I got a 1977 L82 which I inherited from my grandfather. It's got a hatchback and not the standard rear glass and trunk. I'm trying to find out if this is a factory hatchback or someone decided it would be cool to have a hatchback on a vette. My grandpa was the 2nd owner and I'm about to get started on restoring the car. This is my first vette to resto and I wanna make sure I get it right.....any info on this would be greatly appreciated.
'77s were the last of the tunnel back Corvettes. They did not have the big back window introduced in '78 and they did not have hatches. The only C3s with an opening rear hatch are the 82 CE models.
Your hatch is an aftermarket kit, probably using the 82 CE rear glass and hardware. After the CEs came out, there were a few companies who would do these conversions for you, or you could buys kits and DIY.
Prior to 84, the only GM factory installed Corvette hatchback was in the 82 Collector Editions. During the 70's, a fastback window conversion was available for converting 68-77 coupes. It was basically a flat piece of glass that was installed between the roof "sail panels", after the tunneled rear window and rear deck between the sail panels was removed. These were made made by Ecklers, I think, and may have been available in an openning version.
The 82 Collectors Edition hatch was made by Cars & Concepts. Cars & Concepts did t-top , sunroof and I think full convertible conversions on many different cars. They did conversions directly for the automakers, and also had locations around the country that did dealer and private customer conversions. The Corvette hatch conversion was released in 1979. I have seen quite a few of these conversions on 79-82 Corvettes. This may be because Cars & Concepts had a plant near me in Cinnaminson, NJ. These hatches were also installed in the Corvettes raffled by the NCCC to benefit Spina Bifida in 79-81. Chevrolet concidered installing the hatches in 81 Corvettes when production began at the new Bowling Green plant in June 81, but in the end, only offered them as factory installed in 82 Collector cars. The hatches used in the 82 CE cars came from Cars & Concepts, but were installed by Chevrolet.
A number of 74-77 Corvettes have had 78-82 big window rear clips installed on them. It's possible that you have a 77 that has had a 78-82 rear clip installed, along with the rear window hatch conversion. As posted by Easy Mike, a couple of photos would go a long way toward identifing what you have.
You should probably re-think the "resto" aspect, at least from a correctness perspective. As the others have said, it's not original, and require quite a bit of rear clip bodywork to return it to stock appearances. I'm guessing the rest of the car is likely not a 100 point Gold Certified car otherwise, so it's very likely you could be spending far more money than the car would be worth at the end.
You say in the OP that you "want to get it right"; if this means NCRS-right, you might consider a different route.
I picked the car up this past weekend and have had a little time to get it cleaned up and take a look at this hatchback. It seems to be an Ecklers hatchback kit. It looks good for an aftermarket peice, but you can tell the interior trimwork has aged differently. Other than that it's a numbers matching L82. I'll get some picture posted today.
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1977 Resto question
