FROM THE FRYING PAN INTO THE FIRE
Is there a Survivor in there?
I have been congratulating myself for resisting the temptation to “over restore” the Corvette, and rather to make it a real “driver”. I do not want to end up with a “garage queen”, too nice and too costly to drive and not friendly enough to sleep with. As I have been getting into making the car roadworthy, I have also reminded myself that it is pretty original, given that I bought the car new. So I know exactly how few things have been changed out in my 40 plus years of ownership. Enter the “Survivor” concept.
Survivor is a category of classic car ownership that defines a car that is nearly completely unchanged from the day of delivery: original driveline, paint, interior, etc. Sounds pretty simple and my car is pretty original. So I had begun to think, why not try to maintain that survivor status as I get the car back on the road. Both NCRS http://www.ncrs.org/ (National Corvette Restorers Society) and Bloomington Gold http://www.bloomingtongold.com/ (the premier Corvette show and judging organization) have “Survivor” categories. (Bloomington Gold has a copyright on the term and claims to have invented the category).
My last blog entry talked about the build sheet I found on the gas tank, and that prompted some research. And that’s where I nearly jumped from the frying pan of over restoration into the fire of change nothing “Survivor” status. Along with other research, I had an illuminating and scary email conversation with Dave Burroughs, the Bloomington Gold Survivor guru. The bottom line Survivor repair/restoration philosophy is “don’t do anything!”; although somehow the car needs to be returned to running condition. Do no painting, remove no torn decals or build sheets, replace no parts, don’t even wire brush the rust. Yikes, another “garage queen”, but one that looks and drives like a car that hasn’t been touched in 40 years; because that is exactly what it would be.
So, here I am, suspended somewhere between the frying pan and the fire. But what the heck, that is exactly where I want to be. If I want to mount new, softer shock absorbers, or a lifetime stainless steel exhaust, or clean and paint the engine compartment, or mount tires that provide decent traction, I’m going to do it. This driver is for getting my “Yeee Ha” on!
