These cars were every day drivers !

[Bill M.]

Re: These cars were every day drivers !

I looked at a 63 coupe as well could not see out the rear window. I paid $2500 for my 65 and the insurance ( I cant remember) must not have been that much I was going to school and working in a bicycle shop. I lived in Queens so if you stole a car you had 2 good highways to flee on.

[Alan S.]

[Reba W.]

Re: These cars were every day drivers !

Looks like a lot of us were former GTO owners. An ex and I sold a 1964 GTO to buy a 1967 435 Corvette. It was my daily driver for groceries, the laundromat and to the school where I taught. (The teenagers loved it.) There was no carport so it sat outside in all kinds of weather. The 435 was changed to an L88 and I continued to drive it (no choke) for two more years until I bought a second car.

Funny isn't it that we could afford these cars then, barely out of college and not yet owning a house, but now it takes a second mortgage to buy that same car.

[Ed D.]

Re: These cars were every day drivers !

Hello Jerry,
Hope you are doing well. I know you had a better winter then we had in NJ. Those are some great pictures. It is hard to believe that we drove and abused these cars the way we did. It is also remarkable that they held up to the torture as well as they did. I remember trying to burry the speedometer (160 MPH) by spinning the wheels in the snow. I got ugly very fast.
Ed

[Wayne M.]

Re: These cars were every day drivers !

I thought I would post my response to a forum member on one of the other popular corvette forums. He had made a statement about "How could some one have cut some holes in the bumper braces for a trailer" since he felt it was some kind of sacrilege to have used a corvette to tow a trailer.....

Montreal, 1969, my '66 L36 coupe (#04166 if it's still out there); previous owners installed triple tail lights, mild flares [known locally as the Christofaro special] and trailer hitch. Many people owned Skidoos and hauled them up north into the Laurentians for weekend fun.

Box 5-7 Ski Belle Neige w-66.jpg

[Gerard F.]

Re: These cars were every day drivers !

Bill,

What part of Queens are you from?

I was brought up in Hollis, Queens, went to HS in Brooklyn (Bishop Loughlin 57-61), then JC in Bayside(Queensboro 61-63)
I remember in high school I worked at Economy Drug Store in Floral Park, delivered prescriptions by bicycle. Road my bike between Hollis and Floral Park to get to work every Saturday.

[John F.]

Re: These cars were every day drivers !

As long as we're reminiscing, I picked up my new Sunfire Yellow L79 coupe the second week of June, 1967. It was our everyday car. A few things I remember. I was really disappointed that I couldn't order the newly released "Wide-Oval" tires from the factory, so I did the next best thing. I was working as a computer programmer (IBM 1401/1410) for an outfit called Gamble-Skogmo at the time. (They were a mid-western hardgoods/softgoods retailer of some repute back then.) As an employee, I was able to get a real good deal on tires, so I ordered 4 of their premium, double white-stripe tires for it; two 7.75/15's for the front, and two 9.15/15's for the back. I mounted them up, and quickly found the rear tires would hit the fenders if I encountered any kind of a bump. My immediate urge was to have the fenders flared, but at $150 a corner at Vic's Fiberglass Repair (do any of you Minneapolis guys remember them?), I decided not to go that way. I finally solved the problem with a piece of 1/2" water pipe and a hacksaw; put a 1 1/2" pieces under the rear spring on each hanger bolt. Raised it a bit much for my tastes these days, but back then, I thought it gave it a racy. kinda' drag car look. I sold the 2-ply Uniroyal Laredos with less than 100 miles on them to uncle Louie for $50 and he put them on his old Ford pickup.

The second thing I remember is that it wouldn't start on the first real cold day in a Minnesota winter. Back then, we didn't mess with automatic chokes as they were for sissy's and old people, so on went a regular old choke cable, Never had a problem after that.

Now that I got started, I could go on, but for your benefit, I won't. All in all it was a great everyday driver, and I never remember having any traction or handling problems in the ice and snow.

[Alan S.]

[Bill M.]

Re: These cars were every day drivers !

