1964 engineering corvette

[Michael Y.]

It is great to be a new member of NCRS. I have recently started restoration of my 1964 corvette convertible. It is firefrost blue and has a Chevrolet Engineering Center tag under the dash, to the right of the trim tag (shown in the attached photo). The car also has some unique features, including the paint color, metal floor grates, teak wood wheel, power antenna, and 65 style hood. I have been searching for info on this car, and have come up with only a few pieces of info. I found an engineering center tag on the "Bunkie" Knudson car at Mid America Motorworks, that has the same style tag. I have attached a link to this sight. I would greatly appreciate it, if there was someone in the club that may know something about this engineering tag, and where I might be able to find more info about my car. Thanks you very much

http://www.mygaragemuseum.com/galleryindex.htm

[Scott S.]

Re: 1964 engineering corvette

It is great to be a new member of NCRS. I have recently started restoration of my 1964 corvette convertible. It is firefrost blue and has a Chevrolet Engineering Center tag under the dash, to the right of the trim tag (shown in the attached photo). The car also has some unique features, including the paint color, metal floor grates, teak wood wheel, power antenna, and 65 style hood. I have been searching for info on this car, and have come up with only a few pieces of info. I found an engineering center tag on the "Bunkie" Knudson car at Mid America Motorworks, that has the same style tag. I have attached a link to this sight. I would greatly appreciate it, if there was someone in the club that may know something about this engineering tag, and where I might be able to find more info about my car. Thanks you very much

http://www.mygaragemuseum.com/galleryindex.htm

Welcome to the TDB Michael, please post some pictures of your car!

[Richard M.]

Re: 1964 engineering corvette

Wow, Very interesting. I've never seen that tag before. Sounds like a special car.

Maybe John Hinckley can comment. He was there back then in the paint shop.

Rich
p.s. welcome! much to learn from the crew here.

[Michael Y.]

Re: 1964 engineering corvette

Here are some pics of my car

[Peter S.]

Re: 1964 engineering corvette

That's really cool you lucky so-and-so.

[John H.]

Re: 1964 engineering corvette

I would greatly appreciate it, if there was someone in the club that may know something about this engineering tag, and where I might be able to find more info about my car.

Mike -

Art Armstrong and I researched this for you earlier this year from your post on another forum, and neither of us have ever seen that type of CEC vehicle tag before; maybe someone else here can shed some light on it.

[Michael Y.]

Re: 1964 engineering corvette

Hi John

Since the last post on the other forum, I have found another tag like this on the "Bunkie" Knudson car. There are pictures of the tag on the Mid America website museum. I attached the link in my first post. On that car the project # is GPV-57. The project # on my tag is GPV-54. The format of the tags seems to be similar, from the pics.

thanks again for your help in the past

[Chris H.]

Re: 1964 engineering corvette

That link is kinda dead now. Here is a much better link.

http://www.corvettefever.com/featuredvehicles/corp_0712_1964_sting_ray_coupe/index.html

Though that tag is way before my time it must have been used on Special builds at CEC. In looking for the Firefrost blue color it was used on a number of special show cars and was probably a favorite color of someone at Design Staff/Chevrolet. Perhaps your car was a test vehicle for the color and used later on others.

During my time in Marketing we had many cars painted with future colors to see what they looked like. Would put all the new colors (couple years ahead of production) out in the parking lot and see what they looked like. Most of the time though we used the same cars over and over and then scrapped them.

I would definitely look for other special features on your car and be careful not to change something because it does not match production.

Some other special firefrost blue vehicles:

http://www.hemmings.com/hcc/stories/2007/07/01/hmn_feature15.html

http://www.illustratedcorvetteseries.com/1964_Corvettes.html

[William C.]

Re: 1964 engineering corvette

I had a friend who worked in CEC when we were in GMI, He bought a '64 Corvair from the Fleet sale at CEC back in '64, with a host of "special" items including "firefrost Blue" paint and the same plate as shown in the post, Story is it was a car prepped with some special items for the Worlds Fair, and since it had every option known to man on a Corvair (including wire knockoff wheels) it was so expensive even at employee price that nobody except him tagged it. So a Student winds up with a one of a kind Chevrolet engineering modified Corvair spyder convertible. (Still in his possession) Back then, if it hadn't had any modifications that made the car unsafe to drive, it went out in the fleet sale when engineering was done with it. BTW, Firefrost blue is Nothing like any of the "production" paints in terms of shade or metallic content. I believe it is the same paint that was used on the old Joe clark styling car restored back in the 80's.

[Chris H.]

Re: 1964 engineering corvette

may not be the same color but probably the same as the special 1 year eldorado color. Fits the timeframe.

http://crazy4cars.net/showthread.php?t=1013

1964ColorCodeEbony Black10Aspen White12Nevada Silver14Cardiff Gray16Beacon Blue22Spruce Blue24Somerset Blue26Turino Turquoise29Seacoast Green32Lime34Nile Green36Bahama Sand44Sierra Gold46Palomino 47Matador Red50Royal Maroon52Firemist blue92*Firemist Aquamarine94*Firemist Green96*Firemist Saddle97*Firemist Red98** Eldorado Color Color Chart http://www.tcpglobal.com/aclchip.asp...illac-pg01.jpg

[William C.]

Re: 1964 engineering corvette

I don't think so, the Cadillac was "Firefrost" and it was special enough that the Engineering Garage gave a quart of it to the owner of the Corvair after his purchase.

[Michael Y.]

Re: 1964 engineering corvette

I may be wrong, but I believe that the firefrost blue was a Cadillac production color at the time.

[Chris H.]

http://www.corvetteconti.com/blog/?p=2695

[Terry M.]

Re: 1964 engineering corvette

I had a friend who worked in CEC when we were in GMI, He bought a '64 Corvair from the Fleet sale at CEC back in '64, with a host of "special" items including "firefrost Blue" paint and the same plate as shown in the post, Story is it was a car prepped with some special items for the Worlds Fair, and since it had every option known to man on a Corvair (including wire knockoff wheels) it was so expensive even at employee price that nobody except him tagged it. So a Student winds up with a one of a kind Chevrolet engineering modified Corvair spyder convertible. (Still in his possession) Back then, if it hadn't had any modifications that made the car unsafe to drive, it went out in the fleet sale when engineering was done with it. BTW, Firefrost blue is Nothing like any of the "production" paints in terms of shade or metallic content. I believe it is the same paint that was used on the old Joe clark styling car restored back in the 80's.

And don't you wish YOU had tagged the one and only 1965 Chevelle Z16 convertible, Bill? I know a lot of us do. Some of us will go to our graves waiting for that car to surface.

[William C.]

Re: 1964 engineering corvette

Last time I talked to the fellow who bought the Z-16 Engineering convertible (Mid-80's timeframe) he indicated the fellow he sold it to was well known for "Rode Hard" in his driving style. Doug had tried to find it at one time but without any luck. His best guess was that it would up around a tree somewhere in the late 60's or early 70's.