I offer my well wishes for your loss,

I have little to no use for restorations, I like survivers, I know a lady in town uses a tired 64 coupe as a daily driver since the day she bought it new on the showroom floor, and it looks like a daily driver, she says at least once a week some cheeserichard tries to buy it from her pennies on the dollar.

In your case with the 68 there are things that can't be left surviver and must be restored but if it were mine I would go through hell and back NOT to repaint it, cracks chips etc all add to the history and feel, you strip it and paint it then it's a restro not the original car as dad had it...it will just "look" like it did...which might end up being the only option but I still would fight to keep the old paint.

 

(In a weird 13Bats way............it makes sense/similar to inheriting a rare 1800s Winchester rifle....and NOT sanding all the scratches off it. Let a skilled painter "re-attach" any loose flakes, "fill in" the areas with "matching paint" where the paint is completely missing, and buff the whole car)

 

I am also into kit cars some that try to look like gt40's ( cant afford a replica even if I wanted one ) so I dig real gt40's I have this book of the real gt40's back in the 80's was a big reunion, the pictures showed on many cars mismatched paint, chips and rips etc etc, these were tall dollar cars with owners with fat wallets and they were not restored they were survivers and proud of it.

The thread car has lived a long time as is and if the sentiment meant anything to me I would strive to keep as must as I could.
My dad who is 89 still shows his avanti once in while and it has all kinds of what some would call cheesy 70's geegaws and I wouldnt remove any of them.....

 

I'll go against the grain a little bit and say build the car the way you want it. That's what your dad did when he had it. Working on it will keep you close to your dad, you don't have to preserve it as a time capsule in order to remember him. Fix it up, make it look nice again. I would consider enlisting the help of a local corvette expert to help you catalog/ID everything. That's a lot of parts to go through and organize, and you aren't likely to start a thread on each one.

 

It is his car to do with as he pleases but man o man,
I would much rather have the old paint dad touched and washed and waxed than new paint that has zero connection with him,

Sorry, I am in the same boat with dads avanti.....if dad was gone I could only "guess" what he would like I would have no way of "knowing"

 

This is why I suggested repainting it and making it his own, it sounds like the current paint isn't salvageable. I'm sure your dad would be proud you're holding onto it and doing something with it. I'm sure he wasn't collecting all those parts and not planning to use them on the car.

 

Haha I know he's mad that he wasn't laid to rest in this old girl. We did the next best thing and his grave liner was painted red and black and Charlies toy was put on it. Not quite the same but it was the best we could do for him . I know watching me drive this car would put a huge smile on his face.

I hadn't even thought about salvaging the paint, didn't even know it might be a possibility. I can definitely look into that when the time comes. I have thought a lot about how she should be painted and seeing this car with this paint scheme was a huge part of my childhood. It almost seems like it would be sacrilege to have her ever look different.

As for having a local expert come in my dad's former boss, owner of a vette repair shop, has already tried to get into the garage to get his grubby hands on stuff for nothing. Long back story. We know the only person coming out ahead on that one would be him. It's going to be hard to find someone we can trust to come in and sort out the contents of the garage. Obviously there is some immense value in there and we want to avoid having any issues arise from people knowing what all is in the garage.

I'm putting a goal of having her up and running and back to some of her former glory, maybe not entirely finished, by her 50th birthday in August of 2018. Maybe a nice road trip with her down to Bowling Green as her birthday present

 

has already tried to get into the garage to get his grubby hands on stuff for nothing.

Doesn't it burn you up when people try such things!

 

Oh yeah, we knew that was coming. At least he waited a month or two after dad passed to offer to help clean out the garage, for a moderate fee I'm sure. This man burned my dad on a few deals over the years so we knew to steer clear. I have a pretty good auto inclined friend that can help out with a lot of the truck stuff, probably not the corvette stuff so much but we will see.

 

Maybe I missed it.......but is it an L88?

Doorgunner: Like your analogy of 1800 Winchesters. I collect them.

 

Take pictures of the Corvette stuff and post them here, I'm sure everyone here will be happy to help you identify your parts. I went through the exact same thing prior to internet access, and people who knew what the stuff was and it's value wouldn't tell me anything. I ended up traveling to Corvette swap meets (Carlisle, Bloomington, etc.) looking around for parts like I had and their prices. It was worth the effort.

 

Not entirely confirmed until we get the engine out to rebuild. Every sign about the car days the engine is an L88 but the engine stamp pad is blank which leads me to believe that it's a crate engine. Time will tell.

Mick71: I could do that but there would literally be hundreds of not thousands of items to identify lol. I think my first plan with this is to sort out and separate similar items the go from there.

 

If this is to be believed, then yes it's an L88. The question remains if it came from the factory that way. This is going to be fun to watch.

 

well when you start to unload stuff i need alot of black interior stuff for a 74 like almost everything lol!!!
hope you keep it looking at least similar to how your dad had it love the old 70`s race/customs!!!

 

Some 'vette parts are very valuable, so secure your building and be careful who knows about them. I hate to sound paranoid, but we had a 3x2 intake and carbs, rectangle port BB heads and other big ticket items stolen when someone broke into the building.

 

Haha oh we know, that's what makes it so hard to even try to trust someone. I know where a pair of l88 aluminum heads new in the gm box are tucked away.

 

Wow, what a time capsule! Yes I'm sure there are a lot of parts that will be valuable. I sure hope to see updates on the progress. From the pix you posted, there is a gold mine of early corvette parts stored. And I kind of agree with keeping the paint original, if possible. At the least the same paint scheme complete with graphics. Even though it's been a year, sorry for your loss. Your dad sure loved racing, not everybody has a basement loaded with corvette parts.

 

Haha your line about a basement full of car parts reminded me of one of my dad's crazier ideas that almost earned him a divorce lol. He had the idea to dig a ramp down to the basement of my parents house and to add a garage door so he could store more cars. Needless to say that didn't fly with the boss haha.

The paint scheme is planned to be completely the same. I'm thinking a name change to "Chuck's Toy" may be in order though. I think I may have the cars name on the front clip behind the vents like was originally done as seen on the partial fender on the first page. Oh and the city will have to be updated of course. Those minor changes are still up in the air. I really don't think dad would have been mad at seeing me take her over as my own

 

No I don't think he would either. When one of my boys inherit one of my toys, it would be cool with me just for them to do something with it. Not necessarily make it exactly like I had it. For instance I took my fathers old Winchester model 70 270 and turned it into a super accurate hunting rifle. I did the work myself and I nicknamed it ole dead on, because it has never let me down. It's a 1949 and currently my only hunting rifle. I inherited it in 73 he died when I was 15. Coincidentally, we were MI natives, although I left the state many yrs ago.

 

Haha that's one of my other passions right there. Between dad passing and his mom passing I inherited all his gonna and half of my grandpa's guns. With the few I bought myself I went from no guns to 12 in a year lol. But the inherited find will never leave the family.