1988 ZR1 Prototype UK Graveyard Car
 

I hadn't shared the rebuilding of this historic ZR1 on this Forum and thought that maybe I should. The main Thread is on the ZR1 Net Registry Forum. The car was one of the UK Graveyard cars and the only 88 that was destroyed there. I bought the car from Geoff Jeal and I am restoring it at the moment. I will have it at the C4 Gathering in Bowling Green, May 2011.

Here is the DANA tag on the engine cradle. Note that the car is called King Of The Hill on the tag. The term "ZR1" had not been established at the point of when the car was built, July 1987.
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Went through all of the boxes of parts that Geoff kept when he dis-assembled the car. Some nice surprises! A nice set of 88 dated wheels plus two extra 89 ZR1 wheels.

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Console tray insert with KOH (King of the Hill) written on it
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Prototype tank (Like Tyler's EX5014) dated 7-8-87
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Speedo/tach bezel with hand cut rectangular hole on the far left corner facing from the front.
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This roughly cut hole was for some wiring during a project, according to Geoff.
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This original plate will go back onto the car when finished.
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What were the odds of coming across an NOS ZR1 rear upper surround panel and luggage tub???
http://i52.tinypic.com/1059x4z.jpg

At the frame shop. Work begins tomorrow. When it comes home, it will be a Z again from front to rear.
http://i53.tinypic.com/fyd10j.jpg
http://i53.tinypic.com/2cqg26t.jpg

Here we go!!! Oh...and I have another bare frame to sell as well as one that has NOS doors and upper surround panel attached for a NON ZR1 width.
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The work began on the windshield frame today.
http://i56.tinypic.com/qr0zup.jpg

Keep us posted on the car's progress :cool:

I hope to have the body fully together by the end of January. Painted before BG in May.

Wow! There is a place waiting for you at the NCM!!!!!

:lurk:

David

That is awesome!

Dave, can't wait. I am going to try to have the interior in it and appearing to be complete by BG. It may be a pusher but it'll look pretty complete.

:iagree:

:iagree: X2

That is so Cool! Good Luck & keep the pics coming. :thumbs:

Wow what a piece of history. If you ever feel like typing I'd love to read the history of the car and how you came across it.

Greg

Vette Daddy I see on another thread you were in NJ picking up a 54, you were 10mins from my house. You guys could have stayed here for free & I would have even bought you dinner (wife not a good cook):mad: Next time in Jerzy let me know :cheers:

subscribed! This is going to be a great build to follow.

Mike and I would have liked to have met you. Maybe next time!!!

Subscribed! :lurk:

WOW, just WOW!! :thumbs:

How many King of the Hill Corvettes are left besides the one you own and are restoring ?

Where are You going to find the special "One Off LCD 8K RPM Display(one shown is cracked badly) in part of the restoration project ? Can it be remade still ?

Heres some pictures.The white car on the right in the crush picture is the car being restored in these pictures,the blue.car on the left has been restored and is in Mike Yeagers Corvette Garage on his site.The only car I haven't heard anything about is the car in the middle of the crush photo.[IMG]http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...otypefield.jpg[/IMG][IMG]http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...4_restore1.jpg[/IMG][IMG]http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...aveyard_2a.jpg[/IMG].[IMG]http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...4_restored.jpg[/IMG]

Suscribed in. I enjoy your build threads Brett.

Mike :cheers:

:iagree: x2

Mine is the only 88 that was in the UK Graveyard. I have a brand new 8k tach face plus my original.

Only Tyler's EX5014 and my EX5023 are the only 88 Prototype wide body King of the Hill's to exist. They have no ZR1 or LT5 badging on them.

subscribed!

Best thread of 2011 and it's only January 1st. Thank you for sharing this!:cheers:

Wow, brave souls thats a heck of a commitment.
Keep progress pics coming.

Vette Daddy, have you considered doing a DVD of the restoration?

I salute you Vette Daddy for bringing this piece of Corvette history back to life.

Keep the pics and story coming please:cheers:

I generally just do a disc of pics for every restoration that I perform.

Not a bad idea you have there.:thumbs:

Brett,

Good luck on the project, I hope to see it at the Gathering in May.

