The very first three years of the Corvette’s life were touch and go.  Only 300 of these hand-built vehicles were assembled the first year on a makeshift assembly line in Flint, Michigan, with most going to dignitaries.  Chevrolet moved production to a much more capable facility in St. Louis, Missouri the following year, expecting to produce over 10,000 of these cars per year.  When reality hit them in the face and sales expectations weren’t being met, the first thing the company did was add other colors besides Polo White.  This 1954 Corvette for sale on eBay in Austin, Texas is a project car that is currently painted a shade of blue.  Is this one of the 300 Pennant Blue Corvettes made in 1954 to help drum up sales?  At a current bid of $11,599, is this car a candidate for rebuilding based on the rare color when quite a few parts are still missing?

For all the options you could get on a Corvette from 1956 on, there were very few available in 1954.  You could order your Corvette in Polo White as most did (3,230), Pennant Blue (300), Sportsman Red (100), and Black (4).  There have been reports of cars that may have left the factory in Metallic Green and Metallic Bronze.  While we are not told for certain in the ad for this 1954 Corvette project car, one cannot help but notice that this Corvette is painted blue inside and out.  Could this be one of the original 300, or did someone get tired of white so long ago?  Interestingly, at no time does the seller mention the color of the car in the item description.  It only gets mentioned in the item specifics.

Here is what we do know about this Corvette.  The seller clearly states that this is a project car, and the pictures sure drive that home.  As for provenance, the car comes with its original VIN plate and the original sales contract from Hal Casey Chevrolet in Buffalo, New York dated August 31, 1954.  As for the legalities, the buyer will be provided with an open California title and has a title history back to 1993.

As it sits, the car is a rolling chassis with a body and an engine block.  The body, which is rough in areas, comes with both doors, a deck lid with hinges, a hood, and a trunk lid with hinges and hinge towers.  The car also will be sold with both windshield frame posts, a windshield, the lower windshield channel, and the outer stainless trim for the windshield.  If that part you are wondering about isn’t in the list above, or you don’t see it in the pictures, then you don’t get it.

The seller describes the block in the picture above as an “original 911 block,” but it is unclear whether it came with the car.  Atop that block sits a “correct 241 magnafluxed head” treated to machine shop work and comes with the documentation.  The car will also come with a rebuilt two-speed Powerglide automatic transmission that does not have any documentation.  Sadly, the tailpiece and the output shaft are not included.  The frame has been aligned with a receipt for the $1,040 cost, and the OEM front and rear crossmembers are included.  Also coming with the car are the front suspension components, the front sway bar, the correct rear axles, the original rear banjo section of the rear end, a set of OEM brake drums, the rear leaf springs, and four roller wheels and tires.  We are also emphatically told that the car’s rear differential is not included.

Once again at the end of the ad, we are reminded that what you see is what you get unless it was clearly stated in the ad and that the car is sold as-is, where-is with no warranty.  To the seller’s credit, we are told that inspections are welcome and encouraged.  They also state that anyone who is making a resto-rod and doesn’t need the drivetrain components can contact the seller for a discount on the price.

That may end up being the best use for this car.  While it may seem to be all there, there are a whole lot of smaller parts and pieces that have gone AWOL and would be hard to replace.  Could you collect them all while doing the bodywork, building up the engine, and restoring the chassis?  Sure.  Many of those parts and pieces were used on other Chevrolets and could probably be found with a minimum of fuss.  The problem lies with those Corvette-specific pieces, like the special intake manifold that isn’t evident in the ad.  The parts may be out there eventually, but will you want to pay the asking price and wait for these special parts to just show up?  Is all of this worth it for a Pennant Blue 1 of 300 car?

What would you do with this Corvette?  Restore it?  Resto-mod it?  Put it away and wait for the value to rise even more.  Part it out?  Does the color matter?  Please share how you would proceed in the comments.