 As nice as perfect SHOW cars are - we REALLY prefer "high Quality
DRIVERS" ....... They were meant to be driven - Drive Them !!! The car above
is one I purchased from a local car buddy who did the restoration himself.
Tyler and I have had the pleasure of
being involved in the building of more than a few fine SHOW CARS ourselves. The one I was most proud of was a 70 Chevelle
SS 396 convertible that won numerous national level awards, including Muscle Car of The Year by the National Muscle Car Association. Much of the credit behind building
this car and many other cars of mine goes to my friend Marc Byers and others. Our personal hands on involvement is more
like that of project managers that are not afraid to get their hands dirty to keep things moving. We have learned that the only way to end up with the desired results is to be heavily involved in the initial tear
down and the final reassembly. I will be passing on some of the key things we have learned in managing this process
and related budget in my BLOG.
 Tyler and I have restored very few cars over the last few years. However, almost all the cars we buy (and ultimately sell) have already won awards of one type or another. Some
have received the highest "national recognition" possible. At the bottom of this page is a link to some of our national
level show cars that we once owned, enjoyed and then ultimately sold. We
are in the final stages of finishing our 1969 Z11 396 Pace Car. Our
last and final frame off restoration!?? Like many of the cars we have restored, the Z11 had already been restored. HOWEVER,
the "finish" was not to the level it deserved so we "RE-restored" it (new
word for the hobby). I have been asked by a number of people if this one will ultimately be for sale - YES. I have
invested untold $$$$ and a slice of my life in this car but someone else will ultimately own one of the BEST big block Z11's
in all the land (see pictures of the Z11 progress by going to INVENTORY).
 My first corvette restoration (below)... was a fully optioned 1965 air coupe. I purchased this all
original mid-year from my neighbor and original owner AFTER 5 years of begging him to sell it to me. I was 29 at the
time and Tyler was 3. He was 6 by the time the car was completed, and in those 3 years I was "schooled" in
the surprises you get when embarking on a total restoration. The finished results were great and confirmed by numerous
first place finishes in all Corvette shows. However, the cost to finish the car came in at 3 times my initial estimate
and the time involvement was easily doubled. Part of this was due to the fact it was a Corvette, but most of it was
due to my lack of experience with a full blown (to NCRS specs) restoration. WOW! There is nothing like experience
for a teacher. Now that I have repeated this process over and over, the one no brainer I can pass along is DO NOT EXPECT to make money doing this - it has to be a passion. In my case, it is that and more.
My son and I are best friends in life through this hobby and my dad and I are super close as a result of this shared interest.
I have also met hundreds of people I would have otherwise never known and made dear friends as a result. OLD CARS are FUN !!
      This was a fun restoration. Like ALL the cars we have tackled it had excellent body integrity. Simply put, if you do not start with a good car - you will NOT end
up with a good car. We like heavily optioned cars with serious "eye pop" potential. The
factory colors on this Rally Sport convertible coupled with the numbers matching driveline including 4-speed tranny made it
a worthy candidate. A word to the wise ..... the MORE options, the MORE
complicated and expensive a restoration will be. With this car, we not only had the additional cost of restoring
a "convertible" -vs- a coupe, but we ALSO had the added cost and
complexity of the Rally Sport items (including hide-aways), the "deluxe
interior" components, the power top option, the air conditioning option and the optional gauges. ALL of this "bling" adds substantially to the cost and complexity of a restoration. It is much easier and
cheaper to restore a plain jain coupe ..... although I dont recommend that either.
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