1969 Chevrolet Corvette

Unfortunately with tough economic times comes tough decisions!! Listed for sale is one of my life long dreams; a 1969 L-71 C3 Corvette with 427 / 435 HP Tri-power!The very first time I saw a C3 I was just 11 years old & right then I said, "some day I'm going to own one of them"! And just 8 years later the "very first car" that I ever bought was a 1975 C3 Corvette. A few years later, married & with our first son on the way, I sold this car to become a down payment on our very first home. I vowed that one day I would own a C3 again. Roll ahead 20 years & my search finally began. I decided that a '69 C3 chrome bumper, high horsepower, was the one I wanted & the search was on. After a few months of searching & with a chance meeting one of the very best Corvette restorer's in North America, I found a '69 L-71 "Basket Case" sitting in a Corvette collector's collection in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Collector had unfortunately recently passed away and his widow was selling off all the cars in his collection.
I had originally listed this car for sale on eBay in early October & out of courtesy, I made the original owner Robert & his younger brother Bill, the 4th owner of the car & an individual I had made contact with when I acquired the car in 2002, aware that I was selling the car on eBay.
The car had several bids during the first week thru the eBay listing, but it didn't hit my Reserve Price. So I relisted the car & again immediately got a few bids. I received a phone call from the Original Owner Robert on the second day of this listing & he asked / begged me to remove the car from my eBay listing, as he wanted to buy the car. This of course was 42 years after he had sold it to the second owner in 1973. So we agreed on a sale price & I removed it from my eBay listing. As I was sure that the car would be purchased by Robert / Bill, I never asked for a deposit & for the past 2 1/2 months I have been dealing with both Robert & Bill regarding the purchase. I have finally run out of patience waiting for payment, so I am re-listing the car for sale again. In this listing I have lowered my Reserve Price to the reduced price I was going to sell it to the original owner (who is now 72), as I thought it was fitting that the car should go back to him & had compromised on the selling price.
So their loss is your gain & below is the info from my original listing back in October.
The original owner Robert of this '69 L-71 427 / 435 HP automatic lived in Spokane, Washington.
He had a ’65 Corvette with 396 4 speed, but lost his right arm in an industrial accident @ work, so he ordered a '69 L-71 thru a local Spokane dealer with an automatic transmission , 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 to take delivery, picked up the car & drove it home. Apparently his first race was outrunning a 428 Cobra Jet, not yet 30 miles out of St. Louis!!
Shortly after getting it home he removed the stock wheels & put a set of custom rims on the car. There is a picture I acquired from Bill showing the car with these rims in '69.
Robert kept the car for 4 years & then sold it in '73 to Fred, also from Spokane & Fred drove the car thru the mountains on his honeymoon!
Fred sold the car 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 was for sale & bought the car from her in September ‘75, with Bill 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 & hit a sign post, doing some minor right front body & frame damage.
He had a friend who owned a ’69 350 HP convertible, so he took the engine, transmission & rear end out of the L-71 & put it into the convertible.
His plan was to eventually fix the front end of the L-71 coupe & then replace the drive train that had been moved to the convertible.
Before he could start work on the coupe, the convertible backfired & 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 L-71 & started sending parts to be re-chromed & anodized, but quickly ran out of money & stopped! In ’92 he decided to sell the "cars", as the engine, transmission & rear end out of the L-71 were still in the convertible!
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 an L-71 automatic for him!
Roy found the numbers matching L-71, travelled to Spokane & bought both cars from Bill. He shipped both cars back to Tulsa.
From ’92 until 2000 Hans acquired many NOS parts for the L-71, such that when I acquired & Imported the two cars into Canada, there was also six crates of parts!
So why did Hans sell the cars; well he didn’t!!
Unfortunately in 2000 he passed away, so his wife sold off his car collection & asked Roy, a Corvette expert & gentleman 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 Corvettes from Han's collection, sold two of the highest dollar Corvettes @ the BJ 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 Corvette car restorer in Vancouver, B.C., Canada.
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 in addition to all the components, all of the nuts, bolts, screws are NCRS correct! Pictures were taken during the restoration process by the restorer & myself when I would visit to check on the progress, so thereare literally 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 period correct 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 surface rust & factory 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 fine 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, primarily with NOS parts where required.
It was exactly 30 years from when Bill damaged & parked the car until the 4 year restoration process was complete & the car was ready to be shown.
The car has had it's own Frontline Display @ the 2006 World of Wheels, winning several awards. It has also been Concours judged several times since, 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 from it's heated garage perch on a car stacker to local Corvette / car shows & to the Corvette shop for regular oil changes. It has also been started & moved up & down the driveway on a monthly basis to keep all seals lubricated & functional.
There are two sets of rims & tires that come with the car. One is with a set of Radial TA's for moving the car & the other is the set for "Show", which are a Reproduction set of Bias Ply. These have never turned an inch on the car; just lift, replace & set down for show! 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, especially @ this price!
Also see for sale on eBay, my 1996 Porsche 911!!

Also published at eBay.ca