78VetteChic

How rare are cloth seats? Or does it have to do more with the trim and various model combination (cloth/leather, interior color, exterior color, engine/model) which determines how rare a vehicle is for a specific model year?

For instance, I did some looking online to see how many 78's came with oyster cloth seats and found on one web site saying 12C Oyster Cloth on 2,226 vehicles. I have no idea if the production data is correct or not, but I found the production numbers here (Black Book/Michael Antonik) ----

http://books.google.com/books?id=WBI...esult#PPA76,M1

I have the same book by that author (1992 edition) that I bought years ago but it doesn't list the interior trim production numbers.

Thanks!

1nicecorvette

i would say that book is pretty accurate.

i know that my 1979 oyster cloth is a 1 of 2606 cars produced with that. When i first bought the car i thought some homey changed the interior on it. then after getting my research straight i saw it was factory!

then i saw the manual window cranks!! thats another story! scared the crap out of me thinking someone changed those over too and put them ON TOP OF the door pockets. i was wrong again..... FACTORY!

KapsSA

Having dark blue cloth in my 78SA you got me curious.
Adding up the cloth colors in the Black Book, 2001 edition(I also have an 88 edition that's useless!) I came up with 7988.
Kinda rare, but desireable? I DO like my blue cloth, but I had a previous 78 with oyster leather that was absolutely beautiful.

78VetteChic

What had me curious about the trim options was after seeing ads for 78s for sale stating "rare" cloth seats. I figured I should investigate further to see if that info was available to verify, and maybe gaining some comfort knowing I might possibly have something a bit more special out of the 40,274 coupes and 15,283 painted silver.

Btw, as per the VIN I'm production #30101 so I guess I'm somewhat of a tail-ender. Not sure what benefit that is other than GM figuring out their booboo's from the earlier production numbers - or maybe not!

Easy Mike

My 2004 edition of The Corvette Blackbook shows 2226 78s with oyster cloth and 8999 with oyster leather. There were 40274 78s excluding the Pace Cars. 2226 divided by 40274 equals .055%, call it 6%. Line up 100 stock 78s and six of them will have oyster cloth.

Total cloth of all colors except Pace Car silver was about 20% of production. 20 out of a hundred.

78VetteChic

Corvette Black Book 1953-2006 edition from that google books web site if other 78 owners wanted to save a copy of this to their computer (right click Save Image).

Easy Mike

Note the 5703 silver leather. Pace Cars. What they don't say is that you could order a Pace Car with silver cloth.

moosie982

My kid sister had a Silver Anniversary with a black cloth interior, it prompted me to redo my '80 in cloth, good move as far as I'am concerned cause it was so much more enjoyable in all weather.
Peace,,,Moosie

hdff

my 78 came with blue cloth , looks good to me, especially with the anniversary paint.

Karate Kid

I know this is an old thread but I've been researching this. I bought a 1979 that is "Hilton Brown Metalic" and has the Fabric Inset on the seats and door panels. In 1979 of the 53,807 only around 165 had that interior. Only 4053 were Brown and I was trying to find out how many of the Brown ones had that interior. The car was all original,89,000 miles, and very well maintained.
I looked for a C3 for 4 years, I bought it on a Monday and 3 weeks later to the day a lady ran a stop sign and T-Boned me. I've been telling the insurance company how rare the car is and I don't care how much it costs they are going to fix my car.

If any of you have a more exact number than the 165 (I doubt all 165 were Brown) I would appreciate the info.

vettebuyer6369

You are right, 14 years is an old thread.

Please start a new thread with your question.