With all of the hysteria about matching numbers and desirable options surrounding the purchase of a vintage Corvette, sometimes it is prudent to stop for a second and determine why you want a Corvette in the first place.  If you want a museum piece that only gets driven from the garage to an enclosed trailer to the show field, then call your banker and get yourself a mortgage.  However, if you want a car to drive and enjoy, then we may have found the car for you.  If you are looking for a very presentable C2 driver with a drop-top and the optional hard top, then take a peek at this 1964 Corvette convertible for sale on eBay in Lynnwood, Washington.  This gorgeous convertible is in excellent shape and is billed as capable of being a daily driver.  Bidding is currently at $30,300 with a Buy It Now price of $55,950.  Is that a reasonable price for a vintage Corvette convertible?

Sometimes you learn more by what is not said than what is said.  In the ad there is no mention of matching numbers anywhere for this car.  We do get a look at the trim tag and VIN plate.  However, these are a curious part of Corvette history that you sometimes have to take with a grain of salt.  Chevrolet riveted these tags to the support under the glove box in 1964.  As you can imagine, this made it easy for thieves and miscreants to do their work.  Tags have also been reproduced over the years to make some Corvettes what they are not.  Do your homework.

As for this car, it presents exceptionally well.  The paint code is for Satin Silver Metallic.  However, this car looks to be more of a Silver Blue Metallic.  Regardless, there are no obvious rough spots when looking at the car and the black convertible top does an admirable job of contrasting with the current color.

The chrome bumpers and side trim all seem to be in great shape.  One area a new owner might change is the white walls.  Corvettes could be ordered with white wall tires.  However, they don’t look very businesslike on a sports car.  I am not sure that red line or gold line tires of the era would look good either.  Perhaps a proper set of black walls would be in order here.

A look inside reveals that the vinyl upholstery and the carpets are in great shape.  Early C2 Corvettes had multiple piece carpet sets that go together like one of your grandma’s 1,000-piece puzzles.  As time wore on, molds got better, and they were less of a nightmare.  We can also see that the car has the optional wooden steering wheel, power windows, and an aftermarket Hurst shifter.  An interesting issue is the brake pedal.  While the picture may be deceiving, it looks like a pedal for an automatic transmission equipped car.

Under the hood, everything appears to be tidy.  The air cleaner, intake manifold, and the valve covers are not correct for the car.  However, the single pot master cylinder, overflow tank, and rams horn manifolds may be correct.  Of course, date codes on these items would tell if they matched the build date.  We can also see that the car lacks power brakes but is equipped with power steering.  It may also be missing the ignition shielding used to minimize static in the radio.

As for the trim tags, Mid America Motorworks has an excellent guide to interpreting them online.  If you are interested, it is important for you to do your homework and trim tags are a good place to start.  As with any vintage Corvette, it is up to the buyer to determine the value and authenticity of any vehicle before purchasing.  There are no stated issues with this car, but buyer beware is always a sound approach.  Hopefully someone purchases this car and cares for it.  It is certainly a nice car at a reasonable price.