The Final Garage

For the next year (2015) she basically stayed in the outside garage while I searched for someone willing to take on a partial restoration that; #1 (WV ½ assed body man) screwed up royally, #2 (Half way home mechanic in Hagerstown) fixed some stuff, screwed up others, and just took too much time-8 months, #3 fixed a bunch but just let way too much time get by- (4 years!?), and #4 who worked on the engine and drive train which is all I asked. While I waited for #5, I would take her out for a 3 mile lap around the block, just to feel her under my control, rumbling roaring. She started easily, ran well, was tight, and fearsome like a caged tiger.

In the spring of 2016 I found a guy who knew a guy who might be willing to take on the job of finishing what others had started. I showed him photos of what was, told him what had been done and he agreed to take her on but…not right away. He had no room for it. Give him a few weeks and he’d call me. Well… this went on for weeks, months when in the fall of 2016 he agreed to have her brought in. With no tags or insurance it was back on the roll back. He looked at it and said this: “Yeah, I think I can do it. Really doesn’t seem to need too much. “

Over the next year, I made calls and visits. The frame still needed straightening, why the hood and fenders did not line up and why the roof line with the T-top was crooked. (I hadn’t even noticed). We got her frame straight, and front end aligned and rubber weather stripping removed and replaced, fiberglass work complete and front end rubber nose installed to stay, and primed and ready to paint. Selected the paint color (Inferno Red ) painted a test strip, YES! to the color, and then, today, November 3, 2017 I got the call. “I got your Vette ready to go.

So Coletta and I drove out to get her, and Oh MY God was she beautiful. Worth waiting for? Certainly, as I eased her onto the highway with her new license plates and Hagarty Classic Car Insurance, and absolutely perfect paint job. I put the pedal into her as she purred then roared down the road, tight, agile, solid like the Beast she is. Seven and a half years and many (5) mechanics and body men and thousands of dollars, but at least now, this forty (40) year old car is running and back on the road where she belongs.