If you wonder where all the early Corvettes have gone, meet Ron Anthony and Bob McCoy. They have been friends for more than 50 years as both men were in the forklift business in Vancouver. They also shared a common interest in vintage Corvettes and have 14 early models between them. And each owns a rare 1954 model.
A visit to Bob McCoy’s Fraser Valley home shop reveals the freshly restored Pennant Blue 1954 Corvette that has won top awards every time it has been shown. As well, there is one 1956 model, four 1957 Corvettes including one with factory fuel injection and another with dual four-barrel carburetors, a fuel-injected 1964 coupe and a 1965 roadster with almost every option.
Ron Anthony’s home garage in Surrey holds six Corvettes including the 1954 model, three 1957 models including a well-known California drag race car, a 1961 that is currently under restoration and a 1962 Corvette. Ron has owned his 1954 model for 44 years. He bought it from a company called Movie World that rented cars to the film industry in Los Angeles. A previous owner had replaced the original six-cylinder engine with a 1953 Cadillac V8 running through an early Ford floor shift transmission. The car is otherwise original, including the four wheel covers wrapped in yellowing paper stored in the trunk. Ron has plans to restore the car that was No. 259 of the 3,640 Corvette examples built in the 1954 model year. He will retain the Cadillac engine.
Bob McCoy’s journey with his 1954 Corvette is much different. He paid $15,000 for the car shell at the 2015 Corvette swap meet at Puyallup, Wash. The car was missing a lot of the rare parts it was built with. But Bob saw an opportunity to bring the car back to original showroom condition. It would be an expensive restoration.
“It was pretty well picked clean,” McCoy says of his purchase. “I had to hunt down all the parts to restore the car.”
The four original wheel covers were US$800. Each. The convertible top assembly was $1,500. The original seats were $4,500. The most expensive item to buy was a set of original clip-in side windows. It cost $6,200.
McCoy did all the restoration work himself except for the bodywork and paint. The results are spectacular with the 66-year-old sports car representing the second year of Corvette production.
It has been 60 years since McCoy bought his first Corvette. He traded a fistful of money and the 1956 Plymouth Fury that he purchased at Dominion Vancouver Motors in 1959 for his honeymoon tour of California for a four-year-old 1957 Corvette. The car was all white with a red interior. It had factory fuel injection and all other options, including power windows and a power top.
That set off a lifelong love affair with America’s sports car — the Corvette.
McCoy has now put aside the three Corvettes he wants to restore, including a fully optioned 1956 model and two 1957 Corvettes. He spends every day working in his shop restoring a rare high-performance 1956 Plymouth Fury, much like the honeymoon car he bought more than 60 years ago.
Once that project is finished, the 81-year-old enthusiast will get back to work on his fleet of Corvettes.
(Alyn Edwards is a classic car enthusiast and partner in Peak Communicators, a Vancouver-based public relations company.)
