idea what they were going to discover that day. While reminiscing with the owner of the salvage yard, Sid told him about the Corvette from his childhood, but with no response from the old man.
As they were leaving the salvage yard, the owner invited them to make one last stop in a collection of old barns. As they walked through it, they had no idea what they were about to see. As they entered a small barn, Sid was instructed to turn on the light above him. That’s when he saw this black 1959 Corvette with a red interior and an automatic. Sid quickly made a deal with the owner and bought the car. A few weeks later it was pulled from the barn and headed to his home.
After doing some research and talking with the previous owner, Sid discovered that this Corvette was originally painted white. That’s when the puzzle started to come together and soon he discovered that this was the car he had set in and dreamed of as a boy. He decided to leave the car as he found it, but he did fix and replace a few things so it could be driven. We want to thank Sid for sharing his story with us.
I wouldn’t so nothin’ to it…….just drive. Well……..the suspension……I know it’s dead as in after all this time it is time to replace the whole shebang…………
What a great story. And I’m with Rancho, don’t change a thing.
Would you take payments? :-)
I would look at this car long before I would look at 20 other trailer/garage queens at the same show.
It has character and shows/wears it’s history.
Fantastic !
What a story!
~ i’m anxiously looking forward to reading Tom Cotter relate the full story, though the seller gives an intriguing account of the events. it’s much better than restored the way it sits now.
~ picturing Todd & Buz cruising along Route 66.
Your old.
Brought a frikin tear to my eyes!
I dream of finding something like this one. My favorite Vettes are ’60 – ’62 but I’d take almost anyting before that. Stingrays? Too many of them out there. Of course my main holdout is the ’53. Not all that good looking but considering I’m the same age as the Corvette, the ’53 is what I would like… After I come up with those winning numbers.
Can someone tell me what this unique feature exactly is listed in the Ebay ad (windsplit molding screw)?
The assembly line was not like a modern assembly line where everything is delivered just-in-time by computer.
When they ran out of a part back in the day, they just ran over to the local St. Louis (that where the car was built) hardware store to make do. In this case, apparently they ran out of the clip that fastens the end of the spear molding to the body.
Rather than stop production they simply put a screw in the end and kept going.
There are a few examples of this happening and mine is one of them.
I thought some farmer added the screws and I was going to replace them until I read about this detail in a restoration book.
Not anything that makes the car more valuable but still a good story.
Interesting explanation & story, Sid.
Best eBay ad ever.
Loooongest e-bay ad ever. TMI
If that was me I would repaint it white like his childhood.
If it was his dream car and he finally obtained it, why on earth would he want to see it?
*sell* it?
I would have to leave it untouched, chipping paint & all, do the mechanicals but leave the rest as it is.
Only things I would do is try and find a dash pad original not repop and fix what looks like a seeping rear end degrease it and drive the car on really fine days. live the story and how he has every piece of this cars life(minuse heads and such). If I had the coin I would buy it and all the bits to display with it at shows. love it and Im not a corvette guy.
I’M WITH EVERYBODY WHO SAID LEAVE IT ALONE.I WOULD NEVER CHANGE IT BACK TO WHITE EITHER..WHEN I BOUGHT MINE IT WAS WHITE TOO. THE FIRST THING I DID AFTER MAKING IT ROAD WORTHY AGAIN WAS SPRAY IT BLACK LIKE I DO WITH ALL THE TOYS I HAVE EVER OWNED.
Don’t touch a thing on this car, except what it needs to get it road worthy to safely drive as it is. If it’s seriously in need of body work, do it., but only to make it presentable. It doesn’t need to be a show car.
First what a GREAT story, second, I agree with everyone, keep it the way it is.
Third, why are you selling it????
Sid, A great story – shop looks great too. A lot of character in the car!
+1 on the “leave it as is” mantra. An honest car with an honest to goodness fairytale story.
Agreed that this is
– a great story
– best eBay ad ever
– a terrific car that can be / maybe should be driven as-is
Not wanting to disagree with the consensus here, but here’s what I would do:
Get the best paint man I can find with lots of restoration experience to look at the car and do some limited tests on the black paint and the white paint that’s underneath. This is because the black is: 1) not original, and 2) flaking off at the edges of most panels. The flaking tells me that the adhesion wasn’t that good. It’s possible that the white paint is pretty good under there, and might be salvageable if someone with the right skills could do what would be needed to remove the black and leave the white intact.
I wonder if Sid C considered that, since the white paint was what was on the car when it left St Louis and when he first sat in the car when he was a boy.
I am really enjoying reading the comments that are being posted.
I spent a lot of time considering your idea.
My biggest fear was that if it wasn’t done right then the originality (or 1961 originality) would be distroyed and couldn’t be replaced.
Actually the black paint has stuck to the white paint quite well.
In the majority of places where it has flaked off, it is down to the factory primer.
Where the prep guy got lazy and did little or no sanding, like the door jambs, inside the fuel door and along the rocker panels is where the black paint flaked off the white.
This being considered it tried desolving the black lacquer in a very inconspicuous place with lacquer thinner.
I was hoping I could kind of wash off the black but it didn’t work because the black wouldn’t desolve.
A body guy told me that it was either because the lacquer was so old or because it was repainted with enamel.
I don’t think the latter because I think most body shops were shooting lacquer at the time but I might be wrong.
Anyway, I thought long and hard about how to get that black paint off but concluded it was better to leave it as-is and not risk messing up that irreplaceable patina.
Thanks for the additional information, Sid. I’m very interested to hear about your experience trying to deal with the black paint because I’ve been the situation where I couldn’t get newer paint off to allow the original paint to show on the car.
From your experience with your Corvette it looks like anyone who might want to return it to the original white factory color will need to do a conventional stripping/sanding and total repaint.
It’s “dissolve”, BTW.
~ winning bid: US $47,000.00
45 bids, top bid = $47,000 = SOLD!
I think the sale price was pretty good. The SCM Price Guide has the ’59 230HP at $38K to $69K for a #2 car. This was probably a #4 car but it made it well up into the range for a #2.
Congrats, Sid.
@ Gregg, +1.