When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Tom,
That is the first time I have seen any pre-resto pics of your car AND the first time I have ever seen a C1 with C2 side exhaust.
To the masses.
The term restored had many meaning to people back in the day which early on to most meant making a car LOOK like it did when it was new. Most people did not care about factory correct parts and used what was available from their local parts store.
The vast majority of cars that were restored in the 70s would fail miserably in NCRS current day judging. .
Did you notice the chromed rear axle assembly and springs,a nd radius rods and about anything else that would fit in the chrome tank where Tom worked way back when?
Doug
I did two pre-Internet Mutangs....many jaunts to junkyards, and distant Mustang vendors, and, you had to "stockpile" your own "hot spares" for high failure items (and I still do that today) to stay on the road. Water pumps, gnereators/alternators/spare carb/voltage regulator. Plus a Rolodex of pals you could count on for an assist when needed...
Only two trips to Carlisle but I loaded up on parts each time. I think parts theft was worse back in the day because it took longer (and it was harder) to source some things.
HOWEVER, you could still get some parts from the dealers and FLAP outfits AND still many old school mechanics around that didn't recoil in fear at the sight of a carburetor.
Some things were better, some were infinitely worse.
Yea, forgot about Hemmings, when i first started getting then they were a 100 pages, and would read thru most, over time it grew to over 1000 pages but was organized by car and parts so only had to read 3 different sections.. I used to save then for years but eventually had to get rid of them, they just took up too much space..
Yes the scammers are a downside to the internet, another peeve I have is there are very few actual specs for the parts or any dimensional info...Ive had to return quite a few parts because of this....
In the early 90's I had a job that required air travel at least once per week. During down time I would visit bone yards and shops and buy used parts for my 68 coupe. I would take the parts and put them in the overhead bin. I remember bringing a fan in a shopping bag with me on the flight. Try that today. The internet is great for part location, but I really find it helpful in the How To video posts. This forum is a great example of that. Jerry
When I restored my 65 in the early 70’s, my only sources for parts were the local Chevy dealer, auto parts store and “T. Michaelis Corvette Supply” for specialty parts. Yes, the same Terry Michaelis who has Proteam now. I also remember getting parts out of salvage yards from same-year full sized Chevys that would interchange with my Vette. Parts were much easier to come by without worrying about where they were made like nowadays!
The first car I restored was a 1914 Ford Model T touring car, that was in 1969, and I was 15. Hemmings was the bible back then, though there were a number of catalog companies dedicated to early Fords, but swap meets were probably the main source of parts. There were usually a couple swap meets within a few hours drive, every month here in the Northeast. There was also the AACA Hershey Fall Meet to look forward to every October (Carlisle was still 5 years away).
My 62 was the first Corvette I restored, and that was in 76. A local Chevy dealer, Barlow Chevrolet in Delran NJ, had a parts department that specialized in Corvette parts, and they were my primary parts source. Back then there was also A D Anderson Chevrolet in Baltimore, that specialized in Corvette parts too, and of course Hemmings, Vette Vues and Corvette Corner magazines. Spring and Fall Carlisle were in their infancy, as was Bloomington, while Corvette Carlisle didn't exist yet. The NCRS was also only a couple years old, and Michaelis Enterprises was the largest Corvette parts company.
Yes junkyard memories, something few of todays restorers will experance since most cars are stripped and crushed within days of going into the yard and very few yards let you wander around by yourself. Whenever I went to the yard after I got the part I was looking for I would spend a 1/2 hour filling a small toolbox with chrome trim screws and taillight/interior bulbs.. They never checked small tool boxes for extra parts.. Havent been to a yard in 30 years but this week I used some of thoes trim screws and taillight bulbs...
Yes junkyard memories, something few of todays restorers will experance since most cars are stripped and crushed within days of going into the yard and very few yards let you wander around by yourself. Whenever I went to the yard after I got the part I was looking for I would spend a 1/2 hour filling a small toolbox with chrome trim screws and taillight/interior bulbs.. They never checked small tool boxes for extra parts.. Havent been to a yard in 30 years but this week I used some of thoes trim screws and taillight bulbs...
