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Certainly not my cup 'o tea, but I guess if you had a '72 LT-1 in the mid 1970's and you wanted to make it something unique, this was one way to do it. Who knows, it could have had lots of front and rear damage and that prompted the modifications. Regardless, at least it is a well kept car.
it was done in the 70s and the new thing out was the rubber bumpers so I guess they wanted a newer looking vette but the hatchback I cant explain. maybe they wanted a pinto too.
Very common in the 70's. Nobody cared about a 5 year old Corvette back then. Honestly, looks like a pretty good job. The hatch has some weird curves at the top since Ecklers used an off the shelf piece of glass (don't remember from what). The only part of the kit that looks weird is the gas cap area. A little work to smooth that out and bring it flush would have made the rear look much better.
One comment lists all the mods: "Besides the hatch conversion, the car has a 75-79 nose, a 73-76 hood, a molded in 76-79 back bumper, a 78-82 steering column and wheel, a 77 center gauge cluster (that’s cut up for a DIN radio), 75-76 emblems, 75-79 tail lamps, 78-79 front spoiler, aftermarket AC, and an old set of Saratoga Top glass tops."
Still, at $22.5k, the owner is smoking something. Maybe $6k, $10k tops depending on mechanicals. Rare does not necessarily always equal valuable. Had this discussion with a gentleman at Cars and Coffee yesterday. Money in will never equal money out.
From the article.
Last edited by SteveG75; Dec 15, 2019 at 10:21 AM.
I think the glass is from a Chevrolet Monza, hence why you can find it referred to as Eckler's Monza Hatchback Kit.
Here's an early press release from 1976. There are several other examples on Barnfinds.com, including one where someone spent $60K on a hatchback restomod. No doubt most of that was not recouped, but I couldn't find the ended eBay auction for that one.
It's too bad that all of the bubble-glass Corvettes didn't come with a working hatch.
Very common in the 70's. Nobody cared about a 5 year old Corvette back then. Honestly, looks like a pretty good job.
How true. I agree, that it looks like a nicely done, custom job. But again, as you said, back in the mid-late 70s, used Corvettes were strictly that, used cars. One of my buddies, in 1970-71 timeframe, was the 3rd-4th owner of a '63 Vette roadster, that was originally a "fuelie car". By the time he got it, it was well worn, with the original engine, or at least the fuelie unit, long gone, and it was jacked way up in the rear, to clear a pair of 10" wide Cragar SS wheels, mounting L60-15 Goodyear Rally tires. The rear geometry was whacked, by the height increase, and the thing ate u-joints like crazy. A reasonably talented fabricator, who lived in our area, removed the IRS, and put a straight axle in it, using parallel leaf springs. My friend sold it a year or two later, and we never saw it again.
But as originally stated, back then, they were just old Chevys......
Looks like a well maintained late seventies early eighties custom. Like has been already stated, those cars were just old Chevy's back then and nobody cared about originality. There were many great looking customs in those days and lots of bad ones too. Those were fun times. This one is not quite my style but it looks pretty decently done and I'm sure was very much at home back in those days..Is it worth 22k? Probably not. To the right buyer looking for a well preserved period custom maybe.
I think the glass is from a Chevrolet Monza, hence why you can find it referred to as Eckler's Monza Hatchback Kit.
Here's an early press release from 1976. There are several other examples on Barnfinds.com, including one where someone spent $60K on a hatchback restomod. No doubt most of that was not recouped, but I couldn't find the ended eBay auction for that one.
It's too bad that all of the bubble-glass Corvettes didn't come with a working hatch.
An LT-1, Really?
Why would anybody take a Chromebumper car and make it look like a mid 70’s ‘vette?
It had 69 style sideline back then and those looked pretty good.
