A few years ago I ran across a fellow that, for most of his life, had enjoyed doing top knotch car restoration as a hobby . He wasn't a "Vette" guy, but he did have his first Corvette restoration in progress at the time and had completed a lot of the grueling work of a body-off restoration on a car that makes most of us Corvette enthusiasts perk up at the mention of it...a 1970 LT-1 Corvette. He was getting older (aren't we all?) and wanted to spend more time with his family and grandchildren and said he had one more car he really wanted to restore and pointed over next to his one car garage to one of the first Baracudas. That car was in solid shape for its age and you could tell it would make one great restoration car. There are those of us that have their "fire" burn for Corvettes and others that have the same passion for other great cars. He fell in the latter group. With a one car sized restoration "shop" he wanted the Baracuda out from under that tarp and out of the weather and was anxious to get started on a car he really loved so, the Vette had to go and I was lucky enough to be standing in the right place, at the right time, amazingly enough with the right amount of cash to get that LT-1 Corvette, one of those "special" model Corvettes, you know, the kind you see at a show saying to yourself "one day I'm going to have a..." kind of Corvette.
Well, as many of you that aren't professionals at this that have attacked a restoration know, it's not a straight line project is it? You have your Hare periods and you have your Tortoise times...I've been running a little too heavy on the Tortoise times but getting that itch back to enjoy all those lovely frustrations like the part you can't find for eight or nine months, then costs my weight in gold...then doesn't fit, or the stack of shop manuals and plans that illustrate everything except what you are working on today, or the piece you're putting back on that should take ten minutes but still won't go on straight after four hours of trying as you debate whether to reach for that "bigger hammer" or get the dogs out of the garage and just light a match to the whole thing…and actors say they “suffer” for their art, what do they know about suffering? Just try rebuilding a car sometime, and then you’ll know what suffering really is!
So, like me, you’ve probably visited web sites of Corvettes, or other cars, being restored and it looks so step by step, smooth, organized, perfectly on schedule, like there’s nothing hard to it, with perfect results every time right? You always have the needed part, the right tool, the time, the money and no distractions, right? Yeah, right, that’s how it works. Well this isn’t one of those sites and it isn't one of those projects so come along for the ride, it will be bumpy and most likely need to measure the progress in birthdays, not months! Be patient because after all, nobody gets to drive this thing until I do anyway. I’ll air the dirty laundry right along with the victories because hey, let’s recognize a little reality here, they’re old cars, the parts are near impossible to find and I’m human not super human..oh, and I'm not made of money either. I’ll be adding more from time to time so check back. I’m sure I’ll drive everybody nuts over at the NCRS forum to get all the help I can to make a legitimate shot (within finances) to do a good job right down to the correct dated air in the tires…ok, I’ll eat the points on the air in the tires, I’m not that crazy.