Bibbyman

I bought my 77 Corvette because that body style was the most affordable at the time. I had no illusions that I had anything special or different than thousands of other 73-77 Corvettes. But as I began to learn about “my” Corvette, I found that there was a lot of little differences in the 77 model year run that would make one different from another.

One thing is the Indigo Blue interior. I thought nothing of it for a couple of years until I was in Florida on business and had time to go by Ecklers. One of the small items I wanted to pick up were pull loops for the back storage compartments. I found they had none in that color. “Oh. You have that Indigo Blue interior. It was only offered in 77.”

We drove our Corvette to the Bloomington Gold show a couple 3-4 years. One time setting on the Shelter Insurance lot waiting for the road rally to start a guy came up and stuck his face right in the window. You know how small the inside of a Corvette is? It was a little startling to have a head stuck in between your face and the windshield. He blurts out, “You have the Indigo Blue interior! (So?, I’m thinking.) And it’s deluxe with power windows! (So? I’m thinking.) He went on to say his Corvette has the Indigo Blue interior but its standard and no power windows. He also said, and I have no idea if he knew, that the Indigo Blue interior was only supplied to one dealer as a special order.

Any experts on the Indigo Blue interior?

Another guy at the show came up and grabbed my Corvette under the rear wheel well. I thought that rather forward of him. He said you have the narrow (or wide, I can’t remember) wheel well flange. He went on to explain that the factory broke the mold for one of the quarter panels on such and such a date and had to make a new one. When they did they made the flange width different – wider I think. A few months later the made a new mold for the other side and made it the same width. So you can check the width of the flange on the left and right and tell if it was built early, mid, or late in the 77 year run.

Then sometime in the production run they changed a couple of things that started out like the 76 model to things that showed up in the 78 model. It looks like they started out putting the alarm switch over the flags on the front driver’s side finder like the 76 model and then switch incorporating it in the door lock like the 78 model.

I don’t know where the alarm switch was on my Corvette. I found two wires that ran into that area that were not hooked to anything. When I stripped the old paint off to prepare for repainting I found the switch hole had been filled in. Was it filled at the factory?

The T-tops apparently changed in mid-production run from same as 76 to the design used in 78. Something about the number of fasteners used to hold the rubber gasket on. My Corvette has the 78 design gasket.

When I had the old paint off I found too that there had been four holes in the back deck where a luggage rack may have been.

Does anyone know if these holes are put in all the back deck panels and then filled if the deck was not ordered? Or was the rack removed?

Ret.Horsecop13

Tim H

Sounds like your car is a pain in the azz when it comes to replacing the interior.
Also you will notice you have several bracket "spots" where the removable back window would come out up to 1972.
I would think your car is too uncommon so don't rope it off at Fort Knox just yet.

bashcraft

Just because something is rare, doesn't necessarily make it desireable. That said, I can understand how this color interior could be quite nice, but only in combination with certain exterior colors.

Forward? No, unless he did this to your girlfriend.

Bibbyman

Yea, it’s a little strange to pull into the Corvette corral at Bloomington Gold and have to make a mental note of where you parked because there are another 100 on the lot that look pretty much like it. Kind of like back when we owned a Plymouth mini-van and parked it on the Wal-Mart parking lot.

jdp6000

Thats interesting. I had a 77 too. It had the indigo blue interior and exterior. It was the only Vette I ever saw in that color. Here is a link to someone elses 77 with the color combination.

http://www.schmitt.com/viewimage.asp?ID=4424

69 Chevy

Motorcar? I thought that term was reserved for one operated by the open-air chauffeur and built by one-off coachworks.

jdp6000

Poor Corvette in looks out of place surrounded by all those Jag and Rolls Royce motorcars. Someone should rescue it.

Come to think of it didn't a Coachworks logo appear on some of the crome trim parts on the 77 Vette or maybe it was my 73 Camaro...I remeeber the logo.

garage-ghost

1977 production


RPO Color Production

27C Blue Cloth & Leather 3,256

source:vettefacts.com

gbvette62

There were various changes made during the 77 model run, but this is hardly unique to 77. Chevrolet often made what they called "Running Model Changes", as they found better or cheaper ways to build cars.

I'm no expert on Indigo Blue interiors, but what the guy told you was pure BS!

First off, there was no standard and deluxe interiors in 77. 76 was the last year that a standard vinyl and option leather interior were offered. All 77's came standard with leather seats, and cloth/leather seats were offered a no cost option.

His car, without power windows, was much rarer than one with then, as only about 5,000 of the 49,000 77's built, came with crank windows.

