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.
Hello, I became the owner of a 60 vette on short notice. I won't be working on it immediately but I'll be buying parts/ making space to work on it for the next couple of years.
Let's see, I'm well acquainted with automotive work
I've had a fling or two with boats
Never touched a corvette, well that's a lie. There was that time in the 80's when my dad was a super cool guy.
He even had a cellular phone!
So here is a non parts/ technical question. The car I'm working with has some issues and I'm looking at a frame off. How cliché/ taboo is turning a non matching numbers, 4 speed, non fuelie into a Briggs Cunningham Lemans tribute?
LOT'S of history with 60 Cunningham cars.
How can i help
I was mostly just trying to see if homages are frowned upon/ overdone.. I don't mind restoring it to a more stock version of itself, but man those Cunningham cars are cool looking. I mean, I'm sure I kinda want to save money on trim I'm already missing, but I'm sure I'll spend more than that trying to find whatever that set of knock offs are and a set up knock off hubs.
Here are the pics. As far as I can tell it was hit in the right front in the 70's. The front from the top of the wheel well forward appears to be grafted on, but not well. The passenger door and door sill are a bit better, but still need work. The inner fenders and frame look unmolested though with the exception of a blind man welding the front passenger side body mount. Looks to have normal az surface rust on the frame, but nothing like I've read about on here. I need to take the body off to really tell but I think it's a candidate for sandblasting and light repair/ painting
As far as I can tell it was white, currently it's a odd 70's brown. It hasn't moved since 1991 and has been sitting in a open car port in AZ. My cousins played in it as kids and I think that's how the windshield and grab bar got their damage. Most of the trim is dented, I think I can salvage most of it, but the expensive parts like the bumpers have already been half assed by someone.
All I've really done is go around it putting oil on everything. Doors and latches all do their things now. I can get into 3rd and 4th and reverse instead of 3rd and 4th. Every time I close the hood it doesn't feel like it could be the last. I think I could nurse it back to working shape, it's just unfortunate working shape is a 70's earl scheib restoration.
As it sat
I'm glad I hired a flat bed, he took it on the highway and blew out 90 percent of the dust and spiders.
from 20 feed you can barely tell the front wants to fall off
Shaaaag carpeting,
I'll just push it into deep storage next to my 2002... holy crap why is this so heavy.
'
After a lot of oiling and eviction of a mouse I found it does have most of a top, unfortunately it had a hard top but was lost somewhere along the way.
This picture is back where it sat. Pretty good representation of what the rest of it is like down there. Needs one of everything, but solid. Those are ratchet straps btw. Also it's been sitting on that hodgepodge of random oem jacks all this time, which I thought was a good thing, but now I guess for corvettes that's a bad thing.
Why is there a squeegee in the engine compartment? OH, got it. It's impressive gm was focused on putting that engine behind the axle in the 50's.
The carb and intake are 58? Sorry I'm not a GM guy by nature.
The block is literally any 350 from the 70's. Could be from a corvette I guess. Maybe it's a cool 70's hot rod build with a cam and some headwork. Yeah, I know, it's probably from a farm truck and it was the cheapest way of using non leaded gas.
Yes, that Dual Option Squeegee/Hood Prop is a special 'find' alright :-O.
The engine block casting number matches up to a 70-76 350. Maybe you mentioned it and I just glossed over it quickly, but any idea when this engine ran last?
As far as I know that last year it was tagged is when it was parked. 1991.
The shift linkage was pretty solid, I had to oil everything and spend some time getting it out of gear. I can hit all 4 and reverse now, but I would believe it's been sitting for 30 years. Master cylinder is also rusted solid and dry as a bone. That made getting it out of the driveway on the top of a hill not sketchy at all. Luckily all the drums were free.
Definitely do what YOU want to do with the car. If it was some super rare and original car, might be a different answer. But given what you are starting with? Make it yours!
Definitely do what YOU want to do with the car. If it was some super rare and original car, might be a different answer. But given what you are starting with? Make it yours!
Patrick
Mine didn't have original motor or trans, or interior, or almost anything. I decided to make it restomod, cool in it's own right!
I see by the tach it was a low HP car new. 283/230hp or 245hp which had 2x4 carbs. There are great NCRS people in Tuscon. look at www.ncrs.org. TOM BARR is their leader. barrhere@gmail.com
Last edited by jimgessner; May 4, 2021 at 10:45 AM.
Each thing you fix makes it a little bit better than it was. Enjoy the journey and don't feel obligated to meet someone else's standards. Just bringing it back to life is a good thing!
Thanks all. I guess I'll do the 60's race car thing
With that in mind I need a hard top. There is one in Phoenix for what to a ford truck guy seems like a lot of money (I've bought whole working trucks for less)
Also I just sent the IRS a bunch of my money and need time to go through the grieving process.
There is always another deal as my dad always said.
I won't need it for at least two years at the rate it's going to take me to move my other projects out.
Ah crap.
It looks cool though.
I've heard that nobody likes working on those, but I'm going to give it a shot. Also considering the goal of "lemans car" the glass may be usable. It has a crack in the rear piece where it bolts down, but that's where the fuel filler would go.
Okay that is the last update before I actually start a new thread and start real work down the road.
Designer Imagines A Corvette That Looks More Like a Corvette Than the Corvette
Slideshow: A Jaguar designer's personal project imagines what a modern front-engined Corvette might look like if Chevrolet revisited the golden age of the Stingray.
Hello from Tucson
Mine didn't have original motor or trans, or interior, or almost anything. I decided to make it restomod, cool in it's own right!
