The Millionth Chevrolet Corvette Has Been Restored
Do you remember the catastrophe that struck the National Corvette Museum about two years ago? In February 2014, a sinkhole opened in the middle of a showroom, damaging no less than six Corvettes. Some of them had high historical value: there was a 1962 model, the 2009 ZR1 Blue Devil and the 1,500,000th Corvette ever built, a 2009.
One of the affected vehicles was the millionth Corvette ever built; it was a 1992 C4 painted in white with a red leather interior. In the above pictures, you can see that the car took a beating.
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Nevertheless, GM announced that they would restore the car; since it had a rich history, no expense was spared to bring the car back from the dead.
During the restoration more than 1,200 hours were invested in the car. To make sure there was a steady supply of spare parts another nearly identical Corvette was purchased; they used its hood, front fascia and various small parts.
Some important parts couldn’t simply be pillaged, however: many body panels (like the doors) were signed by GM’s employees when the car was built. To restore the car to its former glory, GM took a lot of time repairing parts that were heavily damaged.
Some of them were simply too far gone. For those, GM had to get creative: they scanned and reprinted most of the signatures. In one particular case, they even tracked down a former employee and asked her to come and sign the new panel!
The car is now complete. As for the other damaged ‘Vettes, they won’t all be so lucky. The 1962 will be rebuilt, and the Blue Devil is already working; it wasn’t as heavily damaged as the others. The the remaining cars will stay in their current state, to commemorate the important event in Corvette history.
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