1963 - again!
1963 Convertible - Second Installment: 1990-1998
While grocery shopping in January of 1990, I picked up this (new to me) publication. Flipping through it as I walked the aisles, this ad jumped off the page!
Whitewall tires???
Long story short, our beloved "VELVET" came back to us in June 1990.
For about a month it overlapped with the 67.
A week after the homecoming we took VELVET to the Vette show in Acton MA.
The engine was pretty tired, so we pulled it and rebuilt it.
It was finished just in time for the Fabulous 50s & 60s Car Show @ the Augusta Civic Center in November of 1990.
More pics by Sandy's brother, Ray.
Bowling Green trip, 1991
Our old friend Dan Gale was living in Bowling Green fighting all the battles that resulted in the National Corvette Museum.
This was the Annex where that work was headquartered. We got these pics on the apron at the entrance, including Sandy
"presenting Dan with the keys to her car". (Dan was one of the speakers at Sandy's memorial service)
(Side note: the 2006 that is the current Corvettes Conquer Cancer car WILL be going to the Museum. Yes, it's in my will!)
This was the display sample of a new NCM picture frame,
displayed on the counter in the NCM Annex.
While in town, of course we had to visit the Corvette Plant.
We got to talk with these 2 workers who had come here from the St Louis plant where our car was built.
1992: River Valley Corvette Club show in Fredericton, New Brunswick
Sandy getting her hands dirty detailing the engine.
Bar Harbor
Acadia National Park, Loop Road
Dusk on summit of Cadillac Mtn. Note full moon atop CB antenna.
Gov. Dummer Academy show
Best In Show!
New England Dragway
We have Liftoff: The same instant from 2 different angles!
3 different Wiscasset 4th of July Parades
Corvettes Conquer Cancer is created
April of 1998: It was time to sell the beloved 63 for the second time. Again, we placed an ad in Auto Trader. This time Sandy added "Call for interview" at the end. She ticked off several potential buyers by refusing to sell to them because she didn't like their plans for the car, where they would keep it, lived on a dirt road, etc. Mike Amick from Indiana played it all to her satisfaction, even sending pictures of where it would be kept next to his wife's 82 Collector's Edition.
It was a tearful farewell. Mike tried to console Sandy, but ultimately got in and backed out, into the rain.
As we had arranged, we followed him for a couple miles to a nearby shopping center to make sure he was comfortable with continuing, then off he went...
Post Script:
14 months later, at 1999 Bloomington Gold, a guy stopped at Sandy's table and said "I have your old car outside!" "What old car?" she asked. "The black 63" he said. "How do you know it was mine?" she asked. (It was NOT Mike, the guy we sold it to!) He didn't really answer the question, but told her where it was. When I returned she told me where to find it, and sure enough, it was our old 63, but it wasn't "VELVET" anymore!
The front bumpers were off, a ton of that ugly braided hose had been added to the engine. The velvet interior was gone, but the restoration to stock, I have to say, was very nicely done. It still had the original Cherry Bomb mufflers that we had put on it in 1977!
I wonder where it is now?