Okay, here's my take on the situation...

We all know the C4's are dropping in price recently.  There are some real steals being offered to unload the all-wonderful and powerful 4th gen vette.

So that tells us that the earlier cars are increasing in value, and it's evident no matter where you look!  My question to you is, if you have a corvette you can drive, and it hasn't cost you a TON of money yet, why would you not wait 10 or 15 more years, still driving the vette, and make the big bucks on your 81, which would now be just as popular as the chrome bumpers?

Remember when you could find a second gen (C2) vette in the paper or the swapper for at least half of what people are paying for them now only about 5 years ago?  Hell, I kick myself in the A$& everyday now because when I bought the '79 I could have purchased a non-matching numbers '58 for the same price.  It wasn't a show queen, but I would have netted back at least twice to three times my initial investment by now, even with just a driver!  But, those coved sides just didn't do it for me as much as those sweet, sexy fender flares, and the sweeping, curvaceous rear did on that '79!

Comes right down to it...it's your decision to make and your choice to deal with.  6 of one and a half dozen of the other!  Are you going to be saying..."Gee, I wish I'd kept that '81!"...or..."Gee, I wish I'd bought that '69"?

Keep it and drive it or don't, it's like tossing a coin...you're probably going to see that no matter how many times you toss the coin, or ask the question, the results are pretty much going to be 50/50.

I`m not sure what an `81 goes for these days, but it seems like for a few thousand more  plus the sale of your 81 you could purchase a good driver in the chrome bumper years.

That `69 your looking at is going to be a project car costing plenty of $$$$$.

Good luck!

Yup, sounds like a bit o work ahead for that 69. I've got 16K just into parts and sub assembly refurbishments......no interior yet and no paint.

So, I would definitely say 10 K is a bit modest to fix r up.

depends on how much you can do your self. In car scale, that's double the cost and double the time you figure it will take...... my 2 cents.