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| Bob Dye Helping Wilson Restore the Car in 1986 - Note Bob's Original Helmet in the Background | Bob Dye Sitting Behind The Wheel of His Old Car |
The Race Car Returns
(Restoration #2)
Bob Dye Helping Wilson Restore the Car in 1986 - Note Bob's Original Helmet in the Background
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| Bob Dye Helping Wilson Restore the Car in 1986 - Note Bob's Original Helmet in the Background | Bob Dye Sitting Behind The Wheel of His Old Car |
Vintage racing was become more popular. And Wilson Swilley wanted to go racing. Thus, like Bob Dye did in the mid-1960s, Wilson decided to convert the 57 Corvette back into a pure race car. Fortunately, Wilson decided to return the car back into its racing form circa late 1960s..
Returning the car to its racing form was no simple task. Bob Dye ran the car with some significant modifications to the body, especially in the back. Wilson had deleted these changes when he mated the front of Bob's body (57 #806) to the back of another body (57 #4742). Wilson decided that the best approach was to modify another body he had laying around the garage, and then mate the body with Dye's original frame, suspension, differential, racing brakes, etc.
Wilson fortunately took some pics during the second restoration of the Bob Dye race car. The pics are not the best, but you will get an idea of the work that Wilson put into this car during the second restoration:
Wilson took the restored race car to the Driver's School at Laguna Seca in March 1987 - Wilson learned how to race in the same car that Bob Dye did 21 years before.
Shortly after attending Driver's School in March 1987, Wilson decided to sell the car to Frank Buck. The sale occurred in April 1987. Wilson's 12 year love affair with the car finally ended.
Here are some pics and vids of how the car looked the day Wilson gave Frank the keys to the Bob Dye race car (the car has not changed all that much since 1987):
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Russ Uzes
Mill Valley CA
Russ Email
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