repair original body or purchase a new manufactured body

[Roy A.]

I just received my 57 vette's body back from the stripping shop and it looks like it is going to take many hours to repair the body. I see Corvette Central has a complete newly manufactured body for $13,500. Am I better to spend more money repairing my original body and if my car was to be judged, with a newly manufactured body, would it be obvious it was a new manufactured body?

[Don H.]

Re: repair original body or purchase a new manufactured body

Roy
since this is the National Corvette Restorers Society, I bet most will say restore your car's original body.
See discussion in nearby question regarding restoring original brake booster vs. buying a new reproduction.
Whichever decision you reach, best of luck with your 57 and welcome to the club.

[Bill W.]

Re: repair original body or purchase a new manufactured body

I would repair the original body ..

[Frank D.]

Re: repair original body or purchase a new manufactured body

I would absolutely repair the original body. If you spent some time on the Corvette Forum where people have dealt with major pieces of reproduction fiberglass you'll find they've encountered a host of issues. One quick example - the repro glass bodies/hood surrounds have way too thick a layer of fiberglass in the cowl area --- soooo, you have to spend time figuring out how to get your windshield wiper transmissions, windshield washer nozzles (if you have them) and windshield frame and pillars installed and mated to other components (e.g. door posts/hardtop/softtop), etc..

Those repro bodies are not 'plug and play' by a long shot...

[Mike M.]

Re: repair original body or purchase a new manufactured body

if you go back thru the old Restorer mags(about 2010) you'll see a black 57 FI on the cover. your old body couldn't possibly be as far gone as the one in the picture. i bought the old 57 fi in 1970 for $450 bucks. the front and rear clips had been wrecked numerous times before i got it. there was screen door screen and anywhere from 4 to 6" of bodno below the tail lights . the only salvageable fiberglass were the doors, firewall and floor pan(and they needed minor repairs.) i replaced the rear clip with a used one and had a nos hood. the front clip is about half original panels and the rest of it is repo(although the top surround wasn't thicker than original as posted above). since i did about half of the repairs before sending it to the body shop, the total costs were about half of what corvette central gets for their stripped down 56-7 replica. if i had to do it all over again, i'd use the old girls original pieces again. i have nothing bad to say about the corvette central body. it'd be fine for a resto-mod. mike

[Richard M.]

Re: repair original body or purchase a new manufactured body

I concur......Always restore any original piece if possible. Sometimes properly repaired particular areas can be made almost undetectable.

This '59 had a few pounds of sheet metal, screws and rivets holding it together......
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I built up the holes with layers of mat and resin to beveled edges to regenerate the panel thickness. Because the inside of the fender is painted I was able to disguise the entire repair when viewed from the trunk looking left. However the nose was so bad it was replaced, unfortunately with a one-piece hand laid nose. I would have preferred a press molded piece for certain.


When some areas are missing or damaged beyond repair there are suppliers of replacement press molded panels like Sermersheims and Corvette Image who reproduce original type panels if needed.

As mentioned, there are some differences one must be aware of when using these products. I recently discovered that a Sermersheims top surround was about 3 times thicker in the windshield cowl area than original fiberglass on this other '59. This after a prior restorer replaced the surround and painted the car.
Before.....
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They didn't know that it would have been a bit easier to correct it upside down before bonding, bodywork and paint. But then again, they didn't have to deal with it. It was quite nerve wracking grinding out the underside to get the wiper transmissions and bezels to properly mount. The thick nut shown below is not the correct part. This was to test the fit. Original nuts are thinner with rounded edges. No photo of that one though. Some suggested I switch to the shorter 56/57 style chrome bezel. I wouldn't have it.

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Came out pretty nice though.
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[Mark S.]

Re: repair original body or purchase a new manufactured body

As an owner of a 56; I would also align with the other members on restoring the original body.

[Eric E.]

Re: repair original body or purchase a new manufactured body

Wow Richard,

To take a look at your pictures gives all of us hope to fix all the woes of our projects.

And my 2 cents. Fix what is fixable. Save what can be saved. That's what makes it real and not a copy.

Thanks, Eric

[Roy A.]

Re: repair original body or purchase a new manufactured body

many thank for your advise. I will go with restoring my original body

[Ed H.]

