Millionth Corvette Restoration Completed

Five other Corvettes will be preserved in their “as-recovered” conditions, GM said, and will become part of a permanent exhibit at museum marking that fateful day in February 2014. The vehicle, a 1992 C4 Corvette convertible, was unexpectedly swallowed in the massive sinkhole at the National Corvette Museum. Only two parts with autographs on them couldn’t be saved, so the team scanned and reproduced those signatures on the replacement parts. A signature of assembly employee Angela Lamb on a badly damaged component could not be scanned and hence a new signature was procured and added to the replaced part so that the 1 millionth Corvette was ideal down to the last detail.

The replacement parts included the hood and front fascia and other lower trim pieces from around the front wheels and doors.

“Some of General Motors” expert team of restoration experts who worked on the vehicle were on hand for Thursday’s unveiling, honoring the model’s cultural legacy as the world’s longest-running continuously produced passenger auto.

The entire restoration project of the one millionth Chevrolet Corvette spanned four months and 1,200 man-hours.

The white Corvette is the second of three sinkhole-damaged ones that Chevy has vowed to restore.

– The wheels were damaged, but reconditioned, with the original Goodyear Eagle GS-C tyres.

– The red leather seats, featuring one-off “1,000,000th Corvette” embroidery on the headrests were damaged but deemed irreplaceable, so they were restored, including a few replacement patches of carefully matched hide. To put it mildly, the damage was nasty – although the engine and transmission were fine, the front sub-frame had to be straightened and the hood, front fascia and side sills were swapped with ones from a donor Corvette.

One of the coolest moments from the restoration was the recreation of the “1,000,000th” windshield banner, which was destroyed when the windshield was smashed in the fall. The computer graphic file used for the original was still available, allowing creation of an identical banner.

The National Corvette Museum is located across the road from GM’s Bowling Green Corvette Assembly Plant off of Interstate 65.

Two other sinkhole ‘Vettes were salvageable: a 2009 ZR1 Blue Devil, which was restored previous year, and a 1962 tuxedo black convertible.