1969 Convertible
 

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April 20, 2011

Dear Jim,

I know it has taken a while to get a letter to you, thanking your shop for its amazing work, but it took this long to find the right words.  

One of my first memories was riding in a car.  Actually, it was the car.  My Dad’s car, a 1969 blue corvette convertible he ordered new from a GM dealership in Newark, DE.   So young that I couldn’t see the speedometer, I was content watching the tachometer needle go up, then down as he shifted.   Given his propensity for safety, it must have been memorable for him as well, letting his toddler son ride around the block in a sports car.

Cars were a dinner table subject growing up.  Sometimes it was comparisons between modern cars or their technologies, others it was on auto repair, but the best topic was 1960’s sports cars.  When I had a question about how cars worked, 1969 corvette shop manuals emerged from the basement, revealing exploded diagrams of the way cars were meant to be, before, as Dad claimed, “the 1970’s messed it all up”.  Most importantly, I was instilled with a love of American cars from the 1960’s, particularly Corvettes.

 Unfortunately, the car ended up with a problem that Dad didn’t have the time to diagnose while still working, then became ill soon after retiring, so the car sat, unused in the garage for quite some time.

 After my father passed away, he left the car to me.  Staring at it, I knew I didn’t have either the time or the expertise to bring this car back to its former glory.  I then called the good people at County Corvette.  Someone from your shop came on a sunny Saturday morning to tow the car in, you met with me to discuss my goals for the project, then kept me posted in Boston on the work’s progress.   It took a lot of trust to have someone work on such a special vehicle, as no one except my father had worked on the car, but after touring the shop and meeting the staff I knew I had made the right decision.   

 Picking the car up, my Mother and I drove the car to Boston, a drive she and my Dad did often while they were dating long distance.  The work exceeded my wildest expectations. From the mechanical aspects, the fit and finish, and the gorgeous original matching paint color, the car became a time machine, transporting me to a time I had heard so much about as a child.  Mom told me she saw the smile of a kid at play on my face the whole way up. 

 Jim, I want to thank you and the staff at County Corvette for bringing back something that tied me to my Dad, as well something I can share with my two boys.  I recommend your shop to anyone who cares about realizing his goals in a restoration project.

 I never asked Dad about the day he took me for a ride in the Corvette, but I know the feeling he must have had, seeing the look on my three year old son’s face when he too got a ride on his birthday in the car.  However, this time it was around a parking lot.  

 Some habits die hard.

Sincerely,