Randy

If you do a DVD with commentary inc. known history, graveyard pics etc I'd be interested in buying one from you Vette Daddy:thumbs:

Besy wishes with your project from across the pond in Oz:cheers:

Thanks, guys. Well appreciated.:cheers:

There have been a few UK Graveyard 89's rebuilt (three, I think???).

Price once completed???

Well, there are around (250) 1953's left and there are only (2) 88 ZR1's with EX numbers. To me, it's worth more than my 53.

From what I understand the rebuilt white car was for sale,not cheap.Brett,somebody needs to write something about these cars and make it a sticky over on the Z site.It would be easier than digging through the pictures.Whatever happened to the narrow body convertible that was sitting inside somewhere?

The only narrow body mule with an LT5 is Keith Beschi's yellow 86 PhaseI. It was rebuilt from the UK Graveyard. The gold 86 mule also exists but it is crushed as well. I don't know if there is another PhaseI engine for it, if it ever gets rebuilt. I spoke to Keith about purchasing the gold 86 but could not come to a deal.

Brett,there is a dark blue convertible that was for sale,this car isnt that bad compared to most.

Looking like a Corvette again!!!



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The B Pillar section is spot welded. The new one was removed from the donor frame and welded in place. The rear NOS tub was glued and screwed like the factory did it. The rear NOS surround panel was glued in place.

The windshield steel was drilled at each spot weld and taken off as a unit and then installed onto the original body. Not welded yet. Just trial fitted.

Should have the doors fitted next week. Then the rear of the car will be fitted to the doors.

Just a big puzzle. Not that hard to do. Just really big puzzle pieces.:lol:

Absolutely. Nothing will be final welded before the doors are fitted to the rear and front. Only tacked in place.

Wow, that is quite the project!

The good part of this car is that the main cage was not bent. Only the A and B pillars. The measurements were identical to the bare C4 frame that I am using for steel parts. This has been the most time consuming part of the re-building of the main structure.

Randy, did you sell your car and buy another?

:thumbs: Great thread. Really interesting watching an important piece of Corvette history being brought back to being a complete car!!!

Aww sweet!:lurk:

And if I remember that vert wasn't a wide body car and he wanted over $200K for it!

Looking great I love to see cars come back to life again so sweet!

When the word got out Brett was close to buying a car some thought this was the one.I do remember people stating the guy was going to have it for awhile.From the pictures it didnt look anywhere as bad as the Coupes from the U.K.

Sticky this thread.:cheers:

:iagree:

hey brett thought i would stop by and say hi and that we are loving the 90 keep the pics coming and again i can meet with you for any help if needed, the 90 has a full tank ready to go cant wait till may the wife and I will be there the whole time I hope were gonna bring the tent and camp somewhere.

again i am glad we could work together on the deal and bring back this wonderful piece of history

Everything will work out just great with the donor car being blue/blue. All of the interior pieces will be perfect. Your old 87 will be empty as can be once I strip the complete interior and load it into the ZR1.

The deal we made was just perfect.

Brett, Maybe I missed it in a post somewhere, but is 1988 ZR1 Prototype a wide body? I was reading where some early prototypes were not widebodies.... just curious.

All true prototypes were wide bodies. These were the 88 cars. The hand full of 86 development mules were narrow body "mules" for the LT5 engine early development.

86 were narrow body test mules
88 were King Of The Hill prototypes with EX numbers. No vins
89 were pre-production ZR1's with vin numbers

Just curious. Were those early wide bodies using the new designed convex bumpers or were they still the early concave bumpers in wide body style? If so, they would be EXTREMELY rare bumpers :eek:

The bumpers for any of the King of the Hill cars and 89 ZR1's wore the convex bumpers, as all ZR1's had. The narrow body 86 mule cars used the stock 86 bumpers.

I'm by no means an expert on the ZR1's. Just learning as I go.

Took a break long enough to work on my 17x11 rear ZR1 wheels this morning. They cleaned up pretty well. I mounted the gatorbacks that were donated to me for the rebuild. They still have decent tread left. They will look good for display purposes only. You wouldn't want to drive on them at high speed or anything. They have 1990 dates on them.

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You mean this car?

I hate to say it but its right up there with the UK cars other than it might have escaped some weather.


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Thats the one.This car looks like it wasn't crushed,just mangled abit.:ack:

What's the origin and story on this conv? I just tried to read the plaque and see that it was at Lotus as well. I'll ask Geoff about it.

