What’s that we see in the barn? (okay, I know, it’s probably a garage, but bear with me for a moment) Why, I do believe it’s a Corvette–and not just any Corvette, but a 1962 fuel injected one still wearing its 1974 Oregon license plates! I think this warrants further investigation, don’t you? It’s currently located in Greer, South Carolina and is listed for sale here on eBay, where the buy it now is $59,900 (so much for the seller not knowing what they have) but they are interested in offers as well.
Unfortunately for our wallets, the investigation shows we weren’t the first folks to find this Corvette. However, let’s continue. Based on the “bigs and littles” the car is currently wearing, I’m guessing it acquired some of the 42,599 miles the odometer is showing a quarter mile at a time. The seller doesn’t tell us much about the car at all, and includes the fact that they aren’t a Corvette guru, but are happy to answer questions.
I do like the lines of the last C1’s, especially with the hardtop in place. Based on the work done on both rear fenderwells, perhaps they were flared at one point to cover the tires? The car was originally red/red according to the seller, so there’s no need to preserve original paintwork here. What I do find puzzling about the pictures is that some of them appear very grainy and old, while others look more current. Certainly there are questions worth asking of the seller if you are interested in this car.
For example, this is one of the grainy pictures, which appears to show a restored injected engine in the crate. Was this an old picture? Is it even included with the car? Again, many questions remain.
There are some parts laid out in one of the current looking pictures that you’ll need if you choose to take this project on. If you’ve always wanted a fuel injected Corvette and are willing to pay the premium, this might be the car for you. Personally, I’d settle for a less expensive carb model, but that’s me. We’d love to hear your thoughts!
I like the idea of having a Fuellie but I don’t think I’d want one to drive continually. Give me a good 4bbl and I’ll enjoy it forever. Put the fuellie manifold and related parts on display.
Once again my favorite version of Corvette is so far above my budget that all I can do is watch another one slip past. Maybe in another time and place…
Really. You’ll have to educate me on your reasons for not wanting a fuellie.
Don’t understand the thumbs down. Although, it seems that fuel injected cars are much more reliable and require less maintenance it was an honest inquiry as to a persons preference to having carbs. So, I get thumbs down for not knowing? Unless I can presume you made the assumption I was being condescending.
Hi Moose Feather,
Here are some reasons based on my personal experiences:
1. Cost: Over $1K per additional HP added.
2. Car or FI theft. They come off easy and there is a black market for them. The FI emblem on the side of your C1FI or C2FI says “steal me or strip me”. You are never fully relaxed when you park it.
3. Consistent running. It isn’t set and forget. Unless you learn how to set it up yourself and keep it adjusted you will have to pay someone else.
I’m not negative on them, just not my cup of tea. BTW my C2 with 327/340HP will give a standard fuelie a run for the money.
John might have some good points. I drove my 1960 250hp fuelie trouble free for a while when I first bought it at age 19 including manic 4000 mile blast to West coast and back, at one point covering 115 miles in one hour in Nevada. In Rocky mountain National park it would kick onto fast idle for some reason 10-12k feet. Till I tore the car apart to replace the clutch and got caught up in “Might as Wells”.
The extra hp comes pretty expensive, but the real deal is that it doesn’t bog, it’s right there right now.
In 64 there was a 375hp FI, and a 365hp Holley 585cfm engine. Otherwise exactly the same. Right, probably less worries.
But the FI was not maintenance intensive at all. There were lean and rich stops, but one never messed with them. Idle speed was the only thing to set.
Not very different that a Bosch CIS system actually, except the air volume was measured indirectly with vacuum signal from the air meter acting on a Main diaphragm.
But I guess, if you are looking at an investment, the FI, big brake cars will be more valuable. There was a time the big brakes made it worth a LOT more, like $20k. And Big tank, too, but then no soft top option. Then you had a car that needed an enclosed trailer.
Not so many fall weekend drives.
But this is really not that much money. If you like it, buy it. Sell those cheater slicks, Put the front bumper back right, fix the cracks and the paint. Drive it. Life is good. Real good from the driver’s seat, until it rains.
Al
I love it, would be nice to blend in the primered areas and keep it this color as a driver until you do a complete resto and re-paint it red. I kinda like the color, reminds me of the color GM used in the mid 60’s (butternut yellow)? also notice the 6k redline tach which does indicate a Hi-Po 327, but don’t fuely vettes have some sort of emblem to distinguish them from lesser vettes? also note the wheels which may mean it has the brake/suspension option. lots of questions but if it pans out seems like a fair deal on a nice old vette that may be close to street-worthy.
scratch the wheel comment and replace it with the big brake note in sales banner on E-pay.
Headlamp bezels are from earlier car. 62 Vettes had body color bezels. Fuelies had badging on front fenders denoting the fuel injection option.
This is obviously a fishing expedition on the sellers part. If they were serious they would have done a much better job posting this with some real information and lots of it at this price.
This is an odd mix of fair and really poor old photos from a reseller who doesn’t know much about the car, or might be pretending to. Is the engine in or out? Rebuilt or not? What are the engine bay and interior like right now?
Anyone know of a good VIN decoder? The one I tried wasn’t very good.
The ’62 360FI cars with hard top have sold recently for a median price of about $96K at recent auctions, but if this car isn’t what it’s claimed to be the $60K price is no bargain since excellent non-FI ’62s sell for little more than the asking price for this car. Bring a NCRS expert with you.
