To restore or not to restore

[Ron R.]

Re: To restore or not to restore

Duke,Regarding doing the research, where would you suggest I start. I have gathered all the reading material about big tank cars and spoke to a few of the so called 'experts' at Bloomington in the last few years. This car appears to be very original as far the tank is concerned. It all checks out with Noland Adam's book to every detail. It's just that the build date is before the NO3 option was offered to the general public. Any advice is greatly appreciated.......... I have plenty of pictures to post if it helps........Ron

[Duke W.]

Re: To restore or not to restore

Take a look at this nearby thread:

https://www.forums.ncrs.org/showthre...04885-1963-zo6

What Joe said. Franz E. is the guy who can make an accurate assessment of whether your tank was plant or field installed. There was no AIM available to the public when you bought the car, so if the tank was a field install they would not been aware of all the details of the plant install and would have had no reason to make it look like a plant install.

Duke

[Ron R.]

Re: To restore or not to restore

Duke, two important details on this car makes me tend to believe it could have been a plant built car......1. the jack was stored in the rear of car over tank, never below driver's seat, no bracket here or ever was. 2. the area inside the gas cap painted the same original color as the exterior.... pictures to follow

[Joe R.]

Re: To restore or not to restore

Ron,

Would you please contact Marty Fowler in Kennett, MO. at (send the number by PM). Marty has been a Bloomington judge and belonged to the NCRS since it's inception. He is the most knowledgeable person on 63's alive or dead! He is honest and will give you an evaluation of your 63. Then you can make up your mind what you are going to do with the 63.
Duke has given you the most honest evaluation here on the board without ever seeing the 63 in person.
Honestly there is NO WAY one can evaluate your 63 without seeing it in person.
If everything you say is true of this 63 it is valuable to restore it like it came from St. Louis. Anything else would be destroying a piece of Corvette History.

JR

[Ron R.]

Re: To restore or not to restore

TERRIFIC, you don't know how much I appreciate your help, I knew if I stayed persistent I would ultimately find the right person for a phone number........Again thank you very much!

[Bruce B.]

Re: To restore or not to restore

Ron,
Glad to see you at it again.
In reading the above posts I see a lot of info and names that you have heard of in the past.
Sooner or later the car will tell you what it was originally.
PS; The Cinci NCRS swap meet is on Mar 16 at Columbia Chev. on Montgomery Rd. Stop by my flashing lights.
Take care and keep on truckin.
Bruce B

[Ron R.]

Re: To restore or not to restore

Thanks Bruce, great to hear from you..............

[Steven B.]

Re: To restore or not to restore

This discussion and one of Duke's posts reminds me of a couple of '63's I looked at years ago. The first was in '84 when I looked at a red/black '63 FI coupe advertised for sale. The car had a big tank, FI, no radio, and a "regular" master cylinder. Looking the car over I removed one of the 2 bar KO's and the finned drums were there along with all Z-06 suspension items. $16,000. By the time I got back from the bank the car was gone. The second '63 was located in WI. A good friend, now deceased, asked if I would like to go with him from Indianapolis to WI in his new '85 coupe to look at a '63 FI. When we got there inside a small frame garage was a silver blue FI with dark blue interior, radio, whitewall, wheel covers. It was missing the seat belts but other than that was showroom. The seller spoke with Larry while I looked over the car. Very nice shape, standard brake drums but with the Z-06 master cylinder and Z-06 suspension. I asked the owner, late teens - early 20's, if the car was a Z-06. He did not know what a Z-06 was but did have a box with extra brake parts. He found the box and in it were 4 finned drums, backing plates, original lining, springs, and license plates from the previous owner "Z06". Long story short after two weeks of negotiating over the phone Larry got the Z-06 and $4,000 and the seller got Larry's red/red '85 auto. Corvette. Larry had the Midas touch.