The top fit like a glove on the first try. The geometry of the tub was not compromised when they tried to crush it with the front end loader. It should move fairly fast now.

http://i51.tinypic.com/2s66dl0.jpg

Brett,

I did sell my car, but have not bought another yet. I am saving for a ZR1, but I'm not sure I'll have one by the gathering.

There's a bunch of them for sale right now. Buyers market, for sure.

I hope you can come to the Gathering in May.:cheers:

I dont know if I would agree on that,didnt the ZR-1 have a firewall that was different than the base car?Besides the ZR-1 was a motor option so in my eyes any C4 Corvette G.M. put an LT5 in during the early development phase is a ZR-1.

As you can see from the document in the below link zr-1s are designated by s/n. The ZR-1 option was not an engine option but was the option for the whole package. It includes the body and wheels. If you saw my car at the NCM in May you saw a ZR-1 not a C4 with a LT-5. Any car with just the engine is a mule whereas the 88 P cars are ZR-1s as noted in the below.

http://deliquescence.net/~tyler/prot...production.jpg

And until the 89's were built, there were only King Of The Hill prototypes. The ZR1 name wasn't designated until after the 88 wide bodied KOH cars were built.

Tyler's EX5014 (the best of the two cars, by the way) and my EX5023 were pre ZR1 cars and have no such badging on them.

You can bet after what happened to the ZR-1s' those cars were under tight control. The vin numbers on those were the full production vin with EX added to the end of the vin.

Tyler

GM was simply retarded for crushing those ZR-1's when they did. I hope they didn't do the same with the ZR1's.

Soooooooo,the Steel Blue convertible in the Museum isnt a ZR-1?

Anyone got a serious and thoughtful reply
 

About WHY GM did such incredibly wasteful, counterproductive, and in-f@!~-ing incredibly STUPID things. I can pretty well say the engineers and testers were all amazed by this waste and to a man against it....and not just the zr 1 but Warhoops is a great testiment to how many dazzling concepts were destroyed. WHY WHY WHY ??????????

Please...ANY retired GM people here. I just can't fathom why these things were done...I'd save a concept Pinto or Vega, at least for a while !

I'd love to hear the entire story of the junkyard in England and how the cars were acquired, in detail, also.

ummm, how about sell them to a private collector to to a museum.

Sorry, that to me
 

DOES NOT WASH !
..... and for most other car companies much of the time, would be bs. Ford donated cars to engineering schools and I know GM sold THE very first vette (google Worlds Oldest Corvette EX 122.) Apparently it just depended on whether an engineer, designer, or corporate brass made the decision.

Chrysler kept several of their turbo cars...I think there were over 70...the rest crushed just to not pay taxes on them, but crush every prototype/concept from GM in the 50s and 60s etc, from the Chevrolet Bel Air (see Hemmings for rescue at Warhoops) to the English mules and test cars. ???

GM regularly sold mules...I have one ! ...and concepts., just not all the time
I'm going for, in this case, stupidity and a feeling at GM corporate of having all the money and power in the world.
...and we know how that turned out for GM.

Brett that 88 is cool I am glad it ended up in your hands so it can be restored.You have a truly rare car and a neat piece of Corvette history.Good luck and I hope to see it at the c4 gathering.Rob

It'll be there, for sure. Hopefully, mostly completed.

Are you sticking with the original color scheme?

Absolutely. I'd never consider doing this car any way but the way it was born.

It's just like Tyler's EX5014 with the exception of a painted top instead of glass.

Geoff Jeal used to work on my Corvettes and I remember seeing the car sitting under a cover in his shop, he always described it as his retirement project.

Personally I'm not sure if you should restore it, maybe it would have been better leaving it as the crushed car.

You might want to contact Tom Falconer at Claremont Corvette in the UK www.corvette.co.uk as he bought about 4 truck loads of parts from Lotus / GM once the project finished, I believe that included gearboxes, suspension parts, brakes etc.

Hi. I've not spoken to Tom yet but I won't need the parts. I have everything needed for a correct restoration, fortunately.

I don't really see the advantage of NOT restoring the car. Geoff had compiled all of the parts necessary to restore the body and I have a donor car for the interior pieces needed. Geoff is rebuilding a PhaseII engine for me at this time.

Brett,

Excellent post. Hope to see it in BG in May. :cheers:

Very cool project, Brett.

