A collection of 36 corvettes – some of them extremely rare - are in the process of being restored to their former glory after they were hidden away for more than 20 years. The Corvettes were originally won in a competition organised by music channel VH1 in the late 80's and were then sold to German born graphic artist Peter Maxx. The thick layer of dust that has covered the cars for more than 20 years has actually protected the paintwork meaning some of them need little in the way of restoration. When the restorations are complete the new owner Scott Heller will attempt to sell the collection in its entirety to one lucky bidder.
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00:00These cars are the holy grail of the Corvette collectors.
00:13We basically have a museum of Corvettes here every year from 1953 all the way through 1989.
00:21This remarkable chronological collection of 36 Corvettes has been hidden for over 20 years.
00:27Originally given away as a prize by music channel VH1 in 1989, the cars were soon bought
00:34by artist Peter Max, whose plans to paint them never came to fruition.
00:39The new owners are restoring the vehicles to their former glory and Chris Mazzilli, a
00:43Corvette expert, is consulting on the project.
00:46Some of these cars are going to need to be cleaned up, have the fluids changed.
00:50Some cars are going to need a year's worth of work and some cars are going to need two
00:53weeks worth of work.
00:56First we'll start off with the most valuable car in the collection, a 1953 Corvette.
01:01This car is one of 300 that were made and it's probably going to be worth somewhere around
01:06a half a million dollars when the restoration is done.
01:09It's the crown jewel of the collection.
01:11Unfortunately for us it's requiring the most amount of work and we're putting a substantial
01:16amount of money, well over six figures into that one individual car.
01:20So we think by the time we get done with the restoration we'll have one of the most valuable
01:241953's in the world.
01:26However, not all of the cars require so much work.
01:30This next Corvette is a 66 Coupe, it's one of my favorite colors.
01:34This is called Nassau Blue and it has a white interior and that's the color combination it
01:39came from the factory with.
01:41The paint is not perfect on it but it's a pretty solid original car.
01:44This next car is a 1964 Corvette Coupe.
01:47This car originally was ermine white but now it's painted tuxedo black.
01:52This car also has its original engine.
01:54It's a 327, 300 horsepower engine.
01:57It's the one that the car was born with and it also has a four speed transmission and that's
02:02the correct transmission that came with the car.
02:05So the interior in this car was in pretty good original condition.
02:09What also makes it unique is it's silver leather and not a lot of cars came with silver leather
02:14interior that particular year.
02:17Many of the Corvettes are yet to be restored and are covered in 20 years worth of dust which
02:22isn't as bad as it sounds.
02:23The fact of the matter is the dust is what ended up preventing the paint from being ruined
02:28so when we start washing these off and cleaning them with the special solution the paint on
02:33almost all of them is in perfect condition so that was a pleasant surprise when we started
02:38working on the first couple of cars.
02:40When the restoration is complete how much would the collection be worth?
02:44It's a very very valuable collection.
02:46They're folklore.
02:47People know about the cars so it's very hard to put a dollar amount on the cars because
02:50who knows what the value of Peter Max and VH1 having these cars but they're worth a lot.
02:56So what does the future hold for these 36 Corvettes?
03:00We're being approached by people from all over the world who are interested in potentially
03:04buying it or have other creative ideas for the collection.
03:07So our original plan was to take all of them get them into working condition and then go
03:11to the big auction houses but right now we're pretty much keeping our options open.