Corvette for Sale: No Reserve 1982 Corvette Offered on eBay

It hasn’t been that long ago that you could buy a very nice 1980-82 Corvette for less than $10,000.

Those days, alas, are apparently long gone. Witness this 1982 Corvette dubbed “a former project car” in need of “various repairs” by its current owner, who’s apparently given up the ghost and is offering the car at no reserve on eBay.

So far, 47 bids have already been replaced, rising to a current high of $4,100 with the auction coming to an end on Tuesday afternoon.

If the price goes much higher, the new owner is going to be hard-pressed to get his money back if a full-blown frame-off restoration is undertaken.

We’ve always loved the look of these late C3 models, especially considering the fact that my first Corvette ever was a red-on-red ’80.

This one has a lot of potential, but if it were a house, it would be what might best be described as a “total gut job.”

For starters, it’ll need a new paint job, though based on the photos, the body seems to be in decent enough condition so you might save some money getting it ready to be sprayed. Still, these days that’s at least 10 grand for a nice paint job and probably higher. Don’t forget new tires and wheels because the way this car looks, it’s likely the current set would have to be replaced – or risk looking completely out of place with such a slick paint job.

Then there is the matter of the interior. Replace the seat covers, carpet, dash pad, and steering wheel, and you’re already looking at a few more thousand.

The listing doesn’t really tell much about the history of the car, so we don’t know if it’s been sitting outside in a field for decades. A look under the hood isn’t very promising, either, as the engine looks like it may or may not run. Either way, if someone is willing to spend so much on paint and interior, he may as well go the distance and replace the Crossfire Injection V8 with something much more powerful – i.e., open the wallet a little wider.

We’d love to hear your approach to restoring this car. Would you tackle the job and go back with the current two-tone Silver Blue over Dark Blue combination, or go with something more mainstream like red, white, silver or perhaps a modern custom color? The options are really unlimited with this car.

Done correctly, though, we think it has the real possibility of becoming more than the sum of its parts. With an already classically beautiful exterior on the outside, we might splurge and go for something exotic under the hood, like an LT5 out of a C7 (if it would fit). That would mean adding a more appropriate suspension system, so the wallet gets a little thinner and a little thinner, with each passing day. Tell us, would the end result be worth it?

Or would it be smarter just to pay $20,000 for a car already in excellent condition?

Source:
eBay Motors via BarnFinds.com

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