[VIDEO] Shawn Pilot Goes to Work on a $3500 ’72 Corvette Craigslist Special

When I first came across this video posted by Shawn Pilot, the crazy wheeler dealer at Gotham Garage on Netflix’s Car Masters Rust to Riches, I thought I had gone back to the ’70s when you could actually buy a good used Corvette for less than $4,000.

But a quick check of the calendar proved it was indeed March 28, 2023, not March 28, 1976. Unbelievably, though, despite the time travel into the “future,” Shawn was still able to locate a used Corvette for only $3,500.

How good would this bargain-basement 1972 Corvette be, and would he be able to beat out the thrifty multitudes waiting to snap up this unbelievable deal?

Well, Shawn takes us through the process in his latest video on his YouTube channel, and trust me, it is one of the best such posts we’ve seen in a long time. We think you’ll enjoy every minute.

He finds the car, advertised as a ’72 on Craigslist out of swanky Beverly Hills, and at first glance, he’s pretty sure that this is a diamond in the rough. Noticing that the lights in the front grill are supposed to be amber instead of clear, Shawn dismisses it as a minor flaw. Then he sees the fiber optics in the center console and begins to wonder if this might be a ’71 instead since the ’72s don’t have that. While the seller is busy in the house trying to locate the title, Shawn begins to worry that the car might have a mismatched VIN, and that would squash the sale. But no, the title shows that the car is indeed actually a ’71 with the correct VIN, not a ’72 as the seller thought.

The Corvette had been parked for the past eight years or so because of an apparent carburetor issue, so Shawn has to dolly the non-running vehicle home using his cool “dune buggy” C4 (seeing this car in action is worth the watch, by the way) – back wheels on the dolly because the transmission is stuck in reverse because a new shifter wasn’t adjusted properly and the car won’t roll properly.

Once he’s back at his garage, Shawn begins the process of bringing this vintage ’71 back to life, and while there are a few bumps along the way, they prove to be nothing serious – just things like a carburetor rebuild, points, ignition, coil, fuel tank, and brake caliper.

He quickly gets the car on the road and is anxious to see if it will do a burnout, but first he has to get a temporary fix for the brakes by installing a good used caliper he finds from one of the many old Corvettes on his property.

Once he’s confident the brakes will stop the car, it’s off to the cul-de-sac, where he indeed creates a mountain of smoke with an impressive burnout for a car once relegated to the sidelines for a minor problem (turns out the lack of a $5 fuel filter was one of the problems all along, clogging up the carburetor from the dirty gas tank) but should have been celebrating touchdowns in the endzone.

While the car obviously still needs some work, it’s so far been well worth the initial $3,500 price tag. Now, Shawn is asking his viewers for suggestions on what color he can paint his bargain Corvette. What would you suggest?

Source:
Shawn Pilot / YouTube

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