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Nothing rhymes with StingRay
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: May 2007
Posts: 105
Likes: 2
From: West Paterson, NJ
Nothing rhymes with StingRay
Hey all...
Just found this forum today, nice to see there's people who can babble about these cars as much as I can!
My pride, joy, and substitute for therapy sessions, is a 1964 Silver Blue Sting Ray Coupe, midnight blue interior, 327 300HP, 4 speed. The car was originally purchased new by my grandfather (who unfortunately passed away last year), and driven off the showroom floor by my father who was about 17 at the time. I have many fond memories of growing up around "The Corvette" as it was always called, and spent lots of time in the car with a neighbor girl, taking more than a few imaginary road trips in the driveway. I always promised the car that one day I would take good care of it. Last September, that day finally came. It only took 33 years!
The car spent early life as a daily driver for my dad, he had it through many school years, a few moves, one small "incident" with a concrete road divider, and it has had homes in New Jersey, Florida (where my dad took a HACKSAW to the air cleaner snorkels to provide clearance for an Air Conditioner install which has since been removed), and Nantucket. As my dad became more of an "executive", the car saw less and less of the light of day, being stored mostly in my grandfather's garage early on, to eventually being taken off the road altogether and put into a large storage warehouse where it sat miserably for a few years.
About 12 years ago, my dad pulled the car out of the warehouse and into the shop it went for a new frame (which a salt water flood in Florida had severely shortened the lifespan of) and various other fixes that enabled it to assault the NJ roads again, plus a new paint job at a local body shop. It was more or less his daily driver again for a year or two, then for reasons such as mechanical problems which he didn't have the time or patience to fix, the car began seeing more of the inside of grandpa's garage again.
Meanwhile, I was learning about cars through my own endeavors with a '76 Camaro LT, followed by a '81 Z28, then finally a 1969 Pontiac GTO. I loved that GTO, it was second only to the Sting Ray. Then strange things like marriage and family happened, and I painfully had to part with the money-pit that was the GTO. But the urge to work on "real" cars stayed with me.
Every Summer or two, my father would pull the Vette out of the garage, take it to a random mechanic for a quick tune up, and drive it for a bit, but the performance never seemed to last long, and it always seemed to find a reason to be off the road, usually for some reason that today's "modern" mechanics seem to have difficulty comprehending. "Uh, points...? We don't work on cars older than 1982..."
So last summer comes and goes, and on a whim, my dad does the find-a-mechanic routine, and the car manages to hit the street once again in September. I told him to give it to me, it WILL get the care it so rightly deserves. To my surprise, he agreed, and the car which I viewed almost as my older brother, has been casting it's sleek shadow in my own driveway ever since.
I won't waste time commenting on how inept the place who did the rebuild 12 years ago was, nor will I spew too many negative comments about the massive cokeheads at the body shop who did the paint, but needless to say, the car has gotten better care from me in the past 8 months than it has gotten in the past 30 or more years.
Some of the repairs/restos I have done since having the car include new tires, new master cylinder, exhaust flange gaskets, shocks, polyurethane bushings, all new wiring harnesses from tip to tail, carb rebuild (AFB), complete ignition overhaul/tune-up (including adding a ballast resistor that was left out by the rebuild mechanics...amazing how much difference that one piece makes in the performance of the car), and even reinstalling the stock glove compartment where my father had a stereo installed. I pulled it out, put a new glove box insert in, and got the orignal AM/FM radio working again. Of course now it picks up my Sirius satellite transmittor, but it only acts as a receiver so zero modifications to the radio or the dash.
Most recently, I did a little improv/fabrication after getting the rear compartment blower working again. Parts of the original interior had been scrapped and/or cut for whatever reasons by the rebuild mechanics, including the quarter panel interior and the exhaust fan grill. The whole section had just been covered with carpeting, and the exhaust fan left disconnected. After reconnecting with new wiring, I cut a hole in the carpet lining up with the exhaust fan motor and bolted an unused stereo speaker grill over it to act as an exhaust vent. May not be stock, but it looks pretty good and works too! Next in line is the weather stripping (yes, shockingly it leaks a bit), fuel pump and cooling system hoses, and new front carpeting.
All these repairs have been done while at the same time keeping the car on the road as my current daily driver. (Hope I'm not shocking any of the purists.) I try to keep the car MOSTLY stock, with a few of my own personalizations, I'm not at all trying to build a showcar or a racecar.
I have a few questions about little Vette related things, but I'll post in the C2 forum, I think I've written enough of a novel here already. Hopefully I haven't put anyone to sleep.
Cheers!
---J
Just found this forum today, nice to see there's people who can babble about these cars as much as I can!
My pride, joy, and substitute for therapy sessions, is a 1964 Silver Blue Sting Ray Coupe, midnight blue interior, 327 300HP, 4 speed. The car was originally purchased new by my grandfather (who unfortunately passed away last year), and driven off the showroom floor by my father who was about 17 at the time. I have many fond memories of growing up around "The Corvette" as it was always called, and spent lots of time in the car with a neighbor girl, taking more than a few imaginary road trips in the driveway. I always promised the car that one day I would take good care of it. Last September, that day finally came. It only took 33 years!
The car spent early life as a daily driver for my dad, he had it through many school years, a few moves, one small "incident" with a concrete road divider, and it has had homes in New Jersey, Florida (where my dad took a HACKSAW to the air cleaner snorkels to provide clearance for an Air Conditioner install which has since been removed), and Nantucket. As my dad became more of an "executive", the car saw less and less of the light of day, being stored mostly in my grandfather's garage early on, to eventually being taken off the road altogether and put into a large storage warehouse where it sat miserably for a few years.
