Help me Debunk or Verify another "Found in barn story"
 

I have in my shop a '65 356 C Coupe. The car is in remarkable condition considering it's age. The hard part is that it has 9,615 miles on the odometer. The current owner has known of this car since the late 70's and says the car has not been driven since they became aware of it. The last registration tag for the car was 1977 and this tag was never even put on the car. It's still stapled to the registration card in the original DMV envelope.
As the story goes the original owner didn't like the car for reasons unkown to us and very seldom drove it. He had an Alfa Romeo that he drove instead. At some point in time around the end of '76 the car was painted, changed from it's original Red to the Green like his Alfa. He wasn't happy with either not happy with the job in general or the way it looked on the car. After picking up the car from the paint shop (or shortly then after) he was rear ended lightly. The story goes that he was so unhappy that he just parked it. The car is indeed green over an original red and it still has the minor rear damage that supports the story so far. Also the registration tag in the original envelope supports the story so far.
My question is how could I go about discounting or proving that the milage is accurate? The original tires rotted off long ago although the spare is still with a box of parts that came with it.
The current owner tried to get the car running so the coil has been replaced with a new part but the rest of the motor parts should be original. I need to buy a good reference guide but don't know which would be the best.
Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Kevin, I don't know much about 356's, but I'm thinking if you posted this on the 356 Registry's BB, you'd get responses, if not answers.

I'm on the 356 Registry site right now. Great minds do think alike.

I check how long a cars been parked by finding the change under the seat. If you dont find any penneys later than 70 whatver then I figure its within a year or two of the last date found.
What do the pedals look like a car with low miles they we show very little wear.

Good idea I'll check the pedals for wear.

I'm fishing here:

Original break pads/shoes? With so few miles, they might not have been replaced. Part number should be traceable to date of manufacture.
A friend of mine who does some detective work in this area has mentioned in the past that on cylinder-based odometers you can check for wear marks on the cylinder gears if you pull the odometer. On older cars, he also cross-references the mechanical cable from the odometers to the connection point on the cars wheel for proper wear and tear.
Hope this helps.

Look at the disposable parts like stated above, brake pads. Also look at the oil filter and air filter to see if they have a vintage look to them.

What's the VIN number and engine number? You can do lookups to see if they've been seen "in the wild" before at www.356a.com - the VIN db there is from the Registry's records and the engine number data contains some of Harry Pellow's records.

Yup....wear items, like seats, pedal covers, brake pads....

There are several indicators of mileage that can be used, some mentioned here, but what on earth would make you think that it was only driven 9615 miles from 1965-1977?? :confused:

With 9000 original miles, assuming dry storage in the shade, the interior would look, smell and feel like brand new, not just the pedal pads, which cost $2.00 to replace. (I replace them on every car I've owned). Does it? :cool:

Also, a 356 w/ 109k original miles could still be in pretty cherry condition inside, unless the owner weighed 300 lbs. and wore a chain wallet and a biker vest w/ studs on it. ;)

I'm assuming that car had only a 5-digit odometer? Most all of those cars got driven, in 1965 a 356 cost *Cadillac money* and was a complete mystery to all but the true believers. (Was not a status symbol then, more like an expensive VW to most people). :cool:

I don't know the habits of the original owner during '65 to '77 but I'm told the car has sat outside unprotected except for a car cover for the last 13 years. It has very definite signs of sitting outside but none of the typical road grime build up thats found on the underside or mud and debri that normally builds up in the nooks and crannies that cause the body rot almost every car has.

The Gas pedal wont be replaced by most owners when the buy a used car. Check the door Striker also for wear.

http://cisit.sfcc.edu/~sjensen/356/P1010007.jpg

That is a shot of the inside of my '65 C coupe. All original. My dad bought the car new. This pic was taken 2 years ago, the car had 144k miles at the time.

I looked closely at the pedal pads and they are better than what I would expect even at 9K. Like Dennis points out changing pads are as easy as changing the oil. The gas pedal being harder and less likely to be changed looks as good as new. No sign of little pebbles or debri in the deep grooves. I did find under the dash two aftermarket switches wired into ?? Strange mod for a low miles car. Anybody with a keen eye for detail is welcome to stop by and share thoughts and opinions. I'll post some detail pics later.

I've got an under-dash switch on my car. It isn't connected to anything, but one of the wires matches up with the wires off of a power supply for an old Blaupunkt radio I found up in my attic (Dad never threw anything away).

Very beautiful, but what I would expect. These cars were built to last, no cost-cutting measures were in place as far as materials were concerned.

For the other end of the spectrum, the interiors of late '70s Cadillacs and Lincolns were dripping w/ piss-elegant touches like crushed velvet and tassles, usually started showing wear within hours of taking delivery of your new car. :D

Probably the worst performing interior I've ever worked with are in the Corvette's. They rot and fall apart in under 10 years. All that plastic and imitation leather just doesn't last.

Thanks! The interior is what I would consider to be excellent, considering it was the family car for a while and has been stored outside pretty much all of its life. The outside though is rather rusty, although what little paint is there is original and the chrome is mostly OK. I've been learning what I can about the mechanics to keep it moving (not starting atm) and have been saving $ and looking for the person to actually do the outside work to bring it up to a non-concours but still very nice semi-daily driver.