Currently own a ‘54 Corvette I got as a graduation present from high school back in ‘69. My wife & I were at a cruise night two summers ago with that car and she had a brief conversation with a gentleman who indicated that he, too, owned a ‘54 that had been involved in an accident back in the early 70’s and had been sitting at his Mom’s house ever since. The conversation ended and he went on his way.

Fast forward a year or so later. My wife & I are invited to a house warming party that a new neighbor up the block from us was throwing. It was a nice day so I drove my ‘54 to the party. Among the invitees was the new owner’s next door neighbor who, seeing our car, said “Hey, my brother owns one of those! He’s had it stored at my mother’s for 40 years.”

You guessed it…..same car! Turns out the owner of the car is in no position to do anything with the it, Mom’s now 90+ years old and in failing health and the car will need to removed from the property in the very near future so we go to take a look at the car not knowing what expect other than being told it was very rough. The attached photos will tell the story. The car was pretty much disassembled years ago and the “garage” was more shed than enclosed structure. Despite the overall sad shape of the car, it was mostly “all there”. Major missing parts were the wheel covers, side curtains, convertible top bows (more on that later) and the original engine. The bumpers, trim, seats, trunk lid, doors, hood, etc. were all in various places around the shed or in plastic buckets.

Now, back to the top bows. If you look at the photos, you’ll notice notches in the deck with the remnants of a roll bar poking out. They would have conflicted with the top bows normally stored under the deck so the bows had to go. There’s also a photo of a well worn dash placque that would seem to indicate the car participated in an SCCA international Rally in June of 1959 from San Antonio, Texas to Monterrey, Mexico. I’ve contacted the SCCA to see if they can shed any light on the event and the car’s history but have gotten nothing back from them as yet.

So, that’s my story. My wife purchased the car for me last month as a retirement gift. What will I do with it?…….to be determined. No real place to store it at this time. My garage is full with my ‘54 & my ‘55 Nomad wagon but the bottom line is the car will be saved one way or the other and that’s the important part. Hope you enjoyed hearing about my “discovery”.