Story 77-01 Photos
Story 77-01 / 1977 Coupe
30 years old. 5 owners. 5 states. 53,000 miles.
My 1977 shipped to Gratz Chevrolet-Olds in September, 1976. It was purchased by a woman from Detroit, over 160 miles away. I’ve been told very few Chevrolet dealers would order a primer only Corvette, maybe this is the reason the dealer was so distant from the buyer; I have been unable to locate the original buyer. I assume that since the car was built at the very beginning of the model year, she ordered the car. That is, the car was not left over from someone else backing out of the purchase.
This is what I’ve learned and have verified much of it from Secretary of State records from various states. The original buyer owned the car for a long time, and had it in storage for many years. It was then sold to a man in Ohio; he later moved to Florida. Because failing health, he sold it to another Florida person. This third owner eventually sold it to a buyer in Nebraska. I bought it from the Nebraska owner in 2005; and now it is in Illinois. The Nebraska owner did not know it was a BODY IN PRIME car. He only knew it had Special Paint because of the trim plate. When I purchased it, I did not know it either. I didn’t even know what Special Paint meant. I learned about it being BODY IN PRIME after I obtained a copy of the dealer invoice from GM Archives.
The car has 53,000 original miles. Besides having the BODY IN PRIME option, it also has the rare L82 engine and rare 4-speed options. All numbers match.
It has a set of glass roof panels that appear to be original to the car. Chevrolet planned to offer glass roof panels as an option for the first time in 1977. There was even an option code. However, because of a legal dispute with the roof panel manufacturer (a non-GM company), the option never became available. Maybe the first owner had these panels and wanted to paint the entire car together? She was from Detroit; maybe she was a GM employee? These are things I wish I knew.
The car had major restoration work done by the second and third owners. I’ve only done mechanical work on it.