1962 Chevrolet Corvette

Corvettes are an American Icon. This Corvette is 46 years old & in good shape both mechanically & cosmetically. What I liked about buying it on E-bay is that I was able to comparison shop quite easily by watching over time the sales of the kind of car I was interested in. I felt that I got a good education by watching the market on E-bay for these kinds of cars & parts for them. The description of the car was quite detailed & the many photographs posted helped me to understand what I was getting. The ease of communication with sellers through E-bay is also a big plus.

With cars this old a "review" is somewhat difficult as the age & condition vary greatly. It is often difficult to acertain the history of a car like this, and sometimes people can be cheated by not knowing enough about what is "correct" on an older Corvette. While this car isn't perfect (it was without ignition shielding, windshield washer set-up, and radiator overflow set-up and it has a hurst shifter rather than an original shifter)I felt that the 1962 Corvette I purchased is a good buy for a decent older model Corvette.

The car itself is a bit of a beast when it comes to driving. It is a solid axel car, no power steering & no power brakes, so this isn't the kind of car for very many people. You've got to want to own/drive one. It has a powerful 327 engine & the gas mileage is about 12 miles per gallon. The rumble of the exhaust is loud & fantastic. The engine throws off lots of heat, which can be felt in the passenger compartment. The passenger compartment is no frills & compact. Many people might have difficulty getting in & out of this car.

It has both a soft top & a hard top. The soft top is fairly easy to put up & down, although when driving with the soft top up visibility is a little difficult, paticularly over the shoulders. The tops are quite low, so a tall person could bump their head occassionally. The hard top requires 2 people to get it off & on, although it is fairly lightweight, it is large enough to be awkward if you tried to remove it with just one person. The hardtop has great visibility.

The car is easy to start if you start it every day. If you let it go a week without starting it, it can be a little tricky to start as it floods easily.

In summary, this car is what I would describe as a very good car for what it is. A classic 1962 Corvette, with the correct drive train & interior. It has a decent paint job & was an older (10 year) body on restoration. The engine was re-built at that time.

Anyone interested in this car needs to understand what it is they are getting. Do your research! Check web-sites including E-bay. Pro-Team Classic Corvettes is a great resourse for cars & Corvette Central a great resource for Corvette Parts. Buy some books before buying a car like this. Two hundred dollars worth of books can save thousands of dollars in mistakes. The Corvette Black Book, The Corvette Buyers Guide (1953-1967); The catalog of Corvette ID numbers (1953-1993); the Catalog of Chevy V-8 Engine casting numbers are all good resources to consult before buying a Corvette.

Most of all, buy the best car you can afford, that way you will need to do less serious work on it & can have more fun driving it & tinkering with it.