1972 Corvette - Restoring an all original Corvette with the original Single Stage Paint


I recently found this two owner '72 Big Block Corvette that is one of 1360 with this transmission and even fewer with the 454 in the Steel Cities Gray color.

The car is numbers matching and almost 100% original with only 56,000 documented miles. The previous owner who owned the car since 1978, stored the car in a garage but over the last nine years it spent most of the time sitting with the T-Tops off collecting dust.

It only acquired 300 miles in the last nine years! I decided to do a detail thread to show my progress in trying to bring back an original car. It is going to be a lot of work but I look forward to the challenge. I don't have a ton of experience with the older single stage paints so any tips / help would be appreciated. Let me know what you guys think as we try and bring this car back to the best shape it can be.

How it sat when I found it:






Here is what I have to work with after the initial wash just to remove the dirt.



















The interior is pretty dirty but in decent shape.












Rims, chrome and engine need a good cleaning / polish after years of neglect.









I know I won't be able to bring the paint back completely back because it is original and brittle but lets see what we can do.