Restoration Errors

[Clark K.]

A bit of background: When I bought my 1965 Red/red L76 A/C P/W P/B coupe last November from ProTeam, they told me that someone else had "restored" the car in 2005. It is a real beauty. But, (full disclosure, here) I have spent $13K since November, fixing non-cosmetic things.

At last April's chapter meet, the exterior judges told me that the right bumper brace was bent and deducted for it. After the meet, I took the car to my restoration shop (NOT the same one from '05). They found that both front bumper braces were bent. They discovered that these braces were switched, with the left brace on the right and vice-versa. When the original restorer ("Bigger Hammer" Restorations?) could not get the left one to fit on the right, he obviously bent it to fit. Well, I paid $95/hour to get this fixed, on both sides.

That is not all. As soon as I got the car last November, I was surprised to find that the key had to be upside down to unlock the driver's side door. The key would not work in the passenger door, at all. The passenger side lockset was installed on the driver's door, etc. Yep, I paid $95/hour to have the locksets switched.

Still not all. On the rare occasions when I used the wipers, they hit each other. I then discovered that the driver's side wiper arm was "parked" above the passenger side wiper arm. Yep, backwards. Luckily, this cost me nothing in labor, a quick fix.

So, when someone asks me at the next car show whether I restored the car myself, I am going to tell them no, that the car had a dyslexic restoration before I got it.

Come on, guys, let's hear YOUR story. -Clark

[Chris E.]

Re: Restoration Errors

When I got my car from my dad a few years ago, I inspected every part as I pulled it off the car. The original black door panels, over time, had caused the metal trim pieces to pop off the arm rests. So dear old dad had used screws to reattach them back in the 70's.

Fast forward to this year, and I find an ad in the Driveline for a set of 67 black door panels, for a convertible (what I have) AND that were dated Aug of 66. I have a lot of Aug 66 parts on my car. I called the guy up, wrote him a check and the rest is history.

The panels will go on the car in a week or so.

[Chris E.]

Re: Restoration Errors

And then of course there is my "find" in the passenger door......can you spot the non-factory hardware in this picture?

[Rich G.]

Re: Restoration Errors

When I bought my 66 SB years ago (NOT a show car, but a nice driver) I noticed it had a home made clutch rod. Why? I thought. They are so cheap, why not get the right one?

So I did and the clutch wouldn't work anymore, because the wrong throw out bearing was installed. So the trans had to come out anyway to fix a speedo gear problem and might as well rebuild it while it's out....and so on.

Rich

[Harmon C.]

Re: Restoration Errors

I have done a few frame off restorations and their are allways some things that you wonder why. I installed the painted valve covers on the wrong sides on one car. At the first NCRS judging the judges missed it but a person came by and made me aware of what I had done. Knowing that the paint on the bolt heads would never look the same if I changed them I just let them on the wrong sides. At the third NCRS judging the team leader came and said do you know that the judges found your valve covers on the wrong sides. I said yes I was just waiting till I got busted before changing them.
Oh yes I have a door keyway that needs turned over on my last frame off. I thought I did a good job of cleaning headlight contacts and checked out original seal beams before I installed them only to have only one light up after the restoration was completed.
I enjoy and look forward to a restoration to be completed then the testing phase starts. It's fun to drive the car and shake down all those little things that need tweaked to work as they should.

[Michael W.]

Re: Restoration Errors

The previous owner of my car was a bit of a slob, to be polite. I filled a small garbage bag with trash he had left behind, but kept the $13.00 in change found under the seats. This total includes a quarter that had fallen down inside the female side of the lap belt and had kept it from buckling

Going through a complete functional test, I noted that the headlight warning lamp glowed bright red despite the headlight buckets being up and firmly locked in place. The cause was a missing switch. Some time later I ran into the PO and asked how he had managed to drive at night with this bright red glow. I should have anticipated his answer- he simply covered the lamp with a piece of black electricians tape and as a courtesy had left the roll on the passenger seat for me.

[Gene M.]

Re: Restoration Errors

Clark,
My only question is why are you paying $95/hour to fix simple things?

The enjoyment is working on one's classic to bring it up to an enjoyable level.

Throwing money at a car is no fun. Your missing half of the pleasure of an old Corvette. .......... just my thoughts as a wrench.

[Grant M.]

Re: Restoration Errors

I agree with Gene, a lot of the "fun" is in the restoration, but you do get to see some strange things.

