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Welcome aboard. Beautiful car.....me thinks someone has some skills
Thanks Tom
We are very happy with the way it has turned out. My wife has been a great support during the build. In particular Kathi played a significant part in designing elements to the car including the custom dash, interior and engine bay. When you live over here you become self sufficient in building as C1s are thin on the ground and when the car was in the mechanical fabrication stage there were no others around similar including the US. We could have built 2 or 3 street rods in the same time but they wouldn’t look like our Corvette.
reagards
John
Thanks for your response John, it's a great looking car.
What year did you finish it? How long did the build take?
I've been working on an ideas board over the last couple of years, so I'm getting close to knowing what I want (I think). :-)
Warren
its not quite finished but should be in the next few months. It’s been an ongoing project for about 20 years and has taken a few detours in what we wanted. It spent about 9 years at paint and body but that is another story.
We wanted a car that would drive like a more modern car and improve the ergonomics in the cockpit. We didn’t want to change the overall look just smooth off a few areas. We didn’t have the 58 washboard bonnet or the boot straps which suited us. We had the front and rear badge holes filled, took off the front and rear bumperettes and boot lock. We had all the body panels aligned, frenched the grill surrounds and extended the grill teeth out 10mm. Getting all this fixed is not easy as they were not good from the factory and ours was badly damaged and repaired. The complete body has had an additional layer of glass and a lot of panels rebonded with modern adhesives to stop any fibreglass cracks.
in the cockpit the dash pod and steering wheel have been moved up an inch and smaller 15 inch steering wheel has been fitted. The seats are Holden Commodore customised to look like 50s seats. They have been scalloped so you sit back an extra couple inches. This seems like a lot of work but when you sit in a stock one you are lucky to get your legs under the wheel. In addition the wheel is right in your chest. Our driving position is now a leisurely bent arms position.
it has 4 wheels discs, rack and pinion, steering and air. We wanted an old look under the bonnet so we didn’t want an LS series motor. However, this one will be quite brisk. The auto makes it easy for Kathi to drive as she has two knee replacements. No it’s not red as Kathi wants to know which 58 is ours in the car park.😂
Watch out if you go all the C4 Corvette suspension as their track is a lot wider and from what I have seen the rear mudguards need new contours to fit it all in and the wheel offsets don’t let you run older wheels.
Good luck with the project. Look forward to seeing some pics.
Regards
John
Welcome to the forums, it’s awesome to see some Vettes from Australia! Been lucky enough to travel there a couple times and really wish we had those utes here. (Utes are the truck cars right?)
Cheers,
Last edited by Ryan R; 05-30-2018 at 11:20 AM.
Reason: used wrong emoji
You're meant to be motivating me about the project, not scaring the hell out of me (i.e. 20 years)!!! LOL :-)
My goal is the same, I want a car that looks close to the original, but has been lowered a bit, bigger / fatter tyres all around and handles like a modern car. The cockpit is important to me, but less important than the driveability / ride.
For me, I love the 58 boot spears, I think this is one of the unique features that separates it from the 59. I like the washboard bonnet too, but it wouldn't be a deal breaker for me.
I hadn't noticed the front badge was missing from the photo above. I did notice there was no mirrors, but assumed that's because it wasn't finished in that photo.
I too am keen to remove the boot lock and don't like the front bumperettes. I'm not sure about the rear bumperettes, I haven't thought of that but would love to see what it looks like. The photo below I found on the web shows a customised rear bumper where the exhaust is more modern and tough looking. Did you run the exhaust through the bumper (i.e. stock looking)?
I like the idea of the frenched grill surrounds and the extended grill teeth. It's a nice touch, but I'd imagine time consuming, a lot of work and quite expensive. However, it all adds to the one off look you've achieved.
It sounds like you've done a heap of work in the cockpit, small adjustments that probably make the drive feel much better. I'm not tall so maybe the standard setup would work for me! LOL
It's great to hear that Kathi was so involved in the process and loves the finished car. My wife Amanda is on board, but I don't think she'll be as engaged during the process and with the decision making. :-)
I'd love to get photos of your beast. Let me know if you're OK with sharing and I'll provide my email address.
I'll let you know how things go with the project. I'm also keen on making some more mods along the lines of more modern cars (e.g. hide the petrol tank flap, lit up 'Corvette' words in the Door Kickboard / Sill. Corvette logo light / projection onto the ground in the bottom of the doors, probably remove the rear reflectors, maybe more modern headlight lamps, etc) - all on the ideas board for consideration.
Welcome to the forums, it’s awesome to see some Vettes from Australia! Been lucky enough to travel there a couple times and really wish we had those utes here. (Utes are the truck cars right?)
Cheers,
Thanks Ryan
We love our Utes. A Ford designer Lew Brandt came up with idea in 1934 and every manufacturer in Australia made coupe utilities since. I have had a few and they are very handy.
You're meant to be motivating me about the project, not scaring the hell out of me (i.e. 20 years)!!! LOL :-)
My goal is the same, I want a car that looks close to the original, but has been lowered a bit, bigger / fatter tyres all around and handles like a modern car. The cockpit is important to me, but less important than the driveability / ride.
For me, I love the 58 boot spears, I think this is one of the unique features that separates it from the 59. I like the washboard bonnet too, but it wouldn't be a deal breaker for me.
I hadn't noticed the front badge was missing from the photo above. I did notice there was no mirrors, but assumed that's because it wasn't finished in that photo.
I too am keen to remove the boot lock and don't like the front bumperettes. I'm not sure about the rear bumperettes, I haven't thought of that but would love to see what it looks like. I found a photo on the web that shows a customised rear bumper where the exhaust is more modern and tough looking. Did you run the exhaust through the bumper (i.e. stock looking)?
I like the idea of the frenched grill surrounds and the extended grill teeth. It's a nice touch, but I'd imagine time consuming, a lot of work and quite expensive. However, it all adds to the one off look you've achieved.
It sounds like you've done a heap of work in the cockpit, small adjustments that probably make the drive feel much better. I'm not tall so maybe the standard setup would work for me! LOL
It's great to hear that Kathi was so involved in the process and loves the finished car. My wife Amanda is on board, but I don't think she'll be as engaged during the process and with the decision making. :-)
I'd love to get photos of your beast. Let me know if you're OK with sharing and I'll provide my email address.
I'll let you know how things go with the project. I'm also keen on making some more mods along the lines of more modern cars (e.g. hide the petrol tank flap, lit up 'Corvette' words in the Door Kickboard / Sill. Corvette logo light / projection onto the ground in the bottom of the doors, probably remove the rear reflectors, maybe more modern headlight lamps, etc) - all on the ideas board for consideration.
Regards and thanks, Warren.
Warren
More than happy to share any information and pics. I would send you a PM if I knew how so feel to contact me and share email addresses. There are a number bits missing from ours at the moment including mirrors. Ours will have the exhaust through the original bumpers. I can understand the spears and if you want them you need to retain the rear bumperettes.
Ours is about 100mm lower than standard but still has plenty of suspension travel. Our roads are crap so you don’t want to be on the bump stops. The fuel tank sits behind the seats underneath deck lid so moving the filler could be difficult. The filler flap is steel but doesn’t fit well in standard cars. Ours has been custom fitted to remove finger pull and then fitted to the body curves. Now it’s push to open and push to close.
My advice is to buy the best car you can afford. This will pay dividends later. Then all you need to do is find good people to work on it for you. Most are going to charge $100 plus an hour and you are going to work out some schedule to keep them on track.
05-29-2018, 08:39 PM
