Stashed For Three Decades: 1964 Corvette Coupe
Try as it may, that thick layer of dust can’t hide the beautiful lines of this 1964 Corvette coupe. It has been sitting neglected for 30 years but is now offered for sale here on Hemmings for an asking price of $35,000. This Corvette, located in Naperville, IL, is equipped with the numbers matching 300 horse 327 engine and 4-speed transmission. There’s a rusty old floor jack visible under the rear of the car. That’s the jack handle laying on the floor beside it. That leads me to believe that the car may have stored with the suspension unloaded at least part of the time.
From this view, we can see that the gaps around the headlight doors and hood look fairly uniform. Also evident is the unique-to-1964 hood. The 1963 version had similar recesses in the hood, but in those recesses were simulated grilles of thin stainless steel. Fortunately, the front bumpers are there. There was an era when it wasn’t unusual the see these cars running around with the front bumpers removed. The seller states that this car was originally red with black interior. The current color looks similar to Corvette Nassau blue.
It’s evident in this view that this is a radio delete car. Who needs a radio anyway? The sweetest music is going to come from the exhaust! The shifter doesn’t look like the original to me. I believe it’s been replaced with an aftermarket unit. The seats are covered with slip-on seat covers suggesting that this neglected car was someone’s baby at one time.
The car looks stock under the hood with the exception of a couple of minor modifications. Obviously, the air cleaner is aftermarket. The original stamped steel valve covers have been replaced with the finned cast aluminum versions that came on the higher horsepower L-79 (350 h.p.), L-76 (365 h.p.), and L-84 (375 h.p.) optioned Corvettes. Maybe one of you Corvette aficionados can tell if that looks like the original Carter carburetor. There is no ignition shielding. Because it doesn’t have a radio, this car would never have been equipped with ignition shielding.
I like originality but safety is my priority. If I was going to drive this car, I’d ditch that single circuit master cylinder in favor of a much safer dual circuit system. Kits are available that make the conversion very simple. I know this because I have done the conversion myself. If this car hasn’t been cleaned up, it would make a fascinating display in the Barn Finds section of the Corvette and Muscle Car Nationals. The seller says the car needs a complete restoration. What would you do with it? Display it for a while as-is? Get it in running and driving condition and leave the rest alone? Or blow it apart for a complete restoration?
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Comments
Nice car.. 4-speed.
Provided the birdcage checks out well deserving of some love — in my opinion seems to be a great candidate for a clean up, mechanical refresh, and drive.
I suppose one could go full blown restoration, but it will always be a base ‘64 and restored value would reflect that.
Agreed my first car was a 64 vete still have the hubcaps!! Asking price is too much for a coupe car with a base engine common color.
Nice car. At least wash it before you post it.
Leave it up to your imagination dude!! It’s a barn find!!
Another car where the picture of the speedometer is the only “proof” offered to back up the sellers claim of low mileage. It spent 25 years on the road, so I guess 2,200 miles a year is supposed to be believable.
No pictures of the undercarriage or mention of rust on an Illinois car, but it does need “full restoration”. A dealer is selling this car, they know the importance of pictures and a thorough description. If the car stood on its own merits they would have rolled it outside and taken more and better pictures. Then again, this is a mid-year Corvette, someone will eventually pay up.
Steve R
Reverse your shop vac and your 60’s car can look this dusty when you put it up for sale.
LOL!
It needs the sniff test to make sure it’s an authentic 30 years stored barn find.
The interior odor should make you puke.
Count me in as a skeptic. Wondering how you get that much dust on the car without it showing on the floor around it as well. Not to mention that its sitting in a storage unit that looks a lot lit near than 30 years.
When you see posts like this, where you see a car just sitting with a blanket of dust on it, does anyone else have the urge just to clean the entire car?
What part of barn find don’t you understand???
“Barn Find” is shorthand for neglected and/or abused. Definitely a negative not a positive.
Ridiculous comment John!!👇 what you don’t want a reply back??
I am amazed at the regular sight of people who put a car a way and really don’t give a %$## about it. Why not throw a car cover or tarp over the car? Sitting for 30 years without even putting a car cover, tarp or sheet over it? Some people have to much money and are numb to what a classic car is. It appears to be in a storage unit. I live close to Naperville, IL and a storage unit for 30 years could very well be more then the value of the car. I would love to know the real story behind this car.
