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Hi everyone, my name is Tom and this is my thread on the saving of my father's old vette.
To preface it, I'm 33yrs old and have been vette owner for a little over 3 yrs now with my C5. I've always had toys and still have my turbo mustang, but the vettes are special to me.
For some brief background on the car and to read the 'entire story', please visit this thread next; as it touches on how I was able to find the car, the state of ownership, and my potential plans.
Cliffs - Original owner bought new in 1969 by my Dad
- Owned 40 some years mostly stuffed away as we grew up
- Sold near 10 years ago after drastic life changes
- Stuffed away and left to rot for 10yrs, under 200 miles added
- Found and reclaimed by myself to keep forever
I managed to get the car back virtually as it had left my life years ago for $500 more than what he sold it for. It sat near dormant for 10yrs in a concrete floor barn on a lift. Got it back worse for wear with a little more damage; but together and complete; sans a few month delay tracking down the original carb which I got back this weekend.
I'm trying to keep it near original as possible from an aesthetics standpoint, but I am not killing myself over the details of keeping it 100% untouched. The idea is to be safe, preserved, and running as strong as I can get it while keeping it largely numbers matching.
Some may not agree on all points I have done, but that's okay. The car isn't mean to be logged with paperwork and sold off with its certifications, it is meant for me to rekindle a memory whenever I drive it and have it long after my father, to pass on to my son. I want to make as many memories as I can in it. I have other hotrods ie: my c5 to thrash on and cut up/ruin/go fast. Not that I don't love seeing these cars get used and driven/raced; but my fondest memories are with the car in it's current 'factory' state.
I have well over 400 pictures coming. I will try to narrate some storyline as I upload them. I've been maintaining my build on Facebook as it's easy to dump them into a living album...forums are a little tough for that.
If you HAVE Facebook, here is link to the album as it has video as well. You might need to friend me for privacy settings
I got the car back on April 16th...3 years to the date of me getting my C5; I guess it's my official Corvette buying day.
I trailered the car to my father's house and unloaded it a block away limping it over to surprise him. My brother has that footage on his GoPro, but I don't have it in my possession yet.
It was tough as there were near zero brakes as they bled out past the seals from sitting. The car was hitting on about 4 or 5 cylinders and covered inside and out in dirt and muck. Still, I will never forget letting my dad get behind the wheel and limp his car back around the block once. He was tearing up the entire time. Having just turned 69 himself, I've not seen him this excited and proud in years.
These pics are me picking it up from the late owner and transporting it to my house. Once I get the video I'll host and insert it.
Dad wasn't home yet so by brother and I stopped at Arby's for lunch.
Unloading it in a church parking lot to drive a block to my father's house.
Some AS-IS zero glamour shots of the car before I start my journey. The car was never exactly pampered by my father, but it is what it is.
This is the absolute worst it will ever look ever again. Full of sludge and grime to the crossmember and dry and a little crusty back. There are cleaner ones out there to start; but they can never be my Dad's. Plus the options it does have makes it a pretty rare and desirable car as it is. Too bad he didn't spring for a big block heh (of course then I may not have been able to get it back without even more sacrifice)
Note the original owners manual with my father's notes. Tire receipt and pamphlet from 1974 with 16,000 miles on the odometer. The protecto plate ended up being one I think the late owner tossed in the car. One was for a 71 Olds and the other a 68 Malibu. You may also notice the paint tag on the door being offcenter. The drivers door was partially sprayed after being backed into in the early 70s. I believe they removed and re-riveted the tag. The car is a November 69 build. He had actually ordered a 70 gunmetal LT1 car, but the plant went on strike. He passed on a Riverside Gold 427 vert for $1,000.00 more.
The car was bought at Martin Chevrolet in Warren, Ohio for $3,850.00 as my family had done construction work for the Martins (who still own dealerships here). I was told they discounted $1-1,200 off the cost for him.
Most of the original smog stuff, the plug guards and couple odds and ends
This had caught me off guard thinking maybe the car was a very early 69; however it clearly was not. Ended up being for a Malibu
someone spliced in a prestone fill over the years...kinda goofy
C5 in winter mode and the mustang about to get kicked out. A loving wife is clutch here
I think corvetteforum really needs to setup a better auto resize format when having the images hosted within the forum...these are huge and not loading great at all; yet they are straight off my phone. Don't fear technology guys
This took me a pretty long time as I had never done a car without clearcoat before. I'm REALLY REALLY good at paint correction and wetsanding, but this made me nervous. Between the stains and factory flaws, the looks of someone possibly hitting it with wool back in the day and not knowing how hot I could get it made me sick. The last thing I wanted to do was wreck what I'm trying to preserve.
