[VIDEO] 1968 Corvette Barn Find Gets a Satisfying First Wash After 30 Years of Storage

Washing off a decades-old coating of dust and debris definitely leaves this 1968 Corvette convertible looking much better, but looks can sometimes be deceiving.

That’s what YouTuber Mid-Year Mitch (no relation, LOL) discovers after giving this silver hardtop convertible its first wash job in 30 years.

“We got her all cleaned up, and the paint actually looks remarkably nice,” Mitch says after pressure-washing the car and rolling it back into his garage. “It does have some blisters and popping on the passenger door and there’s some blemishes here and there, but honestly if you take a couple of steps back, it looks really respectable.”

Mitch picked up the car about a year ago, rescuing it from a barn where it had been ignored for some 30 years, and just recently found the time to begin working on the car, an ongoing process which he plans to document on his channel in the coming months.

The bones certainly seem to be there for a nice restoration, as this first-year C3 left the St. Louis factory with a 427/435 tri-carb engine under the hood. Apparently, someone blew up that motor or something else happened to it early in its life because a replacement engine was installed. A little sleuthing by Mitch shows it to be a late ’69 427/435 Chevy crate engine block.

While the outside of the car looks good from a distance, the mechanicals definitely don’t survive a close inspection, either. A thorough cleaning of the engine bay did eliminate the nests built by unknown critters over the years, but it soon becomes obvious to Mitch that to do this car right will require lots of elbow grease, time, and dollars.

“So I’ve had a day just to drink up this car and figure out what do we need to do to this thing,” he says, “cuz if you stand back like here, it looks like you could just get in it and drive it, but once you start digging into it, there’s a lot needs to be done, especially under (the hood).

Looking on the bright side, though the exterior of the engine is rusty and dirty, he believes the internal condition of the engine to still be “fantastic” and the three carburetors aren’t locked up.

“There’s a lot of life left in this car because it was literally just parked (and left to fend for itself),” Mitch says, “but if you look at it (more closely), a lot of the wires and harness are really crispy, and you saw the mouse house that was in here.

There’s a really good chance a lot of the wiring has been compromised. I think we could honestly dump gas down the carbs and this thing would bark off, but everything else besides the car’s paint and engine needs to be addressed.”

Things like a rusty gas tank, rotted exhaust system, brittle vacuum lines, worn-out bushings, and much more lend credence to Mitch’s belief that the car will require a body-off restoration.

“Could we get this thing running and driving and enjoy it as is?” he asks rhetorically. “We could, but you know, we’re gonna be chasing all these gremlins.”

So what makes the most sense to Mitch, “even though it might not be the most popular thing is, we’re gonna have to take the body off the frame and do a nut and bolt restoration on the chassis.”

He then rattles off a laundry list of other items to address:

“Get the rear end serviced, get all new U-joints, half-shafts, change the springs and bushings, have all the brakes redone – calipers, rotors, new master cylinder, new radiator, water pump, have the starter and alternator gone through. Transmission and engine – we’ll probably just make sure it rotates, at least put all new gaskets in it, potentially put new head gaskets on it, not sure about that. Have the carbs rebuilt, new gas tank, new fuel line, brake line. All that stuff needs to be gone through.”

While it would be cool to hear the car running now, just as it sits, Mitch says he doesn’t want to risk burning it down because of bad wiring.

“So that’s kind of where we’re at. It may not be the popular decision, but our friends entrusted us with this car for the reason that we would make good judgments and we’d help steer them the way it needs to be done. And I think that’s the way this car needs to be fixed.”

We’ll keep you posted as more progress is made.

Source:
Mid-Year Mitch via HotCars.com

Related:
[VIDEO] Watch a 1968 427/435hp Corvette Pulled From a Garage After a 30 Year Slumber
[VIDEO] Epic Barn Find Rescue Features a 1958 and 1966 Corvette Pulled from a Shed
[VIDEO] Rodent-Infested 1974 Corvette Gets First Wash Since 1989

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