Agreed then the asking price would be double!!
I wouldn’t touch it. I would pull it out of the storage unit….carefully, not touching the body….and bring it to the next annual meet at Bowling Green in an enclosed trailer and offer it there.
These kinds of cars are getting scarcer and scarcer. Providing the birdcage is sound, I think there would be a lot of offers for the car just because it has been sitting untouched for years. It looks mostly unmolested, and it seems like the mods are minor and probably easily reversible.
Yes, it should have been covered and preserved much better than this, but I haven’t found a way yet to roll the clock back, so you deal with what you have.
I think there will be lots of guys who will want a car like this that’s been slumbering for decades. You leave the dust & dirt on it for that reason. Let the buyer take the next steps.
If I were “in the business” this is exactly the kind of car I would want to be dealing with.
I’d tend to agree with you if it was a real barn find with a real story!! Not in the manor deliberately by the owner!!
Riddle me this Batman!!!! If this car has set in its current location for 30 years, why isn’t there more dirt or dust on the floor around the car? Also the metal inside the storage does not look like it is 30 years old!!! I think this is a storage unit sell that somebody bought and now is trying to unload it.
I bought a 78 El Camino that had set in a storage unit for 8 years bought the unit sight unseen for $200.00, and there it set. Took me about 2 month of paperwork to get a clear title for it, but I got it.
You might be right about the storage unit Mike, but I’d be selling the car in Bowling Green, not the storage unit.
The car probably came from a long slumber in somebody’s garage where it had sat for years before the owner passed, and might have gone through somebody’s hands before ending up in the unit.
In Bowling Green it’s the car that matters.
It merely says the car has been parked for 30 years, not that it’s been sealed up in a tomb for 30 years. Could have been lots of activity all around it during that time.
Hi Big Mike.. This is my vette, and it did sit there for 30 years, unused. Floors were filthy, car has not only a layer of dust filth neglect, it is almost a furry layer of dirt.. hard to explain, you can actually “pet” the car… Title clear, if it sells it sells, don’t really care. Its at a shop, and probably going to do a mechanical restoration.
Seats are near perfect under the seat covers, carpet needs to be scrubbed or replaced..
I didn’t put this car up on barn finds, they found me.
Very disconcerting way to take care of a classic Vette!!!
Hey “joe vette”…I have one simple question…”how long have you owned the car (I sure hope that it hasn’t been for 30 years)?”
Does that radiator and fan look tweaked, or is it just me?
Looks normal. 5 blade with a clutch and a metal shroud. Same as my 63 had.
Also, the AFB was the standard carb for a 300 hp. engine just like it is.
Well it’s next to my hometown of Aurora, IL. and if it’s been on the road in the winter at any time during the first person’s ownership a personal inspection is needed, Northern Illinois salts their roads more than I do my steaks and that’s a lot. Nice car though.
Party On!
Sorry, couldn’t help myself…..
The seat covers could also mean that the seats are in rough shape.
Beutiful car stuff dreams are made of!
I agree clean it up, make it mechanically sound, and enjoy. You can’t fake that originality and patina.
What originality? The seller says the car was originally red, now it is blue. That is a big chunk of originality gone.
Right, but the best thing to do is document the original color in photos where some of the original color still remains, and then repaint it in the original color.
I’m doing that with a car that I’m restoring right now, and the original paint showed in the spare tire well, on the underside, on the floors…etc, etc
It’s kinda sad that an old Corvette in this shape is still 35k! Way out of reach for most people who would love it. Probably another 10 to get it safe and running.
I concur A.J. I would love to have this car. Even though it is not correct factory red anymore, and has sat for years. I have wanted a 63-67 ‘vette convertible since I was a little boy (mid 50’s now), seeing a corvette club in the local community fair parade, no concern for emissions, and some of them running racing gas. I came from humble means growing up and never thought I could afford one. I could sell all of my toys and buy a nice one, but that kinda goes against the “He who dies with the most toys, wins” theory (or at least parting with the other cars I love and acquired over the years). 35k is a tough number to swallow for any car for a blue collar guy. It will likely be a labor of love for someone who has to have one, and/or has deep pockets or can do a lot of the work himself.