DAMN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And I thought it was just me that did that!
my Cobra replica and full body off C2 would simply not exist without the internet. First off all, when I started working on cars about 10 years ago, the most complicated job I had ever undertaken on a car was changing wiper washer water.
Internet became my 'car repair/restore university', I probably spent more hours surfing than building. I read and read and read till I understood from the simplest to the most complicated task. My wife jokes that I probably have worn out some telecom/internet provider network infrastructure all by myself. This C2 forum and the members were golden assets, as were the cobra equivalent for the cobra. When I started 10 years ago, I took a real life but very basic/short car mechanic training too, and a base 2 day car painting training. Not that this gave me much expertise, but it removed the mystery/fear factor so I got more confidence. Still it's only in the 3rd year of the cobra build that I started believing I would ever end up with a drivable car. I was very much out of my comfort zone for those 3 years, and it was a challenge to keep going.
Both my cars ended up very well, look great, and proved very reliable (both north of 10k miles without issues ).
As far as parts availability: on this side of the atlantic, there would have been close to zero supply without the internet.
Respect to all who could do it without though, kind of heroic
I think a point JohnZ made got a bit glossed over. Pre-internet, long-distance calls were outrageously costly...discussing the potential purchase of a needed part with a seller could run up a nice bill minute-by-minute and there was no sharing digital pictures in a matter of minutes...
To take pictures of a part you shot a roll of film and carried it to the store to be developed for $$$ and then hoped that you (or the photo lab) didn't screw up the film...
To wit, parts were often bought sight unseen from private sellers or from a catalog with grainy pictures and dicey descriptions.. Many cars are festooned with JC Whitney Bubba parts for these reasons.
Its easy today to guffaw and blast prior owners for some of the things that were done to cars back in the day without realizing the obstacles to doing -- well, anything, restoration-wise.
Frank doing the first resto of dads 67 from 1990-2003 almost all the repro parts he bought we brought home from Carisle events when Pargon and others would bring almost there entire catalog up there to sell. We would always talk to Richard F the owner and his long time employees for discounts and what’s new in the resto game. Dad rarely got parts shipped home. The last two Corevette restos about 95% of the parts are all ordered online and shipped home. And all the “ginger bread” items I find on here or EBay. That black 67 we restored would have been very tough to do without the internet
I have to say, I give massive credit to the big repro vendors for moving so swiftly and artfully into the on-line environment. Paragon, Zip, CC, Long Island, etc..
Many, larger, well-established retailers were asleep at the wheel.
Soon JC Penny and now Sears will just be names taught in marketing classes. Sad...
Back on topic - this '59 MGA had factory front disc brakes believe it or not....when a caliper went out in 1967 it took me 3 weeks of phone calls and searching to find one - the ONLY one I could find. I drove from Norfolk to Frederickburg just to get a single brake caliper out of a junkyard.
How easily we forget such travails...
Last edited by Frankie the Fink; 10-19-2018 at 08:17 AM.
Yes junkyard memories, something few of todays restorers will experance since most cars are stripped and crushed within days of going into the yard and very few yards let you wander around by yourself. Whenever I went to the yard after I got the part I was looking for I would spend a 1/2 hour filling a small toolbox with chrome trim screws and taillight/interior bulbs.. They never checked small tool boxes for extra parts.. Havent been to a yard in 30 years but this week I used some of thoes trim screws and taillight bulbs...
I think we that are in our 50s to 60s have done this more times than those that did not.
I just hope the junkyard police don’t come after us👀
I think we that are in our 50s to 60s have done this more times than those that did not.
I just hope the junkyard police don’t come after us👀
It is amazing how back in the day, some salvage yard owners would let you buy just the trim pieces you needed off of a fender, door, whatever. I was able to replace every needed trim piece on a 61 bubbletop I owned, all out of the salvage yard........ Try that today.
I think a point JohnZ made got a bit glossed over. Pre-internet, long-distance calls were outrageously costly...discussing the potential purchase of a needed part with a seller could run up a nice bill minute-by-minute and there was no sharing digital pictures in a matter of minutes...
To take pictures of a part you shot a roll of film and carried it to the store to be developed for $$$ and then hoped that you (or the photo lab) didn't screw up the film...
