First, my name is Kurt and I am a newbie to this forum. I am a member of other forums but thought I should come here to get familiar with Corvettes since I have been looking to purchase one.

I am not a Vette guy but have always liked them. I recently looked at a '69 and thought I need a second opinion.

It has the tank sticker for authenticity.

It has a real L-88 hood but has been trimmed a little because it had a Torker intake and the carb sat at an angle and needed clearence. That is the conclusion that I came to.

The car is a 427/390 but the original motor is long gone but it does have a 1973 big block in it. M21 trans which I did not see if it was original but that is what the car should have. It looked to have a 10 1/2inch bell housing.

The rear came with 370 gears but currently has 4:10. It has an aftermarket rear end cover to strengthen it.

Interior is very nice but seats need to be recovered.

It drove pretty good down the road but when braking it pulled to the right. He has paperwork on the brakes which states they have been rebuilt with stainless sleeves. He said he has never had that happen to him but from what I have seen it rarely gets driven.

The front end had some work done to it for example bushings and ball joints. I did notice that the bushings in the A-arms looked original. When I drove it, to me, it seemed to have a little play in the steering. As if there was too much back lash. It did not react as quick as I would have thought.

The rear quarters are not original to the car/paint but look good. The front fenders are original to the car but the outside lip is gone because at one time one of the owners had big tires on it and it has a spoiler molded into the fenders.

The frame looked very good and solid. Underneath the car was pretty oily. Water pump, alternator and crank had deep groove pulleys. Tach drive distributor. Harrison radiator.

There is overspray all over from when it was repainted which was about 20 years ago. The bumper had an area where it looked like it was hit just hard enough to crack the front fiberglass. It was repaired and the bumper was straightened.

The passenger window hits the top corner of the car lightly. The drivers door was perfect.

The car started right up, no smoke whatsoever. And I caught the owner by surprise when I showed up 'cause the car was buried in the garage he was actually out of town when I got there. Which tells me he had no time to get it “prepped”?

Everything worked, the buzzer, windshield wipers, back-up lights, neutral safety switch and even the seat belt light.

The car comes with an extra center section rear end with 3:08 gears, all new weather stripping and a lot of information on the car and previous owners.

It would need a lot of little things IMO to make it look presentable and a safe driver. I am not looking to have a concourse car but I also don't want a money pit. Been there, done that!

My question is what would something like this be worth???

Thanks, Kurt

 

condition is everything, did you check out the Bird cage ?
pictures would help greatly in determining value of vehicle.
69 Corvette, non matching value ? $10k - $25k
69VETT

 

I did not get any pictures of the car but he has some that he will be sending me.

As far as checking out the bird cage, I did not know about this. That is how green I am with Vettes and why I walked away.

He did point out that the back of the rear wheels is a spot on Vettes that rotts and his was very solid but I did not poke it with anything sharp to see if it was soft.

 

If the original engine is gone, then whether it has the original transmission is irrelevant. It will never be original again so you can do whatever you like with the car as long as it pleases you. Base any asking price on that...it will never bring the dollars an original car will (in equivalent condition), so the asking price now should reflect that as well.

None of that means you can't make the car a fantastic driver, but recognize you don't need to spend a ton of money before making it so.

 

Hi Kurt,
I think you've gotten some good information so far.
This may be a car that could be a lot of fun, for not TOO much money.
Some good pictures would help people give you an idea of it worth.
If it needs to have some body work and paint, plus some interior work, before it is what you want it to be, it could be quite costly to do unless you can do some or all of that work yourself.
As people have said already, you have to be careful that you don't end up with too many $$$ in a car without it's original engine.
Waiting for some pictures.
Regards,
Alan

 

Here are some pictures.

 

Really hard to price without seeing in person. Guesstimate somewhere South of $15,000. The brakes could be pulling from rust/moisture on the rotor or a binding caliper piston. It will probably work out. May also be a brake hose collapsing. If there is a Vette guy in your area that can look it over that would be helpful. Where are you located?

 

I live in southern Wisconsin, where it is snowing hard right now!

Kurt

 

Can you get some higher resolution pics? And some of the frame in various spots.

 

I wish I could. I think he is out of town today. I am waiting for him to send me the pictures that he has.

Kurt

 

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/members/list/


Go to the "search members" tab on the right and then click advanced search, you can search by city and state.

 

I may try to look at it again on Friday or Saturday. If I can't get my friend to come with me I may ask around this site and reimburse them for their time.


Kurt

 

Thanks to all who replied and PM me. A lot of good information was sent my way. I have decided to walk away and look for something else.

Kurt

 

What made you decide to do that??? Was something wrong with the car?

 

Bruce, after I got home I thought about all the things I wanted to do with the car and figured that it needed too much to get it the way "I" wanted it. It might be a nice driver but I wanted something a little better.

Kurt

 

pm sent

 

I know this is an older thread but I thought I would update it. After searching for a car, everyone for sale in the Midwest, I decided to go with a 1969 Chevelle. I know it's not a Corvette but it's still a Chevy. Thanks to all who helped me. There are a lot of good people on this site. People who did not no me from Adam and still were willing to look at a car for me.

Here are a couple of pictures the the car.










It's not perfect but has a lot of potential.

Kurt

 

I'm Adam! Haha! It's still a '69. All is well.

 

Brkyard: Condition of the frame and birdcage is everything for a car in the midwest. The car can look beautiful; but if the cage/frame are heavily rusted, you will be wasting your money. Do some research or visit a Corvette club in your area and ask for info on how to check this stuff out. It will serve you well in your future searches.