NOW! FREE ADS for CORVETTE CLUBS! click here to list your club and much, much more! ANTIFREEZE EXPLAINED DOOR HINGE REPLACEMENT © AllAboutVettes.com 2012. All rights reserved. Reproduction of any material on this website is a violation of copyright and is expressly forbidden without permission. This website has not been prepared, approved or licensed by General Motors. Some words, model names, images and designations herein are the property of the trademark holder and used for identification purposes only. UPGRADE: UNDERDRIVE BALANCER PULLEY INSTALL (article continues on next page) is really a misnomer; in actuality, it should be called “body-off” because that’s actually what happens: the body is taken off the frame. Regardless of the nomenclature, deciding to do such a restoration is a major one that’s going to entail a lot of time, work, money and, without a doubt, many unexpected and often nasty surprises along the way. Additionally, it’s going to take up a lot of room, require a meticulous game plan and require a lot of discipline to keep at it and get the job done. All that being said, Joe Grado decided this was the way he wanted to go when he set out to bring his ‘69 T-top coupe back to showroom condition. Doing a full restoration is truly a labor of love and commitment, as Joe will readily attest to. To bring the car to the state you see in these photos it took him more than three and a half years and over 900 man hours of labor. The ‘69 is a stock restoration and it’s a matching-numbers car. Some of it’s many special features include side exhausts, special suspension, power brakes, power steering, red-line tires, and an add-on passenger side mirror. Joe is the secretary of the Staten Island Corvette Club and one of its founding fathers. Now residing in Jackson, New Jersey, Joe states that he couldn’t have completed this car without the support of his loving family which includes his wife, Marie, daughters, Krista and Lori, his son, Joe. Jr., his son-in-law, Mike, future son-in-law, Anthony and his father, Sam, who loved the car and his mom, Josephine. Joe enjoys the fruit of his labor by cruising in the ‘69 and taking it to car shows. In this profile view you can really appreciate how sleek and stylish the Shark body style really was.