Statement from David Burroughs concerning the cancellation of the Gold Tour (RoadTour) for the 2010 Bloomington Gold Show and other events at Bloomington Gold.

Thanks for your email and your years of attendance.  I understand your view completely.  Yes, it’s a done deal for this year.  We’ll re-evaluate next year.

 

It’s simply a matter of quality and cost.  Unfortunately, the quality of the road tour routes is not up to our standards.  When in central Illinois, we could do a tremendous tour through the beautiful countryside and not get interference from cement trucks, mini-vans, and a hodge-podge of miscellaneous vehicles.  Neither did we need to do the hours of coordination with various municipal agencies who aren’t thrilled about it in the first place.  On top of that, the participation slowly diminished as our costs went the other way.  In no way are we going to charge people to drive on public roads, but neither can we afford to continue it— in terms of either time or money.

 

Bottom line; blame me.  I refuse to put on mediocre events.  That’s why we are providing BLAST for people who want to drive.  It will be a substantial event that can be produced in high quality including a real countryside road tour.  Who’s to say that one day we may not combine it with Bloomington Gold??  We’ll have to wait and see…

 

In the meantime, we certainly encourage you or anyone else (or club) who wants to organize a road tour (at the same time as Bloomington Gold) to do so. It could be your event and you could possibly find people who would enjoy the planning and coordination time it takes to do it.  Let us know if you or anyone you know would like to pursue that.  We’ll certainly listen and try to help them.

 

Regarding the auction, yes, it is a very popular feature.  In fact, not only with Corvette people.  The reason it was inside last year was for television broadcasting reasons.  The heavy TV trucks couldn’t park on the golf course.  No TV this year; so the auction is back where it was and the vendors will be back inside.

 

Finally, nothing will ever replace the Special Collection!!  That’s a fact.  The Great Hall is not meant to replace it.  It’s a different concept entirely and in a different time and place than where the Corvette market was in the “glory years”.  I’ve been in this business for nearly 40 years and have watched the changing face (and values) of our customers over that period. We’ve faced challenges ranging from closed fair grounds, mismanagement, disruptive moves, rain storms, buy-outs, chaos among judges in the mid-90s, lawsuits, and the towering growth of the C5/6 market compared to our core market of pre-80’s Corvettes. Somehow, our people rise to the occasion.

 

Therefore, based on the things you mention in your email, you may be right about our future.  But I doubt it.

 

Thanks again for your years of participation and we sincerely hope we can provide you continued years of entertainment, education, and fun.

 

Best regards,

 

David Burroughs

CEO

Question:  My question is that a dealer undercoated the vehicle with Zeibart undercoating.  That is how it survived 29 years in chicago.  Will this hurt us in the judging?  Eliminate the chassis portion?

Response from David Burroughs:  Zeibart is a dealer installed option.  SURVIVOR through ZZenith awards are all based on assembly plant roll-out because that is where the clock started ticking.  It becomes a can of worms to sort through the variety of modifications / options made available thereafter by dealers.  There could be some pretty weird things dealers would do that had nothing to do with factory production and we can't open the flood gates up to where to draw the line acceptability.  And of course, it definitely makes those who "sneaked" through and escaped any dealer modifications naturally more rare.

The good news is that undercoating alone will not prevent those cars from still receiving high praise and awards at SURVIVOR Collector Car.  what it will do, however, is make it ineligible for the highest awards, ZZenith, which requires 90% unrestored and unaltered from factory roll-out.

My personal advice to owners is to accept it for what is is and that is now a part of its history.  Further, I'd suggest NOT trying to remove it and end up with a mess and be worse off than if you'd left it alone.

Question:  My question is about shocks for my Corvette.  i am having problems finding a correct shock without having to sell the car to buy them.  If I go with a Delco replacement shock painted the correct color, what is the total point deduction?  Any suggestions would help.

Response from David Burroughs:   That by itself will be nearly insignificant in the scheme of the overall.  As long as they appear reasonably close, it will actually be insignificant.  And if your left them off entirely, it would still be insignificant assuming everything else on the car was in order.

On the contrary, if there is a little problem in every part of the vehicle, the little things do add up.  but if shock absorbers are your only problem, it should be no problem at all.

QUESTION:  I am the original and only owner of a 1975 Corvette convertible "baby" L48 hydra-matic automatic transmission, in St. Louis , MO; the car has never left St. Louis.  I've owned the car since it was new and I have 16,000 + actual miles on the car.  Interestingly, the serial plate with the VIN code # and spec # stamped into it have the word "SPEC" for special stamped into it for the paint code, as the car was built and delivered to the dealer in PRIME coat, never painted from the factory because I wanted a BLACK Corvette and for 1975 that was the only way I was going to get it.  It was painted for me by a very special man to me, who had been the ONLY Corvette and fiberglass body man at this Chevrolet dealership for well over 20 years.  This dealership was the 1st dealership to sponsor THE Original Corvette Club of St. Louis; they actually used to have the Corvette for the TV Show "Route 66" delivered through this dealership, Barford Chevrolet. 
 
