1968 l89
 

Here is a car I thought I’d share with the forum.
Picked this up off a used car lot on Venice Blvd. in LA a few weeks ago.
Got a call from my buddy Jonathan (runs the L89 Corvette registry) who told me about it.
The next morning I made a call to the used car dealer and told him I was interested. He asked for a $1000 CC deposit and that would hold the car for me and put me in a first position to buy it.
So I make the 1.5 hour drive into LA and take a look at it.
I crawled around the car for about an hour and decided to pass, just because I have several other projects and the idea of starting another one……..
I’m sure a lot of you can relate.
Plus the TI stuff was missing, as was the tri power setup.

I get home and after looking thru the NCRS judging manual I realize that most of what I was looking at is original to the car. Stuff like the radiator, shroud, interior, etc
I’m very unfamiliar with 68’s as 69’s are more of what I’m familiar with .

So I end up texting the dealer the following morning and we come to a deal.
I drive back into LA with my enclosed trailer and after recruiting a Corvette buddy to help.

Congratulations!! Let’s see some pics!!

Congrats on the purchase, beautiful car !!

I love the 70’s vibe, but the car is going back to original.
The car has its original engine , trans, and rear.
Assembly line shocks, 40482 fuel pump, radio, dated T-top bags.
Original alternator, radiator, shroud.
Body appears to have never been hit….one re paint.
2 owner car.
The second owner bought it in 1970 and had it till his death recently.
Been stored for the last 20-25 years
Dennis the used car dealer somehow came across this car and bought it.

I’ve requested an NCRS shipping report and I’m really hoping it came from Harry Mann.

I have a perfectly dated set of carbs coming from Eric Jackson and have a March of 68 797 tri power manifold.
Have bought all the TI ignition stuff.
Had a BB hood in my inventory of parts. Btw, the hood on the car is an original L88 hood.

So you've had this for a while and have been collecting parts..
What is "original " ? Is the yellow original ?
I was looking at that L88 hood, should be a valuable asset.

Hah! I've been to Dennis' shop! Very cool.

That's amazing. I'm guessing that the Used Car Dealer knew it was an L89?
Congrats, that's an epic purchase.

I’ve had the car for 2 weeks.
“Original” to me means installing the stuff that was on the car when new.
Tri power, TI ignition, original hood, date correct rims with trim rings and center caps, white stripe tires, original hardware, etc.

Eventually I’d like to do a re paint in the original Safari Yellow.

As far as collecting parts, I made a list of what I needed and was able to pretty much get what was needed in one trip from a fellow with a lot of corvette parts in LA.

Edit***
Too many projects asking about originality got me thinking again about the best way to approach a car like this.
I really struggle in terms of what way to go with a car like this. I love original cars, but sometimes I wonder if the best way to approach is to just clean the car up, get it running and leave it alone.
I wish I knew more about the history of the car.

He was a great guy and easy to work with. I guess he’s a pretty good musician. He did throw in a CD of his band playing but haven’t listened to it yet.
Thank you.
Super excited to have it.
Apparently, when he bought it, he did not know. Only until he got it back to his lot and started looking at it did he realize what it was.

Congratulations great find! Keep us posted with the progress and updated pics.

Very cool. One of those ‘hiding in plain sight’ kind of cars… please keep us posted on progress.

We’re mid stream frame off restoration of our ‘69 L89 Corvette. They’re amazing cars!

Can't be many original engine L89 cars out there. What a great find.

My personal opinion (worth just about what you paid for it) is that the chrome bumper C3 cars are still undervalued, and will only climb; especially the HP models.

nice fined but on the build sheet it staes its a L71. did i miss something here? oh i see it has both now!!! awsome find

Came today!

Carbs from Eric.
3rd carb to arrive tomorrow

You must be a good guy. Eric said several times that he wouldn't do anymore Corvette stuff because those guys were too much of a pain.

He revised that and said he would go back to doing carbs for already established Corvette customers.

Your '68 is exactly what I'd be looking for if I needed another hole in my head. I'd try to talk you into leaving the body in the state it's in, but you can't lose any way you turn.

What a cool car, I also saw your post on the NCRS site. Original engine and paperwork along with a good color and an L89. You struck Gold, congratulations on finding this car.
I'll be anxious to follow your progress, it is certainly worth restoring.

