I have a 1980 L-82 with roughly 15,000 oringal mile on the clock that is in need of a paint job. My only delema at this point is wheather to paint it the oringinal color or do a color change. I have had some corvette fanatics tell me to do what ever my heart tells me to do, but I don't want to take away from the value of the car. Right now the car is white with claret interior. I don't know how rear the color combination is at this point, and don't know where to find that information out. I also have the oringinal build sheet as well as the oringinal window sticker. Any input that anyone has would be great appreciated.

If you don't want to take away from the car's originality for future resale value's sake or you feel that you are a purist at heart, I'd say repaint the same color. However, if you plan on keeping it forever and aren't concerned about what it would fetch in the future, paint it any color you want.

Or. If you plan on keeping it long enough. Paint it your choice, and then repaint it White at a later date. Just make sure it gets done right both times.



Scot

No matter what, I WANT PICTURES!

Seems to me you must have liked the color when you bought it so what changed? A low mileage original car should stay that way. I believe in the right to do what you want with your car but the fact that you are asking suggests you are concerned about value. So keep it original.

In the end it all comes down to what you plan to do long term with your Vette, GM built 40,614 Vettes in '80, and 7,780 of them were White, 7,250 in Black, 5,714 in Red, and on down the line. White was the most popular color for '80, '81, and '82 (actually the C.E. paint was the highest color produced in '82, but I didn't count the C.E because there was no color choice).
There were only 5,069 L82's built in '80, so there is where the "how rare" issue comes into play, how many of the 5,069 were white? I am also in the "what color" thought process, as I hope to have mine ready for paint in the spring. Mine is long past being "original", but the factory color is Buckskin, which there were 2,954 built, second fewest behind Dark Green at 2,038. I wouldn't mind having a color you don't see everyday, but then agian I do like some of the "Oranges" of various years.

It sounds to me that you'll sleep better knowing you didn't impact the value of the car. I have to agree with not changing the color on a 13,000 mile car. A 113,000 mile car is a good choice for a change of color, not a 13,000 mile car. If it were up to me I would find a car with the correct colors and sell the low mileage beauty to pay for it.

My two cents. You do what you think is right, and heck with all the others. As long as you are satisfied is all that counts. I know after researching "my baby" that it was painted a dark brown, which I don't care for. One of her previous owners, had her repainted to the current color, which I like. As you can tell now, it's beige, which was not offered, as far as I can tell on a 1975 corvette. I like the color and it matches the interior very well. If I were to repaint mine, and really thinking about it, I would paint it close to the same color, or maybe even a yellow. When I see a picture of a C3 vette, I will print it out and put it on the wall to see if it grows on me. So far, the only picture left on the wall is "my baby".

If it is truly 15K miles, I would say leave it original. Not many that low in miles left. If you don't like the color, sell it and buy one you like. Or just paint any color you want and don't worry about it. It's yours, enjoy!

I have a somewhat similar quandry ... my '74 'vert was already repainted a different color (from the original Corvette Orange to something close to Mille Migilia Red) about 10 years ago before I bought it and will be needing a repaint (the original urethane bumpers are in need of replacement along with a bit of cracking, I'm also noticing that there are some minor hidden areas were I can see the original color so it was just a respray, not stripped down and then repainted, the repaint was "driver" quality and still does shine up quite nicely). My car has a little over 80K which isn't bad but I wouldn't consider it low mileage! As someone had said earlier if it was painted its original color (in my case Orange) I probably would have passed on it ... "resale red" is what a lot of people look for (I hear that red, black and silver are close to the top in popularity lately) and apparently it sold me (I could have done some more checking on the trim codes but, as they say it looked good, checked out mechanically and was within my budget so I bought it). When a lot of the C3's were originally made however white was VERY popular (you'll find a very good write-up on the popularity of colors in "The Original Corvette" book). Unless you plan to just paint it and park it I would have it painted in YOUR favorite color and drive and enjoy it. If you plan to trailer and show it I would stay original if you're more concerned with strictly resale value if that's your main reason for keeping it. Another thing you'll definitely want to check out are cars your same year and model in different colors in the flesh so to speak ... this past spring I visited the Corvette Museum in Bowling Green and they had an original '75 'vert in Corvette Orange/Med Saddle (my original colors!) ... it stated that it had only 5K miles on it! No question ... keep it original, but it convinced me that I made the right choice, hope you do as well

I agree with the replies above. In a nutshell if you are going to keep it paint it how you want. If you are going to sell it, put it back original.