My Business

The Carolina Camaro Club and Hendrick Motosports sponsored a car show at the Hendrick Motorsports Complex on Saturday. I had no idea until about 8:30 a.m. when my Dad called to let me know the Shriners were providing the concession stand for the show. I thought about it for a few minutes and decided it would be nice to drive over to Hendricks and suprise my Dad since he hasn’t seen the car after paint yet. Fortunately I didn’t have much to do and Hendricks was only about 15 miles away.

I threw on some clothes went out to the garage and wiped the dust off the car. I remembered that I still haven’t put the chrome ignition shield back on yet so I gathered it up and got it installed. I’ve never entered a car show before so naturally I was a little excited to get over there. So within about 45 minutes of getting ready I was on my way.

The Carolina Camaro Club hosts car shows quite regulary but the Christmas time show is a special one. The club is awesome about working with Charity programs such as the Shriners Hospitals for burned and cripled children. What originally started as a Camaro show quickly turned into a big size car show for all. The entry fee was either $10 donation to the charity cause or a new toy that would be collected and taken to the Shriners hospital. (more…)

Walking into a Chevrolet dealership and asking to test drive a brand new 2008 Corvette Coupe will most likely NOT get you rolling down the road. Unless you are rolling down the road in the same car you drove into the lot with.

We stopped by Parks Chevrolet on a Sunday afternoon. Yes, the dealership was actually open. We briefly looked at the 2008 Corvette and tried to explian to the sales guy and sales manager that were indeed serious about the car and wanted to test drive it. We sorta figured we would get the “No” answer and be asked to make and offer or something to prove that we were serious.

The sales guy comes back and gives us the same story that most any dealer should give on the new Corvettes. “We usually don’t allow test drives of the new Corvettes, without an offer, and most people want to buy them with ZERO miles.” OK, we sorta figured that. So we informed the dealer that we just finished test driving a new 2008 Infiniti G37 and wanted to rule it out. Well this perhaps got their attention a little. The dealer runs over and checked with his sales manager working that day. When he came back, he informed us that he was going out to the lot to grab a used one to let us test drive it. I’m sitting there thinking , cool, maybe it will be a 2007 and at least some what comparible. NOOOOOTT……The guy comes back with a 2004 Corvette. (more…)

Over the past week I have been thinking very hard about keeping or selling my 1977 Corvette that has been in my family for nearly 30 years. Let me tell you, it’s not exactly an easy decision to make.

Why you may ask? Why would you even think about selling a “classic”? A few reasons that I came up with is:

1. It’s hard to enjoy: Try driving something out in public that is a restored classic car. It’s nerve racking to say the least. There are some pretty idiotic drivers out there that could give a rats ass less what you might be driving. Even on Sunday mornings when people are on their way to Church. Heaven forbid, someone miss the first prayer of the morning service.

2. Never exactly confident about the mechanical condition: Yes, the car is sound and restored well. However, I’m always worried that something will break and cause me to have to sit on the side of the road or pay some part time wrecker service to tow my car in to a shop.

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Well, the day is finally here. After an unexpected week of last minute detail exterior parts and an extra week of personal vacation I am leaving in 15 minutes to pick up the car from the body shop.

The unexpected parts cost me about $600 in change. I wasn’t really budgeting for this so thank goodness there was some extra cash laying around. I ended up buying door handle replacement gasket seals, light lenses for all the exterior lights, grille light lenses, and four extra rally wheel rings.

So anyway, today is the day. You better believe I’m taking a fine tooth comb and a digital camera for final inspection. Check back later today and I will try to get new pictures uploaded.

Better yet, wish me luck. Sorta have my fingers crossed right now.

JF.