It is a heavily optioned car except for the engine and transmission.  Yes, now almost 40 years later I wish it were a big block 4 speed, but who would have guessed or known what is now going on at places like Barrett-Jackson!  "Who would have thunk it"  Oh well, I feel very privileged to have the SPECIAL Corvette I have...and I love my car.  I have 2 convertible tops; both black & white and the hardtop too.  Leather, (the Dark Red that was available in 1975), windows, tilt & telescopic and all the rest except for the rear window defroster.  I've also put on the original equipment 1976 forged aluminum alloy wheels, but I still have the original rally wheels, center hubs and beauty rings the car was originally equipped with.
 
Sorry for the long introduction, but my question is which way should I go; with a Survivor or as a Benchmark car?
 
The most major improvement I need to make to the car at this time are the inside door panels that have cracked and have not held up over 35 years and I guess I need to replace them with the sets that are available as replacement sets?  Or do I look for actual panels that were original that someone might have?  I'm not exactly in the collector car world, but perhaps the time is quickly approaching that I should jump into the mix.
 
Any idea of an approximate value of what my car is worth? So where do I go from here suggesting my renewed interest in becoming active in the world of Corvettes again?  What am I not asking or am I not describing.  I'd appreciate hearing from you and I thank you for your time and thoughts in both reading my email and replying to me.
 
ANSWER:  You may have some misperceptions regarding SURVIVOR and BENCHMARK.  It’s not possible to “restore” something to meet SURVIVOR or BENCHMARK standards.

 The whole concept revolves around vehicles remaining unrestored and in excellent condition.  Once something is replaced/repaired, it detracts from its factory original state.  Cars can be restored to meet Gold Certified standards.  However, both SURVIVOR and BENCHMARK are measures of the cars UNRESTORED state. I suggest the following:            1.  See www.SurvivorCollectorCar.com and study it thoroughly for definitions of the various award levels and study the typical mistakes people make.            2.  If you still have questions, feel free to call me and I will spend a little time trying to clarify anything left unclear. The best thing for anyone to do is FIRST have it judged in our SURVIVOR event BEFORE you do anything.  That allows you to get a fair evaluation of what you have before you do anything to the vehicle that you would regret later.  Once you’ve been evaluated, then you have a much more clear game plan of what/if you should do.   Last, we don’t do car appraisals, so I’m sorry we can’t help you there.  However, there are numerous websites that you could consult that would be far more accurate than my estimates.

Question:  I have a 1965 396/425 corvette coupe with original paint, interior etc. that I would like to have judged. My question is... the engine block stamping has been primitively ground out and re-stamped. I am the second owner and the original owner swears the car was like that from the day he bought it and that the car never even had the engine removed during the entire time he owned the car. He had no real motive to lie as the value paid for the car would not have been raised or lowered due to the motor being original or not.  Have you ever heard of a factory re-stamp due to an error and if so, did they look like someone just ground down the stamp and re-stamped below it? Can the judges confirm the engines originality to the car? Also, can this car qualify to be judged because of this.  The car is in very good condition otherwise.

Response from David Burroughs:  Smart question.  Never assume that a primitive grind-out and restamp is “not factory” because they can be!   Although more than 99% of restamps are NOT factory; yes, the factory did do it on occasion.  Here’s why; if a 396 (a month or so before yours) came off the St. Louis line and during the test on the chassis dyno dropped a valve or had some serious engine problem develop, it was removed from the car and returned to the engine plant for rebuild. The car that originally had this engine would have immediately received a different 396 engine and that “new” engine stamped to match the car.  Then several weeks later the original engine would have rebuilt by the engine factory and once again shipped back to the Corvette plant and put back into stock.  (However, this rebuilt engine would not be put back into the original car from which it was removed because it would have already been shipped to a dealer for sale.)  Therefore, the VIN stamp on the original (rebuilt) block needed to be “ground out” and the VIN of whatever 396 car in which it would finally be installed could be stamped.  Make sense? In short, the block in your car could have originally been installed in a previous 396 and your 396 got it after being rebuilt.  Very rare and very interesting factory anomaly.  But very possible. This is not to say that this was the case in your particular 396, however, it would certainly be plausible; especially in a tempermental 396. Yes, we have engine inspectors at Bloomington Gold Certification that would very likely be able to determine if yours was, in fact, one of these rare cars. Finally, yes, this car can definitely qualify to be judged.  The findings may dictate what type rating or Certification it would receive, however, it would be my strong suggestion that it would be worth it to find out.