1963 Corvette Split-Window

One model year of a car whose best-known feature was an argument — and the side that lost it is the side worth money now.

The divided rear window lasted exactly one model year. It was on the 1963 car and gone from the 1964, because the spine sits precisely where a driver wants to look and the engineers said so loudly enough to win. Styling lost the argument and the collector market has spent sixty years disagreeing with the verdict.

Everything visible here is where Chevrolet put it. The hidden lamps still turn on their axis rather than lifting; the wheel covers are wire-spoke over narrow whitewalls; the fuel filler carries the crossed flags and nothing else. Restoring a car to look untouched is harder than restyling one, and it photographs as though nothing has been done at all — which is the point and the problem.

The sheet below is the shop’s standing spec for a split-window done this way — factory in every visible part, upgraded exactly where the spec line says so.

Continued below — the build sheet