History When did you first hear the corvette in the barn story

Many moons ago I was a conductor with the Canadian Pacific Railway. Working on the railway you get to see a lot of interesting things along the right-of-way that you wouldn't be able to see from the road or even the air. Lots and lots of vintage tin visible through the trees, pushed up to fences against railway property or visible through the open doors of old barns..
Anyhow, just West of Saskatoon, there was this one old barn I had run by many, many times without giving it a second look. This time I just happened to look into the door, at the right moment, when the light was at the right angle. We were going 50 mph, but for a fraction of a second I saw the rear end of a shiny teal '57 Nomad. I literally jumped out of my chair... The hogger was startled and asked me what the fuss was about. I told him what I saw and he laughed, saying 'good luck'. I asked him what he meant. He told me 'that Chevy has been parked in that old barn since the early '60s. Every decade or so some young hot rodder like yourself sees it and decides to go knocking on the old man's door to buy it'. I asked what the deal was. The engineer smiled and said 'Him and his 12 gauge don't take to kindly to strangers asking about his property'.
This was back in the early 2000's.... Last I heard the old farmer is long gone, the property is owned by relatives that live a couple of Provinces away and the car is still sitting there.

 

Around here it was the Corvette that the owner died in, and wasn't discovered for months. It was selling for really cheap because they couldn't get the smell out of it!

 

Corvette or whatever happened to be ultra desirable at the moment.

 

I heard about both the Corvette with the owner dying in it and the Vietnam story at about the same time. Mid 60's, I think.

 

I've heard numerous stories like you all have. I happen to know of one to be true. Ive seen it with my own eyes. A guy my dad went to high school with went to vietnam shortly after high school and had just bought an OT 69 Camaro and never made it back home. Its sat since 1970 and will not be for sale if ever. Still sits in the exact spot that he left it. Ive talked to the original owners brother and parents numerous times and its a sentimental item because they knew how much david loved that car.

 

Around 2000 or so a buddy of mine from stock car racing let me come along to check out a stash of cars and parts a lady was selling. This was right in the middle of a residential neighborhood in Hillsboro, Oregon. The stuff was mostly mid to late sixties Imperials and full sized Mopars, probably 25 or so cars total and a few sheds full of miscellaneous parts. (no 426 Hemis or anything cool like that) The stuff had belonged to the lady's brother. He had been a big Mopar guy. Anyway, the coolest car of the bunch was a white 59 Plymouth Fury two door hardtop. This car was in beautiful shape. I tried to buy if off the lady, but it was the one she wanted to keep. It had been her Brother's favorite. Apparently, he had committed suicide years before, and going out to look at it made her think of him in happier times. The other cars and part were sold off over the next few months. The last time I was there, it was still sitting in the same spot. As far as I know, it's still there.

 

G'day, The dead body in the Corvette was debunked by Myth Busters a few years ago. It just doesn't happen. There was a fellow that could pass as Santa Claus living in Canton City here in ND. He had an old run down shop and kept to himself. One day he called my dad and asked if we would be interested in some of his old parts. So I drove up there the next weekend and purchased some bare 350, 400, 427 and 454 blocks as well as some really nice steel crankshafts. But sitting in this mess were the proverbial barn finds. There was a 63 Corvette roadster that ran and drove and a 67 BB coupe that needed a wiring harness. He wasn't interested in selling as he was going to restore them. He was buried last fall and I am not sure what happened to the Vettes.

Back in 1981 I was going to buy a 58 Corvette but found that it was a roach. Someone tipped me off to a 1959 Chevy that a neighbor had for sale. Yes, it was a 59 Corvette that had been a drag car since 1959. It was a hardtop only car as the roll bar took up the place for the gas tank and soft top. It had fiberglass wheel tubs that also encroached on soft top area. I bought it on the MSO as it hadn't never been put on the road. The car had come from St Louis where the C1 vetoes were built. It had radio, heater, windshield wiper, and front turn signal deletes. When the state of ND processed the MSO the car became titled as a 1959 Chevrolet. 39 years later it is sitting in an old potato warehouse along with someone's Chevrolet parts horde.

