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, arried & with our first son on the way, sold this carto become a down paymenton ourvery first home.I vowed that one day I wouldown a C3 again. Roll ahead 20 years & my search finally began. I decided thata '69 C3chrome bumper, igh horsepower, as 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, found a '69 L-71 "Basket Case" sitting in a Corvette collector's collection in Tulsa, klahoma.The Collectorhad unfortunately recently passed away and his widow was selling off allthe cars in his collection.
I had originally listed this car for sale on eBay in early October & out of courtesy, made the original owner Robert & his younger brother Bill, he 4th owner of the car &an individual I had made contact with when I acquired the car in 2002, ware that I was selling the car on eBay.
The car had several bids during the firstweek thru the eBay listing, ut 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 thesecondday of this listing & heasked / beggedme to remove the car from my eBay listing, s 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, never asked for a deposit & for the past 2 1/2 months I have been dealing with bothRobert & Billregarding the purchase. I have finally run out of patience waiting for payment, o I am re-listing the car for sale again. In this listingI have lowered my Reserve Price to the reduced price I was going to sell it to the original owner (who is now 72), s 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 automaticlived in Spokane, ashington.
He had a '65 Corvette with 396 4 speed, ut lost his right arm in an industrial accident @ work, o he ordered a '69 L-71 thru a local Spokane dealer with an automatic transmissio, o he didn't have to shift gears!!
Hewas so anxious to get the car that he flew to the factory in St. Louis to take delivery, icked up the car & drove it home. Apparently his first race wasoutrunning a 428 Cobra Jet, ot yet 30 miles out of St. Louis!!
Shortly after getting it home he removed thestock 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.
Robertkept the car for 4 years & then sold it in '73 toFred, lsofrom Spokane &Freddrovethe carthru the mountains on his honeymoon!
Fredsold the cartwo years later to a ladyin Spokane in the spring of '75,but shefound the carhad too much power for her, o inlate '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 inSeptember '75, ithBill becoming the 4th owner.
Heput a Baldwin Motion paint job on the car that fall & in mid '76 while driving the car helost control &went off the road & hit a sign post, oing some minor right front body & frame damage.
Hehad a friend who owned a '69 350 HP convertible, ohetook the engine, ransmission & rear endout ofthe 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 couldstart work onthe coupe, he convertible backfired & caught on fire & thenthere wasno car to drive, o both cars were parked!!
Time went by & in 1990Bill decided it was time to get the L-71 back on the road, o he disassembled theL-71 & started sending parts to be re-chromed & anodized, ut quickly ran out of money & stopped! In '92 he decided to sell the "cars", s the engine, ransmission & rear endout ofthe L-71 were still in the convertible!
A car collector, ans, n Tulsa, klahomahad 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, oy, asthe National Judging Chairman for NCRS&Hans askedRoyto findanL-71 automatic for him!
Roy found the numbers matchingL-71, ravelled 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, uch that when I acquired & Imported the two cars into Canada, here was also six crates of parts!
So why did Hanssell the cars; well he didn't!!
Unfortunately in 2000 hepassed away, o his wife sold off his car collection & askedRoy, Corvette expert & gentleman who had originally found & acquired the cars for Hans,tosell his Corvette collection.
In fact, f you watched the January 2014Barrett Jackson Scottsdale Auction,Roy,who had bought a few Corvettes from Han's collection, old 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 toarenowned, eticulous Corvette car restorerin Vancouver, .C., anada.
The restoration process took four years, s every last nut, olt, crew, ose, lamp, tc. has been re-built, e-painted, e-plated& or replaced with NOS or GM authorized re-production parts. So in addition to all the components, ll of the nuts, olts, crews are NCRS correct!Pictures were taken during the restoration process by the restorer & myself when I would visit to check on the progress, othere are literally hundreds & hundreds of pictures available covering all phases of the restoration process!
Since the original frame was in such great shape, o "properly" fix the minor frame damage on the right front corner, period correct donor frame was purchased from a Corvette thathad beendamaged on the driver's side &the short 2' long horn was removed from the donor frame &attached tothe L-71 frame on the front right & then the frame was checked & insured to be laser straight.
After the repair, he frame was acid dipped to strip the minor surface rust & factory paint, eutralized, hosphate coated& then epoxy powder coated, lus the inside of the frame rails were sprayed with bees wax, othe framewill never need to be done again!!
All brake lines & fuel lines were replaced with stainless steel, o these will never need to be replaced again as well.
The body was blasted with fine crushed walnut shellsto eliminate heat & damage to the fiberglass& then there was over 800 hoursof body panel fit & alignment, iberglass body work& paint to make it perfect!! All repairs to the fiberglass were done properly & professionally with fiberglass, ot bondo!
The interior is also totally restored & perfect, rimarily with NOS parts where required.
It was exactly 30 years from whenBill damaged & parked the car until the 4 year restoration process was complete & the car was readyto beshown.
The car has had it's own Frontline Display @ the 2006 World of Wheels, inning several awards.It has also been Concours judged several times since, coring a perfect 200 & has won awards for Concours De-Elegance.
This was a no expense spared restoration, nd 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 acar 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", hich are a Reproduction set of Bias Ply. These have never turned an inch on the car; just lift, eplace & set down for show!The spare comes with an original Bias Ply tire.
ThisL-71 with automatic transmissionis ultra rare. Only 2,722 1969 Corvettes were built with the 427 / 435 HP option &less than 120 of these were originally produced withthe Turbo Hydra-Maticautomatic transmission. Only a handful of these Number Matching cars are known to still exist!This caralso has the rare F41 Special Purpose Suspension.
You will not find one better, specially @ this price!
Also see for sale on eBay, y 1996 Porsche 911!!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/221980155903?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649