Acquired from a junkyard as a roller 16 years ago. Was destined to be parted and crushed, probably turned into recycled steel for some foreign car. Daily driver for five years never spared any duty. Parked for seven years before I took the notion to give her the attention she deserved. I am not one to name cars, but this one just happened. I was at the body shop while it was being painted and texted my wife "Deb she's gonna be beautiful!" Auto correct turned gonna into Gina and the name stuck.



Lowering the car would improve the looks, but living in the hills of WV and liking my chin spoiler not ground to a pulp, I chose to keep stock ride height. I have issues dragging the air dam as it is.

 

There is literally no fastener left unturned by my hand on the car. I stripped it down for paint and did all the assembly and panel alignment. No mechanic has ever touched her in my care, and never will.






It was real hard to catch the glow the paint has in certain lights. Maybe it takes a better photographer.

 

Beautiful car!! I really admire you doing the work yourself. Very well done! Whats under the hood? any pics?

Your wheels have quite a shine! Did you polish them?

 

Very Nice,dig the metallic paint and subtle exhaust tips

 

VERY very nice Joe !!!

You did one heck of a job bringing that one back to life, I can only hope mine turns out that nice. And..... I'm with you, My hands are the only two touch'n mine......

 

Awesome! More of our cars need to saved vs scrapped.

 

I am sure THAT didn't go over well. Guess you had some explaining to do.

BTW.. I have always love the color of you car.

 

Thank you all. The engine is a crate 350 carbed, no mods to it yet. The car was built to be a reliable driver, not to see the track. Pics pending finishing detailing the bay out. Daily driven for 7 months and it's a little dirty to be posting yet. Weather has been dismal to say the least. Yesterday was the first sunny day in weeks and I took the opportunity for some pics. The wheels were hand sanded to remove the machine lines and hand polished. I swore never again. 40 grueling hours to restore them.
LOL Actually at that point, I was so wrapped up in the build she had no doubt what I meant. Any other time it might have been trouble. She always calls Gina my mistress. May be a little jealous.
I dug through every pic we have for the past 16 years and I can't find one that shows the car before I started work on it, very depressing. But it was never a real sight to behold so it was cropped out of frame rather than purposely taken a pic of.

 

Awesome!

 

Joe, "Gina" is absolutely gorgeous! I LOVE that color! It "pops" when the sun hits it.

Very very sweet!

 

That's a great looking car.

I'm not always a fan, but I like the LT1 style exhaust tips too. I think because they are tucked up nice and tight to the bumper, rather than dangling in space.

 

Gina is sex on wheels. Beautiful!

 

Very kind words, thank you all.
Bob, the paint takes on so many different shades depending on the light. It ranges from the silvery blue to almost black. I've had people tell me they like my purple car. I get a little defensive at that point, but it does show shades of purple. No offense plum 92, I love your color too. Very rare to see them.
Dave, I couldn't see placing the tips any other way. If you can see the transition from round to rectangle, it ruins the effect.
Anywho, a pic of the engine bay as promised.

 

Gorgeous!

 

Thank you. I think it was your car that I had seen with the bowtie on the grill insert that got me thinking and looking at emblems. Though yours was a little too large IMO. I found an emblem with the same dimensions as the original bowtie on the grill. I had seen a lot of negative comments about adding them, but I think the gold accents the blue nicely. I also cut down Chevy Cruze center caps to take the place of the IROC center cap inserts. I wanted the wheels, but not to badge the car anywhere as an IROC.

 

Sorry IROC giraffe, mistaken identity. That was buggy disaster I was thinking of.

 

Absolutely beautiful,

Knowing you did the work yourself, and saving her from the crusher is awesome ...........

Nice job !

 

That is really a great looking car. Nice job. Do you have any pictures of the build?

 

Amazing job on the restoration the car looks great. What color is that, it looks an awful lot like my car.

 

Thanks Ron. I know you are well aware, but just to clarify, the paint and body work were farmed out. I did the engine bay and all the little details. Had the front end and ground effects painted but quickly realized I was over my head for the whole job. More skill and tools than I had were required. I don't weld and my bodywork is mediocre at best.

The color is laser blue metallic. You see it on later model GM cars and trucks. I see a lot of cobalts, cruzes and sierras with the color. Saw it on a Vette and I was sold.

No real build pics per se. There are some pics of it in the body shop poorly documented in this link. http://s1293.photobucket.com/user/jo...ry/Z28%20Resto
This was the day it went to the shop.