Welcome to my new Corvette site. Hopefully this site will provide some information that you may find interesting as well as a little inspiration as the restoration begins.
I sold my 1975 Corvette back in May 0f 2008. It was a heart wrenching moment to see her driven off by her new owner and if I'm honest, I regret selling her. That was then and this is now. I had been searching for another Corvette pretty much since the sale and whilst a few came up that looked promising, I was all too aware that I just didnt have the budget for a '70 vert, my dream car.
I then began to think about project cars. What about if I just took my time and built the car the way I wanted? I then started to look for suitable donors or project cars. It very soon became apparent that my small budget was not going to allow me to source a UK car so once again I turned my attention to the U.S.A.
I searched the for sale ad's on Craigslist, the US Corvette forum and also a few lesser known car trading sites. I made contact with a few sellers via Craigslist and all was good until I mentioned that I was in the UK. Suddenly, the car of interest would sell from under me! I suppose people are a little wary of selling cars internationally as there are quite a few scams around.
Finally, a guy by the name of Mike Dallmann over on the US Corvette forum posted a link to a car that was advertised on Craigslist that was in his local area. He said that he had no affiliation with the ad but would be happy to go have a look if someone was seriously interested.
Well, that was the start of my new project. The car listed was a 1979, L82, 4 speed manual in need of some work. The owner Andy had bought the car with the intention of restoring it with his son. The car was made road worthy but then, due to a change in plans and his son joining the army, the 'Vette was left.
After speaking with Andy, several times by phone and via e-mail I contacted Mike and asked if he would go have a look as I was 95% sure this was the car for me. By now I had seen the pictures so I knew she was no show queen but she looked better than I had imagined for a Corvette with a price tag of $2500.
Mike confirmed that the car ran and stopped and was basically a good starting point for my project.
Trust between myself and Andy played a big part in the deal. After speaking to him I was happy that I would send the money to him via bank transfer and that he would get the car ready for collection.