Last “sinkhole” Corvette restored

On 12 February, four years to the day since it dropped into a sinkhole that opened up in the ‘Skydome’ section of the National Corvette Museum (NCM) in Kentucky, a ’62 Corvette made its return – fully restored - to the Skydome’s main display.

The Tuxedo Black roadster was the third and last Corvette to be restored from a group of eight that fell into the 65 foot by 45 foot (19.8mt x 13.7mt) and 30 foot (9.1mt) deep sinkhole in 2014.

Following the incident, General Motors committed to restoring of two of the Corvettes: a 1992 convertible (the millionth Corvette built); and the ZR1 ‘Blue Devil’ prototype from 2009, but had no interest in restoring the ’62 convertible, as it was not considered a significant example.

In February, 2017, on the third anniversary of the sinkhole and following the opening of a special exhibit on the event (‘Corvette Cave In: The Skydome Sinkhole Experience’), NCM staff decided to restore the ’62 Corvette in-house.

The Corvette in question had been donated to the museum in 2011 by the original owner, who had purchased the car new in 1962 while still a high school student.

While one of the least damaged of the eight, the ’62 still needed repair, which was completed over the course of a year at the NCM’s AutoZone Maintenance and Preservation area. NCM curator Derek Moore believes there was four solid months of work put into the project, including frame straightening (outsourced to professionals), interior and mechanical refurbishment, fibreglass patching and repair, followed by a complete respray.

“We restored the car to as close as possible to how it was the moment before the sinkhole, the way it was when donated,” Moore explained.

The ’62 Corvette is now on display at the NCM, alongside the others that were victims of the 2014 sinkhole. Find out more at: corvettemuseum.org