66 Frame restoration - Have original marking - what do I do?s

[Brian S.]

quick info on car: '66 327/300 convertible, radio delete (unfortunately someone cut the radio hole out and put one in). Base car used for parade duty. Someone painted the car back in the early 80's after a light front end accident. Frame needs to be straightened, shop said no big deal. No real damage. They didn't mask much off so there is a nice coat of overspray on the side frame rails. I took a little steel wool to the passenger side rail and the stencil came right through. Also, I took the car to Tony's Corvette in Gaithersburg MD and he was impressed with how good the frame condition was. Looking up inside the frame he said the original coatings were still there. Even the outside was preserved pretty well by layers of road grime and dirt that never seemed to get cleaned off.

Question: I want to restore the frame for the long haul. I've redone the entire rear suspension, need to do the fronts. All the rubber bushings, body mounts, etc and bolts need to be replaced. What should I do? I was going to have the frame stripped, dipped, powdercoated and re-stencil. Then I thought about masking the area around the original stencils and just doing the rest of the frame. Is there any point in trying to preserve the originals or since it is so easy to apply new stencils and markings, do I just go ahead and do it all? Don't plan on showing or judging the car.

Thanks in advance.

[Lawrence M.]

Re: 66 Frame restoration - Have original marking - what do I do?s

Brian, your comment that you will not be showing or judging your corvette leads me to believe you will be drivivng it more than a show car would be driven. If that is the case I would say that preventing any future frame rust is more important than saving the original stencil. I would take photos of the stencil and measure it's exact location in order to reproduce it as closley as possible. David Burroughs discusses this in the book Corvette Restoration: State Of The Art.

Larry

[Brian S.]

Re: 66 Frame restoration - Have original marking - what do I do?s

Thanks for the reply Larry. You are correct. I am rebuilding the car to be a driver. I call it a "correct driver". I want as many of the details correct and the car to be as close to the way it was off the assembly line, but I want to drive it. That's why I am powdercoating chassis parts instead of painting, but am matching the finish as closely as possible too.