Miss Classique - Barbara Kelly's 1962 Corvette

 

On the very first run we went on as new members of the Queensland Corvette Club in 2002 we saw and fell in love with Bill Dixon's 62 Corvette. We thought then if it ever came up for sale we would buy it. When the opportunity arose a year later we followed through and bought the car.  Bill who purchased the car from Aussie Rock Star Jimmy Barnes as pretty much a road going wreck, had previously done a body off restoration which can be seen at http://www.artandcolour.com.au/corvette/ . Although the car looked beautiful it drove like an old truck, the suspension being the same as a 1948 Chevy passenger car or in Australian terms an FJ Holden, except made very stiff to minimise body roll which made the car very skittish on bumpy surfaces.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Car as purchased

 

After consulting with Bill as to what he'd have liked to have done to the car if he kept it, and seeing current trends on updating the suspension on these cars in the USA it was decided the best way forward would be to update the suspension to that of a C4 corvette (2nd generation suspension 1988-1996). This is done routinely these days in the USA, there are numerous companies making replacement or modifying original chassis's which accept the C4 suspension and the C1 body, so its basically a bolt together affair. Seemed like a good option to bring in a new chassis from the USA to accomplish this, however after consulting with the Queensland Department of Transport and  engineer Earl Gilchrist from Autotechnica it became apparent if we were to bring in a chassis from the US already modified or a new chassis designed for the C4 suspension then we would have to build the car as an Individually Constructed Vehicle. This would mean the entire finished vehicle would have to comply with current vehicle Australian Design Requirements. After looking at this seriously it was decided this would be very difficult to accomplish without changing the original character of the car. As there is currently no provision in Australia for updating the suspension on post 1948 passenger cars (although it can be done under the ASRF for pre-1949 cars built as hotrods and for any year trucks), we had Earl put in a special application with the Queensland Department of Transport to update the suspension on our C1 Corvette to C4 suspension. We received approval to go ahead, did seem ridiculous they would let us reinvent the wheel but they wouldn't let us buy the wheel but that was the rules we had to work under and it was essential for us to build a totally legal car.  At this stage two very influential and helpful people who had already done this style of project in the US were Carol Bernhardt http://www.carols62.com/ and Rich Lagasse http://www.corvetteforum.net/c5/richs7/  . Carey McMahon's Black and Silver 58 was an inspiration later in the project.                                                   

                                                                                               

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             C4 suspension for chassis  update

 

 

                Body comes off at KCF                                                    Chassis exposed and ready to start the suspension update

 

 

Chassis and suspension work completed by KCF

 

After speaking to a few companies to do the chassis/suspension work the only company we were comfortable with was KCF Rallysport. The car was taken there and 21 months later it reappeared with C4 suspension running height adjustable coilovers instead of the original transverse leaf springs, a new alloy fuel tank suitable for fuel injection, new pedal box, a trick brake system with reverse mounted clutch and brake master cylinders so they're under the dash rather than going through the firewall. A racecar style brake system with completely separate front and rear brake circuits with 2 master cylinders on an adjustable balance bar and dual power boosters mounted in the boot, a T56 6 speed gearbox and power rack and pinion steering operated by a Flaming River's steering column, new engine mounts and numerous other modifications.

                                                                                                                                                            Dual power boosters mounted in boot

 

Although the original idea was to give the paint a quick freshen up after the chassis and suspension work was done, the quality of the work performed by Keith Fackrell and Geoff Hay at KCF Rallysport had inspired us to push the boundaries a bit further. Its very hard to find a body shop that is prepared to take on a project of this sort of nature but after seeing Paul McKennariey's multi-award winning 1948 Hudson built and painted by LDI Kustom Koncepts and feeling very comfortable after meeting LDI's owners Lindsay and Denise Houston, we realised we had a real opportunity into making this 1962 Corvette into something really unique.

 

After a quick visit to Exotic Exhaust for a custom stainless system the car was delivered to LDI with the goal to turn it into a top show car. The only ideas we had at that stage was that the firewall after all the changes was now a mess and needed to be skinned to smooth it all out, the inner guards in the engine bay weren't much better, we didn't like the bonnet catches and we'd like to go for a smooth look with no door handles.  Everything went from there with most of the ideas and creativity coming from Lindsay Houston. Many of which took us a while to absorb, before giving approval. It was very hard for us to come to terms with the idea of things like moving and reshaping wheel arches on a classic car, but it was a good consultative process with ideas flowing both ways and the end result speaks for itself.

 

            Car as delivered to LDI                                                                                                                    Firewall in need of attention !

 

 

  Inner guards will be completely rebuilt              Work commences at LDI with the firewall                   Debadging process commences

 

 

   Whoops - no door handles                             New panels will be built into boot area                            Interior stripped out

 

 

 

Wiper motor was recessed into the old                  8 Throtlle body EFI manifold is Australian            New Vintage Air evaporator draws air

firewall to allow for a totally smooth                      made by Katicore.  Area behind grille is               from inside the cabin which allowed

finish and is now serviceable from inside               smoother                                                             removal of the external air vent.

the cabin

 

Original large square fuel door has been               Decision has been made to paint the dash           Early stages of building new centre

relocated slightly lower onto a flat section             - dash pad has been removed                              console

of panel and changed to a smaller round

unit

 

Lines now flow from dash down into                    Centre of dash pad above console has                  Centre rib will flow from deck lid down

centre console                                                      been sharpened to match instrument                    onto the centre console

                                                                            cluster. Soft and hard top attachments

                                                                            have been removed from deck lid.

 

                                                                                                                                                         All switches removed from below

                                                                                                                                                         instrument cluster and will be relocated

                                                                                                                                                         to centre console