The ’63s were the only cars to have the stainless inserts in the hood depressions. They were removed in the ’64 model to clean it up a little. This is a vintage Corvette so by definition it’s going to be overpriced. Someone will pay.
Tough to take a car like this to a Corvette Concours event. They would tear it apart and only want to pay penny’s for it.
Hard to sell at a show where there are many more to choose from in all conditions.
Getting it to run will add $$$
One would think as popular and valuable as Corvettes have been for so many years that all of them would have been fixed.
Yesterday I received and email from a friend with pictures of 5 C1 and C2 Corvettes sitting for 25+ years in the owners backyard. Another dream unrealized tand now these Corvettes are for sale at inflated unrealistic prices.
Stand back and watch the next 5 years as all sorts of cars and trucks like this will come of for sale as the Baby Boomer’s finally realize that dream they had 25 years ago when they bought that car or truck will never be realized and now it’s time to sell the house, downsize or move to an assisted living facility and prepare to DIE!
J
I wouldn’t quite put it in those words. Although, some of that is true. The younger generations seem far less attached to old iron and fiberglass than we are. So, if you believe in supply and demand, and you should, these cars won’t keep their value forever. There needs to be buyers.
Wow….
Seems like somebody may need a Stuart Smalley ‘daily affirmation’…… :)
The 50s and 60s is the only Corvettes ever made that will turn my head after that they are the ugliest cars on the road! I know that’s my opinion!
You know what they say about opinions!!!!…………
Yeah I certainly do! I must be the biggest A hole out here because I have many! :-)
Jack ASS 👇
Why does it have an antenna. Being not optioned with a radio?
Great eye Jay!!!!!!!
I was wondering the same thing Jay. You’d think a radio delete would also delete the antenna.
Nice name lol. I’m gonna guess the came with a radio as it was removed ! Typically radio delete cars also had no heater!! Like the ZO-6 . Or a later shark car 68-9 L-88 set up to do racing. A special suspension also was a radio delete car.
Hey Rocco that’s interesting I didn’t know a radio delete car would also delete the heater….I wonder what the logic was in that was it just for weight reduction or ? Either way yes I’m thinking if it had an antenna it would have been equipped with a radio. Good info.
When I was looking for a C2, the first car I went to look at was a car located in Northern Colorado. The Corvette had been the weekend driver of the owners father and she had inherited the car. Her father had lived in Michigan and owned the car since the 1980’s. When I was able to see the car in person, I was absolutely amazed at the amount of rust under the car. When you closed the doors, rust would fall to the ground under the car. I could not believe a Corvette (let alone any other car) could ever rust that badly. You could actually reach through holes in the box frame under the doors and pull out carpet backing! There was nothing but fiberglass holding the car together. This car reminded me of that when I saw the jack sitting on the floor behind it. The asking price was $52K. She had a ton of sentimental value attached to the car.
Sounds like my 71. Original Chicago car. Frame and birdcage were beyound gone! Paid the original owner $4400. Drove it like that for years until finally parting it out for almost 8 grand!
What year was it? Probably in a damp garage!! I hope you didn’t pay that??
Ha ha! NO WAY! I didn’t even drive it…I was too busy shaking my head. It was only about a year-and-a-half ago. I keep wondering what happened to it.
Really? $35k for the lowliest of the C-2s? This car will need a full mechanical restoration, and more. Have you seen the prices on nice 64 coupes?
This obsession with “barn finds” has gone off the rails. Paying a premium for the opportunity to invest more $$$ than what this “run of the mill” midyear will be worth is ludicrous.
Why is there a 4′ antennae on a radio delete car? Huh?
Hemmings ad says it’s red. Sure looks like blue to me.
Been listed for a while – pretty sure on here a time or two. If it was a deal it would already be gone.
Dealer selling this beauty.says it rolls great, Check the underbelly real good. Somebody will buy it.
Good luck to the new owner.
She is gorgeous!
Hey “joe vette”…I posted this comment (below) 2 weeks ago. How about an answer…P L E A S E ?
I have one simple question…”how long have you owned the car (I sure hope that it hasn’t been for 30 years)?”