Judging Day and won the Triple Diamond....and the David Burroughs' Award

This is an amazing car show...I'll post some pictures of the show soon.  The Z06 won the Gold Concourse Award, Triple Diamond and the David Burrough's Award...David started Bloomington Gold, one of the largest Corvette shows every June.

Lined up and ready for judging.  The car is judged based on originality.  I need a 95% originality to receive Triple Diamond.

Judging begins

The judges go through the car and check everything for originality...every original parts vs. replacement.

Me and David Burroughs...he presented me with the David Burroughs' Pick...I won this this my other '63 Corvette last year as well.

Trifecta...won the Triple Diamond Award...I don't have the final results, but close to 98% originality score.

Getting ready to ship it back to the east coast...2 more shows in the spring - New York and Connecticut and then it's coming out to California. 

The Z06 arrives in Chicago

Made it to the event...

Shipping the car off to MCACN in Chicago

We loaded the car on to Reliable Carriers today, to the last of the big shows this year, MCACN (Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals), going for the Triple Diamond Award.

NCRS National Convention - Greenville SC - 97.5%

Just completed the awards at the NCRS National Convention in Greenville, South Carolina.  The Z06 received a Top Flight award and my calculation is a 97.5% of originality.  The NCRS judging is the most difficult to score and a 97.5% for a very recent restoration is actually pretty outstanding.  We received 100% on the exterior paint which is very difficult to achieve as we didn't strive for perfection, but strived for "factory perfection" to demonstrate how the car would have come out of the factory.  I've included some photos below and, in earlier blog posts, I show how we painted the car to resemble a factory paint job.

Setting up for Ops Check

In the field, ready for Ops

All the cars completed Ops, now inside the convention center

Tony touching up with some polish. Dan observing.

Exterior Judging team - Stuart and Joe.

Exterior judging team..looking for proper overspray.

Chassis team - Gary Bennett under the car.

Gary and team on Chassis.

Chris, Tony and Dan in the rear...judging completed...everything went very well.

Loaded up and going back to Maryland.

The Z06 Received a Top Flight at Nationals.

Chris Moore, Mike Ingram (NCRS President presenting the Top Flight Award), Dave Brigham, Judging Chairman, at podium.

Bloomington Gold Awards Day (Saturday) - Gold Award, 98%

The Z06 received 98% of the possible judging points at Bloomington Gold, a great score for a top profile event like Bloomington Gold and considering that we just finished the restoration 1 week before.  There's a few areas we can tune up.  The majority of the points lost are correctable (e.g. putting in original spark plugs, correcting a couple of fasteners).  The big verification was the paint originality.  I found a set of original #44 spark plugs at the show, so those will go in prior to the next event and we'll tune up a few other items noted.

We painted this car in lacquer with a focus on original factory quality...that doesn't necessarily mean a beautiful paint job everywhere.  While the paint job is spectacular, we didn't buff out all the orange peel in the paint, and we didn't even buff under the belt line (we only waxed the paint).  We also lightly covered areas under the doors, and the front and rear valence panels....all these factors are consistent with a factory production paint job.  Getting verification that our paint job was consistent with a factory job was huge for us and Tony's Corvette's who did the restoration.

After the presentation of the Gold award

Lining up the Corvette's for the awards reception.

C2's and C3's lined up to receive their awards

After the awards, the Z06 is being loaded on to the truck to go back to Tony's Corvette's in Maryland.  Next judging event is the NCRS National's judging in South Carolina on July 14.

Loaded and strapped down in the transport truck.

We loaded it in the front of the truck so it doesn't need to be moved as other vehicles are delivered.

This car is also going on the truck.  It's owned by Dana Mecum...it's the first ever Z28 Camero.  It's a 1967 Camero and it went right into racing when it was built.

This car is also going on the truck.  It's a 1968 Z28 Camero convertible.  It's the only Z28 convertible ever built and was made for a GM executive in 1968.  I was chatting with Dana Mecum's collection curator, Jim Smith, who told me about the car.

The Z28 convertible also came with every possible option when built in 1968.

Bloomington Gold Judging Day (Friday) at The Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Friday, June 21 is the day the Bloomington Gold Judges review and judge the car.  There's a total of 8,520 points and, to be awarded a Gold Certificate, a car can only lose up to 5% of the points (95% correct).  The judging areas are similar to the NCRS as they review the VIN and Trim tags, Engine Compartment, Chassis, Body & Wheels, Interior, and then Operations - ensuring everything works properly (lights, radio, fan, etc).  All went well today, we'll find out our score on Saturday in the awards ceremony. 

First set of judges are reviewing the VIN and trim tags for accuracy and authenticity. That's judge Bill Calirico over the engine compartment, and Gary Naber in the white shirt on the far right. 

Couple of shots prior to the judging.

Prior to judging, in the garage area.

Set up with fender covers for the engine compartment judging.

There was an all original Silver/Red '63 judged next to mine.  14k original miles.  Quite a car. The car was purchased in the early 1970's by it's current owner and coincidentally, the handler of this car (Bob Zimmerman) was the guy that bought my other Corvette, a 1963 Roadster, in 1972.  He was with a dealer at the time.

Judging the Engine Compartment (Marty Fowler on left of the car), Exterior (Carlton Colclough, also the team leader for the 1963 NCRS judging team, right side), and Interior (Mike Hack, kneeling in the driver's door).

Ben Smith on lying in the back judging the Chassis.

C1 Judging just behind the C2's.

The other C2's out on display for judging.