The only thing I have to add is that if you get that car it MUST have flames on it! Don't "disappear" its heritage!!! LOL
The 53-62's were typically called "solid axles" (referring to the rear axle) and the 63-67's were called "mid years" and everyone knows there were no corvettes produced after 67 so there is no need to name the rest.....
I know you were looking at more of a custom slant on things, but... Give me a 1956 Corvette, and I know exactly where I would go with it: Add a short shifting 4-speed and a small cube'd Chevy that wraps to about 10,000rpm or so through straight pipes and then fight the urge to add modern brakes... I'd be wrapped around a telephone poll within a year for sure...
I gotta ask...why isn't a '53-'55 Vette the C1...and the '56-'62 a C2 ? Seems stupid to me. (of course most Chevys seem stupid to me).
FIRST thing I would do is put a FORD engine in it, and I would just smile when I got death threats from the Corvette types.
Shoot, compared to the junky crap I drag home, that one looks like a nearly new car. I would just repair whats needed and repaint it. My Vette once had a fire, its not that hard to repair on a Vette.
They are to 80 % of the car folks but some stick to what they called them in 1969. Still for me, fix the body damage right, do proper repairs under the hood, rebuild or replace the engine , paint it but don't go overboard with a high dollar paint job, detail the interior, hang the high dollar hubcaps on the garage wall, stick the stock wheels in the back shed and put some more cast than shiny wheels on it. Then drive it. Not a show car but one you can wheel into Cars and coffee, take on a road trip or out to the lake for a Sunday picnic without being in a panic because you might get it dirty.
...and do you really think it will go cheap? There will probably be a couple of idiots that run it past $30K
haha, One thing you can take to the bank is, I am as old fashioned as they come and I hate all the modern crap..... (killed my cell phone 2 and a half years ago and don't miss it)
C-1 Corvette's are 53-62, C-2 are 63-67, C-3 673-67, C-4 68-82, and from then on they are just plain ugly and don't get a second look from me. As far as what to do with this 56, first of all lose the front bumperettes (and the rear too if it has them), single 4 barrel that's at least a 327 with a 4-speed, single color paint, some Cragar S/S wheels, and some of the longest Cherry Bombs available. Just a late 60's style hot rod Corvette. But that's just me, and JMO. I like cars to be fairly plain Jane, and not a long ways from stock appearing. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.
I knew a guy who did that. He swapped a 289 from a GT350 into a 56 Vette. It turned out the motor was from a stolen Hertz rental. The car was found buried in a sand quarry without the motor, and he went to prison.
Some guys were at Baylands (Fremont) night drags, (late close-down) They had a '59 'Vette that was LOUD, and ran in the 11s. One of the crew was a friend of mine, (Willie Skinner, ran in the gas class, '38 Chev Coupe) he told me to go look under the hood of the 'Vette, he'd go with me... The guys running the 'Vette were a club, from up Menlo Park way, Afro-Americans. Willie and I walked up, one guy closed the hood...Willie said, "He's O.K., his shop sponsors me..." Open came the hood, there was a large-ish Cleveland Ford in there, with 2 Demons up top. White stockish-looking 'Vette was a 'sleeper', street driven. I said..."Wow!"
that terminology is for Vette Weenies like my friend Eric. he's a card carrying member of the Vette Weenie club.
Bring it back to stock appearance. Add a 283 “stroker” (307), wide ratio 4 speed and 4.11’s. Stock wheel covers too.
whatever I did with that it would have a set of American Torque Thrusts and those hub caps would go on my 49 Chevrolet.
Well the Corvette people would not like me (perhaps don't like me is a better evaluation) but what would I do with it? Hell driving it comes to mind. Patch it up get it mechanically sound and plant my dumb ass in the seat.
Clean up the fire damage. Mechanical restoration to confident driver level and run it and tinker with it. Waaay too many of those cars are MCACN/NCRS level restorations and never get enjoyed on the road.
I guess I'll be the lame one. I would fix the wiring, repair the fuel system, tune it up, put some gas in it, and drive it like I stole it. Apart from that, I'd leave it alone. Your ugly is my beautiful. I dig a car with grit.
Since I lean heavily toward traditional cars... That's what I would do with it. (Not my photos, I found them on the net. I hope that's okay.)
301, dual quads,swap the T-10 for an M-22 muncie, Americans and the same urethane primer I used on my 34.
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