[VIDEO] Shawn Pilot Buys the World’s Cheapest 1960 for $12K and Gets to Work on Building a Restomod

Sep 16, 2025

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[VIDEO] Shawn Pilot Buys the World's Cheapest 1960 for $12K and Gets to Work on Building a Restomod

Shawn Pilot is at it again. In his latest YouTube video, the bodyman/mechanic-on-a-budget is checking out a 1960 Corvette being offered for $20,000 on Facebook Marketplace.

The seller has reportedly already done a ton of upgrades to the chassis, but he’s fallen out of love with the disassembled car, so Shawn definitely smells a bargain in the making.

When he arrives with his custom C5 hauler thing-a-ma-jig to take a look at this bargain-basement C1, Shawn hears the seller say he “sort of” took an inventory of the parts he got – when he bought the car 30 years ago!

[VIDEO] Shawn Pilot Buys the World's Cheapest C1 Corvette - a 1960 for $12K

“So you’re telling me you don’t even know if all the parts are there?” Shawn asks.

“I know they’re not. There are some missing,” comes the honest reply.

When he bought the car, the seller stripped the frame bare and sent it to Paul Newman Car Creation for a complete bolt-in conversion to a C4 front and rear suspension – way back in 1996!

A little bit of good news.

So is the fact that various original parts are still there, just boxed up – items like the door panels, seat frames and seats, top, deck lid, trunk lid, tail lights, bumpers, headlight bezels, the whole grille, most of the trim, and “some” of the gauges.

The owner admits it’s been “years” since he looked at those boxes of parts, however. That’s understandable since he was in the Air Force and the car has followed him around Planet Earth for about 30 years.

There may not be an engine, front end, or firewall, but a transmission and a “beat up” transmission tunnel are part of the deal.

After assessing the car and all the pieces and parts, Shawn comes to the realization that this “has got to be the roughest ’60 Corvette I’ve ever seen.”

The owner admits that may be true, but it “could be the best bargain you’re ever going to get, too.” He explains that a friend took photos of the car and posted it on Marketplace for him, arbitrarily setting the price at $20,000.

“So you’re probably more around 10?” Shawn replies. “Am I right?”

“I was hoping for 15, but we can negotiate.”

“You’re getting me excited,” Shawn answers. “OK, cuz I’m here to buy a car. I mean, I’d really love to pay 10 grand for this car, but I know you put the work into the suspension, and it is worth a ton of money when it’s done. The only problem is it’s a ton of money to get it done.”

They finally agree on a mutually satisfying price of $12,000, including all the pieces and parts.

“OK, I just bought the cheapest ’60 Corvette on the planet,” Shawn says. “OK, but it happens to be the roughest ’60 on the planet.”

When he gets the car home, though, he discovers that there’s “a whole lot more parts here than I thought.”

Many of those parts also happen to be in “really good” condition, including expensive items like the rear bumpers, tail lights, gauges, door posts, windshield frame, seat tracks, seat frames, and seats. He even got a set of C6 polished wheels, a new aluminum radiator, and a six-speed manual transmission, which add a lot of value to the purchase.

“But the best part of this deal, and the thing I’m most excited about, is something that you can’t even see,” Shawn gushes. “Steve, the guy I bought this car from, spent more money underneath (it) than he did for anything else. He bought for this car what I’ve always wanted, a chassis built by Newman Car Creations.”

He notes that the chassis improvements aren’t just a cheap bolt-on conversion either, but instead a “high quality fabrication done by one of the best in the business.” While the frame may not look impressive in its current dust-covered condition after years of storage, Shawn vows to make it look new again and plans to install those C6 wheels with some new tires.

That’s just the first step. Check back with Shawn along the way in future videos to see how the world’s cheapest ’60 Corvette looks with just a little TLC.