72 Tuxedo Black

[Greg Sullivan]

Hi folks I have 1972 Vette with a Pewter Silver paint code. It is a very original car and I am almost through the restoration. The issue is that at one point in it's life somone painted it black (they did a very good job). I have little documumentation on the car only that the second owner purchased it black.

Question 1. If the car was painted black at the dealership does that hurt the value?

Question 2. Without documentation is there a way to tell if the car was painted at the dealer (wishful thinking).

[Kent K.]

Re: 72 Tuxedo Black

Greg,

NCRS judging standards indicate cars are to be judged as they left the assembly plant with dealer clean-up. Dealer inspired options and repaint to sell Corvettes will receive appropriate deductions during judging. However, if you have unquestionable substantial evidence that the trim tag is incorrect for interior or exterior according to the way it left the plant and the judges are convinced ...

Happy Easter,
Kent #6201

[Bill S.]

Re: 72 Tuxedo Black

i seem to remember black was not a color that year yet looks great. go with what you like. others will correct me if i am wrong

[William C.]

Re: 72 Tuxedo Black

You are correct Bill, Black was not an available factory option after 1969 for many years.

[Joe L.]

Re: 72 Tuxedo Black

Greg-----

1) First of all, it does not matter where the car was painted. Even if you had documentation that it was painted at the original, delivering dealer, that would not change the equation, at all, as far as value is concerned. The fact is that it's been painted a color which does not match the trim tag. Where this happened is irrelevant.

If the car has been painted a color that was not the one it left the factory with, that will reduce the value of the car to most buyers interested in originality (usually, this type of buyer are those willing to spend the most money on a car). So, I don't think that there's any doubt it will reduce the value. On the other hand, the amount of value reduction will nowhere near equal what it would cost to have the car stripped and painted its original color. So, there's "no way out of the situation" that could be cost-justified.

2) As I mentioned, even if you had documentation that the re-paint was done at the original dealer, that wouldn't mean a thing to anyone.

[Tim G.]

Re: 72 Tuxedo Black

Anyone know why black was not available all those years? A documented special order black '73 was recently purchased by a friend, the trim tag has "SPEC" by the paint portion and special paint is noted on the window sticker and build sheet with the color "black" noted on the build sheet. The car is stunning, I wonder why the color went away after '69?

[Tony Z.]

Re: 72 Tuxedo Black

From what I have read, black was a very hard color to paint on these cars and took more effort to prep it for paint.

[Michael S.]

Re: 72 Tuxedo Black

If you have ever seen one of the few original black 69 Corvettes manufactured with the ORIGINAL paint you know why they discontinued black as a production color on a Corvette!