hemigeno's Daytona restoration - a few more tweaks... again!

[hemigeno]

Got rid of my Daytona on Friday...



Well, sorta...

Thursday afternoon (yes, Thanksgiving Day) I hopped into my pickup truck and headed out towing an enclosed trailer with the Daytona and all the parts I've gathered in 4 years worth of scrounging.  Around 2:30am local time I pulled into a motel about 20 miles from Grand Haven, MI.  

About 9am I started unloading everything at Vance Cummins' shop in Grand Haven.  With that, the restoration on my Daytona has started.  Literally...  The car hadn't been in their shop an hour before his guys started with the wrenches taking things off.  Vance decided it would be better to go ahead and get the car stripped down and taken to the blasting shop that he uses before the worst part of winter sets in.  They would have had the nosecone off and disassembled if we hadn't decided to try and figure out a few "unique" things that were on my nosecone which Vance had not seen before.  Depending on how smoothly things go and whether we have any delays looking for parts, he had estimated it would only take 8 months to get the car done.

Now I know there are several guys on here that cringe at the thought of farming out the complete restoration of a car.  In my mind, a car like an original Daytona deserves a better restoration than what an amateur bodyman like myself could give it.  I would rather for people to enjoy seeing the car, not be appalled at my lack of bodywork skills  

Anyway, here are some pics of the car before I started loading it up and once I got up to Grand Haven.

[hemigeno]

A couple more pics

[Just 6T9 CHGR]

Oh boy now the fun really begins!  Good luck Geno!

[hemigeno]

Some other cars in Vance's Shop included Bill Card's Daytona less than a day before the eBay auction ended (pics below).  There was also a really sweet FC7 Challenger T/A that was almost finished up (see pics).  He also had an FM3 '70 Roadrunner, '70 Hemi GTX, '66 Hemi Belvedere Post Coupe, '68 Hemi Coronet Convertible, and 2 '70 Cuda 6-pack cars that I could see. 

I mentioned that it must be cool to see all those rare cars day in and day out.  Vance shrugged and said that he sorta got used to them.  Me?  If I was working there I'd have to mash my thumb pretty good to lose the big ol' grin from my mug... 

[hemigeno]

Oh boy now the fun really begins!  Good luck Geno!

Thanks, Chris...  I can't wait to see what Vance's shopping list is for all the parts I HAVEN'T found yet.  I might be up at Carlisle next year looking for more than just a headlight bulb.  BTW, he liked the one I got 2 years ago...   

[hemi68charger]

Hey Geno !!

The adventure beginth !!!!  Congrad's on the long a' waited day.. Good luck on the resto, and I'll get that hood seal out to you soon......  Promise.. lol

I totally agree with you about the farming out of paint-n-body work.. Im doing it myself on the hemi-car...... Now, I will have it home to do the rest once it's painted.......



Troy

[LilRedDave]

Wow! I'm sure you must be pumped. Hopefully you'll be able to take it out by the end of summer time. Do they have a website that you can view the progress?

[Shakey]

Hope all goes well.   

BTW - how did you come to decide that Vance Cummin's shop was the place to get your car done?

[hemigeno]

Thanks guys...  I hope it all goes smoothly too!

LilRed, Vance doesn't have a website that I know of.  They will be sending me pictures, and I plan to make myself visible there on a regular basis as well.  An 8 hour drive each way is manageable for me, and I'll be dying of curiosity to see for myself how things are going.  When I get pics, I'll post at least some of them here.

Shakey - the reason I chose Vance is mostly because of his knowledge of the Daytonas.  I honestly wanted someone to restore the car that knows more about them than I do.  There were several guys that I had talked to about doing the car, and most of them did not know the intricate details of how these cars were assembled - and I was concerned that they wouldn't restore it correctly.  I didn't want to have to be the one who "ran" the restoration of the car, or to have to pay for a restoration guy while he was learning all those details.  Oh yeah, and it didn't hurt that Vance has an awesome collection of NOS parts of his own and some good "inside" connections with the major parts vendors.  There's a whole lot of people who restore cars for a living, and many of them do excellent work.  Vance has done a bunch of high-dollar cars for some big names (Harold Sullivan for one), but that wasn't as important to me as his understanding and knowledge of the Daytonas.