 

Not a Corvette, but a Chevy with a "Corvette" engine. 1974 living in a trailer park north of Flint, Michigan going to school on a shoestring budget and I have to pass by this sad looking Chevelle sitting on a parking pad just a few "houses" down. One flat tire, an ever increasing puddle of ATF under the front and the whole rear quarter panel on the driver's side was sideswiped. I had to stop and ask. Seems that when the guy's wife decided to leave him she took the good car and made sure to damage his Chevelle as she left. Nice! I asked if he wanted to sell? $50 and make it go away was the answer! Turns out to be a 1965 Malibu SS convertible with just about every option. 300 horse 327 with a floor shifted Powerglide (the torque convertor seal dried up from sitting - it healed itself once we started driving the car to school). The car had power everything including windows and rag top. Yes, the top was in tatters but what would expect for a measly 50 bucks? It even had a set of later Chevelle chrome SS wheels. After airing up the one tire and filling the PG with new blood and maybe charging the battery the Chevelle was ready for action again. It was too rusty to restore back then, but if I had the car today it would definitely be a candidate!

 

a couple years ago a friend of mine actuall found i think it was a 64 +- corvette for cheep, i lent him my trailer to go get it, he got me new tires on trailer for using it, he sold it real fast. they are there....

 

Allegedly a gent I know bought one of those Chevy two doors that turned out to be a Corvette about 30 years ago and one of my buddies claimed to have seen it.
Years ago an older gent died in his car in his driveway about 15 miles west of me and wasn't found for a couple of weeks or more. Word was that some outfit bought it from the estate and It stunk so bad that they finally crushed it.
When I worked at the Pontiac dealer in 1978 in Yakima we had a few years old Lemans two door that was out in the back lot that we had to move every once in a while to get to the car behind it. Some Native American had traded it in and they had hauled the fish they caught in the trunk on a regular basis before that. We hated to get in it to move it because it stunk so bad and all the windows were rolled down. We never took the keys out because no one would do us a favor and steal it. One day the boss got in it to move it to get a customers car out and he walks back in and asks who owns that Lemans. Someone said "you do they took it in on trade" 15 minutes later the wrecker was there hauling it off to the scrap yard an the sales manager was suffering from the affects of a severe ass chewing.

 

I first heard the $300 Vette bullshit story as a kid in the mid 1970's from an older guy who built hot cars in my neighborhood but have heard many years used since then. His version was how his buddies friend answered a newspaper ad for a 1963 Chevrolet in good condition for $300 with no other info. The story tellers friend responds to the ad and an old lady takes him out to the garage where a mint condition (of course) but dusty 1963 Corvette split window coupe was sitting. Naturally, the son never returned from Nam and she wanted the garage space back.

Now it's not that this scenario never took place anywhere ever, but how many of these stories of hundred dollar Corvettes were there? They kind of remind me of the local blond who street raced the phantom Vette with "If You Can Beat Me, You Can... Yeah, you know the rest.

 

I used to know a guy who had a Ford Maverick in the early 1970's. His landlord had a wife, two kids, and a 1963 Corvette roadster as a second car. He traded his Maverick straight across for the Corvette!

I'm familiar with the '54 Corvette that was bricked up in a corner of a supermarket; I had heard the story growing up, and had been to the Brunswick store a few times. Later on I got to be friends with someone who worked there as a teenager, and he said there was a peephole that you could view the car through, and a trap door in the office space above to look down on it.

Years ago there was a 1967 427 Corvette sitting in a driveway, last licenced around 1973 or so. It was in bad shape from sitting, owner wouldn't part with it, even had a sign on the windshield threatening to shoot anyone who looked at it. He sold the house and took the Corvette with him; last I heard it was still sitting outside at his new home, wherever that is.

 

I heard the one about the 57 T-bird that someone died in when I was about 12.

 

There are so many stories that are nothing but hot air and wishful thinking, but some are true. In 1973 we were visiting my Dad's cousin in Jarrell, TX. While the families were busy chatting, their adult daughter noticed my hot rod-themed t-shirt (I was 15 at the time) and mentioned that her brother, who had unfortunately had been killed in Vietnam, had left an "old car" in one of the outbuildings on the farm. My younger sister and I decided it was boring in the house with all the old folk and wandered outside. We found the outbuilding and squeezed our way in. Inside was a black '65 Corvette coupe, thick with dust and obviously not been run in a very long time. I was the kind of kid who would respect my elders and wouldn't even think of asking if it was available (nor would I have any inkling of how much it was worth and if I could come up with the coin), especially knowing that my cousin had lost his life in service to his country. I would like to think that it was rescued by someone who appreciated what it was and the backstory, but I have no way of knowing.

