[VIDEO] 1962 Corvette Fuelie Barn Find Has Been Sleeping for 50 Years

You’ve got to check out this video published last week on YouTube by Jerry Heasley of Vette magazine.

Jerry was allowed to document a 1962 327/360 fuel-injected maroon Corvette that had been stored in a barn since 1967, and the 16-minute video explaining the history behind the car and showing the new owner and friends getting it out of the barn is a classic.

The new owner, Steve O’Neill, says he had known about the car since the early 1980s but had never seen it in person until about five years ago.

“I never thought she’d sell it because it wasn’t in her way,” Steve says, “plus the sentimental attachment.”

That attachment goes back a long way to the early days of the couple’s relationship. “We went on our honeymoon in that car,” his widow recalls. “We went down to Virginia Beach. I can remember we got into Washington at 11 o’clock at night, like hotter than heck. Next thing I know he says, here, help me, taking the hard top off, bringing it upstairs and putting it in the hotel room, riding around at midnight in Washington with the top down.”

The video shows that hardtop still hanging in the barn where the car had been stored for decades.

Her husband even tried to take her to the hospital in the Corvette for the birth of their son, but she held out for a much roomier Impala!

“When my son was a year and a half old, we moved, put it in a garage at another house, came here, built a barn and that’s where it sat because he got into T-buckets,” she says.

Her husband, unfortunately, got sick and passed away 13 years ago, never having a chance to restore his classic Corvette but nevertheless taking very good care of it for a future caretaker like Steve.

“It’s been sleeping for 50 years,” Steve says. “This car was the top dog in ’62 – 360 horsepower, first year for the 327. If you owned this car when it was brand new, it was pretty much king of the road – I don’t think anything could really touch you.”

When Steve finally was able to purchase the car, he found it covered with a white sheet in the back of the barn – “dry, no mice problems, no condensation issues, no mold.”

In fact, the car was so clean, it looked like it was staged, Steve said. “It’s stupid how clean it is.”

The major problem really was that the car had been stored sideways in the garage – perhaps for space reasons, perhaps to prevent theft? That meant an extra careful effort using jacks and rollers to twist the Corvette around so it could then be pulled onto a rollback.

The original numbers-matching fuel-injected engine was residing in the basement of the house, along with many other parts on shelves nearby.

Interestingly, the original owner had stored the car with 99,999.9 miles showing on the odometer when he removed the engine, planning to rebuild it.

“The car doesn’t look like it’s got that kind of miles on it,” Steve praises. “My brother and I were shocked because it doesn’t have a lot of road rash on it.”

They know the odometer is correct, though, because an oil change sticker stuck at some point on the glove box door says 92,000 miles.

The original paint on this no-hit car does have some cracking and checking, not surprising for a car of this age, “but the overall condition is incredible, for sitting this long,” Steve marvels.

Congratulations to the new owner, and we’re happy that the seller’s widow was able to relive some of those fun days more than 50 years ago, too!

Source:
Jerry Healsey / YouTube

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