63 Split Window Corvette wanted

Any particular reason you are dead set on a 63 split window vs a later coupe?

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lJXLalMKSA]1963 Corvette Stingray - Jay Leno's Garage - YouTube[/ame]

 

the car that made me want to be a designer at GM Design

 

No,left 5 yrs ago
Worked for Mitchell during his last years

 

Have owned a SWC since 2002, a NCRS Top Flight, 340Hp car. The view out of the rear window is excellent and with the normal quick glance in the rear view mirror, all important information is obtained. Yes, the view from '64-'67 is more expansive, however, they fall short on the iconic beauty of the '63 Coupe.

DJ
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Very nice!

 

nothing worse than vintage vette shopping unless you know your ****, imho.

 

There is a lot or resources out there on this subject.

 

The 63 Split window was quite a car. I had a Daytona Blue with white interior 327/340 hp. It was replaced by a 66 427/390 convert with 2 tops,side mounted exhaust,teak steering wheel and transistor ignition. The 63 had a lot of teething problems like fiber glass cracks esp. body at the 4 angles of the hood which when repaired only cracked again. Interior door assembly was flimsy and prone to breaking easily. Speedo and tach problems. Wonderbar radio wasn't so great. The front end always lifted with speed. The interior void which was nice for luggage, acoustically increased road noise and all the creaks and rattles so common with the C/2's. The shifter was somewhat dainty, and vague,was markedly improved with later years production. All in all though the 63 coupe sure did stir the emotions at the time and currently. I still believe the C/2's were the highlight of Vette production with the Split leading the emotions for many reasons.

 

No Truer words were ever spoken, especially with the availability of unstamped blocks. If NCRS judges can be fooled, the average Joe, doesn't stand a chance. They even make reproduction "tank stickers"!!!.

 

Hello "DJ"; Is your interior also Saddle Tan?. Only 2 years that Saddle Tan exterior/interior was available 63/64. In my opinion, 1 of the Best Color combinations on C2s.

 

what is the joke ?

how many corvettes are Matching Numbers ? all of them.

 

Someone can unearth a 1950's ferrari chassis and and ashtray and rebuild an entire car around it and in the ferrari world and it can pass for a 1950 "xx special whatever" and we get worked up over a restamped block?

I'm not saying restamped blocks correct or perhaps even ethical, but ther are far greater sins in the car world.

 

AHHHH, The "Slippery Slope of Degrees of Sin". Sure "There are far greater sins", easy to state, when you are not the 1 suffering the financial loose of being sold a restamped block portrayed as Original.

 

ain't that the truth!

The old hi-performance Corvettes were bought to street race and occasionally run at the drag strip. The clutch would hang up and cause all sorts of carnage. The Corvettes were modified to make them faster and GM warranty replaced a lot of 427 blocks that had holes punched in them. 'CE' replacement blocks are to be found in lots of collector cars today. One big tank 1966 Corvette coupe with only 6,000 miles on the factory motor blew up and had the block replaced. Fender flares were popular as were third tail lights on the C2 Corvettes. Originality in those days meant nothing. Zero. It wasn't even thought of as being important but rather a negative. What was important was making the car faster and if you were smart safer. Things like traction bars or a scatter shield usually came after mag wheels and racing slicks pinned to the rim. The stock drive train didn't like slicks.
The expectation that somehow these cars will survive decades of abuse and remain in pristine original condition is simply not realistic. Of course there are a few examples of Corvettes that have their factory paint and 'born with' drive train but they are very scarce now and command huge dollar premiums. Something with 12 previous owners and a 'restoration' should not inspire a lot of confidence. That you are buying anything but a used up car that has been rebuilt with a varying degree of skill depending on the people involved in the restoration should be approached with the same caution as a long tail cat entering a room full of rocking chairs...
CH

 

Yes, Saddle/Saddle.

Thanks.

DJ.

 

Agree. We are lucky owners of a '62 (owned by us since 1970) that has survived the test of time with all of the original power train components as well as it's original paint. NCRS Top Flight Car. 340Hp.

DJ.
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I hear ya, on both my C2's I'm a pretty big stickler on correct numbers and dates and at one point had a 69 convrt that had pretty much every engine component on it that the was born with.

Over the years I've gone to the trouble of finding correctly dated heads (that no one will ever see the dates) or correctly dated starter motors etc. Now of course those parts did not "come with the car" from the factory, but they are period correct. Now if a block has the correct part number and correct date code for the build of the car, IMO it's really spitting hairs if nothing is diffent other than some numbers on the front engine pad.

Would I prefer to have a car that I knew had "the" original block it was born with over a date/part correct block that had been restamped...sure.

Now if a seller portrays the block as the born with block and it is a restamp then sure there is a problem, but if all parties know whats going on it's certainly passable.

 

Your 'last year and first year' models make a great collector pair! Obviously you have been at it a long time!
Many years ago back in the early 1970's there was a flood of straight axle Corvettes coming into Canada. There was something in those days called the 15 year rule where a car had to be at least 15 years old before you could import it into Canada. The straight axle Corvettes were sort of unloved back then and cheap so lots of them left the USA. Years later when they gained in popularity the Americans came up and bought them back again!
The only way that you could get a split window coupe into the country was to declare the car as a gift at that time. One enterprising fellow did just that with a 1963 Corvette coupe but the Mounties hounded him for a decade after that declaration. The owner kept the car for a long time as he had owned a brand new 1963 coupe and foolishly sold it after only one year. He really like the 1963 coupe!

 

Both the 1963 Corvette coupes mentioned were the 340HP version.

 

The Intoxicating Sound of a solid lifter motor revved to Redline!!!