Projects Mid Life Crisis 62 Vette

I'm up in Chandler and building a drag 59 vette for SEGA. Car was very rusty but might have some pieces you could use.

 

Jim...thats a great buy. I saw it on my local Craigslist and thought it was about the best deal on a straight axle Corvette I've seen in quite awhile. Congrats!

 

The interior could have been parchment too I think.

 

There was a '62 for sale in 1973 for $2500 and it was a nice complete original running and driving car. That was a ton of $$ back then. A guy I went to HS had one he got for $300. Ratty but it was fast. My Ford had a trunk load of puzzle parts when I got it, nothing like what you got there. But there are parts and lots of information for those early Vettes.

 

Putting it back together is the best thing to do! It's been in paint purgatory long enough. So good no one started sanding or anything destructive. Love it!

 

Way cool @squirrel
Money well spent!
By the way, age is just a number, a milepost at best, I just turned 70 back in March.
Groucho Marx, always gives the best advice.
He once said, " You are only as old, as the woman you feel"
That's a pretty cool pile of puzzle pieces and part's, that you have to put back together.
Just a bit of inspiration for you.
If I was going to have a Vette, this particular year (1956) with the single headlights, has always been my favorite year.
I saw this one at the GoodGuy's show in Puyallup Washington a couple of years ago.



I am looking forward to your progress.
Thanks for starting another cool thread of adventure !
Thanks from Dennis.

 

And so it begins ……..

 

TITS!!

 

Oops i forgot about that

 

Was it a powerglide car Jim? I noticed a converter in the parts stash. I have extra clutch pedal stuff...

 

I became suspicious when I saw your post of it sitting on a trailer in the Corvette hot rod thread. Congrats. 61 and 62's my favorites by a long shot. Make it fast!

 

This appears to have been a powerglide car, but you know how it is....things get changed and whatnot.

The transmission sitting in the car now is a TH350. And the floor where the shifter goes was glassed over, apparently it had some holes cut that needed to be repaired. There's no hole at all now, which kind of tells me that it hasn't moved under it's own power for a long time, even though the engine was removed relatively recently. There is a weird shifter of sorts in the pile of parts, which is a Hurst lever with a pivot bolt holding it to a piece of angle iron. The original chrome floor plate has the shifter side just cut off, and there's also what looks like a home made gate piece. Maybe this transmission was installed in the 70s? I don't see any evidence of a clutch pedal, but the brake pedals for this year apparently were all the same width (the narrow one, not like the wide one used in other Chevys with automatics)

I don't know yet what to do...would be kind of fun to have a manual trans, but then I'd have to round up a lot of stuff. I could get the 350 working by building a shifter for it, and giving it a quick overhaul, it should hold up to a 300ish hp 327 without too much effort, and having that in front of 3.36 gears is something I could live with for a while. There's an X frame that plays into what transmissions you can use in these cars, too, without hacking too much. I think I want the easy way out as much as possible on this project, just to get it on the road, then let it tell me what it wants.

 

Sounds like a great plan, it’ll make a nice driver!

 

yeah, I gotta cut a few more holes back there!

After doing some more looking and thinking about, I'm pretty sure the interior was red, and some of the parts were recovered with dark brown, almost black, Naugahyde a long time ago. I guess I should pop for a new red dash pad, and just kind of not worry about the rest of it right away. Might look into having a local guy make some red diamond tuft door panels and seat covering, if it's not too hard to find a matching color, eventually. The fun thing is there's a nice pair of lightly used fawn door panels in the pile of stuff, they don't match anything! but the're the nicest parts I have. I guess I'm gonna have to get good at getting rid of stuff I don't need.

The sunvisors had been covered too, one was already uncovered (and got kind of beat up with lousy storage), the other I cut open and it looks real nice, still supple. Weird.



I also shined up one of the fender spears, it's kind of beat up, but matches the car well. I might see if I can find the nuts for it, and install it. Then I'd have a part on the body, for a change. And it would look like progress.

 

All the cool Vette guys run 4 speeds with a Hurst… Best of luck with your great lookn’ project!

 

Did anybody notice, Moriarity has pinstripes on his Vette now.

 

No hardtop, this is a rather base model car....it had an auto trans and radio, apparently not many other options.

 

Cragar GT’s! I like it!

 

They are the only extra wheels/tires I had laying around, and I sure like how they look on the car. But I only have one pair, so the front will be something different. Would be neat to use the wheels that are on the front of Plan II, but I'll probably try the stock steel wheels for now. I'd like it to have bias tires, but probably will put radials on it for now...in the interest of getting it going. The tires on the Cragars are worn out, I'm considering big n little radials, 235/75 rear and 165/80 front. Just so people can tell I'm a drag racer, not a road course guy.

 

If those fawn door panels are in good shape, just spray dye them red. I did a color change on mine years ago and they still look good.

 

good idea, thanks

 

Any early Powerglide Corvette up to 67 is my dream. Don’t see them often. If going original at least it was an aluminum one…

 

Cool car with lots of potential. Always liked 62's congrats on getting the new ride

 

That is one lucky Vette to have arrived at Squirrels house !

 

'62 has been my favorite Vette year for a long time. Really excited to see this pan out and happy for you!

 

Scotty T and I did the Mopar style master cylinder conversion to gain a dual res master without using those stupid aftermarket kits that hang the master way out in space, I am totally pleased with mine I believe Scotty almost has his back on the road. We both are using Chevelle type rotors and calipers.