For the next several months I was searching the internet for a 72 or 73 coupe. My son says the coupes are stiffer and stronger than the convertibles, and the maintenance on the rag tops is higher.
I was riding my motorcycle by a classic car body and paint shop advertising classic corvettes and had to stop in. I had been looking at a couple of vettes on a lot, but when I looked underneath I saw lots of rust and ugly. I asked the guy about leads on vettes and he said a neighbor to his shop had a nice one moth balled in an out building nearby. We later discovered Lightning, stored in a car bubble, in a temp controlled garage only a mile away.
When we stopped to visit the retired gentleman who had the car, he said he had his eye on a 55 two toned Belair, but had to raise some cash. He demonstrated the car to me by putting it up on a rack in his barn and showing me the clean underneath (no rust) and how everything major had been replaced. It looked cleaner underneath than my 2006 Toyota at the time. We test drove the care which started easy, ran smooth, and loved to accelerate. The owner had a classic car appraisal that had been done on it a couple years before, valuing the car at $24,000 plus and noting the condition of everything in and out. We handshake'd on a price, and I picked up Lightning a week later.
Since owning the car I have replaced an exhaust manifold gasket, both valve cover gaskets, changed oil and fluids, and paid a Chevrolet dealer with a classic corvette mechanic to tune the engine and replace spark plugs, and wires. He said the car was nice and "straight."
Since owning Lightning, she has been garaged, and usually covered. (While my daily driver sits out.)
Selling to help pay for college costs for that son, the car nut, that I told you about. (snif, snif)
