Customer Reviews

Corvette 427 - Practical Restoration of a '67 Roadster

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I will start off by saying that if you are restoring a Midyear Corvette to factory original standards (NCRS, Bloomington) this book will be of little help. I did give it four stars because it is a fun book to read and does offer a multitude of general tips for Corvette rebuilding. If you are looking for reference material for your numbers matching restoration, your money will be better spent elsewhere. If you want to read the honest truth about what it can take to turn a beater into beautiful street machine, this may be for you.

Good read about what it takes to put a midyear corvette on the road. It is more of a journal than a book in a sense, as the author often repeats details (i.e. the Chevelle origin of the engine purchased with the car....)

As someone who is looking to start work a '65 L79 Coupe that has sat for 30 years, the book offers helpful insight on pitfalls to avoid, when to DIY and when to send it out to a specialist. Your skill and shop level may differ from his, but it gives a starting point.

Now...the controversy! The author openly admits from the beginning that he is building this original tri-power roadster as a driver and the way HE wants it. The plan is to roughly recreate one of the L88 cars and make it look like it could have come from the factory. Modern updates, like an MSD distributor and a mono leaf rear spring are added for the sake of drivability.

This will obviously upset many people, oh well. I respect him for doing so and plan to take my own 'restoration' in the same direction. Make it look as correct as possible, but modernize when safety or drivability comes into play.

4 out of 5. The last star was held back on some of the repetition and the lack of color photos. I know the photos are a publisher thing, and this isn't a step-by-step book, but they would have been a great touch to the book.