Wow,where did you find that 68 SS350 ? Beautiful
Thanks! The car was auctioned off when a museum in Indiana went out of business. A dealer bought it, who sold it to the person I bought it from (in Connecticut) in 2002. Of all places, I found it on E-Bay. The listing had nearly 6,000 hits within a few days, but then it crashed without the seller (or the rest of us watching) realizing it. I immediately called the owner when the listing ended without accepting any last minute bids. He accepted my offer, and I believe I got it at a very good price, thanks to E-Bay's screw-up. I wasn't looking for a museum piece when I found/bought the car, but doubted I would ever have the chance to buy anything like it again, especially not for the price that I paid.
I had it shipped to Colorado and got lucky, the car was exactly what it was represented to be, with 7,757 original miles. It's the plainest SS I've ever seen, i.e. no console and with the shifter on the column (the latter is especially rare, but I can't imagine it enhances the value). Everything from the AC to the door buzzer worked perfectly, with one exception -- the in-dash speaker. I found a NOS speaker but decided not to attempt replacing it, especially with all of the AC stuff in the way. Every screw and wire was intact, so I didn't want to be the first person to put a tool to any of it. I live in Alaska but have driven it while visiting Colorado.
Not being able to drive it nearly as much as I would like, I bought a basket case 68 BB SS in Colorado in '06 to build as a driver. No, having a car project 3,600 miles away from home was not a very bright thing to do, especially since, this time, the car wasn't anywhere close to what the seller represented it to be. I didn't finish it until a couple months ago and, all told, it probably took nearly 6 months of full-time effort to complete it. Being a driver that I hope to drive a LOT, I built a mild 454 and have the original 396 tucked safely away.
I had to buy a lot of reproduction parts, and one thing I learned for certain is that virtually NONE of them are correct of the originals, most of them aren't even close. I'd have never known how far off they are if not for having the bone stock original sitting there as a reference. Though I hate to do it, I really should sell the all original SS350 because it definitely belongs somewhere else than with me.
