Sunday, December 10, 2017

Found Owner #4, Alfred E., Succasunna, NJ.

Owned the car from ~1972 - ~1974: Alfred E. Succasunna, NJ. 07876.

Al said his in-laws found the car at the Newark airport and one of the workers at the airport had the car for sale. Al bought it around 1972 for $1,800 cash in a parking lot near the airport. He couldn’t get there fast enough to buy it. He didn't remember the seller’s name. He believes that owner drove it often to work at the Newark Airport.

It was painted metallic blue with a black interior. The master cylinder was dual line and thinks it had a round cap, not positive, it may have had two caps. He didn’t change it. He remembers the brakes were sintered metallic and had 4 or 6 pucks on each shoe. When the car was cold the brakes didn’t work, he had ride the brakes to heat them up, then they would work very well, almost as good as early disc brakes. He needed to be especially careful in the winter. The brakes lasted a long time, probably until he had 90,000 on the car.

He didn’t like the metallic blue color, so he painted it Silver Blue. This is when he discovered the car was originally black exterior and red interior. He could easily see the black and red. For example, when he took off the sill plates, it was painted black underneath. When changing the rugs and reupholstering the seats, he saw that the interior was red everywhere.

Transmission was original. Rear was original 3.70 gears. Had a Hurst shifter, he left it that way. He drove it to work quite often. Since it was once a black car, he thought it would look good in Daytona Blue, so, he repainted it Daytona blue.

He joined the Corvette Natural Glass Club (CNGC) at this time and his friend, Pete Carey who was one of the founders of the CNGC. Pete lived in Denville, NJ. They both had ’63 SWC’s. Al and his wife at the time went to many rallies and picnics with the club. He also remembers going to Nilsen Sunoco on Route 46 to buy high octane gas a few times. Typically would get it in a 5 gallon gas can.

He always had interest in bringing it back to the original black/red. But, in 1974, he had his first son and got out of the hobby. He sold it to his attorney, William L., who had told him he wanted the car.

Sold it with 92,000 miles on it for $5,000. Al did not know it was a Z06 car, he discovered this in the last 2-3 years (2015-2016) when talking with Pete Carey and they heard about the unique brakes and realized it may have been a Z06 car.

In this Youtube video link below (at 15:50 minutes), Peter Carey is talking about the early days of the (CNGC) in 1972/73 and working with Al E. to purchase 1963 corvettes.


Al said he will find his old photos of the car and will send me all of them except 1-2 to keep.

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