 

It was about the same time i heard of military Jeeps being sold for $75. Sometime in the mid 70s.

 

And the Jeeps were unassembled, in cosmoline.

 

Two fun stories- both real:
1) warehouse full of WWII Harley Davidson XA's (with drive shafts) in crates/cosmoline and other WWII goodies back in the late 70's
2) OT '66 Karmann Khia with 3000 miles- had a replacement engine that the owners didn't trust, so they put it in the garage.

 

In my last year of high school, I found a 56 Chevy with a fiberglass nose sitting along side of a one car garage in Portsmouth, NH. I asked the owner of the house about the car and she (an older women) that she has the car pulled from the garage so that she could park her car in the garage. Her son own the car and he was in Vietnam. I went home and told my Father (career Air Force flyer) of my discovery. He told me to get some of my idiot friends and to go over and asked the lady if we could covered the car until her son returns. Well we put the car on blocks, threw a piece of plywood under it, put the rims and tires in the garage, put a few boxes of baking soda (open) in the car and covered the car with a loose tarp. Now to be completely honest here, I was thinking, this guy would come home, buy a new car, and give me the 56 - HA HA. , I even gave the lady my phone number. Well school was done and I got drafted. One day while on leave (stayed with the Army for 31 years) my Father gave me a note to call a guy. I called the guy, asked me where I lived and he would be right over. Same car, but now sporting a dark green paint job, chrome reverse and a big block, still had the glass nose.

 

I remember the little ads in the back of some magazines when I was a kid, "Army surplus jeeps for $50". I wondered then if you could really buy one for $50. I never really had an interest in getting a jeep. Several years ago I did have a passing interest in getting a M35 6x6 truck, but thankfully got over it.

 

Enjoying reading the first-hand true stories...

Don't really have one to add, but this thread did cause me to remember a few forgotten memories:

1) lived in Portland, Oregon until 1970. A neighbor a few houses away in NE Portland (NE 76th, near Sandy Boulevard) was storing a white, 4-headlight C1 vette, with red interior under the lean-to attached to their garage. I thought the car was super cool and when their grandson (my age) would come to visit, I would ask if we could get in the car to play, which happened occasionally. The owner of the car was stationed overseas and I don't know if it was the grandson's dad or uncle that owned the vette.

2) a neighbor's older brother and his olive drab jeep with faded star and numbers on the hood. My family lived in San Mateo, CA (after Portland) in the early 70's (3rd through 5th grade, for me), and my friend/neighbor Larry Guenther had an older brother (Dale?) in highschool who bought an old army jeep that he got running. If I remember correctly he bought it from a retired military officer. I remember riding in it a few times and how it was just like the one you could get for your GI Joe action figure, which I had (my frame of reference). In other news, Larry had a Schwinn 'Pea Picker' 5-speed which I absolutely lusted after and begged to ride any chance I could. It was from a line of Schwinn 5-speeds which were dragster themed with a small front wheel/tire, wide-slick back tire, and a car-shifter styled gear selector on the top tube with spring-shock-absorber chrome front forks and I think softride suspension sissy-bar in the back. It's the first thing I ever remember 'coveting' (to borrow a bible-phrase).

 

Corvette in a garage story: A friend in our local Corvair club had a 1964 Stingray coupe (with factory A/C!) parked in an attached garage at his house. He had a Corvair collection also parked in the garage and in a block building in the back yard. I first heard of/saw the 'Vette in 1976. He and the wife were driving and enjoying their 1965 turbocharged Corvair convertible so the Corvette sat. Fast forward to 1989. I had moved a few states away for work and heard of my friend's passing. My son and I returned to help the widow deal with several derelict cars that were parked in and around the property. The Corvette was still in the garage and I told her that she should not let that one go cheap, but several people might try to snake it away from her. Also told her that I would be interested if the time every came that she would let it go. After a yard clean-up my son and I returned home and eventually I forgot about the Corvette. But wait, there's more! While attending a Corvair convention in 2007 I saw the widow again. She came up to me and said it was time for me to buy the Corvette! Wow! A price was agreed upon and I hauled the car back home. Since it was painted red (I really don't like red Corvettes...) I was happy to decode the Fisher Body plate and determine that the car was supposed to be Satin Silver. The end of the story; took it to the wrong body shop who convinced me to do a frame-off resto. He would do the body and I would freshen up the chassis. Seven years later I retrieved what was left of my dream Corvette and had to let it go because I didn't have the funds to repair the damage done at the body shop. Maybe I should stick with Corvairs???