How many of these “I just couldn’t find time, make the effort, phone a friend, to pull it out of the garage for photos” sellers are there? This isn’t a $3000 clunker. With a $59,000 asking price, the seller needs good pics to be taken seriously.
So true. With the improved quality of cell phone photography these days, there is no reason why the pics have to be so lousy. I have instant skepticism when I see a listing with photos like these and have doubts about what the seller says as well. No excuse.
Those are genuine big brakes. See the inside fans and finned drums? This car is sort of a big deal. I am surprised the is not a lot more talk about engine numbers, etc. The VIN is show as 14432. This is the 99th from the last straight axle Corvette built. and a genuine FI, Big Brake car. HUH? (Needs to be authenticated of course.) They made 243 big brake cars in 1962. Enthusiast buyers being why they are, they tended to load up the last few cars built with buyers ordering that last hurrah hot rod of the style. So, maybe of the last 99, perhaps 20 big brake FI cars. The thing is, SOMEBODY KNOWS, and this car if real should go high. Should be worth $100-110k. Foolish to put a buy it now. It always is!
’62’s had a Black with Chrome Border rectangular “FUEL INJECTION” emblem on the start of the cove where this one has the “V” with the crossed flags, and as mentioned they had body colored headlamp bezels. This one also has the front bumper delete,,,, Must have run Gas Class. Too bad it doesnt have 6 tailights, I like it but not for that outrageous asking/ ???? price
Bumper delete? What is that? Black/chrome FI emblem…what?
This “could’ be a rare big brake fuelie car (brakes/tach) that someone did some front glass work on to lighten it. Cheater slicks tell a story, too. But, it could have been a straight (front) axle MP car.
Does the pretty feulie motor come with??? It doesn’t say. Woulda, coulda, shoulda…
Pass.
Yeah, BIG BRAKE, Big Effin deal, someone has raped that poor Vette so badly that you’d be drowning even if you could bring it back to “Pure” , soup to nuts.. If You know anything about Corvettes you would know that thats the appearence of a 1962 Corvette Fuel Injection Emblem, ,,,,,,,,,, & back in the day M/P cars ran bumpers, front and back Gassers ran NO front bumpers ! Bumper delete was in jest, kinda thought if anyone knew about Corvettes they’d a seen that, sorry. Have a good night,,,,, Peace,,,,,,,,,
BTW, did you see the 1950 Kenworth he also has for sale? Hall-Scott engine 1091 cubic inches. Wow. I bet you kinda feel that as it comes by.
Al
Here is my friend 62 fuel that he bought new and still owns it.
Brand new 62 ZO6 with 0 miles.
https://youtu.be/A2ZefVHmJ-o
Wonder how many hours are on the engine? Has it been started many many many times and just not driven? Will it start? Or is it just rolled around on dollies, as they admit in the video? I’m torn about it – I get the 0 mile thing, but dang, to own this and NEVER EVER drive it? That’s why I wonder if would start at all or is it just assembled like a large model car?
Garrett said it was NEVER started, in the video.
A lot of potential here. Not much info. Tranny? Engine bay? Underside? etc.
Seems like too much money to me, or I just don’t know the market. A year ago we sold a 62 number matching “original” car, paint , interior, 340 HP, 4-spd, running, very nice car for 62K, and that seemed to be about what the market could bear. I
don’t see this car being as nice if you spent another 2K on it.
This car, one of those urban legend things in these parts, was given to a 15 yr old with no motor or transmission in 1979 not far from me here in Oregon, which is where is sat until a couple years ago. The powertrain shown was purchased separate from the car by the current owner – I traded into it from a guy who dropped in a snotty ’62 327 about two years ago, then pulled it back out after making two drag strip passes (put it in a Toplino!) and peeled up and down rhe road in front of his house, that’s also when the wheels/tires got put on. I think it had centerlines (yuck) for most of the time it was in the ‘kid’s’ garage. The obvious ‘retread’ pics are ones I took of the car on my iPhone. It’s a solid car that was never a race car as GM intended for the package, and no one knew about, or at least paid any attention to, the big brakes. When I traded for it, the fellow who had it kept talking about the finned drums, which made me curious, as they usually didn’t have them, and, the rest of the story is ‘history’!. The intention for me was to drop in a lumpy 327, bolt on some black steelies and proceed to tick off some NCRS guys, suspected it was a fuellie with the orig powertrain gone but onec I figured out what the car is/was, wanted to get the car to someone who would make it right and hopefully.restore it. Other than some probable street races, doubting it was ever used as intended, but, at the time it was just a car, and when bought for the birthday gift, legend has it it was purchased for around 500 bucks – cheap, but remember that there weren’t many early Vettes in the 70’s that couldn’t be had for 2k or less. Hope the seller makes a good flip, but I agree – more and better pics and description helps a great deal!
Wow, what a history. I found the remains of a big brake 62 back in the mid 70’s. A local drag car, it already had a 57 Pontiac rear axle. The Iowa farm kid that ended up with it rolled it and took the rest of the body off with an axe. I bought the damaged hard top for a trifle and really tried to get the frame or at least the front brakes, but could not budge him. I drive by there still but most of the farm buildings are gone. No doubt he sold it for scrap.
Al