When I bought my 65 it had already been dismantled and was in a body shop to have some front end body damage repaired. I never saw it pre-repair, but it looked pretty good to me in the shop in primer and (apparently) ready for paint. It's important to note here that this was my first Corvette and I had really only ever seen a handful of mid-years 'up close'. That opinion lasted until I had indeed painted the car and was re-assembling it, installing the (brand new) headlight doors. What had appeared to me to be a good quality repair job on the nose between the doors turned out to be a bit of a 'bubba' job. The body 'point' that surrounds the entire car, including the headlight doors, was MIA between the doors. Instead, the area was cleanly rounded and didn't follow the contour of the installed doors at all. Now at this point I'll 'fess-up' to having done my own 'bubba' repair; rather than replace the front-end glass, which I will someday pursue, I used resin, mat and a thin coat of filler to fabricate the point contour correctly enough that a Corvette repair shop in Buffalo, NY several years later were unaware of the repair until I pointed it out to them.

Another 'funny' I discovered with the car was that a previous owner had the seats re-covered in black vinyl (the original interior colour was silver vinyl). This was to be a driver and I wanted leather seats, so you can imagine my suprise as I went to remove the black vinyl only to discover the original (split/torn/worn) silver vinyl underneath. I guess that was/is a common upholstery shop approach: cover right over the old...

grant

[Chris E.]

Re: Restoration Errors

Grant, was your 65 silver outside as well? There is a guy trying to piece together a registry all of the original 65 silver/silver cars.

[Clark K.]

Re: Restoration Errors

Clark,
My only question is why are you paying $95/hour to fix simple things?

The enjoyment is working on one's classic to bring it up to an enjoyable level.

Throwing money at a car is no fun. Your missing half of the pleasure of an old Corvette. .......... just my thoughts as a wrench.

I do NOT enjoy working on any car, not even the Sting Ray. Since I can afford it, I let the experts handle any repairs. This is true on all my cars. By the way, I am not a Corvette expert and would not have known anything was wrong with the car without expert advice.

I see too many Sting Rays with amateur (incorrect) repairs. My car has had a multitude of them, elaborated on in the initial post.

Understand that many years ago I changed the spark plugs in my '87 Buick Grand National and broke a spark plug in half. I had never broken a spark plug before then. The rest of the story is that the top half somehow dropped into the engine. I towed it to the Buick dealer and they fished it out without pulling the head. That taught me a lesson. -Clark

[Brandon T.]

Re: Restoration Errors

This is why I'm having a hard time buying a 66, 67 or a 69 big block convertible 4sp..

I am wanting to buy either a late model or an older car of the years posted above.

However, I can't make myself pay what people want for a car that has been through years of having a BUBBA owner. I just can't make myself get 50k for a car I have to de-bubba.

maybe 50k for a 435hp vert 67 optioned out I would de-bubba it if it was a no hit car etc..MAYBE

no hit is a big deal with me too, I have never been in a wreck but have had my cars hit in the parking lot with people backing up I'd fix them then sell it.

I can't stand bondo on ANYTHING or patch work on busted up fiberglass when we bought our 68 I had seen it after being soda blasted so I know it's a no hit car and that was a major plus for me.

but you're right you have to really look one over thats been "restored" I don't mind using places like paragon for hoses, even clamps and stuff like that but for non throw throw away items, I always look for originals.

[Steven B.]

Re: Restoration Errors

After a certain age, or deterioration of the body, you should only work on things you do not have to crawl under, stoop, lay down for or bend in any way to do. Or read very small printed instructions, for those who actually read such things.

[Brandon T.]

Re: Restoration Errors

After a certain age, or deterioration of the body, you should only work on things you do not have to crawl under, stoop, lay down for or bend in any way to do. Or read very small printed instructions, for those who actually read such things.

Let me say this about that.

BENDPACK LIFT!

[Ian G.]

Re: Restoration Errors

I'm very happy to work on my corvette, but I have no idea where to drain the oil on my daily driver and don't want to know. Because then I would be changing the oil on my daily driver instead of dropping the transmission on my corvette. Though I did change out the hatch back gas lifts, because the dealer wanted $300 plus installation for them. So I bought aftermarket for $100 and put them in myself.

probably the most bestest repair I've seen on the car so far were the brake cylinders had the internal rubber gaskets on the outer edge instead of the inner edge on all four cylinders. I'm glad I didn't take it for a drive before disassembling it.

[John M.]

Re: Restoration Errors

My '65 is relatively unmolested, but is has a new reman starter. Going through the paperwork I got with the car, the PO's son had recently replaced the starter, and turned in the original for the $15 core charge. I'll spend a lot more than that when I find one with a good date code .

I'm very happy to work on my corvette, but I have no idea where to drain the oil on my daily driver and don't want to know. Because then I would be changing the oil on my daily driver instead of dropping the transmission on my corvette. Though I did change out the hatch back gas lifts, because the dealer wanted $300 plus installation for them. So I bought aftermarket for $100 and put them in myself.

probably the most bestest repair I've seen on the car so far were the brake cylinders had the internal rubber gaskets on the outer edge instead of the inner edge on all four cylinders. I'm glad I didn't take it for a drive before disassembling it.