 

As close as I got to the story is in 1971, I bought a 68 corvette from the family of a soldier that was in Viet Nam. He told them to sell it but he was still alive and well.

 

Well I feel honored! A post I started almost a year ago is back up. lol That's a record for me! Larry

 

A buddy when I was 15 had me convinced to buy a jeep for $150 all in pieces in a crate, he was going to buy one too. I told my boss at the gas station where I worked about it and he informed me it was an old bull shit story and to forget about it. I did. Fast forward I am 20 and in college and working part time at an old body shop. After months of working there, my boss asks me to get something in the back storage room that I had never been in and here back in the dark corner is a car covered with dusty blankets is a 62 Corvette. I went and asked the boss about it and he said he had been thinking of selling it as he had owned it for many years and never really did anything to it. I asked how much? $2500 Well back in 1983 and going to school and trying to support the 3 cars I already had. It really did not seem like it was a good deal as the body looked really rough. The guy that did end up buying it did restore it into a really sweet show car. My found Vette story

Hotrodderman

 

Heard the VietNam/Corvette story many years ago and numerous times over the years. I’ve read this entire thread and can’t believe no one added the old Harley that was Priscillas gift to Elvis story. lol. Always a favorite.

 

We bought a 1949 Buick Super 4dr from a old lady about 5 doors down from us. We lived there for 20 years , Never knew it was in the garage (door always closed ) One day she comes down the street and asked for my dad and tells him that she know we like old cars and if we were interested we could look at it . A 1949 Buick 4 dr in a one car doesn't leave a lot of extra space , she asked $500.00 a deal was made . all 4 tires were flat and my dad lowered me head first over the hood between the wall and the car with an air hose to fill the tires and they all held air , pulled it out and it looked grey from the inch of dust , in about a month we had it running and a good wash job and once over with some compound she looked really good our first stop was to pick up Mrs. Lemely and took her for a spin around the Neighborhood

 

It's 1972 in my little Oregon produce town and I landed a good paying job. I'm driving a black 56 Ford Victoria hardtop and all my buddies are ranking me down for driving a Ford!!! I Told them in a week I'd be driving a 'vette and they all laughed! Drove to Portland looking for a good deal on a Corvette when my brother in law tells me his hunting buddy wants to sell his 64 Corvette coupe so we drive over to Marvin's house. He's dejected because thieves have once again pushed his Corvette out from under the light of a street lamp and stripped it. His insurance says they won't pay again.
Sells it to me for $1400 and we had to go to the body shop to get it. The body shop guys have done the body and paint from where the thieves' truck has pushed the car down the street. They also put on a new set of Cragars and red line tires. I had it painted black. Was a great car

 

I can tell you I personally bought an M35A2 , winch , hardtop , bed cover , heater all the good stuff . 6633 miles ,1175.00 . Drove it , used it for years , busted up my back and neck , put it up for sale for 10K , sold it first person to look at it . They are multi fuel beasts , that will move your house on used motor oil and used trans fluid ! I added power steering to mine , I would probably still own it if not for health issues .

 

Well it's not a Corvette in the barn story, but it's another "not for sale" story that I think fits in. Around 2016 I was looking for a '30-31 Model A roadster to build. My friend finds one on facebook marketplace of all places, and it's less than a half hour away. Long story short, I come to find out the gentleman selling the car was about 50, and the car was his father's car since about 1963. Unfortunately, he lost his father in a tragic work accident when he was only a child, so he was raised by his grandfather. His grandfather put the model A in the barn, and as you may have guessed, wouldn't sell it to anybody. It sat in that barn for about 45 years until the grandfather passed and left the car to the grandson. Here it is when we dragged it out.