The blue interior was one of 7 different interior colors offered by Chevrolet in 1977. It could be ordered in a Corvette, by any dealer, anywhere in the country.

I'd never heard this one before, but I doubt it's true.

All 77's through about VIN 23,000, had the switch mounted in the left front fender. After that, it was incorporated into the driver's door lock.

I don't believe that the factory filled the hole, I think the panel was molded without the hole. Very early 77's, didn't have the flags on the front fenders, and looked pretty awkward with just that key switch, in the middle of the fender.

It was my understanding that it was possible that some very late build 77's, came through with 78-82 type tops, but I've never seen one.

The difference is far more than the number of pins, used to hold the weatherstrip in place. The 69-77 weatherstrip goes into a black painted stainless steel retainer, where the top weatherstrip meets the door glass. 78 tops eliminated this retainer. 78-82 weatherstrip has a piece of metal molded into the rubber, in the area that meets the door glass, and screws go through the metal in the weatherstrip, into the top, to hold it in place. Also, 78-82 tops, latch differently than 77 and earlier ones. Where as 77 and earlier tops have 2 handles to secure it to the car, the 78 up tops, only have a single handle on the front of the top and pin that comes out the back of it.

The deck lids were molded without any holes in them. 77's that got the optional T-top carrier/luggage rack, had to have the holes drilled into the deck.

Easy Mike

Your car is one of one. It is the only one you own.

Indigo was Chevy's name for dark blue for the 77 model year; you could also get dark blue through the 82 model year.

General Tire and Rubber was making most of the C3 body panels by the 77 model year. They almost certainly had more than one set of molds for fenders. If one the dies broke, others kept up production. The broken mold story sounds like Corvette BS.

Some late production 76s left the assembly line with interior parts which were scheduled for 77 production. I've never heard/read 77 t-tops changing to the 78 type during production but that's not to say it may not have happened.

The most noticeable change for 77, other than the new gauge cluster and console, was the change to GM corporate blue for the engine color.

Alarm switch moved from the fender to the door with #27373 (March 1977).

The V54 roof carrier was a factory option and was not dealer installed. If your car had the V54, you should find evidence of 8 mounting holes in the rear deck.

Go here and see if you can obtain a copy of the orignal dealer invoice for your car. The invoice will list all the option your car had, prices, shipping dates, and the name and address of the receiving dealer. It's worth the $50 if Allied-Vaughn has your VIN in their files.
http://www.corvetteactioncenter.com/...x.php?cmd=area

Paul Borowski

...it is not that common of an interior color on a '77. I did notice one at Corvettes@Carlisle because it had been a while since I had seen one and it caught my eye.

...'77s, like '76s had the optional two-tone colored interiors too. I have seen Indigo Blue w/White seats & door panels some time ago.

Easy Mike

Oooh. That sounds nice.

Ganey

PLUS
272 Blue Leather ........


Easy Mike
77 got a new console incl. the console gauge cluster, which fits -76, but not 78- dash.

78 got the new dash & interior incl. seats in the Pace Car, etc. easy to remember w/ the major change in 78.

Easy Mike

Yah. My bad. A case of thinking one thing and typing another.

Bibbyman

I know a lot more now than I did this morning. Not many people can say that!

I didn’t think the Indigo Blue interior only exclusive to one dealer story held water.

There is no cloth in the interior. The door panels have carpet at the bottom and chrome strip above the carpet and other chrome trim. Does that make it deluxe or were they all that way?

So it probably had a luggage rack when it left the factory owning to the filled holes I found in the rear deck. I know when I was looking at Corvettes at the time, any that had luggage racks, the racks looked pretty bad. So I figured a lot got ditched when they were repainted. Probably also the alarm switch in the front finder.

The car has tilt and telescope steering wheel - bound in leather. Was that an option or standard?
Thanks!

bashcraft

Leather bound steering wheel along with leather upholstery, power brakes and power steering became standard in 77.

Mike Ward

Far more likely that an owner or the dealer added a rack afterwards. Very common mod back then.

Easy Mike

The cloth/leather feature was actually a choice the buyer could make. Choosing cloth did not cost anything extra.

T/T was optional. It was popular and lots of folks ordered it. It came with the 14" leather wrapped, three spoke steering wheel.

Non T/T cars got the leftover Vega wheel from 76.

chucks

I do think that the lip width on a 78 rear fender is less then on the earlier years. Can anyone confirm this? I have a unknown year C3 NOS rear fender and the lip is less then the lip on my 77.