Barn find 1960 Corvette

1960 Chevrolet Corvette Description

I found this car in a local barn about four years ago and it was there for 34 years, the car came from cal, and i have the 1963 cal, plate.
The motor that was in it was not the one it was born with, it was a 1965 340hp 327 (i still have it) but was locked up from sitting. the 1962 327 i put in it was all new for another car i had but sold, it was a area correct swap so i used it. it has about 5,000 mi on it as does the trans, ( M20) the rear end chuck was just done last winter as well as axle bearings and seals.
The Tach, and speedo were sent out to be overhauled and the wiring harness is all updated to an aftermarket.
I also updated the front brakes to disk with a duel master and propor, valve and rear brakes are also new.
Complete front suspension and steering with the steering box have all been rebuilt along with front and rear springs.
The heater system has also been rebuilt.
This car runs and drives great and we take it any place.
It has a replacement soft top but not a top notch replacement, it does keep the water out (some what).
I also have the hard top that will need restoring but its a nice drive unit (correct date code on side glass).
Any questions let me know.

On Jun-09-17 at 12:39:45 PDT, seller added the following information:

Middlesex News

Car, 1960 corvette roadster (convertible)

Late July of 2012 I was asked by a friend if I knew of anyone that would be interested in a 1967 Chevy that he had put in storage in a local chicken coop 34 years ago, as it turns out the owner of the chicken coop was going to take the building down and all the cars that were in there had to go.

I had told a friend about the Chevy and we went down to look at it, as he looked over the car I walked around the barn to look at the other cars that were in there and came across the corvette stuck down in the back corner half covered up with a thin sheet, I started asking the building owner about the car and he told me that it had been in there for so long that he forgot the name of the owner but would look through his paper work and find out for me. Come to find out later that the car had sat outside uncovered for fifteen years and then was put in the chicken coop for another nineteen years until I found it.

It took about a month and I got a call from the owner who now lives in Virginia (all this time I was told by people that I would not be able to get the car for under ten to fifteen grand and had almost given up hope) well as it turns out the owner was more then happy to sell me the car because he was still paying rent all this time ($15 dollars a month if you can call that rent) and we made a deal for the car and part of the deal was that I had to pay the owner of the building the back rent do ($450.00 dollars) and send him the balance.

I was in my work truck on my cell at the time (pulled over on the side of the road) and finished the call and was so blown away at the fact that I just got the barn find of lifetime and was shaking so bad it took about 20 min, before I could drive my truck home to tell any one, this all took place on a Friday and it took about two days before it sunk in that I now own a 1960 C1 corvette.

After about a week I was able to get the car out of the barn and get it home, this gave me the chance to really look over what 34 years of neglect had done to it.

The paint had been baked in the heat of the barn an was chipping and cracked all over, the mice had taken up full residences and every thing they had collected was in the front seat, the trunk, and in the motor, also it smelt so bad you could not get in it.

There comes a time in every motor heads life when you ask yourself can I save it or not, well the answer with this car was simple, it was 80% there and most of the missing trim ended up being in the trunk and no matter what it was a C1 corvette so yes it was to be saved.

The one thing that did surprise me was when we put a battery in it the clock started and kept time like it was shut off yesterday.

Talking to the owner after I bought the car I found out that the car came from California where he was an air men at a USAF air base (he didn’t say where) and that he got it from another air men that was shipping out, it turns out the car was on the base for most of its life and was passed from air men to air men as each was shipping out.

I was able to track down the air men that he got it from (who is now a doctor out near Boston ) and when I called him he was shocked to hear that I found the car in Hudson MA because he sold it in Cal, and he wanted me to send him some pictures of the car as I found it, he also asked me if I had found the hidden fuel shut off and the kill switch (at the time I hadn’t found them) but they were right where he said they would be.

The first thing I needed to do was to pull the (what I found out later) was the 1965 327ci 360hp motor that was put in back in 1970 the stock motor would have been a 283ci and was long gone.

I at the time had just built a 1962 327ci motor that I was going to put in a different car but as fate would have it I had sold the car two weeks before I found the vette and this motor is now powering my C1.

The rest of the work was total brake system rebuild, complete wiring (thanks to the mice) and some front end work along with a good pressure wash (inside and out) to get the smell out and as they say in the song on the road again.

The car is no way perfect and its not meant to be, I have had C1 vette owners that have show room condition cars come up and tell me to leave it just like it is because once your done brining it back it its former glory you may love the car but you’ll never have as much fun driving it as I do now because they worry so much about their cars that it takes the fun out of owning them.

This is so true, my last car took me seven years to restore and I was never more then twenty feet away from it anytime I took it some place and yet on the other hand I would love to have my vette back to new again but then I would not let my wife drive it as much as she does now and she takes it out more then I do.

We both love this car and found that out of all the cars I built and owned this is by far the best one yet and its mostly because of all the little things that happened that led up to finding it, one would think that the car wanted me to find it and had an influence on events to make it happen, think about it a 1960 corvette in storage 34 years this does not happen all the time, I think the car gods were looking out for both of us and wanted us together.

The C1 corvette has always been a classic and I love the older body styles from 54 to 67 all you need to do is look at them and you can tell what it is and what year and a lot of the time what motor it has with out looking under the hood today’s cars you can’t tell half the time what they are, call me old fashion but we don’t make to many cars today that turn my head as they go by.

I’ve been a car guy all my life and had a lot of help and guidance from what at the time were older guys and are still very close friends today who helped me see the beauty in a pile of rust and told me all I had to do is let it tell me what it wants to be, it’s funny but every time I start a project I have an idea of what I want but not sure how I’ll get there and every time its done I have a feeling that the car, bike, boat or what ever it is led me through whole project right to the end, you have to wonder why we do this time and time again and it’s because we are car guys and some one has to, think of a world with out old cars, hot rods, mussel cars and antiques, oh shoot me now.

Well that’s my story