Words: Chadly Johnson

Everybody loves a good mystery, right? Perhaps when it comes to a movie, but what about your classic car? The wild 1969 Corvette you see before you is pretty much a blank slate; its history is unknown. Obviously the ‘vette has had extensive work performed on it over the years, and has been displayed in at least two over the top paint schemes, yet how it came to be is currently lost to time. We’ll let you know what we do know about the 69, and perhaps some of you loyal readers out there can fill in the blanks.

Tom Duttrey of Olympia, WA loves classic cars, and has always been drawn to the more oddball, and one-off creations. When Tom spotted the unique Corvette on Ebay, he had to have it. Tom won the auction and had his new prize shipped up from S. California. During Tom’s time interacting with the seller, he could not get any information regarding the car’s history. Old registration paperwork was found in the glove box dating back as far as the early ‘90s, but any attempts of tracking down the previous owner resulted in dead ends.

Here is what we do know. The ‘69 is a factory T-top, big block 4 speed car that is currently running a non-numbers matching 427. The large decal on the hood reads: American Revolution Bicentennial 1776 – 1976, so it would appear the ‘vette was done up in its current patriotic red, white, and blue paint scheme to celebrate America’s 200 year birthday. The paint work still shows bright and bold, but closer inspection reveals years of maturity and earned patina. What is interesting is that lurking under the tri-color paint scheme is yet another, perhaps even wilder paint job. Present inside the wheel wells and under the tilt front end of the 69 is dark blue, heavy metal flake paint work. Hiding under the center section of the hood is a hand painted mural that portrays a mountain landscape with a lake in the foreground and bright blue sky and sun backdrop… pretty wild. Someone put a great deal of effort into the Corvette’s paint work…but who?

Digging deeper into the physical appearance of the ‘vette, we find no known evidence of a body kit, but instead all hand molded body mods. The front end is especially radical, with deep set Cibie concave headlights. The big block feeds into era side pipes that perfectly accent the deep dish Cragar wheels. The old Micky Thompson bias ply tires are killer, but Tom says they are so hard he has to ease into the clutch to not smoke them constantly. Besides the stiff tires, Tom states the Corvette drives out very nicely and is an attention magnet everywhere he takes it. The street freak era was pretty short lived, and when people see a surviving example of it, they often do not comprehend what they are looking at. The 69’s interior is basically stock and remains in every nice condition, adding to the comfort level of driving it.

So that is pretty much it. Tom has dug deep into Corvette forums, vintage magazines and social media platforms to find anything about his mystery Corvette, but nothing tangible has presented itself – just a lot of comments along the lines of “I’m pretty sure I saw that in a magazine in the early 80s…” Tom is not frustrated, just curious… How does something go from a stock format to what you see before you and not leave any sort of paper trail? We are hoping the person with all the answers, or at least some of them, will get their hands on this feature… Perhaps it’s you?