[VIDEO] Poorly Stored 1978 Corvette Indy 500 with 293 Miles Receives First Wash in 45 Years

This 1978 L82 Corvette Indy Pace Car last hit the road for a homecoming dance in August of 1986 when the owner let a relative borrow it.

He had bought the car used with 100 miles on the odometer, but after the dance, he parked it and it’s been there ever since, now with just 293 miles!

It’s been keeping company with two other very-low-mileage C3 Corvettes, a ’78 Classic White coupe with 1,599.3 miles and an ’82 Collector Edition with 33 miles.

Now the guys at WD Detailing have been documenting their resurrection of these classic beauties, hidden by decades of dirt and grime. We showed you their impressive work on the Classic White car a few days ago, and now they’ve been hard at work on the Pace Car.

There’s something therapeutic about watching the clean-up process, at least for this writer, as the cars literally turn from ugly duckling to beautiful swan right before our eyes.

The Pace Cars are two-tone with black over silver with touches of red, and I’ve always found that the black paint on these cars – even if stored properly – is prone to scratches and chips over the years that can really ruin the look for a perfectionist like me. That’s why personally I’d prefer a Pace Car that’s been repainted recently over a low-mileage example, even if the originality is gone, but that’s just me.

After the guys cleaned the dirt off this one, they had to really buff the black paint to bring it back, and by the parting shots at the end of the video, it does look significantly better! The interior, meanwhile, still had the plastic on the seats, so not surprisingly, it was in nearly perfect condition 46 years later! One interesting tidbit we learned from the video was that the brown lines on the carpet are caused by the oils on the bodies of the mice that apparently follow the same path over and over.

These three cars were being offered at one time for $150,000, but we’re not sure if they ever sold at that price. Anyway, we can’t wait to see how good the ’82 Collector Edition turns out when WD Detailing gets through with it soon! Keep watching to see the results.

Source:
WD Detailing

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