Fortunately it turned out awesome! I didn't use too fancy a setup and only busted out a couple tricks. Done with a very DIY Porter Cable XP7424, mostly on a lower setting around 4k rpm. I feel pads are more important than the compounds. I used a series of Lake Country CCS pads with your typical Meguairs 205 Heavy Cut mirror glaze. I didn't want to get into anything specifically designed for clearcoat.
Normally I would use a blackfire clear sealer over this as legit wax would look horrid with the cracks, but I wanted to hide as much checking as possible. So I ended up with a black wax from Turtlewax as this car is not going to see elements by a long shot. It actually did a great job of hiding things. I was very impressed.
The top received a WHOLE lot of Whestleys and elbow grease. Unfortunately the rear window went brown and could not be saved. This is not the original top however as he tore the original in the 70s at one point. Still, it's presentable if I ever put it up again. Hardtop was buffed and placed in basement.
half and half
half and half
half and half
You can see how bad the right side is here
The actual state of paint can be seen under the hard reflection...it simply doesn't
Both sides done
Nose done
Decklid done
actual depth in the paint again
test spot
seemingly 20 minutes for every 4 square inches later
Seats were pulled and tears sewn up with heavy duty black upholstery thread. I basically ended up cleaning the carpet in place as it was trying to come apart removing it. 70s parts store mats made way for correct loop and pile units. After taking apart the drivers seat to get at the dried foam, I decided that I was going to end up ruining the covers and breaking old hog rings in vain. I slapped and swept them to get as much dry dust out of the perforated material, but it will just have to be a battle of upkeep until I eventually resto them.
All of the brightwork was lightly compounded to remove pits. High end leather and vinyl cleaner was used on the seats and panels. It actually came out pretty nice.
Underhood and chassis cleanup was an absolute mess. I literally spent weeks/months on this part trying to degrease things without ruining the surface and materials underneath. The amount of sludge was insane. A steam cleaner might have helped here.
Can't use anything caustic or it will take paint right off of the delicate bay. I spent a sickening amount of hours trying everything from Dawn and hot water to paintbrushes and GoJo. Followed by Gunk/ Purple Power and more scrubbing with brake clean on anything with engine paint. It was a nightmare.
I took a pic of the mic'd sludge on the framerails.
Literally had to chip away little by little at petrified grease and dirt. I've never cleaned a car with a gasket scraper before.
ultra wrong 650 holley
before...
test cleaning before they come off and get soaked
Passenger inner fender after who knows how long
still tearing down
inspecting
Oh we have sludge
What IS that?
Ohh...ok
More 'petrified grease '
swipe with the scraper
After ultra cleanup
I filled a 5 gallon bucket near twice with this...
I'm not sure why I bother writing long expletory captions for these images if this just crashes. If the site isn't worth using I'm not going to use it at all :fuming:
Man looks really great and the story is fantastic! Please don't give up - perhaps shorten and make more posts. But this is a great follow along. Amazing amounts of crud! Great clean-up! We want to know more! Appreciate the posts! Your Dad must be thrilled! Get some Dad time in this too - multi-generational project!
If your using something like a cell phone to take pictures use a service like Photobucket.
Photos auto backup to your account and then you can copy the URL and past it here.
Oh I have the originals backed up on my PC hard drive, just stating size wise I'm not trying to upload some 4000x2500 image off my DSLR. I like photobukcet but then I have to manually resize, host and paste in the links. As of late photobukcet has gotten so buggy with ads and the layout makes it hard to just copy the URL. I also wanted to host them through the site so they are always available to people down the road if needed etc.
Anyhow, I've no idea why it was doing that last night. I might try a different browser. Just annoying taking 20 + minutes to type a post, then upload and caption to have it crash out when you hit reply or insert.
It's a bit tolling when you are already trying to cherry pick images and keep a storyline
07-06-2016, 10:17 PM
RSbeast's 1969 Fathom L46 Revival Thread
and not knowing how hot I could get it made me sick. The last thing I wanted to do was wreck what I'm trying to preserve. 
