kenba

Where he is having it restored I would bet he will have that close to 100,000.00 in the resto.

jimgessner

What a neat discovery. The car looks like a great Survivor that was driven and enjoyed. I believe it was never ''raced'', but driven in RALLY events. POWEGLIDE automatic trans cars were not raced. Notice the ''Rally clock'' below the radio block off plate.Many sports cars entered rallies every weekend that were time and distance events on scenic local roads.

That block off plate appears to be a 57 item. All 55's came with a radio.

The hardtop is an aftermarket item. Roy can comment on this item in detail.

Jim Wallace is a great Corvette collector. I met him on the phone some years ago when he had a 65 silver fuel injection coupe he was selling.

Dick Fernando has restored many Corvettes over the last 40 years. I look forward to seeing this car in the future, maybe BLOOMINGTON 2018 at Indy.

Thanks Mike for sharing this discovery.

scopeli

the restoration shop that gets this car has it made with this car. many 55s are incomplete. this one comes basicly correct with the exception of a later front motor mount bracket which is easily available. body fit on this car also appear very good. Al Knoch can supply everything that the rodents destroyed and if I had a restoration shop I would probably take the car to Al Knoch to install the interior and top. (tan trunk mats are now available through Al Knoch unless Grossmueller purchased the remainder of them at Carlisle.) many restoration shops do not have a person in house to do the top and spend a long time waiting on a top to be completed by a outside shop. I see no reason that this car would take two years to restore as was mentioned in the previous posted article.

scopeli

excellent summary of this car. and now that the race car idea is probably out, the new owner might consider mentioning that this car could well be the last pennant blue car built. I see no records of a later factory painted pennant blue car.

Mike Terry

If not that many parts are missing I know a shop that could restore the car for about $45 to $50K and be a NCRS top Flight Car when it is done is 6 to 8 months. I don't know where you guys come up with this $120K bill at for restoring a car.

Robert61

Dissassemble reassemble. $5,000
Chassis 1,500
Engine 4,000
Tranny & clutch. 800
Rear end. 800
Paint & body. 15,000
Chrome trim. 5,000
Interior. 6-7,000
Dash. 3,000
Top. 1,500
Exhaust. 1,000
Tires. 1,000
Wheels. 2,000
Wiring. 1,000
Unknown steel repair. 2,000
Plating. 500
Rubber. 1,000
Accessories. 1,000
Another easy 5k I missed. 5,000

That's 58k and I'm sure there's more. I'm not sure any shop would work that cheap. This is just my conservative stab in the dark.

Just looked at D&As web site. Their 10 year old today price was $54,000 labor to restore a 55. Throw a few dollars here and there for parts and I still see 100k plus

mikelj

He has, he restored my '64 fuelie big brake tanker, he did a great job on it.

Robert61

It's a little too far anyway, but I would love to go through a shop like theirs just to look at the operation. Looks like they definitely have their system down.

kenba

I am not talking about most resto shops but Nabors Kevin Mackay and other high end shops will charge that and more for some Corvettes. Parts for a 55 are VERY expensive and some are almost nonexistent. Years ago there was a thread on CF where a shop charged a guy well over a 100,000.00 to restore a 68 or 69 300 HP low option coupe and posted the invoice. The shop was going to sue me because I said that it should not cost that much and should not have spent that much to restore a low option C-3.

mikelj

Nabors is outrageously priced, it would be near $200K with them I suspect, and then would struggle for a Top Flight given the way they restore Corvettes, IMO.

GTOguy

Glad it went to a good home. Not surprised the kids didn't want it...it never ran or moved in their lifetimes, so it was just a dusty lump taking up space. A guy I've known since 1982 has had a '55 T-Bird parked in his garage since 1968....it used to be pretty nice back then, but now it's totally trashed, being used as a table and workbench for decades.....he's no longer living there, he's too old to do anything if he wanted to, and the car is still there, where a daughter of his still lives. I offered to get it running 35 years ago, and again over the years until about 20 years ago when I gave up. It was clear to me he enjoyed the 'have' more than the 'drive' of the car. Glad this one had a happy ending.

Mike Terry

Why would you pay $100K or $200K for a restoration that would get you a Top Flight when you could get one for say $50K and get the same Top Flight Award? Oh I guess some of you just like to blow big bucks? Well my money did not come that easy I had to work for mine and if I could not do the work myself then I would rather pay a shop $50K as to paying one $100 or $200K for the same work.

scopeli

mike, you are fortunate to know about a restoration shop that might do a lot of the work inhouse. a lot of restoration shops I seen are just part changers. car is disassembled and parts are sent out to be restored. many ship out the body to be prepped and painted, the frame to another place to be blasted and with the very few people that now install early C1 tops, car has to be shipped to a installer. you should see the shipping cost these restoration shops charge per hour for their employees to make these trips! the side curtains will be restored by steve newsom, the windshield assemblies will be restored by the vendor I always see at Carlisle or Bloomington. (***I wish someone would start reproducing the top header of the windshield assembly!! have you noticed that lately a lot of 53-55 projects no longer come with the windshield assemblies***). Everytime I been to Bloomington and Carlisle I have seen restored windshield assemblies with the name of the restorer closest to me waiting to be picked up at the show. looking at the rust on top of the 55 air cleaner you could bet would bet that most restorations shops would just purchase the $1500 reproduction air cleaner. the missing radio and hub caps that are needed will be on the exteme high end prices unless the new owner get these items himself.

Mike Terry

Hubcaps about $25 to $2700 and working radio restored about $2K so I would say is your restoration shop don't do the work there self and send it out to someplace to be restored say for $40.00 you can bet your guy will charge you $75.00 or more for what he had done for $40.00 I would say you should probably find another restoration shop. I agree most shops do not do chroming or powder coating but for the most part they should do the rest. If your shop sends out a body to be painted you can bet they will double the price the paint shop charges then. So if you are paying $20 K for a paint job the paint shop probably charged your restoration shop $10K or less. Sounds like to me your restoration shop is nothing more then a middle man who is not doing much and making all the monies. There is my $0.02 worth.
I know, how about letting me restore all the cars on here and charge $100 to $120K and I will get them all done and I will keep the extra monies that a good shop will really charge me for doing your cars?
Sounds like some people on here need to check out more the one restoration shop if they are sending there car out to be restored. Don't go by just a name someone give you, check it out yourself.

jimgessner

I agree Mike, and as we all get older, it becomes more difficult to find a new shop. And very difficult to get new blood into the hobby as many of the young guys don't have ''our'' passion. I have heard some wild stories about middle man shops that have ripped off new people and this has really upset the hobby today.

Bluestripe67

Did anyone else notive the side script has NO capitalized V in Corvette? Interesting! Could this car be a very early production V8 and the script had not been finalized? Dennis

scopeli

all 55 V8s came with the V in the script. increase the size of the passenger fender. you will be able to see where the V was.

tach drive 61

After finding my uncles 54 from 101st airborne Cuban missile crisis era he sold on base these finds are great to read about thanks for posting mike .cant wait to see this one restored

deejaydu

Does anyone know the VIN # of this car. I believe that it should be less than 100.

scopeli

if you go to the super chevy link in the article you will find the vin. Unless you could see the area of the frame near the fuel pump has been altered, see brass tags on ignition pieces, read a radiator tag or see different size bolts on the hood hinges I don' know if you could determine the car has a vin less than 100. but unlike this car, most pennant blue cars will have a vin below 175.