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1966 Corvette 425 Coupe- This car had been apart for over twenty years. It was completely disassembled and was scattered throughout another shop. It was the typical "basket case" restoration project. County Corvette acquired the car and parts, performed an extensive inventory and began the project. The entire length of the project after the car was in our possession took less than six months to complete. The car has seen throughout 2006 at Bloomington, Vettefest in Chicago, and several NCRS events starting with the Mason Dixon chapter meet.
Now part of the Brickel collection, this car now has a Bloomington Gold Certification, Three Top Flights including a regional with scores all above 97.

This is the documenting of a State of the Art Corvette Restoration on a documented, authentic 1966 427-425 Coupe, currently owned by Tim Brickel in Leesport Pa.

The first step was to evaluate the window sticker, trim tag, VIN plate, engine stamp, engine casting number, engine casting date.

The body on this car is unbelievable, all bonding strips are in place and the panels are undamaged. The frame still has the shim marks and stencil in place with most of its original paint still preserved. This is going to make for the best of the best restored cars out there.

Upon disassembly, we found that the engine has never been apart other than the addition of a new timing chain. The original steel head gaskets were in place. We have not seen an original 425-427 in over 15 years like this. The manifolds, heads and intake have also never been off.

The carburetor, alternator, distributor, transmission are all original to the car and we be restored to factory specs as well. The seats covers on this car tell the story of its history as well. We will be re-using the original covers as they are virtually like new.

The body has been fully stripped of original paint. This was a nice job because it had only the original paint and primer on it, not ten coats of enamel like most cars that come in.
All bonding strip surfaces are v-grooved on the outside then filled with fiberglass mat and resin. The surface is then ground flat and skim coated with a special polyester filler. This is not to be confused with standard body filler although in the images that is what it appears as.

Considerable time has been taken to make the gaps around the doors, headlights and openings as close to symmetric as reasonably possible. Even the door jambs are made smooth and cleaned up.

The bodywork on this car is nearly done. The headlight seams on this car are a nice tight fit being no wider than 1/8 of an inch. A lot of restored cars
show seams that are just too wide and do not look right. The next step will be to bake the body and apply several coats of spray polyester.

The body is being masked and prepped for polyester. Care is taken to ensure over spray does not get in the interior, engine compartment or underbody. While it takes time to do this, it is far more efficient than trying to remove or cover over spray at a later time. The green paint on the headlight doors is the remainder of factory applied zinc chromate primer. Being this car had original paint these headlight covers retained the original primers.

The polyester is now applied and will be block sanded to further achieve straightness

All panels are removed to prepare for polyester. These panels show just how nice the condition of this cars was prior to restoration. No rust and original paint makes for a cleaner job.

The doors, hood and rear valance are prepped separately. They have been hand sanded to assure that all existing paint has been removed.

At this stage, the body was removed from the chassis. We will now begin the chassis restoration while the body is sanded, primed and painted. These pictures show the clean condition of the chassis and inside of the body panels. The frame is clean and rust free even showing factory shim and ID markings. One of the nicer ones we have seen in a while.

The block is completely disassembled. All galley plugs, freeze plugs external studs are removed to insure a proper cleaning. This is where many shops fail as they do not correctly disassemble these engines prior to hot tanking. That results in frozen plugs that are near impossible to remove, consequently debris is trapped in the engine and it also prevents proper final cleaning of the oil galleys. Upon rebuilding gummed oil and shavings are still in the oil galleys and when the rebuilt engine is fired all that debris can quickly ruin new bearings and surfaces. We will now hot tank this engine and check it for cracks and any other potential problems. There appear to be no problems with the engine at the time of disassembly. It is standard bore and actually in quite good shape. We typically re bore all blocks, yet we may find that this one is still within an acceptable tolerance. Obviously, resurfacing the deck is out of the question in order to preserve the engine stamp, so we will clean up the deck carefully by hand. The crankshaft, connecting rods and main caps will be reused. Every other internal component will be replaced then the entire reciprocating assembly will be balanced.

The block sanding of the polyester is time consuming but consistent. The frame is disassembled using the utmost care. Most bolts and fasteners will be re-plated and reused. Front center link is carefully separated using a press and not pickle fork separator that can damage the joint. Whenever an original part can be salvaged it is far more favorable than a replacement part. Note that the rear rotor rivets have never been drilled again showing a nice, original condition chassis. Even the brake lines have little corrosion although they will be replaced along with all hoses.

More chassis images showing the condition prior to stripping. Note the typical rot areas on this frame are in nice shape with no more than a surface of flash rust. Much of the original tar base coating still remains on this chassis.

Sanding the polyester continues on the body. Every corner, crevice and surface of every square inch of this body is hand sanded.

The body is fully blocked and is now being prepped for primer.

The chassis has been blasted clean and shows no evidence of any rust or damage. The typical rust problem areas are free of any decay and the frame has had no damage from any accidents. The rear differential cross member has been welded which is typical as they often cracked at the welds on big block cars from the torque. The welds will be ground and re-welded using a correct arc weld technique.

The body is primed and then a tracer coat applied. It will now be black sanded again to achieve a straight flaw free finish.