Wow Jerry/ Alan
Small world I grew up in Woodside Queens I went to Aviation High School out in 1975 and I bought my first house in Floral Park 263rd street and union turnpike. all 3 of my children were born in LIJ. One of my best High School friends Paul Meagel was from Hollis.
Alan good that you were able to learn on an old standard. My daughter Kelsey can not drive a stick. I am teaching her on the 2015. That tranny is harder to learn on than the 1967 tranny. The clutch engagement is instant and she cant get past first gear. next weekend we try again.

Bill

[Jack P.]

Does my wedding day count as a daily driver day ?

These pictures are from my wedding day in 1982 , I had just restored the car for the seconded time since buying it in 1970 with 46,000 miles and original tires still on it. (bald ) . Put my first set of radials on it after driving it home.

[Jack P.]

Re: These cars were every day drivers !

My insurance company seemed to think it was only a 1961 Chevy, and at 22 years of age, only paid $ 230 a year . When I bought the 66 in 1070 , it only went up to $400 , for the increased value, lucky for me at the time.....

Jack

[Robert R.]

Re: These cars were every day drivers !

Gerald, Looks to be a '68 Chevy behind your '67.

[Jack P.]

Corvette Vagabond's car is 49 years old today !

I have been fortunate to own the car for 45 of it's 49 years. 46,000 miles on it when I bought it from original owner. Now pushing 300,000 and 4 restorations, visits to 48 states and 15 European countries.


Not bad for an old sports car


Jack

[Kenneth B.]

Re: These cars were every day drivers !

I lived in northern IN. & didn't think a Corvette was practical in the winter & Corvette only had a 327 engine in 63 so I bought a new 63 1/2 Ford 427/425 coupe & thrashed the hell out of it clutch & rear tires every 2000 MI. Second car was a 65 GTO tripower black conv. I moved to a apartment on a hilly privet drive & I put snow tires & chains on it. Drove it to CA & back to In. in 65 with the top down. Young & dumb but it was a hell of a ride & would not trade those times for anything.

[Dennis O.]

Re: These cars were every day drivers !

Yep, as I recall Vic’s repaired boats before moving on to Corvettes. In the spring of 67 I purchased a 64 coupe that Vic’s had repaired and repainted. Don’t remember the details, but the guy who owned the car had a beef with the shop.


How about Lake Street in south Minneapolis, did you cruise it? And check out the new corvettes at Jay Kline Chevrolet and the used ones across the street at Honda Motor Sports? And parts, did you get the discount from Xxxxx at Jay Kline. Then, as I recall, at some point Xxxxx moved down the street to Gibson Chevrolet taking all the discount business with him. Those were good times.

John,

Nice that someone else remembers those times. If I remember correctly, Vic ran into some legal problems (swapping VIN plates, etc.) and got sent to jail for his efforts, and the business went down the drain. As to cruising Lake Street, I really don't ever remember doing that in the Corvette (I also had a new, very attractive, large breasted wife at the time who took up quite a bit of my time then). One thing I do remember is that for the first year I owned the car, I never raced anyone. I figured it was just "another small block Chevrolet" and nothing special (a 4 speed L79 with 3.70's?!?!). In 1968, a friend of mine named Steve Hendrickson worked for the main Buick dealer in town. He called me one day and said they had just taken a '65 GTO with a blown engine in on trade and we could buy it for $500. I got the money from the credit union at work and we bought the car. We ended up putting a rebuilt 421 that we found in it. After we got the car done, we drove it around while waiting to sell it. It seemed to me that it was not quite as fast as my Corvette. An impromptu race proved me right. After that, I was not afraid to race it, and don't remember ever getting beat. I did, however, avoid hemi's and big block Corvettes. A friend of mine had a '66 L79 coupe that I just waxed in a drag race. He had 3.08's in it. It was at this time I realized that the proper choice of the rear-end ratio was as important as the engine you had. The most amusing race I was challenged to was some local rich kid whose daddy bought him a new Austin-Healy 3000; since we didn't have a lot of curvy mountain roads in Minnesota, he didn't do very well.

Back in those days I never thought of the future, but just lived for now. I often think, what if, when I was sitting in Cecil Taylor's office in Village Chevrolet in March of '67, I would have thought of adding a big tank and A/C to my L79 order? Or maybe even an L89 with a big tank. If I had, I'm sure I would have ended up selling the car anyway, or in the case of an L89, wrapping it around a tree and killing myself. I guess I'm glad I saved the money.

Denny