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These cars are the whole of the gruel of the Corvette Collectors
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We basically have a museum of Corvettes here every year from 1953 all the way through 1989
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This remarkable chronological collection of 36 Corvettes has been hidden for over 20 years, originally
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given away a surprise by Music Channel VH1 in 1989. The cars were soon bought by artist Peter Max, whose plans to paint them never came to fruition
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The new owners are restoring the vehicles to their former glory, and Chris Mozilla, a Corvette
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expert, is consulting on the project. Some of these cars are going to need to be cleaned up, have the fluids change
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Some cars are going to need a year's worth of work, and some cars are going to need two weeks worth of work
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First we'll start up with the most valuable car in the climate
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collection, a 1953 Corvette. This car is one of 300 that were made and it's probably
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going to be worth somewhere around a half a million dollars when the restoration is done
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It's the crown jewel of the collection. Unfortunately for us it's requiring the most amount
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of work and we're putting a substantial amount of money well over six figures into that one
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individual car so we think by the time we get done with the restoration we'll have one of
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the most valuable 1953s in the world. However, not all of the cars really, but we're going to
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cars require so much work. So this next Corvette is a 66 coupe
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It's one of my favorite colors. This is called Nassau Blue and it has a white interior and that the color combination that came from the factory with The paint is not perfect on it but it a pretty solid original car This next car is the
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1964 Corvette Coupe. This car originally was ermine white but now it's painted tuxedo black
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This car also has its original engine. It's a 327 300 horsepower engine. It's the one that the car was born with
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It also has a four-speed transmission and that's a correct transmission that came with the car
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So the interior in this car was in pretty good original condition
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What also makes it unique is it's silver leather and not a lot of the cars came with silver leather interior that particular year
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Many of the Corvettes are yet to be restored and are covered in 20 years' worth of dust, which isn't as bad as it sounds
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The fact of the matter is, the dust is what ended up preventing the paint from being ruined
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So when we start washing these off and cleaning them with the special solution
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the paint on almost all of them is in perfect indifference. So that was a pleasant surprise when we started working on the first couple of cars
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When the restoration is complete, how much would the collection be worth
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It's a very, very valuable collection. They're folklore. People know about the cars
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So it's very hard to put a dollar amount on the cars because who knows what the value of Peter Max and VH1 having these cars
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but they're worth a lot. So what does the future hold for these 36 Corvettes
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We're being approached by people from all over the world who are interested in potentially buying it or have other
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creative ideas for the collection. So our original plan was to take all of them
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get them into working condition, and then go to the big auction houses
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But right now, we're pretty much keeping our options open