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This 1964 Corvette Convertible had been sitting for over 20 years. The seller has since pulled it out of storage and replaced a few parts to make it drivable. It is now running, has a new top, and a clean interior. The frame is claimed to be solid, so we would probably just go through the suspension and drive it as is. It would be a great candidate for restoration, but we personally like the current look. Find it here on eBay out of Kingston, New York.
Restorations are nice, if you don’t want to drive them in the real world. when I was doing my 57 Chevy Nomad. I fought the same battle, to keep it all stock or upgrade the vital safety/drivetrain equipment to make it more enjoyable and safe to drive in traffic. I Highly recommend a dual master cylinder upgrade on the brakes at the least. then disk brakes. If you drive in the mountains, the fuel injected engine kits that are avail now, there a no brainer, when it comes to fuel economy and power.
Lots of fresh looking overspray on the underside suggests it was repainted shortly before being stored, yet the topside paint looks rough. If you want a C2 convertible it would be worth a close look to find out how good the paint job was and whether you can bring the paint ‘back’ by polishing a small test spot, if the seller would let you do that. The hard top looks pretty oxidized already, and conventional red paint is a colour that oxidizes more than most others, so it would be important to know what you would be bidding on.
The underside looks pretty good, so could be a good car to own despite being from the middle of NY state. I’m guessing it probably has the base engine, and there were almost 14000 convertibles made in 1964, so not rare. It all depends on price, as usual.
I’ve been following this one for some time. Funny, seems it’s a Corvette dealer that’s selling it… and there’s no photo of the tag next to the VIN tag, which would show original color and interior… no photo or even mention of the numbers on the engine (though it’s kinda dressed like a 365HP with the wrong air cleaner). My instinct says they’re hiding something :-) People from the rust belt have no idea how much more rust their cars have than those elsewhere, and how that translates to restoration, much less repair. I’m immediately suspect when I see an old red or black Corvette. Amazing how often they’ve had a color change, like the 65 that was on eBay last week that I went and drove the other day. That thing looked great in pictures, and even in person, until you looked close. That poor thing had been resuscitated more times than Dick Cheney. I looked for signs of a color change, and saw some black showing thru around the door frame, which had been touched up with some red paint here and there. Didn’t have my Corvette Black Book with me, so I took a photo of the metal tag with the color codes. Got home, looked it up, and yep, it had been silver originally. The odometers in these are notorious for just quitting before 100K (oddly enough the speedo keeps working though). One thing you have to realize is that these things are fiberglass, and they squeak and rattle a LOT more than a steel car… especially after someone puts big wheels and radial tires on them for awhile… then add 50 years of wear and tear to the formula. Bottom line, if someone is gonna buy this one on eBay because they think it’s some “survivor” that’s all original… I’ll bet they’re in for a big disappointment.
Well the survivor status is gone do to overspray as Dolphin pointed out, as an X auto body guy looking at these pics tell me that the car has faded down evenly through out, so if the car was painted in one area that area would fade differently from the rest & would appear to be slightly off color from the rest of the car , this car has faded down very evenly indicating the car was repainted completely so as Matt pointed out where are the tags, paint codes, etc. As for me, I live in a high humid climate & leaving the chassis as is would result in rust taking over that chassis in short order hence the need to have the chassis media blasted & powder coated.
