Y'see I once had a '60, '61, '65 and '67 (before the current '90 and '98 Corvettes) and (nostalgically) I thought I'd one day get another solid-axle ('53-'62) and another mid-year ('63-'67).

My good friend Pete Butler, upon returning from a trip to San Diego, told me about a cool place he found there that had very cool cars: VIP Classics.  They had a website so I went there pronto.  They do have VERY cool cars at reasonable prices; check 'em out at www.vipclassics.com

While perusing their site I was brought up short by this picture.

I had to call and talk to them about the car.  It had just been frame-off restored by a chap in Texas who unfortunately passed away (not IN the car, thank goodness!) after only putting 350 miles on it.  The car has matching numbers (those who care about such things will know what that means).  It has both tops (removable hard top and convertible top), factory air-conditioning (rare) and, as you can see from the photo, knockoff wheels.  It looked just about perfect.

But, of course, it was in San Diego and I was in Atlanta.

Last May ('98) Gael and I worked a convention in Dallas.  After the show, Gael wanted to visit San Diego "on the way" back to Atlanta (don't ask) so I got the chance to see the car "in person".

We just sorta dropped in and -- there it was.  Dead-center in the showroom.  Gael just watched my eyes roll back in my head.  It took under an hour to strike a deal.  Back to the hotel.

And then I remembered that I had no place to put a fifth car (3rd Corvette) until our remodel project was complete.  They agreed to keep the car for me until the remodeling was complete; our forecast indicated that we'd be able to receive the car in September....

If you've been following the (remodel project) you'll know that we're a little behind plan on that.

Though it's now far too late to make a long story short, they called me last Friday to say the enclosed car carrier had picked up the 'Vette and it would be here THIS MORNING (Wednesday, Feb 10th)! I received several calls from the driver over the past two days and we arranged to meet this morning in a bowling alley parking lot at 7:30a.

Here's the truck.  It's 75' long and holds six cars (stacked two-up).

There it is! Top row, all the way forward...

Comin' on back...

'mon back...

And now, down...

I can start breathing again; it's down!

When I got in for the first time to drive it home, the steering felt loose.  As I drove into the driveway, the steering wheel came off the column in my hands! I guess I should really have inspected the car before making the deal.

Over the next few months I spent about $3K on the car fixing a number of things.  And then, over the next seven years, I spent about $7K fixing more things.  It's the nature of a restored old car that it "unrestores" itself just sitting around!

In 2002 the car was chosen by the National Corvette Museum to represent model year 1964 in the Historic Motorama.  Quite an honor and great fun for Gael and me.  Check the links!

October 3, 2005

Well, all good things must come to an end; today I sold our '64 (along with one of my two garage lifts).  It simply made no sense having five cars, four of them Corvettes, with only two drivers.  Here's the pickup story and pictures:

Buzz, Jackie and Sarah Nielsen were visiting for part of the weekend following the 2005 Petit Le Mans race at Road Atlanta -- so they were pressed into service.  The buyer (Richie Haney) was coming for the car and the lift late this morning.

We had these tasks to accomplish:

• Get the hard top out of the attic and downstairs.  It had been stored there since 1998 and had never been on the car after the day it was delivered.

• Lower the '64 to the ground (it was atop the lift), make sure it started and drive it out into the driveway.

• Jack the lift up on its wheels and get ready to roll it out into the driveway to be loaded up on Richie's rollback truck.

Jackie and Gael "volunteered" to bring the '64 hardtop down from the attic; everyone was glad that it wasn't August (can get hot up there):

Gael carrying her end..

..and Jackie with hers

The attics (two, actually, connected together via "stoop" space) made for tight work.  The ladies had to maneuver around roof trusses, pipes, clothes, shoes and more to get to a closet through which they moved the top into the sitting room:

..  but they were successful; not a scratch on them or the hard top!  Then it was down the front stairs, through the front door and into the yard:

Buzz got the "down the stairs" position (Hey! Someone had to take the pictures!)

With Richie's arrival imminent, we moved all the other vehicles out onto the street:

..and then I drove the Corvette off the lift and into the driveway:

.. leaving the lift empty.  I attached the wheels and used the supplied tools to raise the cornerposts to clear the ground (about an inch).  Here's the lift ready to roll out of the garage and onto the truck:

Richie and his friend Clint arrived and moved the Corvette into the neighbor's driveway across the street:

..and then backed the rollback into the driveway:

In pretty short order Richie and Clint figured out how to roll the lift up on to the bed of the truck.  It was too wide to fit completely onto the bed but the wheels were spaced appropriately so it worked fine:

They decided not to mount the hard top on the Corvette but to lash it down on the truck:

Then it was just a matter of cranking the rollback tray up:

..and driving off (making sure that the posts of the lift didn't take down any electrical wiring):

..and off they go!

Here's how the garage looks now.  Now all I have to do is sell Gael's red 1990 convertible....

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