Re: repair original body or purchase a new manufactured body

Roy,
I ACQUIRED MY 57, WHICH HAD BEEN LEFT OUT IN A FIELD FOR OVER 10 YEARS AND THAT WAS 17 YEARS AGO. I HAD IT SODA BLASTED, FOUND ALL OF THE CRACKS AND DE-LAMINATION. PROCEEDED TO USE EPOXY BODY FILLER AND RE-FIBERGLASS THE MAJOR CRACKS. THAT WAS 16 YEARS AGO. I PAINTED THE CAR WITH PPG BASE COAT CLEAR COAT. THE BODY HAS NO SPIDER WEB, OR CRACKS. MY POINT IS, SAVE THE ORIGINAL BODY AS ALL THE ADD ON PARTS WILL FIT WITH NO PROBLEMS. IS YOUR CAR AN EARLY OR LATE CAR. I ASK THIS QUESTION BECAUSE THE LATE CARS HAD A STEEL BRACE FITTED ACROSS THE UNDERSIDE OF THE DASH AREA. THIS KEPT THE AREA ACROSS THE DASH RIDGED. IF AN EARLY OR LATE CAR, BE SURE TO BRACE THE DOOR JAMS AND THE INTERIOR TO NOT ALLOW THE BODY TO FLEX AS THIS COULD CAUSE MORE CRACKS. I USED PLANS I FOUND IN ONE OF MY RESTORER MAGS, SORRY I CAN'T REMEMBER WHICH ONE, MAYBE SOMEONE ON THE TECH BOARD MIGHT KNOW WHERE IT IS FOUND. I USED MULTIPLE TWO X FOURS TO BRACE THE DOORS AND BODY. SAVE THE ORIGINAL.

[Roger W.]

Re: repair original body or purchase a new manufactured body

Rich,
I think my 59 may have been worse than yours. Most of the top surround was not glued. It had various missing bonding strips and repairs with metal and Bondo. It also had a piece of wood to hold the front left fender together. It even had the part of the floor and behind the door jamb on the right side torn out where the body mount is so that the body is resting on the frame. I had to purchase that section from a junk yard in Arizona. I still have to separate the panels on the replacement part and graft them onto mine.

[Richard M.]

Re: repair original body or purchase a new manufactured body

Rich,
I think my 59 may have been worse than yours. Most of the top surround was not glued. It had various missing bonding strips and repairs with metal and Bondo. It also had a piece of wood to hold the front left fender together. It even had the part of the floor and behind the door jamb on the right side torn out where the body mount is so that the body is resting on the frame. I had to purchase that section from a junk yard in Arizona. I still have to separate the panels on the replacement part and graft them onto mine.

Roger, Yes that sounds much like the '59 I had here also. After I removed the nose, that was only the beginning. These old cars tell their stories when they come apart.

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In the center of the photo you can see a little treasure that a St Louis worker left in there the day the top surround was bonded on. A pencil was placed on the little shelf made up by the aluminum reinforcement. I found it 50 years later.
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When I got the body off, then the frame was clearly in trouble too and needed a little clean-up. It got a 100% freshening up.
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The beauty of fiberglass is that you can fill, mold, and shape it back to it's original glory or better. Door, hood, and trunk lid gaps can be addressed then to improve some areas that were not always......"nice".
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Here is a area that always shows a little "feature" on 1958 to 1960 Corvettes. Whenever you eyeball those years from behind looking forward, you'll see a little flaw up over the wheel wells on each side. I believe this was a artifact of the original mold for the panels. There's a little indent in the fiberglass. That's the time to make that look a little better too.
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Repair from the accident 40+ years ago. Prior repairs included FG cloth strings mixed with bondo. This is where resin and chopped heavy duty FG mat is your friend. Lots of effort to smooth and shape but the most strength and durability.
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All of those little things show up after paint removal too. Cracks abound everywhere when the paint is gone and you look close. Test fitting everything before final color is a must.
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The driver's door had some secrets too.
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[Dan D.]

Re: repair original body or purchase a new manufactured body

FWIW...If for no other reason than bragging rights..."The real McCoy is still The real McCoy."