By David Barlowe

I was fortunate to have a job during summers while in high school and was able to buy my first car in May of 1963 at age 17, a 1949 Chevy coupe. I still own that car. Sometime in 1965, I abandoned that car in the woods on my father’s land. It stayed there until 2000 when I pulled it to my house and put it in the dry, where it sat until 2013. After several false starts, I decided on a plan of what I wanted to do with the car. I found a C4 Corvette that was running, but need paint and interior and started on a path that very much exceeded my capabilities.

I removed the old Chevy from the frame and put the body on a rotisserie and found out how really bad the rust was. I installed new floor pans, toe pans, trunk pan, inner and outer rockers and repaired the bottom of all 4 fenders.

I had assumed that the rear suspension would be an easy swap and that the front sub frame would be the problem. That was all wrong. I sat my original frame on the original wheels and tires, measured the height of the frame, and planned on lowering the frame 2 inches with the new suspension. I measured and marked the center line of the front suspension and welded a cross bar on the frame 4 feet behind that line. I gathered up my nerve and cut off the front of the old Chevy frame. I then cut the front suspension and frame off the Corvette and after much measuring and cussing welded the Corvette frame to the old Chevy frame using the 4 foot measurement to set the center line of the new suspension. That wasn’t too hard—sure hope it is on straight.

The rear suspension provided a whole different set of problems. The fender wells had to be modified and the rear fenders had to be flared. The differential has to mount off the center line of the axles and pointing slightly up to provide an angle so that the u joints in the axles and drive shaft will lube. The tires are centered in the wheel wells by two trailing arms on each side. I welded the mounts to the Chevy frame and cut them back off three times before I was satisfied with them.

I put the body back on the frame without problems. Because I wanted to mount the Corvette engine on the original Corvette mounts, the Chevy firewall had to be modified. I used a wheel borrow to provide the offset to clear the engine.

I bought a hot rod wiring harness that has all of the wires labeled every 3 feet. It will power the lights, gauges and the accessories. The computer wiring is giving me the problems. I had planned on using the original computer and fuel injection. After 3 days of wiring diagrams and tracing wires, I have decided to do away with the computer and run a carburetor.

All that I need now is a gas tank, more wiring, more body work, interior, pant, and-and--. Good thing that I am not on a schedule -- 53 years and counting.