'68 Vette pictures

Check out the high-school mags!

Shot taken shortly after I purchased my '68 Vette. The 5-slot dish mags didn't last long.... I got rid of them and put a set of rally's on within a few weeks. This '68 was originally Safari Yellow. Someone painted it "surfboard green" in the late 1970's and it was that color when it originally went up for sale in the mid 1980's. It wouldn't sell when it was that color (duh!) so the seller quickly had it painted the Tuxedo Black color you see here. The paint job was OK but not of very high quality....

A set of eight inch rally's makes a big difference!

I know '68's are supposed to have 7" rally wheels but those were a bit tough to find and I kind of like the wider look of the 8" rally's, so there ya go.... I'm the 3rd owner of this '68. It was purchased new in Oregon and moved up to the south Seattle / Washington area in the late 1970's. After color-sanding / buffing the black paint, it was fairly presentable. Keeping a black car clean however is a daunting task... The writing was on the wall for this paint job....

A proud Papa with his mount

At this point, the goofy mags have been replaced, the paint buffed out, and I had begun to replace this and that to make the car more presentable. Around this time, I pulled the original 300hp 327 motor, put it on a stand for future rebuild and put an (approx.) 350hp 350 in that I had laying around. Eventually, I had the original 327 rebuilt and this 350 made it's way into the engine bay of my 1st 240Z I ever owned and the "Land Rocket" (a.k.a 570Z) was born....

She's finally yellow again!

When I purchased the Safari Yellow paint and opened the can to begin spraying (after 54 days of part-time prep work!), I was slightly disappointed.... The color didn't look very good in the can... Fortunately, once the color and clear went on and the buffing pad was put to use, the color began to look great! The black was nice but this is nicer. Safari Yellow is a nice yellow color. It has a little more yellow (not as pale) as the '67 Corvette yellow (called Sunfire Yellow) and it's not quite as "bright" yellow as the subsequent year yellow, called Daytona Yellow.

Interior shot

The interior of this '68 was in fairly decent shape when I bought it. The carpet had been replaced (incorrect "loop" style, but at least it was new) but that's about all that had been replaced. The rest of the interior is in near mint original condition aside from the driver's seat cover, which has suffered a bit from 30 years of time and wear.

The first Shark

Classic lines of the Mako-inspired Shark bodied 1968 Vette. I'm too young to "remember", but apparently folks either loved or hated this body when it was first released. Many felt the beautiful lines of the mid 60's Stingrays had been completely ruined. Time has shown us however that this style did catch on because more Sharks have been sold than any other style of Corvette!

Front quarter shot

During the re-paint, I splurged for new emblems, door handles, mirror gaskets, etc. Since the paint is lacquer, it's not as durable as the more modern paints but highly polished / multiple coats of lacquer tends to give a deep luster that is not that easy to duplicate with the modern catalyzed paints.

Rear quarter shot

Another problem with using lacquer is it tends to "shrink" with age (the paint will settle into the minute body imperfections that are always there). This means you have to color-sand / rub out the paint 2 or possibly 3 times until it's fully cured. I've color-sanded / buffed this paint job out twice so far. It's currently ready for a light 3rd treatment....

The saga of the engine bay

For the longest time, I had a nice looking Corvette on the outside but the engine bay on this car was a mess from day 1. One of the previous owners had done a terrible / poor rudimentary masking job (to keep most of the paint off of the engine) and then sprayed virtually *everything* with flat black paint! Fortunately, little or no paint prep was performed (paint was sprayed over greasy / dirty components) so removing the paint was a large chore, but at least possible.

Another engine bay shot

I ended up taking just about everything out that would come out and I completely stripped the engine bay and started from scratch. This took several months. I found some well preserved original factory "black-out" paint under some protected areas and was able to find a satin black enamel paint that matched very closely. I used this paint and GM "Chassis Black" paint in the engine bay using the "68-72 Vette Vues Fact book" as a guide for the final detailing of various engine bay components.

The engine

The finished product, although not prefect, looks a whole lot better than it used to! I'm having a problem with the satin black paint I used on the underside of the hood bubbling from under-hood heat near the coolant expansion tank, but other than that, I'm pleased with how the engine bay looks now. This Vette had headers on it when I purchased it but I (finally) found a pair of matching # exhaust manifolds at a local Corvette swap meet. The only major items not original on or around the engine is an aftermarket (tach-drive) Mallory Unilite distributor hiding under the chrome distributor shield, she has a replacement radiator and the QaudraJet carb. is off of a 1967 Camaro.
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Last update: August 7, 1998