I had found a set of date correct carbs that I was considering but they were in rough shape.
I called Eric (and Phil) to get a rough estimate to go thru them and Eric said he just finished restoring a set that had the perfect date for me.

He put me in touch with the fellow selling them and I bought them.
The fellow selling them also sold me the 797 manifold which ended up being in fantastic condition.

Found a set of BF Goodrich redlines on FB marketplace.
The problem was they were 2 1/2 hours away in San Bernardino..
Made the drive this morning and it was an interesting operation, to say the least.
Stacks and stacks of used tires (no new tires anywhere) and a small group of hard working men.
Picked up the set for $240 which included mounting and balancing.
Stoked!

Update on my 1968 L89 coupe.
Pulled a NCRS report and found out that the car came from Clippinger Chevrolet in Covina.
Did some snooping around on the internet and found these pics with Bob Wingate aka “Mr Corvette” and James Garner.
Interesting that Bob W. Had what appears to be a yellow 68 L89 with the same black stripe except his is a convertible. Makes me wonder if that was a dealer add on?

My car…

Rats had chewed up the seats pretty good So I ordered new foam and covers from Al Knoch.
Cleaned up the frames and shined everything up.
They turned out good!

https://youtube.com/shorts/LJt0An7IA...oI5mQSr6M10SA8

Got it up and running except I noticed the fuel pump was leaking badly.
Pulled the pump and sent it to Fred Ballard who literally had it back to me in less than a week (no plating)

Crawling around the car, I noticed it has the original assembly line F41 shocks and the front coil spring tag is still intact denoting the F41 suspension

Changed out the rotted out gas tank to a Quanta tank.

Really cool on all the stuff you are finding on this car.
But, if I may say, it looks to me that you have the 2 outside listing wires of the cushion hog ringed too close to the front edge, causing the pucker on each side. The pic of the original appears to have the last hog ring back about 4 inches from the seam with the welting, which seems to allow the front edge of the cushion to expand and support the surround trim flatter.

I had a yellow 1968 L89 from Clippinger. I always wondered if it was the car in the showroom picture.

Good eye! I saw the pucker and tried to fix it but had no idea why it did that.
The seats aren’t bolted down yet so I will re position the hog rings.
Thank you!

Wow! Exact same options as my car.
DocRebuild’s (corvette parts business) owner also had a Safari yellow L89 with our same options.
It’s like that dealer batch ordered the same car with the same options.

Car sounds great!!

Great car

Awesome car and find! Looks like will be fun playing with this one without too much effort.
I have been thinking about selling my original paint 69 L71, 27K mile car, but this gives me inspiration to hold on and enjoy it. They are fun to drive and haul ass!!

I thought I would up date my progress on the 1968 L89.
The interior of this car was in pretty bad shape. Appears that rats were living inside and chewing up the seats, carpet, and door panels.
The good news is it appears they left the wiring alone.
Rat poop and pee everywhere.

I pulled the shift console, rebuilt and cleaned the vent controls, pulled the center gauge console to paint and bench test the gauges, and removed the radio to test it.

Bummer…pictures are rotated incorrectly again.
Not sure what I’m doing wrong. I went thru and rotated all the pictures prior to posting and then saved them. Oh well.

I found a date correct jack ( why are these always missing?)
A correct distributor cap, door hardware, and a correct master cylinder.
I sent the radio out to Dr Dons radio repair as I couldn’t get it to work on the bench. I’ll let him sort it out.
The MC will go to Mike at BB.
I ordered the emergency brake console, forward console, carpet, and sound deadener from Al Knoch.

...

Finished up my shift console and vent controls. Did my 69 car also.
Sanded and painted my gauge console.

Bought a date correct starter from ChevyCool.
Tore apart my smog pump, removed the vanes and then cleaned it up.

Attempted to rebuild my alternator and install the correct pulley. After install I almost burned up the car so I had to splice in a section of new wiring to the starter. I used a piece of original wiring from my 69’s old harness.
The alternator then came back off and went to the local rebuilder to fix my work.

Rebuilt my date correct water pump and then painted it.
Painted my exhaust manifolds.

Washed my seatbelts.
Found a correct MC cap.
Found a correct radiator cap.

…