Re: Tim G's 65 Corvette.....WOW !
 

Just a follow up on the little red car. The NCRS Regional meet was held in Waco over the weekend and there were some amazing cars on display. Four L88 Corvettes were on the floor, all real cars with good paperwork including one that started life as a "driver" L88 for Tony DeLorenzo. The little red car scored 96.6% with lots of room for improvement. That's a respectable score for a car that has never been judged before. The car was also used in the paint seminar put on by Tom Aimes, Tom is a master judge and painter that is in charge of midyear original paint for Bow Tie judging. He needed an original paint car for his seminar on factory quality, or lack of it. He judged the exterior of the car and felt it is an entirely original paint car. I was relieved since you always hold your breath while a car is being judged.

Re: Tim G's 65 Corvette.....WOW !
 

Tim... That is great news! Tom Aimes really does know his stuff so you can bet the car is ALL original...
What L88 cars were in attendence? Any other racers on hand too?
Good showing of 65-66-67 BBC cars?
Congrats!

Re: Tim G's 65 Corvette.....WOW !
 

The Tony D. car that was in the Special Collection in '05, Chris P's '68 L88 roadster that was "pushed" quickly through a Nabers restoration for Bloomington, the Bill Brackin 28,000 mile black Bloomington Gold/Survivor L88 and a silver '68 roadster that I have not seen before. It has an original window sticker. There was only one '67 Corvette for flight judging, this is strange because in years past there have at times been over 20 on hand. Two nice '67 big blocks were there for PV judging, though. Lots of '69 to '72 sharks were on hand and a nice '66 L72 red/black sidepipe car with a window sticker owned by a good friend was next to my car. There were 64 cars total, short of the target 100 cars. Ten cars cancelled due to hurricane related reasons.
When I saw that Tom was going to judge my exterior on Saturday I new it was do or die. All day Friday folks were looking at the paint offering opinions on what if any part had been repainted. Friday night, someone brought a fancy little $4,000 dollar device over to the car to measure the thickness of the paint. It's used to see if a car is base coat/clear coat and can be used to check and see if the thickness increases due to multiple coats of paint in an area. It showed nice consistency over the car.

Re: Tim G's 65 Corvette.....WOW !
 

When I saw that Tom was going to judge my exterior on Saturday I new it was do or die. All day Friday folks were looking at the paint offering opinions on what if any part had been repainted. Friday night, someone brought a fancy little $4,000 dollar device over to the car to measure the thickness of the paint. It's used to see if a car is base coat/clear coat and can be used to check and see if the thickness increases due to multiple coats of paint in an area. It showed nice consistency over the car.

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All I can say Tom, is that when I found this car in 2002 I thought it was one of the best original cars I had spotted over the years. Yes,.........it had been 'prettied up' by your typical used car dealer, but now that you have it I am so grateful you have saved this car from further incorrect 'make it pretty' people. You can always buy a restored car, but they truly are original only ONCE.

It is amazing how some California 'experts' gave this car a bad rap of replacement front end, and repaint. A.O.Smith bodies are thicker than St. Loise bodies, and if not knowledgable, mistakes in judgement can be made.

I know of at least 10 people who flew in and looked at this car and passed due to a bad reputation. Their loss is your gain. I am happy I helped you find it.You should be real proud.