Owner insight: 

One night late in the year 1969 several friends and I were sitting around talking over a few beers about the prospects of owning a corvette. At the time I was driving a 1960 Dodge Polara, 440 convertible, four on the floor that was pretty hot but it wasn’t a Corvette. So we all loaded into the Dodge and went to Reedman Chevrolet (outside of Philadelphia) with the intent that I would trade my car in on a corvette! Well, it was not to happen because the Corvette was just out of my price range. However, the salesman began to work me around to the Camaro. They had a beautiful leftover 68′ that I could have afforded, but it was an automatic. I told the salesman that I wanted a 350, 4 speed convertible! As it turned out they had only one car out of the thousands of cars that they had on the lot that fit that description for $2995.00.I think they gave me $600.00 for the Dodge and we all went home that night in the new Camaro. I drove my sweet ride for 20 years in PA, NY, IL and WI- total miles 73,000.

In 1989 the car was shipped from WI to NJ. It was driven off the truck and into a garage and put up on jacks and there it sat until 2010, 20 years. In 2010 I moved from NJ to VA. I put the car on a web site called You Ship, a division of EBay where you put the car out for bid to transport.  Eric’s Towing from Hurlock, MD won the bid and picked the car up and brought it to his home, He called me up and convinced me that he should keep the car and there restore it. The original estimate was $15,000 to $18,000 with no time estimate. He was going to work on it in his spare time and keep the car as long as necessary. He worked on the car for the better part of three years during which time we talked regularly on the telephone and I would order parts as needed and pay him for his labor. I visited several times to look at the car. All seemed to be work well done. About the end of the third year, I did an accounting and found that I had spent nearly $50,000 and also that there was a discrepancy of about $10,000 between what I spent and what could be verified. In Nov. 2013 I pressed him to finish the car. He delivered the car on Nov 11, 2013. I drove the car off the truck and went to take my wife for a test drive and found that there were no brakes. That was just the start.

After a year working on the car myself, and with the help of a friend, we finally threw our hands up and admitted that the restoration was a disaster. It was like the game “Whack-A-Mole”. Every time we fixed one thing another would pop up. At this point I began to research restoration companies and that resulted in our getting an appointment at FantomWorks. I am confident that the car is finally in the right hands to bring my dream back to life. From Dan to his wife, and all the folks that I have had the good fortune to now be associated with, I have the greatest respect for the way in which I have been treated. They all have been professional, respectful, and most of all honest people and I am most pleased with the services they are providing me and my wife.

–Carl S.