40ft Sink hole opens under Corvette Museum, swallows 8 cars

[Dan]

To be honest, it is a safety concern.

 

[FoolKiller]

To be honest, it is a safety concern.

Everything is. Lawyers are why I can't buy lawn darts and have to take sexual harassment and workplace violence courses every year.

Accountants are why we can't make the lawyer complaints safe.

 

[TRLWNC7396]

Here is the latest on the museum:

http://autoweek.com/article/car-lif...tte-museum-looks-forward-post-sinkhole-future

 

[TRLWNC7396]

Remembering on the one year anniversary.

http://autoweek.com/article/car-lif...er&utm_content=body&utm_campaign=awdailydrive

 

[Sage Ages]

Remembering on the one year anniversary.

http://autoweek.com/article/car-lif...er&utm_content=body&utm_campaign=awdailydrive

Wasn't that a few days ago?

 

[BKGlover]

Remembering on the one year anniversary.

http://autoweek.com/article/car-lif...er&utm_content=body&utm_campaign=awdailydrive

Well now, this reads like a converging of our thoughts on the matter. Restorations to the ones in decent-good shape, as they ended for those that aren't, such as the Hammer and PPG. I'm gonna guess that they actually did think about putting the damaged ones back in the hole before it was decided to fill it in. Possibly one of the most interesting exhibits in the auto world.

 

[TRLWNC7396]

Wasn't that a few days ago?

Yeah, after reading the article, I realized I was a bit off on the timeing, but it's still around the one year mark....

And, yes, I think it was stated at one point that they were considering putting the messed up cars back in the hole-but then they would have made an open or clear floor display, and that would have taken some special, expensive, construction so it was deemed not worth it.

 

[BKGlover]

Even so, I now have a reason to go to Kentucky. The cars are one thing, I'm interested in how they're gonna show the whole thing off.

 

[McLaren]

Chevrolet unveils the 1 millionth Corvette in her former glory.

It took 18 months, 1,200 man hours and the resources of one of the world’s largest automakers, but the one millionth Chevrolet Corvette ever built was returned to the National Corvette Museum today looking as if it had never fallen into a 40-foot sinkhole. The white ‘92 convertible wasn’t the most valuable car among the eight cars that fell into the sinkhole, but it was perhaps the most meaningful to General Motors and Corvette builders. The car had rolled off the line with signatures of every worker who helped build it, and for its restoration, GM committed to preserving as many of those signatures, and as much of the original car, as possible.

After being fetched out of the sinkhole, the damaged Vette was taken to GM’s tech center in Warren, Mich., where a team of 30 workers spent four months examining every detail of the Vette. The engine and drivetrain turned out to be in good shape; they even saved the original Goodyear Eagle GS-C tires. The interior and windshield turned out to have the most damage, and even then most parts were preserved rather than replaced — from the red leather headrests with “1,000,000th Corvette” embroidery to the exhaust system. For the body parts destroyed in the fall, GM techs replaced them with parts from a similar car of the same vintage. In two cases, a signed original part was too damaged to use, so GM scanned the workers’ signatures and reapplied them to the new pieces. And in the one case where a signature couldn’t be saved, the worker in question, one Angela Lamb, signed the replacement part. GM even still had the original computer graphic file used to print the “1,000,000th” windshield banner.

Of the other seven Corvettes, GM lightly restored one that had far less damage, and the National Corvette Museum will restore a third. The other five will remain as they were pulled from the Kentucky clay.

 

[Dan]

That makes me so happy to see it restored to pristine condition. Earlier today, I was watching a show with my parents about engineering disasters, and the Corvette Museum sinkhole was featured in part of the episode.

 

[TRLWNC7396]

I'm glad to see that they were able to clean it up. Too bad the last two will never be.....

Oh, well. Maybe they will keep up with the caves now so they won't have the rest of the plant collapse!

 

[TRLWNC7396]

Here is a little more detail on the restoration. It's pretty amazing that EVERY part of the car had been signed by its builders! Wow!

http://autoweek.com/article/classic...er&utm_content=body&utm_campaign=awdailydrive

 

[Danoff]

http://wkrn.com/2017/02/13/work-beginning-to-repair-sinkhole-damaged-corvette/