1969 Chevrolet Corvette L71427 / 435 HP

The original owner Robert of this '69 L-71 427 / 435 HP automatic lived in Spokane, Washington.
He had a ’65 396 4 speed, but lost his right arm in an industrial accident @ work, so he ordered the car with an automatic transmission thru a local dealer, so he didn’t have to shift gears!!
He was so anxious to get the car that he flew to the factory in St. Louis, picked up the car & drove it home.
Shortly after getting it home he removed the stock wheels & put a set of custom rims on the car.
He kept the car for 4 years & then sold it in '73 to Fred, also from Spokane & Fred drove the car on his honeymoon.
Fred then sold it two years later to a lady in Spokane in the spring of '75, but she found the car had too much power for her, so in late ’75 she put the car up for sale.
Fortunately the original owner’s younger brother Bill saw the car for sale & bought the car from her in September ‘75, with him becoming the 4th owner.
He put a Baldwin Motion paint job on the car that fall & in mid ’76 while driving the car he lost control & went off the road, hitting a sign post & doing some minor right front body & frame damage.
He had a friend who owned a ’69 350 HP convertible, so he put the engine, transmission & rear end from the L-71 into the convertible.
His plan was to eventually fix the front end of the coupe & then replace the drive train that had been moved to the convertible.
Before he could fix the coupe, the convertible caught on fire & then there was no car to drive, so both cars were parked!!
Time went by & in 1990 Bill decided it was time to get the L-71 back on the road, so he disassembled the car & started sending parts to be re-chromed & anodized, but quickly ran out of money & stopped! In ’92 he decided to sell the cars!
A car collector, Hans, in Tulsa, Oklahoma had a ’69 L-71 4 speed Corvette coupe & wanted a '69 L-71 automatic coupe to add to his collection.
A good friend of his in Tulsa, Roy, was the National Judging Chairman for NCRS & Hans asked Roy to find a L-71 automatic for him!
Roy found the numbers matching L-71, travelled to Spokane & acquired & shipped both cars (L-71 drivetrain was still in the convertible) back to Tulsa.
From ’92 until 2000 Hans acquired many new NOS parts for the L-71, such that when I acquired & shipped the two cars, there was also six crates of parts!
So why did Hans sell the cars; he didn’t!!
Unfortunately in 2000 he passed away, so his wife sold off his car collection & asked Roy who had originally found & acquired the cars for Hans to sell his Corvette collection.
In fact, if you watched the January 2014 Barrett Jackson Scottsdale Auction, Roy, who had bought a few Han's cars, sold two of the highest dollar Corvettes @ the auction & both of these were from Han’s Corvette collection!!
I travelled to Tulsa & had the two cars & six crates of parts shipped to a renowned, meticulous car restorer in Vancouver, B.C.
The restoration process took four years, as every last nut, bolt, screw, hose, clamp, etc. has been re-built, re-painted, re-plated & or replaced with NOS or GM authorized re-production parts, so thereliterally are hundreds & hundreds of pictures available covering all phases of the restoration process!
Since the original frame was in such great shape, to "properly" fix the minor frame damage on the right front corner, a donor frame was purchased from a Corvette that had been damaged on the driver’s side & the short 2’ long horn was removed from the donor frame & attached to the L-71 frame on the front right & then the frame was checked & insured to be laser straight.
After the repair, the frame was acid dipped to strip the minor rust & paint, neutralized, phosphate coated & then epoxy powder coated, plus the inside of the frame rails were sprayed with bees wax, so the frame will never need to be done again!!
All brake lines & fuel lines were replaced with stainless steel, so these will never need to be replaced again as well.
The body was blasted with crushed walnut shells to eliminate heat & damage to the fiberglass & then there was over 800 hours of body panel fit & alignment, fiberglass body work & paint to make it perfect!! All repairs to the fiberglass were done properly & professionally with fiberglass, not bondo!
The interior is also totally restored & perfect.
It was 30 years from when Bill damaged & parked the car until the 4 year restoration process was completed & the car ready & shown.
The car has had it's own Frontline Display @ World of Wheels, winning several awards. It has also been Concours judged several times scoring a perfect 200 & has won awards for Concours De-Elegance.
This was a no expense spared restoration, and I have receipts for well over $200k.
The car has only had a few miles put on it since the restoration process was completed & most of these are driving from it's heated garage perch on a hoist to local car shows & the Corvette shop for oil changes. It has been started & moved on a monthly basis to keep all seals lubricated & functional.
There are two sets of rims, tires and chrome trim rings, one is with a set of Radial TA's & the other is the set for Show, which are a Reproduction set of Bias Ply. The spare comes with an original Bias Ply tire.
This L-71 with automatic transmission is ultra rare. Only 2,722 1969 Corvettes were built with the 427 / 435 HP option & less than 120 of these were originally produced with the Turbo Hydra-Matic automatic transmission & only a handful of these Number Matching cars are known to still exist! This car also has the rare F41 Special Purpose Suspension.
You will not find one better!

Also published at eBay.ca