VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND NEWER 1949-1954 54 Corvette parted out in WI

I don't believe it!!! This E-bay listing(381460193570) was put up in early November but was ended early because it was no longer available. I assumed it was sold. BUT No, HE PARTED IT OUT !!! He turned this early production, Barn find, 54 Corvette into 310 parts for sale listings on e bay. Here's the body, what's left of it
http://www.ebay.com/itm/361428357361?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

What a travesty!

I am sure that is his story and he is sticking with it at least to anyone that might report it to eBay. He got an offer and sold it off eBay so he didn't have to pay the commission.

Wow...

Who's gonna do the math and see if he gets more for the parts than he wanted for the car? The wheel covers are currently at $1200. The engine block and the head are each around $700. I think the distributor was around $600...

Everything is ending on Sunday and I'll run a tape on the sold items. He may be the smartest guy in the room.... He was asking 60K which was too much. Projects like this have sold between 28 and 35 thousand in the last year. There are some high bids already, the title and Vin tag are up to $955 and the body is over 3 grand. If you paste this in your E-bay search box you can see all 310 listings;
1953 1954 1955 chevrolet corvette C1 blue flame
I know the parts will go to help others but it's sad to see this car destroyed just to make a bigger profit.
Jay

yes i too think it is very sad that he parted out what looked to be a pretty nice car.i am also curious to see what he makes on all the parts on ebay and what he ends up with after they take their cut which has gone up some since i last used them

Whatever happened here for whatever reason, it's sad to see someone would do this ... instead of selling it COMPLETE to its next owner.

There is another way to look at this situation. Is it better to part out a nearly complete vehicle and help numerous others to get restored and back on the road? Or have this one either sit in unrestored condition possibly needing a few parts for another few decades?

Yes, a valid point, Chipper.

Maybe we should blame the previous owner of 50 years. He let it sit and deteriorate...not a good caretaker but probably didn't have a big investment. Corvettes were cheap in the 60's. I passed on the chance to buy a running 56 in 67 or 68 for $300 and did buy a 59 project in 72 for $150.

Here's a barn find 54 that sold in September that's comparable; E-bay item number 151814561424. The seller is a Corvette restorer in Baton Rouge and has this one;151886001163 currently for sale.
I'm going to post the results on Monday.

The Vin tag for sale also concerns me... Looks like we'll be seeing a fake vette out there somewhere, registered as a real one.

Vin tag can be purchased here; http://www.classicdatatags.com/products.html
There may be other fakes out there already.

Maybe I am missing something here, but how can you make a "fake" 54 Corvette? There are just too many one off parts that one would need one to build one..... correct?

What if someone had a car with no paperwork? What if they had one that was a stolen recovery with the state issued VIN?

In NYS the registration sticker on the windshield states the VIN, tag number and year. Everyone of the kit hot rods I have seen has 193X what ever as the year. I always wondered why and who would care there is nothing original anyway

In Arizona you want to avoid a reconstruct title so DMV says if it looks like a 1933, you can register it as a 1933 no matter what's under the hood. As for a loose title & VIN, no good could ever come from that....Joe

I remember seeing what looked like a '53 Vette from the front and a '63 Split window from the rear. Never talked with the owner. Don't know how it was titled but is must have been home built.

If an individual stole a 1954 Corvette, then bought this EBAY title and serial number for a grand, all would "theoretically" be legal, correct ?

Kind of like those '57 Chevy convertibles people build these days. Get a donor sedan, buy the re-pop body, add the original convertible tag, and all of a sudden you're selling your 40k pile of parts for 100k as an original convertible...

Now, I'm not saying that people that get into tag swapping are going to fool people that have been in the hobby for years like some of us... but there are re-pop Vette's out there, and chassis around that may be looking for a tag to pass themselves off as legit to someone new that doesn't know better...

I am well aware of the 57 bodies, but to the best of my knowledge nobody's reproducing the early Corvette bodies or frames. As I pointed out there are way too many parts that are unique just to that car.

Listed as a '53 Corvette. Says Replica in the ad, so I'm not saying that this guy is trying to pass it off for what it is not... but there are people out there that would try and attach a vin tag and send it overseas to an unsuspecting buyer...

fake Vette on ebay

The body looks pretty darn good if not fantastic! That's the model the car looks good too. There are way too many things that are wrong, and look wrong from the engine on. They just give it away. Comes off to me as a good copy of a $20 bill printed on tissue paper. As I pointed out earlier as in this case the car is more about someone who wants to buy the look and no more. The VIN tags are reproduced anyway, and they don't need any paperwork. I never even heard about those bodies being done, has to be a small run

Thinking about it now if anyone was building a replica or kit a VIN number from that year is needed, otherwise it most likely have to be up to the safety standards of the year on the VIN, crash bumpers, air bags, marker lights and such.

I appreciate how you feel about unsuspecting buyers, but I don't have any sympathy for people who have more money then brains. If they can afford to buy a car for that kind of money and not have someone look at it, then they are asking for what they get. We are not talking about a $3,000 car

john: the 53-55 corvette bodes were reproduced in the early 90's. they were of poor quality, especially the firewall and dash. i can't remember who was repoping the bodes for 53-55. Corvette Central offers a 56-57 body that i've inspected and they are significantly better than the 53-55 repo bodes. as far as frames for the c-1 vets, Vette Product of Michigan has been repoping them for at least 10 years. and vin tags are no problem for the c-1 vets. regards, mike

Many replica kits out there, for various years of Corvettes.

http://www.kitcarlist.com/corvette-kits.html

Well he was the smartest guy in the room! I ran two tapes and the total is....$66,967.04

If you paste this in your E-bay search box you can see the results on all 310 listings;
1953 1954 1955 chevrolet corvette C1 blue flame
Click on completed listings.

So it's gone but it's parts go on to other cars.
Jay

Are you stating he has already sold $66,000 plus from his 310 listings ?