About 12 years ago, my dad pulled the car out of the warehouse and into the shop it went for a new frame (which a salt water flood in Florida had severely shortened the lifespan of) and various other fixes that enabled it to assault the NJ roads again, plus a new paint job at a local body shop. It was more or less his daily driver again for a year or two, then for reasons such as mechanical problems which he didn't have the time or patience to fix, the car began seeing more of the inside of grandpa's garage again.
Meanwhile, I was learning about cars through my own endeavors with a '76 Camaro LT, followed by a '81 Z28, then finally a 1969 Pontiac GTO. I loved that GTO, it was second only to the Sting Ray. Then strange things like marriage and family happened, and I painfully had to part with the money-pit that was the GTO. But the urge to work on "real" cars stayed with me.
Every Summer or two, my father would pull the Vette out of the garage, take it to a random mechanic for a quick tune up, and drive it for a bit, but the performance never seemed to last long, and it always seemed to find a reason to be off the road, usually for some reason that today's "modern" mechanics seem to have difficulty comprehending. "Uh, points...? We don't work on cars older than 1982..."
So last summer comes and goes, and on a whim, my dad does the find-a-mechanic routine, and the car manages to hit the street once again in September. I told him to give it to me, it WILL get the care it so rightly deserves. To my surprise, he agreed, and the car which I viewed almost as my older brother, has been casting it's sleek shadow in my own driveway ever since.
I won't waste time commenting on how inept the place who did the rebuild 12 years ago was, nor will I spew too many negative comments about the massive cokeheads at the body shop who did the paint, but needless to say, the car has gotten better care from me in the past 8 months than it has gotten in the past 30 or more years.
Some of the repairs/restos I have done since having the car include new tires, new master cylinder, exhaust flange gaskets, shocks, polyurethane bushings, all new wiring harnesses from tip to tail, carb rebuild (AFB), complete ignition overhaul/tune-up (including adding a ballast resistor that was left out by the rebuild mechanics...amazing how much difference that one piece makes in the performance of the car), and even reinstalling the stock glove compartment where my father had a stereo installed. I pulled it out, put a new glove box insert in, and got the orignal AM/FM radio working again. Of course now it picks up my Sirius satellite transmittor, but it only acts as a receiver so zero modifications to the radio or the dash.
Most recently, I did a little improv/fabrication after getting the rear compartment blower working again. Parts of the original interior had been scrapped and/or cut for whatever reasons by the rebuild mechanics, including the quarter panel interior and the exhaust fan grill. The whole section had just been covered with carpeting, and the exhaust fan left disconnected. After reconnecting with new wiring, I cut a hole in the carpet lining up with the exhaust fan motor and bolted an unused stereo speaker grill over it to act as an exhaust vent. May not be stock, but it looks pretty good and works too! Next in line is the weather stripping (yes, shockingly it leaks a bit), fuel pump and cooling system hoses, and new front carpeting.
All these repairs have been done while at the same time keeping the car on the road as my current daily driver. (Hope I'm not shocking any of the purists.) I try to keep the car MOSTLY stock, with a few of my own personalizations, I'm not at all trying to build a showcar or a racecar.
I have a few questions about little Vette related things, but I'll post in the C2 forum, I think I've written enough of a novel here already. Hopefully I haven't put anyone to sleep.
Cheers!
---J
Last edited by SatanicMechanic; May 10, 2007 at 09:26 AM. Reason: Spelling
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: May 2007
Posts: 105
Likes: 2
From: West Paterson, NJ
Thanks for all the welcomes, it seems the cult is strong! 
Minor repairs and tweaks the past few days, plus a new touch of the present! Will post about the latest "feature" tomorrow in the C2 forum, I am falling-over-tired.
By the way, I hope I don't make my father sound like an incompetent, he's actually pretty handy in a shop, and a decent mechanic. In his youth, he just had a few little less-than-stellar moments with my adored Sting Ray.
He thinks he's more mechanically inclined (sometimes REclined) than my grandfather was, I in turn like to think I'm a little sharper than him. He taught me a lot of what I know though, and I can even still pick up the occasional tip from him. I of course try to return the favor if able!
Cheers all!
Minor repairs and tweaks the past few days, plus a new touch of the present! Will post about the latest "feature" tomorrow in the C2 forum, I am falling-over-tired.
By the way, I hope I don't make my father sound like an incompetent, he's actually pretty handy in a shop, and a decent mechanic. In his youth, he just had a few little less-than-stellar moments with my adored Sting Ray.
He thinks he's more mechanically inclined (sometimes REclined) than my grandfather was, I in turn like to think I'm a little sharper than him. He taught me a lot of what I know though, and I can even still pick up the occasional tip from him. I of course try to return the favor if able!Cheers all!
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Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: May 2007
Posts: 105
Likes: 2
From: West Paterson, NJ
Took me long enough, but here's a few pics. They are shot with a cell phone camera, so mebbe not the best quality.
Yes that's a GPS in front of the stick.
This is my improv for the previously disconnected rear exhaust fan. The pic is a little dark, but you can kind of make out the speaker grill that is now the exhaust fan outlet in the corner. The kicker box in the back is a remnant of the stereo my father had put in the glove box, I now have it connected to the stock radio with Sirius satellite feed. And of course the loaded Summit Racing tool bags.
Yes that's a GPS in front of the stick.
This is my improv for the previously disconnected rear exhaust fan. The pic is a little dark, but you can kind of make out the speaker grill that is now the exhaust fan outlet in the corner. The kicker box in the back is a remnant of the stereo my father had put in the glove box, I now have it connected to the stock radio with Sirius satellite feed. And of course the loaded Summit Racing tool bags.