interesting topic… overspray :-) I sold Chevrolets for 3 years in the early 70s, and I’ve painted and spotted several cars too. I can’t even imagine how you could be such a bad painter to leave the overspray this car has… lol And depending on where it is, it can stick around forever. I’ve never talked to any Bloomington Gold judges to see what they’d have to say about overspray… considering I’ve seen several come off the truck from the factory with overspray. And lots of Chevrolets in the early 70s had such bad paint jobs that they had whole areas repainted under warranty, and usually they were just masked instead of having the chrome stripped off, etc. One of the first things I do to when I buy a used car is go around and remove all the overspray I can. Fortunately, most of that chassis overspray you can hide with a can of black spray paint… unless you’re trying to make it look brand new. And because the tires on Corvettes of this era stick out so far, they constantly sand blast the bottom half of the sides of the car, so every 20K miles or so most of them need some spot painting to look fresh, especially behind the rear wheels. I saw some 3M Paint Defender Spray Film advertised yesterday. It’s kinda like a spray on invisible bra. I’m gonna have to try it out :-)
MATT, BEING FROM THAT AREA OF NEW YORK I KNOW HOW BAD AND QUICKLY RUST WILL RUIN A CAR. IF THIS CAR IS FROM THE CORVETTE DEALER UP THERE IF HE TELLS YOU SOMETHING ABOUT THE CAR IT IS THE TRUTH.THEY ARE ONE OF THE MOST REPUTABLE DEALERS IN THE STATE. I HAVE PURCHACED A LOT OF PARTS AND A COUPLE VETTES FROM THEM. I HAVE AN ’83 EL-CAMINO THAT THEY WANTED FOR A SHOP CAR AND THEY WERE WILLING TO TRADE A ’62 VETTE WHICH IS MY DREAM VETTE FOR IT. ALMOST DID IT TILL I HEARD THE VOICE OF A MAD GERMAN WOMAN IN MY HEAD.I ALREADY HAD A ’74 AND’78 AND HAD TO CONVINCE HER THE ELKY WAS GOOD FOR BUSINESS. IF I CAME HOME WITH A THIRD VETTE THERE WOULD BE NO MORE ROULADIN AND SPETZILE FOR ME.WHY WOULD ANYBODY COVER THE SILVER WITH THE RED ?
we must be related Fred. I’ve owned 10 Corvettes and 5 El Caminos… (so far)… LOL Every time I see one that needs rescuing, or worshiping, I have to bring it home… to be it’s caretaker for awhile.
oh, and the reason the silver ones got a color change is because they all turned dull in 2 years, like the other light metallic colors. And you could only buff them shiny again 3 times before the paint was gone. This was way before 2 stage paint with clearcoat. Now we all want silver again :-)
HEY MATT WE COULD BE RELATED. I STATED OUT WITH A ’70 ELCAMINO THEN THE ’83 WAS BEING HUNTED FOR BY THE TAX MAN.I HAD JUST GOTTEN A HUGE SETTLEMENT FROM GETTING HURT ON THE JOB AND BEING FORCED TO RETIRE AT THE RIPE OLD AGE OF 37. I BOUGHT THE 83 FOR $4000 WHICH IS HALF OF WHAT THE GUY WANTED. THE POWER JACK DANIALS IS AMAZING.I DIDN’T HAVE ENOUGH ROOM AT THE HOUSE FOR EVERY THING SO I CAME UP WITH THE IDEA OF OPENING A BODY SHOP TO WORK ON MY EVER GROWING LIST OF TOYS.I HIRED ONE OF THE BEST BODY MEN IN THE AREA AND A PAINTER WHO COULD DO IT ALL. THE SHOP WAS NEXT TO A TAXI/LIMO SHOP THAT PAID FOR ME TO HAVE MY COLLECTION.MY ’83 CAME OUT SO GOOD THAT I WAS GETTING A LOT OF THEM AND RANCHEROS THAT I GREW FOND OF TOO.THE SAD PART WAS I KNEW NOTHING ABOUT AUTO BODY REPAIR SO I HIRED A GUY THAT WAS SEMI RETIRED TO RUN IT. THAT LEFT ME WITH NOTHING TO DO AGAIN SO A FRIEND TALKED ME INTO PLAYING IN DIRT WHICH WE ALL DID AS KIDS SO I WENT TO THE CAT DEALER AND ON A HANDSHAKE I HAD $750,OOO WORTH OF EQUIPMENT .WELL THAT WENT BIG TIME WHICH GOT ME MORE TOYS AND THAT KEPT THE BODY SHOP BUSY. AND THE REST IS THE AMERICAN DREAM. CASH,CARS,AND CIGARS . NOW I ENJOY RETIREMENT. WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE VETTE AND ELKY YOU OWNED MATT.?
I have to agree with everyone else. This is a base car with nothing really going for it other than being a convertible. The frames are bad to rust too. He thinks it’s worth a fortune when it’s not. I know of another one in my area just like it except it’s an automatic powerglide so it’s not rare at all as pointed out. It’s already over 20k on Ebay. I’m afraid it you bought it for more than that and then the suprises popped up, you would sink some money in it.
The white stuff you see is the clear coat that has broken down from the elements.