I am almost embarrassed with all the BB cynics out there, to admit trying to document my 67 BB roadster, but I drive the car and want info about its original owner..I want to run a local ad ( sold new in Saco, Maine) to try and find someone who remembers seeing my marina ,sidepipe car in the 60s. Its most noteable feature is that it is a hardtop only car, including the decklid. Was this unusual enough to jog someone's memory if i run the ad, or were there a lot of hardtop only cars and it would not be noteable..I can find out how many hardtops were sold, but how many did not have a softop as well? I read this forum every day and am amazed at how helpful it is to all of us. thanks, brad
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Re: 67 hardtop only
Brad-----
I doubt that the vast majority of folks would know whether a Corvette convertible was a hard-top only. It's the kind of thing that's pretty much "invisible". Seeing a Corvette convertible with a hardtop, many folks would not even know that the car was a convertible and the top was removable.
I do think that a hard-top only Corvette convertible was fairly unusual, though. The hard-top option was installed on less than half the convertibles, anyway. I suspect that the majority of those were 2 top situations. As a matter of fact, many buyers did not even know that the convertibles could be ordered with a hard-top only. I was one that did, though. I originally ordered my 1969 convertible that way. About 17 years later I added a soft-top. Best thing I ever did.
I can understand why someone in Saco, Maine might order a hard-top only car, though. There aren't that many months there where one can use a convertible and for all the remaining months, the hard-top would be a VERY useful thing. So, they might have just figured that they'd just remove the hard-top on those few days that they wanted to cruise around with the top off.
By the way, I have nothing against Saco, Maine. It's one of my favorite places to go and eat lobster and steamed clams---a place called the Lobster Claw. It's a 3,000 mile trip for me, though, so I don't get there too often. And, I NEVER, EVER go there during those months that the person that bought that Corvette with the hard-top only bought it that way for.In Appreciation of John Hinckley -
Re: 67 hardtop only
Joe, as we native New Englanders say: "Maine has nine months of winter and three months of bad sleddin'". Ayuh.
DonComment
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Re: 67 hardtop only
My 64 is the same way. It is a hardtop only, radio delete car. They were very expensive cars and if you ordered a hardtop only car you received a credit for the conv. top. My car is plain, base engine etc. I think that they were probably just trying to save money.Comment
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Re: 67 hardtop only
Dennis-----
You didn't actually receive a credit, per se, for ordering hardtop only. What happened was that you got the car for the same base price as you would have if you had ordered the convertible without any hardtop option. In other words, hard top only was a no cost option.
Also, keep in mind that in days of old the convertible Corvette was less expensive than the coupe. So, if you ordered a convertible with only one top, you bought the car for less than a comparable coupe.
As a matter of fact, that was the PRIMARY reason that I ordered my 1969 with a hardtop only. I really wanted the coupe (the T-Top was all the rage in 1969). I absolutely HATED ragtops at that time. So, I decided that I would order the convertible with hardtop only, I'd have a car "almost like a coupe", and I'd save about 300 bucks in the process. After the car was paid off 3 years later and for quite a few years thereafter, I always regretted trying to save the 300 bucks. However, as time went on, I began to appreciate convertibles more. I eventually came to the personal opinion that the 68-72 Corvette convertible was the best looking Corvette CONVERTIBLE ever made, I began to LOVE top-down driving and I became EVER THANKFUL that I tried to save 300 bucks back in 1969!In Appreciation of John HinckleyComment
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