Stage 1

After I had time to look over the car, I started planning on what I needed to do first. I bought a new battery and ran a line into a gas can, and fired up the 283 engine that was in the car. It roared to life and shook rumbled through the open headers, blowing the rust out of them and across the garage floor. It actually ran! I was half tempted to bust out the duct-taped windshield and take it around the block. After I came back to reality, I started working on stage 1.

The first stage of the buildup was the removal of the drivetrain and the replacement of the quarter panels. I put the car up on jack stands in the garage. Then the engine and transmission were removed. I looked through all of the corvette restoration books I could find, and with blind faith I started sanding down the quarters to find the seams. I cut around the rear of the quarters and literally peeled them off of the car. I saved enough of the flares, that they could be re-attached to another car. Maybe someone would want the set of quarters and the flared front clip later on.

I bought some hand-laid fiberglass replacement quarter panels through a mail-order warehouse. A local auto body supply house furnished the materials to 'glue' the new quarters on. I lined up the quarter panels to the body lines and drilled a series of holes along the seams. After I was comfortable with everything, I mixed up the materials, applied the adhesive, and fastened the panels with some small bolts, nuts and washers. Then I left everything alone to harden.