:lurk:

I'll be in FL next week while the inlaws watch my little girl. Hopefully, when I get back I will have some updated pics to post. The door jams are now in place. It should go fairly quick if they get a chance to work on it. It's fill-in work for the shop. The weather has produced alot of insurance work for them lately. :toetap:

This is by far the most interesting thread I've seen on this site. I love to see rare cars rescued from being destoyed or forgotten, can't wait to see it done.

Some very interesting information here.

When I was in Bowling Green for the 50th Anniversary celebration, I took these pics. IIRC, this is one of the 86 narrow body cars. Is this Keith Beschi's yellow 86?? I remember talking briefly with the owner and he mentioned how the car was rescued from a wrecking yard and he restored it to a condition that it was in at the time Lotus was using the car.

Yep, that's Keith's 86 Mule Car. It's a narrow body with a PhaseI LT5.

Call me curious....I've always wanted to own one of these "mules"....such as the reg c4 with lt 5 mentioned above...or say "the last zr 1".
!

Anybody want to pitch in with guesstimates or better on prices for such cars ?

Speculation on as many interesting and one of a kind models encouraged and requested.

It would take over $300k to make me part with my 88 once it's completed. Not a penny less.

Some may think that's crazy money.

I equate it to my 53. They only made 300 of them. There are only two 1988 King Of The Hill Prototypes with EX tags.

I'd say priceless for both the 53 and your restored ZR-1 proto. That's pure history of why this car is what it is today. I just saw on Barret-Jackson last night the selling of the last 81 made at the St. Louis plant and the 1st 81 made at the Bowling Green plant. Sold around 100K, but once I had those, no one would get them.

vette daddy awesome job:thumbs: makes me want to stuff a lt5 in my 85. i think a narrow body car would be alot of fun with that lt5 in it. :D

I think you're low, but
 

The "real" world is craaaazy. I've been under the weather...ok flat on my ass sick, for a few days and watched a LOT of Barrett Jackson auctions.

The public pays $80 to over $100 k for '63 split windows that have almost nothing left of the original car....resto mods probably created from extreme rusted out hulks....I've ranted in the past about an early c4 with a lt 5 in it....from GM....an early mule...with all provenance...going for less than $80 k...in excellent shape.

Eventually the day will come when the rarity of these cars is recognized.

The day will come. More was spent on the ZR1 development than any other Corvette. The ZR1 is the L88 of today.

Beschi wanted at least $250k for his 86 mule car. Maybe more this year.

My car isn't for sale but if it was it would take over $300k to buy it. That's what it's worth to me. I don't need the money and it's paid for in full. This is the first car that I've restored for myself since 2003. I'm pretty excited about this special car.

How many Corvettes are in private hands with an EX number instead of a vin tag?

Gotta love it!

We share your joy.
Keep moving it along.
Thanks for sharing the pictorial story of the resto.
:cheers::cheers::cheers:
Marty
1FUNZR1

Atta boy !
 

I hope I get to see it...but you probably would have to shoo me away....I get pretty excited about such cars.

You do have the most exciting projects going on. This is simply amazing story and project! :thumbs:

One day I'm going to have to come visit your shop!

WOW! I wish I could have bought the prototype from GM heritage collection at Barett Jackson two years ago, that car was a steal. It went for less than $100k I dont remember exact price..anyone here remember the blue 89? This is an awesome thread! Thanks for posting!

If you mean my 1989 ZR-1 Pilot #004, that sold at last years BJ for $50K + fees.

Looks great Brett, Been away from the Sites for awhile busy doing the 8 to 5 thing.

There are 13 1989 ZR-1s documented to survive. Some are highly modified like the ZR-12 Falconer and some are like new 1989 #78 sold at BJ in 2009.

#003 Red in GM's Heritage Collection
#004 Sold to me at BJ 2010
#013 World Record Car replica
#014 White Restored crush car
#040 World Record Car at NCM
#045 V-12 Falconer at NCM
#069 Geneva Show car at NCM
#074 Sold to me at BJ in 2009
#076 Exists but not known where
#078 Sold at BJ in 2009
#080 Restored crush car owned by Mike Yeager <--- forgot to add this one.
#081 Snake Skinner Sold at BJ 2009 to Rick Hendrick
#084 Snake Skinner II sold at BJ 2009