[VIDEO] Dennis Collins Buys a 1965 Corvette Owned By Same Family Since 1971

Jul 13, 2024

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[VIDEO] Dennis Collins Buys a 1965 Corvette Owned By Same Family Since 1971

Dennis Collins and his Coffee Walk team are back with another rescue – their 25th Corvette to be saved so far in 2024.

The latest rescue, a 1965 Sting Ray coupe in Tiffin, Ohio, has an interesting back story.

The current owner named Ron says his brother bought the car back in April 1971 in the Toledo area but went into the military in July ’72. Ron took over ownership that summer, though it wasn’t made official until ’79 when the title was finally transferred in Ohio.

Ron says he had a very nice paint job applied to the car in 1972 at a shop in Toledo that specialized in Corvettes, and you won’t believe the cost – only $584, though back then, that was still a pretty big chunk of change but nothing like the $20,000 Dennis says you can expect to pay for the same thing these days.

There’s also a ton of old paperwork included with the sale, too, including receipts from the Tiffin Chevy dealership that shows a dome light repair in ’72 cost $6.01, a valve adjustment that was $10.80, and the installation of a cam in the motor and the repair of both headlight assemblies for a whopping $47.

The replacement paint job wound up lasting for about 25 years, according to Ron, and then it started peeling and eventually wound up with the patina it has now.

Ron says he dropped a valve down into the cylinder and cracked the block sometime around ’73 or ’74, and a local mechanic convinced him it made more financial sense to buy a used engine from a junkyard. That’s what Ron did, finding a solid lifter 327 that he believes came from a ’67, which would be appropriate since a ’67 hood has been added at some point.

That engine replacement served him well and was still running when it pulled into the garage some 25 years ago, but it hasn’t been driven since so its condition today remains an unknown.

Dennis likes this car because it has a lot of rare options like power windows (3,809), telescopic steering wheel (3,917) though it’s locked up, and side exhausts (2,468), especially compared to the overall production number of 23,564 Sting Rays that year.

Just getting the ’65 loaded up for transport back to the shop proves to be an adventure as Ron and his wife first have to move their other two Corvettes out of the way, both red coupes, a ’67 and a C6. Dennis and crew then have to overcome locked-up rear calipers on the brakes to get it into the trailer, but Dennis figures they can get it rolling on its own by cutting the hydraulic hoses that will need to be replaced anyway.