The comical side of over zealous restoration...
#1
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The comical side of over zealous restoration...
I saw this and just had to show you guys.........
Correct way to restore a Corvette
NCRS would be proud...
Boy, it really galls my threads when these ignoramuses go off about how the Corvette crowd is 'over-restoring' cars! I say, restored means *exactly* as the factory did it, no matter what. I spent 95 weeks last year doing an accurate and complete ground-up restoration on my '67. And, let me tell you, some of those rubber and glass pieces are *really* hard to restore after grinding them up! Thankfully, the metal pieces are easy to remelt and form.
For some folks, simply applying a bit of overspray while painting is 'good enough.' I scoff at this. I meticulously copied onto the mufflers, droplet by droplet, the exact overspray pattern that was there originally. Even the runs and sags at the bottom of the door panels were duplicated. Your average 'restorer' will just slap some new paint on, calling it 'original' if it is the same color. Jeeez. I chemically removed every vestige of *the original paint*, then broke it down, reformulated it, and re-applied it. Sure, I had to use substitute volatile carrier (thinner), but since it evaporates anyway, I claim that it was not originally 'on the car' when it left the factory gates.
Some folks think using the 'correct' fasteners is good enough. Ha! I made sure to cross-thread the left rear upper transmission crossmember bolt, just as the (sometimes inebriated) factory worker was known to. I removed the third from the right lower grille attachment screw, which a previous owner had erroneously installed, in spite of the well-documented fact that none of these were installed at the factory until after 3:43 pm on October 17th, 1966. I made sure to scratch the frame in the appropriate places, just as the handling mechanisms at the factory did. Some previous owner had removed the scratches, in an effort to make the car 'perfect.' What was he thinking? I even installed the #3 cylinder's exhaust lifter upside down, which was a rare (1 of 3 such built), but documented occurrence. Sure, it runs like hell, but hey, it's _original_!
Some folks get a new set of tires that LOOK like the originals, and call that good enough. Not me. I got THE ORIGINAL tires out of a landfill, ground them up, and restored them. I was able to find about 91.7% of the rubber which had worn off, by vacuuming the roadside dust over the roads the car had travelled, and separating out the correct molecules from the other debris with a double diathermic isopropa diaphanometer molecular identifier. NOT cheap, le me tell you. But, correct is correct. Some folks put on new valve stems and caps, and away they go. We purists know that it IS important to align the seam line on the valve cap to the correct angle, just as it left the factory ('indexed' valve caps).
Changing the oil is considered routine by some 'restorers'. They throw out the old, slap in some new, maybe even 'improved' oil, and a new filter. Not a real purist. I have the original oil broken down and re-refined. The old additives are removed, restructured, and re-added. I even recover as many molecules of the burned or dripped oil as possible, and add them back in. Of course, the filter must be dismantled, which ruins the case, so it has to be remelted and reformed into a filter. Re-using the original paint, of course.
Some bozos throw in a Sears Die-Hard, and off they go. Some so-called restorers buy a reproduction 'tar-top' battery, and call THAT good enough (*scoff*). I found my original battery and remanufactured it. No wimpy replacing the innards with new, either. I melted down the original plates, then recast them in the correct factory molds. Saving the original electrolyte, of course. Now, you might think, gee, that seems pretty far-fetched, this guy is extreme. Well, you ain't seen nothing yet. I also was able to procure the original electrons which had come with the car, and reinstall them. It seems that over the years, the car had given and recieved a few jump starts, and some of the original electrons had thus transferred to other vehicles, and... etc.
NCRS would be proud...
Boy, it really galls my threads when these ignoramuses go off about how the Corvette crowd is 'over-restoring' cars! I say, restored means *exactly* as the factory did it, no matter what. I spent 95 weeks last year doing an accurate and complete ground-up restoration on my '67. And, let me tell you, some of those rubber and glass pieces are *really* hard to restore after grinding them up! Thankfully, the metal pieces are easy to remelt and form.
For some folks, simply applying a bit of overspray while painting is 'good enough.' I scoff at this. I meticulously copied onto the mufflers, droplet by droplet, the exact overspray pattern that was there originally. Even the runs and sags at the bottom of the door panels were duplicated. Your average 'restorer' will just slap some new paint on, calling it 'original' if it is the same color. Jeeez. I chemically removed every vestige of *the original paint*, then broke it down, reformulated it, and re-applied it. Sure, I had to use substitute volatile carrier (thinner), but since it evaporates anyway, I claim that it was not originally 'on the car' when it left the factory gates.
Some folks think using the 'correct' fasteners is good enough. Ha! I made sure to cross-thread the left rear upper transmission crossmember bolt, just as the (sometimes inebriated) factory worker was known to. I removed the third from the right lower grille attachment screw, which a previous owner had erroneously installed, in spite of the well-documented fact that none of these were installed at the factory until after 3:43 pm on October 17th, 1966. I made sure to scratch the frame in the appropriate places, just as the handling mechanisms at the factory did. Some previous owner had removed the scratches, in an effort to make the car 'perfect.' What was he thinking? I even installed the #3 cylinder's exhaust lifter upside down, which was a rare (1 of 3 such built), but documented occurrence. Sure, it runs like hell, but hey, it's _original_!