Those Daytona-specific details are also the reason that I'm having Vance do the final assembly work rather than doing it myself (like Troy is doing).  If the goal is to do a factory-correct restoration (which is indeed my goal), then the detail work continues all the way through to the very end.  From my perspective, the best way to accomplish the goal is to have a true Daytona specialist do the car from start to finish.

[Shakey]

Can't say I blame you! 

Keep us posted of the restoration and be sure to post some progress pics.   

You Great Lakes NOS is not too far from there.....

[Aero426]

I didn't want to have to be the one who "ran" the restoration of the car, or to have to pay for a restoration guy while he was learning all those details.

The second part of your statement is a HUGE deal.   There was a recent article by the Mike Sheehan, the  Ferrari columnist in Sports Car Market magazine, which  talked about a particular enthusiast who had to re-do much of his restoration on his Ferrari Daytona, because the original shop performing the restoration knew English cars, but not Ferraris.   The guy spent much more, and a lot of wasted time than had he bit the bullet and had it done right the first time.    In your case, it's more than just even taking it to a shop familiar with Mopar. 

Although you're spending some money to get this done, here are three reasons why you have nothing but upside on the deal:
 
1.  Life is short.  The car will be done and you will be able to enjoy it.    That's the best part, right there.
2.  The car will be done to an extremely high standard.
3.  The car is being done by a Daytona expert, who has some name recognition, and will help you at resale time, when and if that happens. 

Your car has been off the road for so many years, and deserves the pampered treatment.  I wish I could do the same with mine.

[PocketThunder]

Your car has been off the road for so many years, and deserves the pampered treatment.  I wish I could do the same with mine.

Me too.   does the guy know the details about C500's?     maybe when i win the lottery i can send my car over the pond.

[nascarxx29]

Congrats its off to the resto shop Vance does fantastic work .I saved this old link from a older post of Hemi Genos .With the 69 daytona before resto pictures

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/hemigeno/my_photos

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/hemigeno/album?.dir=bbcc&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/hemigeno/my_photos

[johntpr]

I'm jealous ! Must feel good to get it started by Vance, and looks like he is jumping right on it !

[PocketThunder]

Wow you've had this car since 1980??  whats the story on it if you havent menitoned it somewhere before?

[hotrod98]

Congrats. Sounds like you've done your homework. I've heard many a horror story about the guys that didn't take the time to do the research. We're currently re-restoring a one owner 68 firebird that was just restored by another resto shop to the tune of $20,000. The car was horrible. It's obvious that there were several different guys working on the car during the two years that it was there since a few areas were repaired correctly and other areas were repaired incorrectly to put it mildly. Maybe botched would be a better term.
Can't wait to see the progress. Oh, and that extra brace holding the nose on was interesting. Looks like it at least did the job.

[hemigeno]

it's more than just even taking it to a shop familiar with Mopar. 

Most definitely!!  

Although you're spending some money to get this done, here are three reasons why you have nothing but upside on the deal:
 
1.  Life is short.  The car will be done and you will be able to enjoy it.    That's the best part, right there.
2.  The car will be done to an extremely high standard.
3.  The car is being done by a Daytona expert, who has some name recognition, and will help you at resale time, when and if that happens. 

Great summarization, although I hope that the economic "benefit" of #3 doesn't have to kick in...

Wow you've had this car since 1980?? whats the story on it if you havent menitoned it somewhere before?

No, not quite...  I started working on the deal to buy the car in early 2002, but didn't pick it up until August, 2003.  

