If you wash off all that dust and find cracked/checked lacquer paint all over that 33 year old fiberglass car you might wish you had left it alone! I would let the buyer wash it if it was mine.

I have an 86 442 that I ordered new that is still in plastic and I am afraid to take a close look at it!

Why did you do that?

Well, To start with I am a diehard Chevy man but, I didn't like ANY of the 80's chevys when I was in my 20's. My buddy had a new 84 Hurst Olds and we cruised it a good bit back when he first bought it. I actually kept it at my house in my garage.

I had always liked the Cutlass bodies so I ordered a new Black/silver 86 442 with every option and decided to store it until it got old enough to bring out and maybe one day be desireable and hopefully valuable. I actually enjoy having it jacked up just to look at. To me it is like a collectors knife you will never sharpen. I have been offered considerably more than I paid for it.

I have a totally restored black 69 SS396 4 speed Camaro I spent two years restoring that I do drive occasionally. It is my favorite! I have had it 26 years along with a few other original cars and trucks with very little mileage.

I bought a nice house about 10 years ago with a large main level 2 car garage and a large basement with 13 foot ceiling height. I have 2 Rotary 2 post lifts in my basement and I can park 8 cars down there. The basement is THE only reason I bought the house. I have been buying GM, Chevy, AC, and other automotive clocks, signs, thermometers, etc. to decorate the large walls for years and almost have enough to complete my "dream car" garage.

You are very fortunate........And Blessed your dream garage sounds really cool I would love to hang out in there with you sharing a beer and talking cars!
Peace
Frank

I didn't know you can create your own barn find.

I've had several I have stuffed in barns for a few years and dragged them out covered in dust. I didn't know I could have sold them for more because they were a barn find. I thought a barn find was one you found and then talked the owner out of, not one that you stuffed in a barn and neglected for 30 years, then went out and found someone to buy it.

I'm with the others on the '78 Pace Car issue, there were 6500 of those cars built, and about half the buyers stuffed them into garages and barns to make collector cars out of them with no miles.

They show up form time to time on eBay and rarely get much more than any nicely done similar car.

I wonder how many are still out there with less than 50 miles on them.

A lot of years wasted that could have been fun driving it around.


13 miles? Most were delivered with 7 to 10 miles on them. Did he just happen to have a gas station on the way to his barn that was only 6 miles away?

Cranking right up is a line of bull. That Quadrajet is full of white deposits, the ports clogged, gas turned to who knows what in the tank, if there is any left, the battery sulfated a long time ago and has zero charge.

Any credibility the guy had was lost in that statement. Of course, it is a news story so how much faith can you put in them?




Believe it on not, the C4 guys have a thread on this.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c4s-...post1579213903

1978 Chevrolet Corvette Coupe - $75,000
 

I checked the "there are lots of low mileage 78 Pace Cars" theory, and here's more evidence it may be true. From Cars.com today:

"1978 Chevrolet Corvette Coupe - $75,000
Dealer: Stapleford's
1402 S. Dupont Hwy Saint Georges DE 19733
Call: 866-482-9387

THIS 1978 CORVETTE PACECAR IS NEW IT HAS NEVER BEEN TITLED OR DRIVEN ON THE ROAD ITS BEEN STORED ON OUR SHOWROOM FLOOR SINCE NEW. WE HAVE ALL PAPER WORK AND DOCUMENTATION. PRODUCTION ON THE PACECAR WAS 6502 THIS CAR IS NUMBER 5420 THAT WAS BUILT."

http://www.cstatic-images.com/supers...762/PA1978.jpg

http://www.cars.com/go/search/detail...5&aff=national

I guess you can't call that one a "barn find." :lol:

By 1978 many people had recognized the Corvette was collectable. The NCRS was founded in 1974, one of the first car clubs focused on restoration and preservation. C1 & C2 Corvettes were already hot items. And a "limited edition" model of anything pushes a collectors button even harder.

Cheers,
JB

:cheers:

Leaving the dust on them is part of the visual fun. I took pictures of my cars before they were washed. People get a kick out of seeing how bad and dirty they are when found. They think, "What! you bought some dirty old car?" Some people just can't see the beauty unless it shines.

From Corvette Mike;s website story
Nowhere have I read that they used the original battery.

BTW, I recently started an engine with a qjet that had been unused for 15 years and drove it 30 miles, fresh gas yes, but no problems with the carb, so far. I wouldn't trust it though. Once the gas dried up, I doubt if 1 year, 5, 15, or 30 makes much difference if stored in a dry environment.
I also started and ran a 10 year stored BMW fi car with the old gas with no problems.

I agree with the news people though, I'm would have used fresh gas. My sister is a newscaster and I wouldn't rely on anything from her.:D

There are definitely a large number of low mileage "one owner" 78 Pace Cars out there in garages. More than any other special edition corvette I would imagine. The harder to find ones are like this one in Delaware, the ones that have never been sold to the public (still dealer owned). Not 75K rare though!! There are quite a few of these out there....more than people realize. A few of these that have come up for sale recently thanks to the demise of some of the small Chevrolet dealerships.

I think I read about the first one back in 2009.....Dunn Chevrolet - The Lost Dealership of Roanoke, Alabama. I was a small town, profitable, family owned dealership all the way up until it closed in 2007! The building was purchased and there was a treasure trove of NOS parts and GM nostalgia stored inside the walls of Dunn Chevrolet!!

From the July, 2009 issue of Super Chevy:
http://www.superchevy.com/features/s...t/viewall.html

I think some of these unregistered pace cars (L-82 versions) have only sold for about 30-35K at auctions.

Sad, but not surprising. When the economy melted down in 2008 and GM started closing dealerships, I expected there would be a lot of small, rural, old family dealerships being closed. Many held a lot of NOS parts, some from the American automotive boom years in the 50s-60s. And much of that would eventually appear on ebay.

Cheers,
JB

:cheers:

I never understood why all Pace Cars didn't come with the L82. It wasn't that much more.