1967 Corvette with orange chassis
 

I purchased this Corvette from a friend that's on this site. Tim did a great job of representing the car and I was very happy when it arrived. One thing he made clear was that sometime in its life the entire undercarriage was painted orange and to correct this, someone painted black over the orange. This sounded like a nightmare, but I liked the car so much, I moved forward.

Here are some before and after of the chassis after 80 hours and lots of paint stripper, lacquer thinner, steel wool and mineral spirits. Everything took four coats of stripper to get the black and orange off. I was able to preserve much of the originality of the chassis.

Ice blasting would have been easier, but I figured it would have cost about $4,000.

Here are a few of the rear of the car after.

WOW, my fingers hurt just looking at the end result. It's amazing what lengths a Corvette Guy will go through to make something "Right". I applaud you. Bill

I love it when a good car falls into the hands of the right owners who sacrifice the effort to make it a great car!! Tim and Tim are the best. :beers:

It's nearly a twin to your car, Bill.

Wow, that was a lot of work.

Looks Great!! You worked your ass off!!

Oh Boy ….. I agree with post #3 BBB because my fingers are numb just reading this, plus I feel a little high from the fumes.

I sure hope the involved on this project wore their PPE.

Now let’s see the Vette that received this TLC.

Here's some shots in the garage. Nice original car with great paperwork and original driveline. It's a real sidepipe car, too.

The white top has been replaced with a black top, but I have an original white top in the works. It has just the correct amount of patina.

Correct amount is important.

Beautiful “7”, thanks for the photos.

Wow - well done!

Tim understood what my vision for the car was. No doubt folks, this is no good sh!t ass work. Tim G executed it perfectly!

I don't think the exterior pics Tim provided really did the car justice. The paint was another item that I did not get to before we commenced our deal. There is a lot of time with a Meguiars product and a tube sock:grin: I'll let Tim elaborate from there:)

1) She's a sweetie.

2) What do you suppose possessed somebody to paint that chassis orange? Don't you wish you (or someone with some foresight) could have been there to stop him?

K

"What do you suppose possessed somebody to paint that chassis orange?"
Exactly what I was thinking!!!

I have had some really hair brained ideas. When I first got my 69 Z/28 in 1976, I ALMOST sanded the white stripes off and painted them cobweb in gold. Original Black car. In 76, the black and gold TAs were all the rage.

But... I never once thought about painting the entire chassis of any car orange; let alone an original paint Corvette.

Outstanding work and beautiful car!

Very pretty car! I’m surprised you got all that done in 80 hours!

I have no idea why the chassis was painted orange, not a very good paint job at that.
As I was cleaning, the Eric Clapton song "cocaine" kept playing in my head.

Tim,

I remember the story of the 12 mile 1967 L-88 that had the whole underneath painted white when David Burroughs got it out of Lincoln Auto Parts. Painting the underside of a Corvette must have been the thing to do back then.

Bill

I've done some things I regret, too, but it is more in the realm of using gloss black instead of semi gloss/matte/satin finish.

;)

K

Looks fantastic!

Bill, the 12 mile 1967 L88 chassis was painted white. I know of another low mile C2 Corvette with a chassis painted a strange color. Those cars were my guide to cleaning this one.

----Bill,,, Dave B didn't liberate the 12 mile Corvette from L.A.P.. I won't mention the name but a guy from Minnesota did. It then went to an old friend of mine in Wisconsin, Bob Adams. Went thru (I think) 2 more people. Classic motors was squeezed in there as well. Dave B and his partner, Jim K ended up with it around this time. I'm pretty sure the NOS L88 engine came from Terry M. My partner in Red Alert, Terry Carney (RIP), went to Washington state and got the title to it for Jerome S, a very good customer of ours at Classic Motors and a great guy. Somewhere early in this story the car had a bunch of parts replaced with incorrect stuff. Nothing big or too important, but it was a really shady thing to do. Stuff like the original shifter, throttle pedal, clutch and brake pedal covers, and so on. I saw all the incorrect stuff the day we went to Jeromes to look at the car. Just wanted to sort of set the record straight. Dave B did do his usual masterul job of bringing the car back to life, while leaving as much originality as possible. You may remember that the drivers door was not adjusted well at the factory and Dave left that alone as an example. I think the door remains that way to this day...Bill S

As expected from a true fanatic, the result is astounding. I was drawn to that car like moth to flame when I saw it in Rochester. I was so surprised/excited when Tim WI announced he had bought it. The color combo, other than the black top, is about my favorite for that year. Knowing it came with white and you are correcting that makes it perfect.

My question is, at what point during this process did you question your sanity for NOT taking it for dry ice blasting...:grin: I feel certain that thought went thru the gray matter, maybe more than once. Been there, done that with processes I should have jobbed out.

Mitch, I have a friend that used Ice Blasting and they were a bit too agressive on a nice original '67. I wanted to control the porcess and I wanted to keep the cost in line. The sweat equity really bonds me to a car when I revive a chassis. I have a 17000 mile 1970 to approach next. It was undercoated from new and will be much like this project.

I questioned my sanity after working on the left rear for 10 hours one weekend and seeing good results, but wondering if I could get the same results on the rest of the car.
I can still go back and find more to do if I look. Everything was orange/black, control arms, front and rear springs, wheel wells, sway bars, half shafts, splash shields. The worst part was removing the gloss black paint to see bright orange, I felt worse as I progressed to see more orange.

----Tim,,,I feel like I might have hijacked your thread a bit. Hope it's OK? What a masterful job you did on this 67. Don't think I could have done it. Just really super cool!....Bill S

Bill, not at all, you know I value your input. I enjoy hearing about the 12 mile L88 and Jerome S. I still have the June 1982 Hemmings with that car and other amazing cars for sale in a full page add.

----I believe that was the issue and add that caused IRS problems for Jerome (RIP). We are in contact with his son who is just as nice a guy as Jerome and a real car guy. Don't see him often as he has a restraunt in Wisconsin, and we all know how many hours a very succesful restraunt takes up!....Bill S

Thanks for the correction Bill I found the article in Corvette News 1976 where I first read about it. Even in this article "The Customer in Minnesota" name is not mentioned. I have included the photo of I believe the 12 mile car from BG 1999 along side my 67 Benchmark Lynndale Roadster. Interesting story. Bill