The 1980 pictures in that photo album were from Doug Schellinger & the DSAC.  The car was briefly - and I do mean briefly - for sale in 1980, so the owner at the time had sent in pictures and a short note about the car to Monroe Schellinger with the intention of listing the car for sale.  From what I was told, the car was actually sold locally before the DSAC ad ever ran.  

When I registered the car with DSAC, Doug was kind enough to send me the pictures of the car that they had received way-back-when (thanks again, Doug!!).  That's how I ended up with that batch of pictures, which do tell me a lot about the car and its original/stock condition.  It honestly hasn't changed a whole lot since then, to be honest.  The 1982 pictures were given to me by the fella that I bought the car from, and they were taken when he went and picked it up from Kansas City, KS.

I don't have time at the moment, but I'll post the story of the car sometime.  Some of you guys are probably sick of those details, but maybe others haven't seen it since all that info was posted on the old D-C.com board.

[hemigeno]

Congrats. Sounds like you've done your homework. I've heard many a horror story about the guys that didn't take the time to do the research. We're currently re-restoring a one owner 68 firebird that was just restored by another resto shop to the tune of $20,000. The car was horrible. It's obvious that there were several different guys working on the car during the two years that it was there since a few areas were repaired correctly and other areas were repaired incorrectly to put it mildly. Maybe botched would be a better term.
Can't wait to see the progress. Oh, and that extra brace holding the nose on was interesting. Looks like it at least did the job.

Larry, your Poncho story is almost the exact scenario I was hoping would not play out - and that was a big reason I went the direction I did. 

That "extra" brace holding the nose on was doing more than just holding it on.  It had pulled the edge of the nosecone in probably a good inch on each side.  I hadn't paid too much attention to it, but someone went to a great deal of trouble to put that brace in there, suck the edge of the nosecone in (which didn't help the fitment to the fenders any at all), and they used a bunch of bondo to hide the evidence.  Here's a picture of the outside of the fender when they ground through about 1/2" of mud:

[tan top]

good luck with the resto ( Geno)    , good pictures - intresting ,         looking forward to seeing more pictures as you progress 

[Chris G.]

Good Luck Geno, I hope it all goes smooth. 

I was told Vance did the resto on the Daytona Chris Sauer used to own. Maybe Dave can confirm this? That Daytona was also featured in a magazine a few years back, and they called it the greatest restored Daytona or something.

[hemigeno]

Good Luck Geno, I hope it all goes smooth. 

I was told Vance did the resto on the Daytona Chris Sauer used to own. Maybe Dave can confirm this? That Daytona was also featured in a magazine a few years back, and they called it the greatest restored Daytona or something.

That Daytona of Chris' gave Vance a great deal of his insight into how Daytonas were made.  That was a 16,000 mile all-original car that wasn't in too bad a shape.  Vance did that car's resto somewhere around 1994 from what he said.  There is a magazine spread hanging on their office wall from 1996 showing that car, and it did say something about it being the best resto'd Daytona.  It is almost an exact twin to my car, except his has power brakes & power steering, 3-speed wipers and maybe another couple of minor options.  It's still an R4 black interior/black stripe 4-speed Daytona...

Bill Card's Daytona was sitting there in Vance's shop - and it still looks pretty dang good for being a 17 year old resto job.  All it really needed was a thorough cleaning and it would have been awesome (and it wasn't far from it anyway).  Vance said that as nice as Mr. Card's car is, Chris' car turned out much nicer, in part because even in that short time period the methods and materials that resto shops had at their disposal changed that much. 

Here's hoping that the last 12 years' worth of product improvements will allow my car to turn out just as nice!   

[69charger383]

Congrats and great pics!

[THE CHARGER PUNK]

you should restore it to like the king daytona

[hemigeno]

you should restore it to like the king daytona

I don't have the biceps for that...

[nitrometal]

Hang in there Geno.  Sounds like you're on the best path for a beautiful Daytona!

Phil