The body panels are sanded and are almost ready for primer. The engine compartment is hand cleaned and sanded at this point, all engine compartment preparation work is done prior to painting to eliminate the possibility of damage to the painted finish. Note has been taken on the detail of the original finishes in the engine compartment, the circular ring around the bolt holes on the radiator support are actually unpainted surfaces that were assembled with fasteners prior to the engine compartment blackout. This is interesting because it shows that the radiator, shroud and support were likely assembled and then painted as an assembly.

The frame is nearly ready for paint. Some cosmetics dings were filled and the broken rear cross member mount was ground and re welded using the correct authentic arc welding technique and material. There is no distinguishable difference between this weld and the original welds. Most shops currently use only MIG or TIG welders and the difference is obvious to the trained eye.

The frame is now painted using authentic appearing finishes. The product used is however much more durable than the original tar based immersion coating. It will now be prepared for reassembly.

After sitting for about ten days the primer is fully cured and hardened. It is now wet sanded to its final smoothness.

The body has been completely wet sanded and is now pressure washed inside and out to thoroughly clean it. We will now bake the body to give it final hardness.

Here is the body getting its base coat of Silver Pearl.

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The body is clear coated and baked then allowed to air dry. The finish at this point looks superb. We will now lightly polish it.

The doors and other small pieces will be painted separately. Most shops prefer not to do it this way because of color matching issues. With our equipment we are able to keep exact conditions ensuring an exact color match.

The engine compartment will now be painted. All body surfaces are carefully covered to eliminate any over spray.

The transmission is being rebuilt, although it is excellent overall condition, we found a potential problem. 3rd gear has some broken surfaces on the synchronizer section. We will replace this piece with a new 3rd gear to insure perfect shifting.

The rear differential is in excellent condition and will only need bearings. The gears are the originals and are flawless. All numbers coincide and show correct ratios. Upon looking at the date on the case I noticed it was stamped 4 -27- 1966 "how cool is that"!

The frame is beginning to go back together. All new authentic steel lines are being used. The original distribution blocks were restored and the original clips re-plated.

The fuel tank has been replaced with an authentic reproduction unit, the original steering box has been remanufactured. The original front control arms have been rebuilt using authentic ball joints and rivets and refinished using the "dipped" appearance.

The front end of the chassis nearly completed. The original trailing arms and rear hub assemblies are being restored . The rear differential is now ready to be installed.

The engine short block is now completed. After complete disassembly, including cam galley plugs and coolant plugs, freeze plugs we inspected the block to find virtually no wear! This is unheard of but the case here. The original pistons measured 4.247/ 4.248 with no wear. The cylinder bores were all within .001-.002 factory spec!!! We cleaned and magnafluxed all parts to check for cracks and all checked out fine. The original align bore is perfect as well the deck. File fit piston rings were used in the rebuild. A factory spec cam will be used as well. Cylinder heads were in great shape but we decided to install all new valves, springs and all other hardware since today's valve train technology and materials are much better than original. We did resurface the heads .0025 for to clean them up. Obviously, the deck was not surfaced but for documentation purposes we took a picture. The original crank and rods were perfect and only required a light hone. This car will run as or better than it did when new.

Original bolts were re-plated and re-used for most of the frame. The rear differential and suspension are going back together. The half shafts have been re-tubed to look new. Most restorers simply repaint these but it just does not have that fresh look when done that way. The transmission has been completely rebuilt and is attached to the bell housing ready for installation.

The engine is now fully assembled and ready for painting.

The chassis is now on the ground ready for the engine and transmission to be installed.
High resolution images

All new valve train components are used. Although the original pieces were in good serviceable condition, we feel that today's technology far exceeds original components and that was the reason for most engine failures of this vintage Corvette. When this car is completed, we would not hesitate to take it to redline. It's a 425, it should run correctly.

The engine is painted to replicate the factory methods and mated up to the transmission and ready to assemble.

The doors, door jambs and hood ledge are masked off to finish in a low gloss sheen to replicate the OEM finish.

The chassis is now complete. It was on display at Corvettes @ Carlisle 2005

The body is going together one piece at a time. Every nut, bolt, fastener has been re-plated, refinished or replaced. The original headlight and wiper motors have been remanufactured. All wiring harnesses have been replaced with Lectric Limited units. All emblems, taillight and turn signal housings have been replaced with high quality reproductions.

Components are carefully evaluated for repair, restoration and or replacement

The body is prepped, all components that must be assembled prior to body installation are installed

Special brackets are installed to allow the body to be picked up without damage.

The body is now prepared to be installed to the fame. Several technicians are on hand to help out and prevent any damage from occurring during installation.

Components are accurately restored with authentic finished and detail and sequentially installed. This car retains nearly all of its original fasteners and hardware which was stripped and replated. The first image shows the new weather stripping on the doors. The glue used is the same as the original, in time it will darken to a brownish hue. It is installed to duplicate the brushed on application the way it was done originally.

The interior reassembly process is now underway. The windshield trim brackets are installed then the dash assembly. The original hardware and fasteners have been restored to like new condition.

The original rear compartment panel is in remarkably well preserved shape. It will be re-carpeted and reinstalled.

The new carpeting is now installed.

We are coming down the home stretch now. The interior is nearly assembled. The doors were final adjusted after the body was installed. The windshield and rear window glass are now ready to be installed.

The windshield glass is shown here with the seal applied and flexible caulk inserted. This process MUST be done correctly for a thorough seal and located correctly so that the stainless trim fits on without gaps.