Have my 1978 coupe for a month now. The numbers all "match". For the most part the drive train and body are all original. The paint however has been touched up by bubba and is about a 50/50 (looks good from 50 feet at 50 mph). The PO also replaced the carpets and seat covers and did a horrible job at it. For now I'm having fun driving it and fixing small things that dont work. I for some reason am the sort who likes to clean the wheel wells underside and engine bay. Not necessarily repaint it but scrum all the caked on greases, oil, dirt and rust off.

So my question is:: Given that the interior has non original carpet and seats and will need to be be painted someday, is this car a candidat for Survivor status?

Second question is if I.clean it like I would like to do am I destrying the survivor possibilities?

 

I'll answer your second question first, as it's easier to answer.

Cleaning parts, will not effect the "survivor" status of a car, as long as you don't hurt the finish of the parts. Remove dirt and grease, but not the original paint or plating. Treat parts that were originally bare, like cast iron suspension pieces, or the fiberglass spare tire tub, the same way. Clean them the best you can, but don't take a wire brush to them, and don't hurt or change the original surface. An original part with surface rust, is better than a cleaned part, that's had all of the factory overspray, inspection marks and labels removed from it.

If the seat covers and carpet, have already been replaced, then it's going to be pretty hard to claim that the car, or at least it's interior, is a survivor. Both Bloomington Gold (Survivor award) and the NCRS' Bow Tie award, allow for a certain percentage of parts to be replaced/restored, but seat covers and carpet will surpass the allowed percentage.

The same is true of the paint. From a judging point, a certain percentage of reprinting is acceptable, but a full reprint isn't. I forget what the NCRS allows, but I think you need about 60-70 percent of the original paint, to qualify for a Bow Tie.

The NCRS equivalent of the Survivor Award, is their Bow Tie. They award their Bow Tie in 4 areas, interior, exterior, mechanical & chassis. It's possible to have a car with a new interior and a repaint, that still earns a 2 Star Bow Tie, for the mechanical and chassis sections. If a car is truly original and unrestored, it can earn a 4 Star Bow Tie, and then compete for a 5th Star, which is equivalent to Bloomington's Benchmark.

In the end, we're still talking about a 78, and a 78 with a nice repaint, is probably more desirable than one with tired 36 year old paint. This isn't a knock on your car, or 78's, it's just the way things are. Besides, clean, low miles, unrestored 78's aren't all that rare, because of all of the Pace Cars and Silver Anniversaries out there.

I like (and own) original unrestored cars, but you have to weight the value of originality, against appearance, and which is more important to you.

 

Thnks DUB,
I agree there are lots of 78's out there some maybe never driven. Most valuable part of my car is ITS MINE! I just didnt want to start something and inadverantly ruin a valuable feature of the car. I dont want to repaint it and will probably try wet sanding it some time in the future first (polishing with menzurna 400 fast gloss didnt do much.

I didnt buy it as a survivor or as something I expect to appreciate over the years. I just like the car and will clean all the rust and grime off of it as I see fit. Maybe paint the frame if I get it clean enough.

 

Contact these folks with your questions regarding Survivor.

http://www.bloomingtongold.com/index...vivor-corvette