55 top material Post 2

[Dennis McGill]

I have a Gypsy Red built in June. But, I'm having heated discussions about the different tops and when they were used and which cars had which ones. I have Noland Adams Book, The Complete Restoration Guide Vol. 1 53 - 62. But can't find much info on tops.




Park City Photos

[Don S.]

Re: 55 top material Post 2

Noland Adams book does not solve the riddle. For your information I did receive a top flight on my 55 last year .It was gypsy red and is an August car. I did not get any point deduction using a beige canvas top., but I do not think that it matters ,if there is no definitive answer. No one can prove that whatever top you use was not correct unless you went with rainbow or something.
I cannot locate my IRAC notes - I believe they are in Florida. I cannot recall seeing anything in there about this subject. I prefer a white vynal top as the canvas top is tough to keep clean. That is my 2 cents. Noland on page 36 says white top with red exterior. and on page 101 says beige top with red body. Confusing to say the least.

[Don S.]

Re: 55 top material Post 2

Dennis. I just remembered. A few years ago there was a gypsy red 55 at the Florida NCRS show. It was a 12,000 mile supposedly original car. I recall that the top was beige canvass. I remebered that because the top was real mess. I also remembered that when I saw it I decided that originality is not for me. I would have done a repaint and a new top-- the heck with Bowtie-- but that is me. This 1955 original example does not prove anything either as there could have been different top materials used on other red 55's.This was an early car as I recall. I was told by Jack Reeves( a 55 expert now deceased ) not to change my top , seat color or car color as none of the experts know for sure on 55 colors.

[Dave Suesz]

Remember...

55 was a disastrous year for the Corvette, when 55 production started, there were still about 1100 unsold 54's in dealerships. With production slowed down, and all the new colors, they probably did what they had to in order to keep production going. I wouldn't be surprised if the specification called for a white top on red cars, but they were short and stuck a tan top on to keep things going. Why don't you ask Noland Adams, or Ken Keyser, as I did with some of my 55 problems? One thing I discovered was many of the photos in Noland's book were in color, they were simply printed in B&W for the book.

Of course, even that wouldn't prove anything, only that some 55's came with this or that tops, not what yours had.