Some folks get a new set of tires that LOOK like the originals, and call that good enough. Not me. I got THE ORIGINAL tires out of a landfill, ground them up, and restored them. I was able to find about 91.7% of the rubber which had worn off, by vacuuming the roadside dust over the roads the car had travelled, and separating out the correct molecules from the other debris with a double diathermic isopropa diaphanometer molecular identifier. NOT cheap, le me tell you. But, correct is correct. Some folks put on new valve stems and caps, and away they go. We purists know that it IS important to align the seam line on the valve cap to the correct angle, just as it left the factory ('indexed' valve caps).
Changing the oil is considered routine by some 'restorers'. They throw out the old, slap in some new, maybe even 'improved' oil, and a new filter. Not a real purist. I have the original oil broken down and re-refined. The old additives are removed, restructured, and re-added. I even recover as many molecules of the burned or dripped oil as possible, and add them back in. Of course, the filter must be dismantled, which ruins the case, so it has to be remelted and reformed into a filter. Re-using the original paint, of course.
Some bozos throw in a Sears Die-Hard, and off they go. Some so-called restorers buy a reproduction 'tar-top' battery, and call THAT good enough (*scoff*). I found my original battery and remanufactured it. No wimpy replacing the innards with new, either. I melted down the original plates, then recast them in the correct factory molds. Saving the original electrolyte, of course. Now, you might think, gee, that seems pretty far-fetched, this guy is extreme. Well, you ain't seen nothing yet. I also was able to procure the original electrons which had come with the car, and reinstall them. It seems that over the years, the car had given and recieved a few jump starts, and some of the original electrons had thus transferred to other vehicles, and... etc.
#4
Drifting
I’m OCD and I resemble that remark. It almost sounds as though someone else has had a recent “disagreement” with the great and all-knowing Oz, I mean NCRS…
#6
Race Director
He forgot about using carbon dating to identify the original air in the tires. That's gotta be at least a 10 point deduction...............
#7
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I literally saw a guy that had purchased some ancient scuba tanks that had a date on them showing they were last filled back in 1965. He was claiming to have filled the tires with 1965 air! He even brought the tanks with tags to the car shows all the time!
JIM
JIM
#8
Race Director
Holy cr@p! And here I thought I was kidding..............
#11
Team Owner
I applaud the NCRS crowd - seriously. The same way I admire curators at a museum. But if anybody thinks these cars remained anything close to factory fresh after a week of driving they're smoking crack. As somebody that bought and sold used cars in the '60s I traded in a lot of Corvettes from sailors in Norfolk, Va.. They would buy them with a big wad of money saved from a long cruise, run the snot out of them while home on shore leave for a few weeks or months, then trade them in with just a few miles, before their next 6 month deployment, for something more practical so the stay-at-home wife could carry the kids to the grocery store and that they could afford the insurance on.
In that short time the cars were wrecked, carburetors swapped out, some strange tire put on to replace a flat, Western Auto compasses screwed to the dashboard, original radio wiring chopped to hell to put a reverb in it, fender flares installed, pin stripes added, headers put on, Christmas tree air fresheners hung off the mirrors to dispell the clouds of cigarette smoke, odor of pot or weeks of Boone's Farm Apple Wine f@rts and, you-name-it.
Now THAT is what it was REALLY like day-to-day on the street in the '60s.
In that short time the cars were wrecked, carburetors swapped out, some strange tire put on to replace a flat, Western Auto compasses screwed to the dashboard, original radio wiring chopped to hell to put a reverb in it, fender flares installed, pin stripes added, headers put on, Christmas tree air fresheners hung off the mirrors to dispell the clouds of cigarette smoke, odor of pot or weeks of Boone's Farm Apple Wine f@rts and, you-name-it.
Now THAT is what it was REALLY like day-to-day on the street in the '60s.
Last edited by Frankie the Fink; 03-14-2013 at 07:55 AM.
#13
Burning Brakes
Most of the mistaken ideals of the NCRS come from over inthusiastic members and not the judges. I was in a C1 class at Bloomington in 1999 or 2000 with some well respected instructors. Somebody talked about the way they painted the frames by dipping them in a tank. Questions from the class where "which way was it dipped so I will know which way the drips go?" Another wanted to know where it was hooked so they could leave the paint off where the hook was attached.
The instructors all assured everybody that things like that would never be judged.
I was there and observed this and would love to here from anybody that was in that room and remembers what I observed.
I remember that Noland Adams was scheduled to be there and for some reason couldn't attend.
Larry
The instructors all assured everybody that things like that would never be judged.
I was there and observed this and would love to here from anybody that was in that room and remembers what I observed.
I remember that Noland Adams was scheduled to be there and for some reason couldn't attend.
Larry
Last edited by Larry P; 03-15-2013 at 12:30 AM.
#14
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Funny!
Funny!
#19
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Frankie the Fink is all over it !!
Frankie the Fink is 100% correct on how Corvettes were treated back in the early days. I just wanted to say that I could not agree more.