We are almost there! Going to flush the radiator on Sunday and replace top and bottom hoses, clamps, high-flow thermostat, and some of the other hoses and clamps with new "correct" ones. This is NOT a judged car, but as long as it needs doing...

After that, finish putting the rest of the interior together now that the A/C has passed inspection and it goes on the road!

Long journey--bought it in Tampa last October and it has taken this long to get it where I can drive it around safely and in the heat with the A/C running.

Going to rebuild the front and rear suspension--I currently have ALL ORIGINAL FACTORY PARTS! Lucky me...but after 53 years, well, they are not "like new" any more. Imagine that!

That will help some of the ride stuff, but really, it will just make it a bit less bumpy and clunky and easier to align, etc. Right now, it runs and drives just fine, thank-you.

Will post some pics when I can. Getting excited...

Cheers,

Richard

 

Awesome. It’s a great feeling!

Ed

 

Way to go!

 

You’re really going to enjoy that ride with A/C. I’m in central Florida. My wife and I took a ride in our ‘67 yesterday and I commented to her that if the car didn’t have A/C, I wouldn’t drive it at all in the summer.

Let us know how it goes.

Steve

 

Nice car. Glad you got the A/C. As mentioned above, you are going to enjoy driving the car in the summer. Did you by chance, buy the car from an estate of a deceased attorney in Tampa? Jerry

 

Hi, Jerry,

Thank-you! I only had two FIRM requirements when I changed from A-Body cars to a Corvette--convertible and factory A/C. I was priced way out of the market--cars I did in the past were in the 10-20K range at the most--and finally got up with Jim Ranahan in Tampa, who you may know.

He and Gary James (Corvette Bumper Club and Vintage Corvette) knew a gentleman who had an A/C convertible that he never drove due to all his other cars and he would sell it at a fair price, so I drove over and bought it! I kind of wanted white--I am partial to white cars even though many do not like them and it was not a popular C-2 color--but when he drove up in this one with the hardtop on, I was sold! It is a very attractive car in pretty much any color, and it reminded me of the way they looked back then.

The A/C was supposed to be working perfectly, but we found that it was not. The seller, 6 MONTHS after the transaction, stepped up and paid 2K to REPLACE the entire system! I realize he is a successful person, but there was no agreement about that, so he is a true stand-up guy. Last week I took it to a local shop where the owner worked for Harrison back in the day and knew this system in and out. Lots of cool stories about those days and the history of this specific system...I learned a lot...and mine is perfect, so I am very pleased. Replaced the failed relay--original Delco one!--and it runs perfectly now.

If you wish to know the seller's name, please PM me and I will be pleased to give it to you as you may know him. Also, if you do not know Jim and Gary, you probably should as they are longtime Corvette people, so I can send you their info as well. Gary has a small shop and is totally booked all the time, so...

Cheers,

Richard

 

Thank-you, Steve,

AWESOME CAR! I wanted white, but am very pleased with the Nassau Blue and white interior I got. I will post once I am on the road and using the A/C. I even plan to put on the hardtop for a while just because I like the silhouette with it on, and hey, it is HOT down here, right?

Cheers,

Richard

 

Thank-you, Ed. I am pretty excited and will post pics soon.

Cheers,

Richard

 

Thank-you!

I am pretty excited to get it out there and let people see such a beautiful car!

See you are from Centerville. My mom was born across the State in Cadiz on a farm--home of Clark Gable as she always said!--and moved to Canton later where I was born.

Moved away in the mid-1950's when I was pretty young. I do remember (sort of) the '55 red and white Olds 2-Dr we had then, and I need to go back sometime to see how it all looks now compared to the 1950's!

Cheers,

Richard

 

Rich: I know Jim. He has a shop off Dale Mabry Ave. in Tampa. The car I was referring to in my earlier post belonged to an attorney in Temple Terrace. He died a few years back and was in his late 40s or early 50s. I used to see the car every once and a while in the neighborhood. I do not know what happened to the car, but it looks like yours. Jerry

 

Hi, Jerry,

You have it! That shop is now run by Jim's friend and partner-in-crime, Gary James. Gary did some work on the car before bringing it over to me--new top, power brake booster, etc. I spoke to him late last week and he is busy as he can be over there working only on Corvettes. Not sure if Jim comes over much, but since I am not there, I don't know for sure. If you stop by, take a look at his '63 coupe that he stripped down to the fiberglass. It doesn't sound like anything, but I will never forget seeing it...just a bare body with nothing on it...pretty cool!

You might drive by (behind Mom's, right?) and ask Gary if he knows of the car the attorney owned. He and Jim probably know every car in town. Mine was owned by the previous person for 8 or 10 years; he bought it at a show in Temple Terrace. Before that, it belonged to a man that was a friend of a Buick guy over there who I have known for many years. I actually contacted him after I found this out and he remembered the car and his dad checking it out for the man who did buy it in '93. My friend was a child, but remembered playing with the children of that owner.

Before '93 I can find no history of the car from its delivery date to the Kansas City Chevrolet Zone Office in late May of '66 until '93. The gentleman who had it beginning in '93 is now much older and his daughter (the one who played with my friend when they were kids) says he is not in any shape to discuss the car at this time, unfortunately.

SO, I checked Kansas and all the states around it, but the car was never registered in any of them. Since A/C cars were fairly rare back then and most went to FL, TX, CA, AZ, it may have been shipped to one of them. FL only has it here from '93 on, so I am stuck unless I want to do a big, expensive search. Most States charge for such things and some will not do them. Sad, as I wish I knew more history, but that is the way it was back then, so...

Let me know if you speak to Jim or Gary and find the car you are thinking about. FYI, mine has P/S, P/B and P/W (Gary added those for me), factory A/C, and is a 327/300 with PG. When we rebuild the suspension, I will find out the differential ratio and change it if I don't like it. I drive the car--paint is a 20-footer, but I have done "show" cars for 45 years and now I just wanna drive it around without worrying about all that stuff!

Cheers,

Richard

 

That's a real stand up guy. It sounds like you found a "driver" that you can enjoy and stay cool in to boot. Nice.

 

Exactly! I got what I wanted, and even though I have complained on this forum about how the car was treated in the past, the person who sold it to me had very little to do with that as most of that happened before he got it.

I was very gratified that there are people like that still around. Both of us are pretty old now and we share service and other things, but as I keep telling people, he had NO REASON to do that other than he is a stand-up guy. His bank account may dwarf mine, but that made no difference to me; I did not EARN his living, he did, and he CHOSE to do the right thing when faced with a situation.

We are having a similar discussion on the Buick board right now, and, unfortunately, some posters are not of the same mind. Hopefully, we can influence them to think about this, but in today's world I guess anything goes and there seem to be few if any consequences for bad or unethical behavior.

I worked at a very big company for many years--retired a while ago--and while we had to make $$, we were always under the watchful eyes of managers who would stand NO DEVIATION from honesty and customer-first behavior.

Those values are ones a person has or does not have. I can only hope my parents would still be happy with my behavior (well, MOST of it!) many years after they have passed on. My daughter is the same way. We always taught her to take a look in the mirror and see if she liked what she saw, and explained to her that there are basically two kinds of people--honest and not so much.

You pays your money and you takes your choice, as the cliche goes. Glad I found the good kind in this situation!

Cheers,

Richard