To wit, parts were often bought sight unseen from private sellers or from a catalog with grainy pictures and dicey descriptions.. Many cars are festooned with JC Whitney Bubba parts for these reasons.
Its easy today to guffaw and blast prior owners for some of the things that were done to cars back in the day without realizing the obstacles to doing -- well, anything, restoration-wise.
TOTALLY!!
I lived in a small town in the NW corner of Illinois until 1981 and did not have the luxury of living close to or even KNOW of the few resto sources other than TMichealis or the once a year Bloomington in the early 70s. I too spent a lot of time in junkyards under cars with snakes and mosquitoes. As a few of us have said previously, it was really more just maintaining, fixing up. repairing and finding missing or broken parts rather than "restoring" cars for most of us.
Yes junkyard memories, something few of todays restorers will experance since most cars are stripped and crushed within days of going into the yard and very few yards let you wander around by yourself. Whenever I went to the yard after I got the part I was looking for I would spend a 1/2 hour filling a small toolbox with chrome trim screws and taillight/interior bulbs.. They never checked small tool boxes for extra parts.. Havent been to a yard in 30 years but this week I used some of thoes trim screws and taillight bulbs...
I got my junkyard and barnyard adventures kind of late (early 2000s) but I bought a 67 GTX and quickly found there were almost no aftermarket parts for them and very little NOS. No grills, no headlight panels, no trunk panels, no tail light bezels, no sheet metal, no interior hard parts, etc. It's better today but barely, they still don't make sheet metal for the 66/67 B-Body. So I scoured every vintage junk yard in the are I could find and grabbed everything I could. One day I got a lead on a farmer who had a bunch of old cars on his land so I stopped by one day and asked the wife if I could look around. She said it would be OK but I had to go through the barn yard to get to the vehicles in the pasture and watch for the chickens. That didn't really sink in but I grabbed my tool bag and set off through the yard and chickens. Suddenly I heard a light thump, thump, thump and turned around just in time to ward off a big old rooster who was charging me. Then he started pecking around like that was all over so I turned and resumed my walk - only to hear a few seconds later - thump, thump, thump. I turned around just as it leaped at me and I swung my bag at him which caused him to flare his wings and veer off to the side. Same thing again - started pecking around ignoring me but as soon as I would turn around - thump, thump, thump. Finally, I had to back my way the rest of the way out of that barn yard and out to the cars in the pastures. That rooster followed me most of the way - sort of like he wasn't paying attention to me but he wanted to keep track of me. Found an old Satellite and got some trim and parts off of it. When I got done I decided I didn't want to fight the rooster again so I walked across the pasture to the highway and back down the highway to the farm house. Returned to old junk yards after that - only had wasps and snakes to deal with there.
We walked junk yards and attended swap meets, and even weekend drag race pits, to find people to ask about parts. I can also remember occasional Saturday mornings with my father and the local newspaper calling want adds for people who were selling similar cars, trucks, or tractors and asking if they had spare parts, or if we could take Polaroids of their car for reference. We had a card file organized by car or tractor type, with names and phone numbers lettered below, and sometimes a description of the guy's spare parts. Our resource world was limited to about two hours drive. There was also the new JC Whitney catalog that would have a new entry buried inside that covered a needed chassis part, and you had to wait for the part, or the post card that said sold out. On occasion we would get Hemmings and look for local phone numbers for parts and leads on parts. I can also remember the first time I saw a Zip Products catalog, and thought if this reproduction parts thing takes off it would change the hobby.
In Maryland it was the "auto repairs and parts" section of the Sunday Sunpaper, actually I remember it being quite a large section plus whatever books you had on hand about the car you were working on and friends help.
This is one reason I try to help anyone as best as I can with a 63 car because many of us know how difficult it can be to restore a 63 and all the changes that took place in production but back in the days of old the information was just not out there.
I love junk yards, even with the information benefits of the CF and other sources.
I still keep a mopar new process 833 overdrive “four speed” for which I no longer own a car (my 70 challenger) I bought it from a yard in the boonies outside statesboro GA and hauled it home around 2003. The memory made me so happy.
10-18-2018, 12:26 AM
TOTALLY!! 
