1965 silver/silver vinyl convertibles

[Mike D.]

Anyone know how many of these were made? I started my own registry but there are only so many cars listed on ebay....
Thanks.
Mike

[Donald T.]

Re: 1965 silver/silver vinyl convertibles

Mike,

Unfortunately, there are no GM production records for option combinations. There were 2,552 painted Silver Pearl, but there's no way of knowing how many of those were convertibles.

[Garry Barnes]

Re: 1965 silver/silver vinyl convertibles

Mike,
I can't tell you how many were made, but I would be interested in knowing a bit more about your car. I owned one back in the late 80's that was a silver/silver with automatic, ps,pb and factory air. I sold it to a guy in the NY area when I moved from Boston to Chicago in '91. I always wondered what happend to this car. I know that it is a long shot, but I follow up on every silver/silver rag top that I hear about in hopes of finding it someday.
Garry #18531

[Mike D.]

Re: 1965 silver/silver vinyl convertibles

sorry. we purchased this car in July from a guy who bought it in Indiana in 1976 or 1977. At that time it was orange with gold flake on the rear deck, 4 speed, 300 HP, 2 tops. We bought it being white with black interior. we are planning on putting it back to original after finishing my 67 390 HP coupe sometime in 2008. We are trying to find the previous owners before 1976.

[Al G.]

Re: 1965 silver/silver vinyl convertibles

Here are the option totals from St. Louis plant records for silver vinyl and leather interiors as well as silver paint bodies for the 1965 build!

Silver Vinyl Interior 716 -- 3.34% of vinyl production -- 3.04% total prod.

Silver Leather Interior 57 -- 2.68% of leather production -- 0.24 total prod.

Silver Paint 2,552 -- 10.86% of total production

Total units in 65 build with RPO paint - 23,557.

Total units in 65 build with prime or COPO paint - 5.

Extrapolating these 1965 original totals against the ratio of coupes to convertibles (67.75% convertibles & 32.25% coupes) will provide the (extrememly close) sliver/silver count you seek.

[James G.]

Re: 1965 silver/silver vinyl convertibles

Using Al's numbers, that makes about 47 possible convertibles with silver interior. But remember, silver could be used with white, black, blue, silver, and red and probably any other car color if you pushed the COPO order desk hard.

My best guess is silver / silver is about 10 to 12 cars total, if that many. I have only seen three in my lifetime.

[Loren L.]

Al, you need to add the 2 '65's that Chevy

never counted - one SB CV (Maroon?) and one BB CV, yellow.

[Rick S.]

Re: 1965 silver/silver vinyl convertibles

A friend has a 65 silver/silver 396 car, wonder how that translates.

[Wayne M.]

Rick -- is that car #20344 in western Canada ?

If so, it's been around the Calgary area since at least 1976 when I moved west. Brought north from Moscow Idaho by a professional football player. 2-tops. Gotta be one of, or close to.

[Mike D.]

Re: 1965 silver/silver vinyl convertibles

Thanks for the numbers. We have the original door panels which were dyed black, and the interior is all black. The silver visors were not on the car when we purchased it but are now back on the car. The black paint is chipping off the seat backs and the original silver is showing. Seats, carpet and door panels need restored and it will be silver inside once again. Then we'll strip the white paint off the body and make it silver/silver,

[James G.]

Re: Al, you need to add the 2 '65's that Chevy

Like I said.......heavy COPO orders. YELLOW on SILVER is Vomit time, don't you think?

[Mike D.]

Re: 1965 silver/silver vinyl convertibles

3% silver vinyl of 2552 cars = 76 cars of which 2/3 were convertibles leaving around 50 made in this color combo. My start of a 65 silver registry shows 22% silver/silver and 78% silver/black, and ours is the only one in my very small registry being a convertible. Most of the silver coupes in my registry have higher VINs so I am assuming they made a higher percentage of coupes late in the run and fewer coupes in the fall of 1964.

[Mike D.]

Re: 1965 silver/silver vinyl convertibles

shoot me the VIN and I'll put it in my registry.

[Rick S.]

Re: Rick -- is that car #20344 in western Canada ?

Wayne,
The car has been in the Detroit area at least 12 years. I don't know the VIN but will check with my friend but he is a low profile person so if I get the info, I will post it.

[Garry Barnes]

Re: 1965 silver/silver vinyl convertibles

Mike,
I know that I have the VIN to the SIlver/Silver convertible I had around here somewhere. I will send it to you so that you can include it in your new registry. I bought the car from Frank Beard, drummer for ZZ Top out of Houston. I told his agent that I would buy the car provided that I get to meet Frank in person. Frank showed up with a boat load of original ZZ Top memorabilia of which I still have. He posed for pictures with me and the car as well. Great guy. He had acquired the car from a lady in Houston but I don't know how many previous owners there were.

Frank didn't like the Silver interior so he put a red interior in it. Fortunatley he had kept the original interior so I got that too and put all the original stuff back in the car with the exception of the carpet. Never was able to track much of the history of the car other than it had some minor restoration work done at Nabors Restoration in Houston.

Congrats on your new purchase. You are going to love the Silver/Silver when you get it back to original.

Garry #18531