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Chip Foose Begins Restoring 1961 Corvette C1: Video

Chip Foose rose to fame on Discovery Channel’s reality television series Overhaulin’ and is now one of the more well-known custom car builders in the United States that is still active. Foose’s custom builds typically feature simplified styling with shaved bumpers, widened fenders and, perhaps most notably, large custom alloy wheels with vintage-inspired designs.

Foose has built all sorts of incredible General Motors vehicles over the years and recently set about redesigning a 1962 Chevrolet Corvette C1 for a customer named Gary. In typical Foose fashion, he immediately set to work making a number of major modifications to the classic sports car’s body, adding wider rear quarter panels, more pronounced front fenders, redesigned headlight moldings and a custom front fascia, which together give the vehicle a cleaner and more cohesive appearance compared to the stock first-generation Corvette.

This Corvette also receives an Art Morrison chassis, a modern GM 4L75E four-speed automatic transmission, full Magnaflow exhaust, BASF Glasurit gloss black paint and custom Foose wheels. The addition of these modifications will be documented on Chip Foose’s YouTube channel over the course of the next few weeks and months. Builds such as this, with their extensive amount of custom bodywork, usually take a long time to complete, so it’s always nice to see them come together in just a few minutes in video series like this or TV shows like Overhaulin’. Building custom cars is a tricky task, but it all seems pretty easy when watching on from the other side of the screen.

We’ll continue to follow this series as this custom-built Corvette C1 progresses, but for now, check out Part 1 in the video embedded just below.

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Sam loves to write and has a passion for auto racing, karting and performance driving of all types.

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Comments

  1. This is an ambitious project involving a lot of work. What is the estimate for its’ final cost?

    Reply
  2. I’m not a fan of customizing classics like this. Sure, some bolt ons here and there are fine but years from now somebody is going to regret that this was done. Not all of his work is that good either. He did a ’64 Saddle Tan Coupe years ago. I saw it at a car show at “Donut Derelicts” in Huntington Beach and it looked awful. But it’s his car….

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  3. That’s not a ‘restoration;’ that’s a modification.

    While I generally like the work Foose does (not counting the “one-week” “Overhaulin” cars), to cut up such a low-production car as a first-gen Corvette is a bad move. Yeah, yeah, it’s the customer’s car/his money, etc., but that doesn’t make it right, at least not in my book, or that of anyone who’s really into Corvettes.

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  4. Disagree with these commenters. If this Corvette wasn’t being built it would probably be sitting undrivable collecting dust somewhere. Chip Foose’s vehicles are always very tastefully done.

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    1. Did you even bother to watch the vid? Go to :47-:53, and 1:19-1:36 to see what Foose chopped up—a cherry, original ’62 Corvette, one of only 14,531 ever built. It’s very likely that less than half of them are still in existence.

      Of course, most of the blame for this bastardization goes to the car’s owner; very few shops, even the top-level ones, will turn down a big-$$$ project purely on principle. I will add, however, that I would have thought Foose would have been one of the few to turn the owner away after schooling him on the folly of cutting up such a rare car.

      ……….and they’re only original once.

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      1. I totally agree. A beautiful car destroyed.

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    2. Agreed,
      Foose’s work is always top notch…

      Reply
  5. Chip is truly and artist.

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  6. The front end of the car is destroyed now. So sad and surprizing.

    He usually improves the looks. Not this time.

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  7. I have a 1961 partially restored.i am trying to find someone who knows how to repair heavy chips on steering wheel. Steering wheel is black gloss with cips at each spoke where it meets rim. Any help would be great.

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    1. There are a number of companies that restore old plastic steering wheels, but I would start with Gary’s Steering Wheel Restoration in Carlisle PA. garyssteeringwheel.com. There’s also a nice reproduction wheel available with the correct grain and finish about $300, which might be less than the cost to restore your wheel.

      As someone who owns Corvettes (including a 62), is a national level judge, does Corvette pre-purchase inspections, and deals in Corvette parts, I don’t get all that upset about people customizing and modifying old Corvettes. There were over 10K 61’s built, which I don’t consider to be all that rare. Personally I’m happy to see any old Corvette preserved, whether it’s as a stock restoration, or a modern resto-mod. I don’t care for much of what Foose does though. There’s nothing unique about his customs, most of them all seem to have the same styling clues, paint treatment and features.

      Reply
    2. I had the same issue, I sanded and cleaned out the cracks and used Marine Tex to reshape and fill it in.
      Take your time in the sanding, then repaint.

      Rocky

      Reply
  8. Foose definitely puts out some ugly looking vehicles and this Vette is no exception. I guess it’s an acquired taste but some of them are really awful.

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  9. I’m sure the cost is astronomical, not money well spent ruining a beautiful collectible

    Reply

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