My Silver 1967 427 Corvette by Barry Abrahams From Mid America Motorworks

In April of 1976 I was in a car accident. I was 25 years old. A guy ran a stop sign and wrecked my car. No one was hurt. We got the car running, but it wouldn't pass state safety inspection. I used my motorcycle to go places through August. On a Sunday night I saw a 1967 Corvette with a for sale sign in the rear window. I caught up to the guy driving the car. We talked and he let me drive the Corvette for about 20 minutes. I told him I'd go to the bank the next day (a Monday) and if I could get a loan, I'd buy the car. It worked and I bought the car. I used it as my daily driver for about 3 years. I bought another car to use as my daily driver, which made my insurance go down since I didn't have to use the Corvette on a daily basis. The car was always in pretty good condition, but not in great condition. Sometimes I didn't drive it much because I was working a lot, I was in graduate school, I was running marathons, and I was riding motorcycles quite often.

Finally in about 2003 my wife said we should really fix up the Corvette and use it more often. My brother-in-law (my wife's brother) owns a body shop and is a fiberglass expert. He stripped all the paint, replaced the bonding strips, used the right gel coat and primer and painted the car in Silver Pearl. It looked great and still does. We also replaced the windshield, the headlight motors, and did a little work on the suspension. About 8 years ago we rebuilt the engine (bare block on up) and it works great; it runs perfectly. We have fixed or replaced all of the systems: brakes, shocks, shock mounts, differential, sway bars, emergency brake, ball joints, tie rods, steering, upper and lower control arms, and a few other fixes. All the gauges work, including the clock (and the radio works). We put a brand new front grill on the car a couple of years ago. We tried to make the car as reliable as possible and we also built the car to be a driver and to have some of the kind of upgrades of the type that might have been done to it in the late 1960s and early 1970s. This included adding some chrome, Hooker Headers with chrome side pipes, American Racing Torque Thrust D wheels, and Mickey Thompson tires. I drive the car to car shows in the spring, summer, and fall. There really aren't any car shows around here (Lincoln, NE) in the winter. The car has won over 100 trophies in the last few years. It runs great and looks good. Many thanks to everyone who has helped me with the car.