A simple web site devoted to tracking my most recent restoration project, a 1959, 2 owner corvette. If the car could only talk; the stories she would tell. This is an X race car in the 1960s (evidence of both road race and drag racing) a daily driver; in the 1970-1980, a weekend warrior in the 1990 then parked in early 2000. The following pages will be updated every so often as work progresses. Feel free to contact me using the form below for more pictures or questions.
I want to thank Chris Sherman of T.I.N. (Thunder in the North Restorations, http://twobuckis.wix.com/tin-restorations.) for the guidance, mentoring and assistance in making my first full c1 restoration possible. Without his friendship, devotion, and patience’s the car would still be in a warehouse or worse yet apart in my garage for years. And an even larger thank you to Chris's wife "T"; her sandwiches are the best and kept us going through far too many days of body work.
Site last Updated on October, 2021
Body as it was left in 2004
Pictures taken 1/10/2015
The car as found in a warehouse after sitting since 2000 when the owner became ill. The car was owned by the same family since 1971 and driven regularly around Benton Harbor Michigan.
It is always good to keep an eye on the prize. in this case what the car will look like when done. This is the final goal. A car ready for NCRS Nationals, Bloomington Gold and MCCN. -- The obvious question is what color to make her.. She shows signs of white, blue, black and red.
I found the car early January and after some communications the family decided to part with it. Unfortunately that decision came 2 days before I left for Asia on a month long business trip. So a quick road trip to MI was planned at the last minuete …. Never that easy… on the way to MI one bright sunny cold -6 degree Saturday morning we hit black ice. The roads were spotless but we saw signs of icing and luckily were slowing down, but it wasn’t enough. We spun the truck around off into the ditch and rolled it over. Fortunately we were ok but the truck was a total loss.
Not wanting to give up; the truck was towed out of the ditch, put back on all 4 wheels, and driven the last 9 miles to where the car had been sitting for near 12 years. Now this brought us some stares as only the windshield was left, and the hood was the only straight body panel to survive. When we pulled up I am sure the family wondered about us as we were bundled driving the wrecked truck trying to stay warm in -6 degree weather. Reminded us of a scene from"Planes, Traines and Automobiles".
The car was as described and we quickly came to a deal, in fact the owner’s family took pity on our adventure and lowered the price. We found a towing company to take the corvette and the truck back to Chicago and off we went. This too was with a few laughs as here are three guys (tow truck driver, myself and a buddy who is 6’11”) in the front seat of the flat bed tow truck making the 4 hour commute back to Chicago.
SIDE note best part of the story is as the truck started to roll my briefcase, the 3 money bags and guns were ejected from the truck. So here we are on the road side kicking through the snow with 2 sheriffs watching looking for our belongings.