Despite the relatively short-distance fall into the sinkhole, the 1992 Corvette sustained extensive damage. When it was dismantled it was found that Bowling Green Assembly workers who built the auto or had been a part of the building process had signed on various parts they had been actively involved in.
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“We felt it was important to restore this extremely significant auto in Corvette’s long, storied history”, said Mark Reuss, GM executive vice president, Global Product Development, Purchasing and Supply Chain, in a press release.
On February 12, 2014, a sinkhole opened up in the Skydome room at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky. For two components, the team had the autographs scanned, reproduced as transfers and placed on the replacement parts.
For the body parts destroyed in the fall, GM techs replaced them with parts from a similar vehicle of the same vintage.
After recovery from the sinkhole, the 1 millionth Corvette was moved from the museum to the Design Center on GM’s Technical Center campus in Warren, Michigan, for restoration.
The damaged Corvette after being pulled out of the sinkhole.
Other components, such as the rear fascia and front exhaust system, normally would have been replaced, but GM instead restored them because they covered in the celebratory signatures, the automaker said.
Every detail down to the one-off “1,000,000th Corvette” embroidery on the headrests was reconditioned, saving as much authenticity as possible, with no replacements.
The other sinkhole-damaged Corvettes include a 1984 PPG Pace vehicle; 1993 40th-Anniversary Ruby Red Corvette; 1993 ZR-1 Spyder; 2001 Mallett Hammer Z06 Corvette; and 2009 1.5-millionth Corvette.
The final touch was replacing the “1,000,000” windshield banner that was slapped onto the sports vehicle 23 years ago.
It took four months and a total of 1200 man hours to transform the 1992, fourth-generation ‘Vette from a smashed up wreck into the pristine machine you see above. As luck would have it, the original computer file for the banner was still saved somewhere in the archives, so GM was able to recreate it flawlessly following the original plans.
The National Corvette Museum is handling the restoration of the third Corvette, a 1962 model.
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The other five Corvettes will remain in their as-recovered state to preserve the historical significance of the cars.
