[Tenney]

Thanks, Sam … (not that I have much to do with the car's beauty or its history!).

One of the cool things about having the ‘64 at Meadow Brook and Woodward are the stories about it you hear from the folks who were there - and how many of those folks there actually are! They’re all grown-ups these days, but you get the impression that - in addition to the impact made by the Car and Driver test - Jim Wangers’ “hands-on marketing” on Woodward Avenue was no small success on a local level.

A fellow at Meadow Brook told me he was in engineering when the car was done. I asked if he did any of the work and he said no, but remembered it well – and mentioned he was “sworn to secrecy”. I got the sense he was pleased it was still around and doing okay.

Had Scott Tiemann do a bit of (er, lot of?) a clean-up on the car. I’d wanted a small dose or two of rust repaired (rust isn’t patina for me). Turned out pretty much every panel had been touched up here and there, and the underside had been painted black – no major damage of any sort, an old warrior for sure, but not so much a time capsule, per se.

Was tempted to retain the cool hot rod stuff that Milt had done to the car over the years for Bill Sherman - I did, it’s just packed away for now – but it seemed the car’s most unique history is as it left Pontiac Engineering and then Royal for Florida. Jim Wangers pitched this direction - and rightfully so, I think.

Hypothetically, if the factory only made one ZL-1 powered Vette, and it was used by GM for some notable publicity – and then later sent to Baldwin-Motion for a hit of mountain-motored Phase III, what do you do if/when it comes time to clean it up?

Today the ’64 has a new driver’s side quarter panel, a new floor pan piece near the driver’s foot well and a new windshield. It has two new front fender wells - as the originals were cut away to accommodate the headers - and a correctly dated 421 HO block. The heads and intake pre-date the build by a few months, may be the originals, and so were retained – plus Milt had done some nice work on those heads! It has an M-21 as installed by engineering, and the original 10-bolt is back in its place. 3.91’s would be engineering-correct, though retained the 4.33’s that were in there as they’re ’64 dated, I’ve a Royal service receipt for their install – and they’re pretty fun. Aside from these items and the new carpet and headliner, it’s all the old stuff - meticulously restored. Scott even cleans and/or re-plates the hardware!

Really would’ve liked to have dropped by the SCR, as well, and checked in w/some old friends, recent ones and scored some fresh ones - sounds (and looks!) like a blast.

Had Scott hauling the car around all month, figured it was time to quit asking - though bet he'd have had some fun, too!

Cheers. And thanks again to those who shared all the cool SCR pics and flicks ...