Another 67 L79 Corvette story.......
 

Many of you probably recall Dave and I often refer to our Dad's former 67 L79 Air Conditioned roadster when conversations about similar cars come up - Tim (NAPA68 ) has had many spectacular ones recently. Dave refers to Dad's car as our "tap root" car - the one that got us interested in cars. In addition to getting us interested in cars, we have meet many wonderful people as the result of Dad's car over the years. I will eventually get into the details and history of the car as this thread develops but the long and short of it is that I was able to purchase the car back. We flew down to Sarasota FL this weekend and closed the deal. Once the auction frenzy for transporters calms down in the coming weeks Reliable should have the car back in my garage and next to the 409 for the first time since 1980. To say we are thrilled is an understatement. Many thanks to Tim for letting me bounce some information off him and the many converations we had regarding the car in the last week. This all came together pretty quickly (10 days ago I was notified the car was available) so it has been a bit of a whirlwind. I'll share some current pictures from our trip and some taken by the seller for me prior to us going down. Couldn't have asked for a better seller and luckily the quick overnight trip went off without a hitch. The car still retains it's original tags, tank sticker, transmission, door panels, seats, and many of the major underhood components. While it is a St. Louis bodied car the sidepipes were added (ugh) after Dad sold it. It needs some cleaning and a relatively small puchlist of items to get it to where I want it to be but overall is a pretty solid car. One of the coolest things is that Dad's 3 ring binder of documentation and his handwritten notes survived the 4 subsequent owners since 2004 and remains with the car.

This is SO filled with win! I think it is so awesome that significant contributors to the site, have the opportunity to get one of their Dad's cars back. Jake was so much more composed that I would have been if the circumstances were reversed.

Congrats guys!

On a personal note, this has been hard not to let the cat out of the bag:wink:

Congratulations on getting the car back into the family after all these years. Looking forward hearing more about it. :biggthumpup:

It was a great trip with an even better outcome!! Down the rabbit hole we go!:beers:

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W:eek2:W car and story, looking forward to seeing/hearing more about it.
BIG Congrats!:headbang:
:beers:
~ Pete

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What Tim said!! Glad to see this one coming home!!

Congrats guys!

Good score - they'll have some catchin' up to do ...!

Awesome...and congrats!:worship:

Some more pictures....... The car was originally sold from the south (Huffstatler Chevrolet in Leeds Alabama) and had an amazingly clean and rust free chassis when Dad got it back in 1976. It has remained in good shape and just needs a thorough cleaning. The car was repainted around the 2012 timeframe. The paint is way better than when Dad sold the car in 2004 (it needed paint then) but probably a 7 out of 10 so definitely not perfect. I believe the paint in the door jambs to still be original based on my recollection of when Dad had it and what I saw this weekend. When Dad bought the car it had a CE block in it but all of the peripheral components where still original to the car. Around 1982 he found a correctly dated block and had it stamped. Knowing what we do now he should have probably left the CE block in there but we can't go back and it is what it is. Not going to hide the truth. He also swapped out the differential with a 3.55 posi (originally a 3.36 open). I did not check the diff codes but I don't believe any of the subsequent owners changed that. The carb that is on it is a later service replacement 3810, so I will need to source a February dated 3810 if anybody has one in their stash. Dad added the tele column and that is still there today. The seller just spent about $21k on maintenance of various mechanical and cosmetic items (brakes, A/C, fluids, power steering repairs, new carpet, paint correction, weatherstrips, and other misc. items) so other than the general clean up and going through the car to see what might not work I don't think I will have a huge list, but time will tell. There are a few more reproduction items on the car than I would like but I can look for originals and swap them out as time goes on. The seller drove the car frequently in Florida which is probably a good thing as he kept it maintained as a result.