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Hello, I wanted to ask for opinions. This is my first project car. I have owned several newer Corvettes over the years but I bought a 1975 Coupe to restore. I will probably drive the car for awhile and may or may not sell the car. The car has has primer on it now and soon will be ready for paint. I have connections in the paint business and can probably get a very nice paint job for about 1500 bucks. Should I paint the car the original color Medium Saddle or could I paint it another Corvette color. It has the Medium Saddle Interior also. How much will this affect the value of the car one way or the other. I am not a fan of the Medium Saddle but I don't want to hurt the value of my car either. Thanks in advance.
Color choice is up to you. If originality is important, go with the stock Saddle. Depending upon the car, color changes can sometimes hurt you at resale time. You can estimate about a third of potential buyers will not want the color change; a second third of potential buyers will not mind the color change provided they like the color you select. A final third of potential buyers will not realize the car has been repainted and will not know where to find the original codes.
If you value keeping the car in "original" condition, keeping the same color that came from the factory would be a good thing. But, if you have already (or are planning to) modified the car, paint it the color you prefer. A NON-stock mid-70's C3 will not suffer any loss by being painted a different color. On the contrary, if you paint it an attractive and/or popular color, it would likely sell better.
If it is in stock condition, keeping the factory color COULD yield some financial benefit from a future sale...but not that much of a premium.
When I went to look at the '75 I bought in the fall of '12, I thought to myself "why did it have to be THAT color". As I worked on the car over the winter, the Medium Saddle started to grow on me. My car is pretty much stock and original with 60,000 miles, and it's a convertible. If it had needed paint, I would probably have gone with the same color again (I don't plan on keeping the car very long). That being said, if I planned on keeping the car long term, and doing some mods, I'd probably paint it maroon or red.
That's a nice looking car, you have there. My '75 Convertible was medium saddle exterior originally. Someone repainted Red before I bought it in 2000. It needed painting again then and I was torn over going back to Medium saddle or Red again. Here is how it turned out.
BTW, it had what was left of a black top on it when I bought it. I went with a new white top.
When I went to look at the '75 I bought in the fall of '12, I thought to myself "why did it have to be THAT color". As I worked on the car over the winter, the Medium Saddle started to grow on me. My car is pretty much stock and original with 60,000 miles, and it's a convertible. If it had needed paint, I would probably have gone with the same color again (I don't plan on keeping the car very long). That being said, if I planned on keeping the car long term, and doing some mods, I'd probably paint it maroon or red.
I have to giggle here. I'm a few months into my 74 convertible. It has the medium saddle interior and a green metallic with a smoked silver looking stripe.
*I have NEVER been a fan of green
*I never thought an interior looked right unless it was black.
Since completing the interior, I've grown to LOVE the medium saddle
I had planned to paint the car a gold metallic with black stripes like an old 70 1/2 Z-28 I owned. Now....I just don't know.
I think I have decided against the medium saddle color paint, would you think I should paint it a 1975 year color or does that matter. With the medium saddle interior, I was thinking about the darker Bryar Blue Metallic color that was offered in 1972. Thanks again for all your help!
Hello, I wanted to ask for opinions. This is my first project car. I have owned several newer Corvettes over the years but I bought a 1975 Coupe to restore. I will probably drive the car for awhile and may or may not sell the car. The car has has primer on it now and soon will be ready for paint. I have connections in the paint business and can probably get a very nice paint job for about 1500 bucks. Should I paint the car the original color Medium Saddle or could I paint it another Corvette color. It has the Medium Saddle Interior also. How much will this affect the value of the car one way or the other. I am not a fan of the Medium Saddle but I don't want to hurt the value of my car either. Thanks in advance.
I had a 75 medium saddle. I painted it 1993 anniversary candy apple red pearl. I like it much better.
I think I have decided against the medium saddle color paint, would you think I should paint it a 1975 year color or does that matter. With the medium saddle interior, I was thinking about the darker Bryar Blue Metallic color that was offered in 1972. Thanks again for all your help!
If you are changing colors, I really don't think it matters too much if you use a '75 color or not. Bryar Blue would look nice!
if you decide to paint it another color, I think the interior color will work with a lot of exterior colors nicely. IMO
Though I did always like the 1975 steel blue. And 27 vs. 67 on the trim tag... who'll even notice!
Of course, you are in personal preference territory here, but I cannot fault you for changing colors. For 1975, I do not believe value is tied much to its original color.
Amazingly enough, there are a lot of different color brown's popping up in new cars these days. MidShark, I like your color. When I got my 76,over 11 years ago, it was dark brown with dark brown interior. It needed painting but I didn't want to go back with dark brown but wanted a color where I could keep my dark interior. I went to the Chevy dealership one day, looked around and picked a color and have been happy since. I saw a new convertable about the color of yours the other day with a tan top and it looked great.
my 1975 has the medium saddle interior<delux> and id the factory mille miglia red. luv the color combo. park it next to a red Ferrari and you cannot tell the difference, cept my c3 body rocks Ferrari world hehe
When I went looking for a Vette project I said the two colors I don't want are Orange and Yellow.
Sure enough.. I found a basket case Yellow Vette.
So, after working on it for a few years, the Yellow grew on me.
I had it painted a year ago:
You either love or hate the color. I have always liked it because it is different and it gets plenty of compliments. Here is our L82, automatic, two top and AC car that was once owned by Howard Kirsch. Mr. Kirsch at one point was one of the owners of the Oldest Corvette, #003. The same painter they painted the #003 1953 also painted our 1975.
This may be a Corvette "sin", but a really great shade of brown is the "Burnt Orange" color on a '70 Plymouth GTX. It is a very interesting shade of metallic nutmeg (my best effort at describing it). It's not really orange, at all.
If you want a brown car, research that one. A buddy had a '70 GTX that color and won about every show he entered. The color of the paint was just that much more striking than the other cars. It is similar to the car in the photo above, but has some gold/orange highlights in it.