Very Rare C3 Corvette Barn Find – Super Nostalgia!
Dateline August 2015 by Jerry Heasley as republished from SuperChevy.com
Tony Back is so elated with his Vette Rare Find, a month has passed and he hasn’t cleaned the ’72 T-top coupe. “Five or six people have come by my house and said, ‘I hear you found a barn find. You mind if I take a look at it?’” Back is happy to show his treasure but as he explains, “Everybody around here says the same thing, ‘Why haven’t you washed the car? I couldn’t stand that.’” Back tells them the truth. “Once I wash that car, it will never be that dirty again.” In other words, the treasure-find appearance will be gone.
Back read about the ’72 through a small local newspaper ad in his area of Menifee County, Kentucky. Buried in an ad for farm equipment were the words “1972 Corvette Stingray.” On a Friday afternoon you could go view the farm equipment and the Corvette from noon to 2. The sale was the next day, Saturday. Back and a buddy made the drive to the farm. But they thought they would never find the place. They kept driving and driving and driving, up and down hills and around curves. The road got so narrow in places only one car could pass. Finally, they found the farm. “If you drove by this place, you would have never thought a ’72 Corvette would be setting inside. The farm is in the middle of nowhere.”
The ’72 had been parked in the barn since 2008. Before that, the farmer stored the car in his basement for an even longer period of time. Viewing the car was difficult in the dark barn. “I couldn’t tell a whole lot about it. It was dark and all we had were our phones with the flashlight app. We just kind of walked around and looked to see if it had original paint.” Back warmed up to this ’72 the more he looked. The 38-year-old has fond memories of riding in his father’s ’72 Vette, when he was 5-6 years old and could not see over the dash.
The engine was the base 350. Back’s friend read off the numbers on the block and sure enough, they matched the last six digits of the VIN. The paint looked original beneath the layers of dust and bird droppings. Maybe there was more to this Vette than met the eye. Back was more than a little enthused when the farmer said he bought the car brand new right down the road in Irvine, about 30 miles away. The original window sticker went with the car, along with an original title.
Despite the accumulation of dirt for many years, the paint looks original.
The engine is the base 350 – a numbers-matching original.
The original Saddle interior is in fair condition. The carpet needs to be replaced, though.
“That’s something you don’t find. A guy buys a car new in ’72 and here it is 2015 and you have the opportunity to purchase it?” Auction day, “everything sells, but the Corvette sells last.” To Back, the owner didn’t seem to care any more about his old ’72 Vette than he would a ’96 Ford Escort. Maybe that’s why the car went up for auction just like it sat in the barn, no clean up.
“Here I am nervous, wanting to buy the car. They start out the bid at $15,000, then 10 then 5, then this guy held his hand up and said ‘$1,000!’ I let them run it up there for a while until I was ready to get in. At about $9,500 a guy gets out and I jump in and throw my hand up. The auctioneer says, ‘Got a new man,’ which was me. I run the car up to eleven-four and thought I had it bought. Another guy bidding earlier jumps back in at eleven-five. I got this figure in my head, I’m gonna go 12,000.”
At the third and final call Back is high bidder at $11,600, which totals $12,760 with a 10 percent commission. “I went up there to pay and the owner told me to hang on a minute. He brings me back a box full of papers. He’s kept every piece of paper, from the original title and window sticker to insurance and license receipts and everything he’s done to the car.”
Obviously, the owner had to think a lot of his Corvette. He just didn’t show it. Back found out the car had been cared for. “He had the motor rebuilt in 2000 – new pistons, rings, cam bearings, timing chain, all that stuff rebuilt, including the transmission.”
Back drained the old gas out of the tank, poured in new gas, and then tried to start the engine. “I’m not lying to you. I hit the key and it fired right up.”
Back and his father run an auto body shop – Back’s Body Shop in Means, Kentucky. They do insurance work on late-models, but their passion is old American muscle cars and Corvettes. Back has the expertise and the shop to return this car to like-new. However, who knows, he might just leave the Vette dusty and dirty for a long time. “To the best of my knowledge, I’m going to say the body has 95 percent original paint.”
Tony got a good side shot of the car to reveal how it sat in the barn for the last 10 years. (We digitally enhanced the photo to lighten the dark areas.)
This page from an old scrapbook shows “Dad’s ’72 Corvette,” including a photo of Tony – 5 or 6 years old – sitting on the hood.
