Long Island Vettes - Membership Profile

	Member Profile – Chris Geiger Being a teenager in the 60's, it was a great time for motorheads. During high school, instead of studying for my Chemistry final, I was reading stats on the latest 427 Motion Corvette. Horsepower and torque I understood; the periodic table was Greek to me. Upon finally graduating, I set my sights on what kind of “wheels” I would build for myself. A Corvette was not in the budget so I settled on a succession of Chevelles. College kept me pretty poor but there was always a burning desire to own a Vette. By 1970 I fiqured I had “sacrificed” enough and it was time to say good-bye to the Chevelle and hello to a Corvette. After scouring the pages of Newsday and Buy-lines, I finally located a 1966 convertible for the bargain price of $2,000.00. I repainted the car, dumped another $1,000.00 in it and after six months of ownership sold it for $2,100.00. I had learned my first lesson about Corvettes. They are a lot like women - a lot of fun but quite costly.
My next Corvette adventure would have to wait until college graduation and a decent job. By 1974 I had finally made it though college(a surprise to all concerned) and had my first teaching job. My 1966 Chevelle went in the papers and I began to search for the perfect Corvette. I had a few requirements for the next Vette. It had to be a 4 speed, convertible, with a saddle interior. I already had a white and gold paint job planned for this new acquisition and needed the tan interior to match. Needless to say, the hunt was not going well and September was quickly approaching, so I settled on a 1968 roadster. I thought this car would be a good interim vehicle until the perfect Vette could eventually be found. Although this Corvette did meet my three requirements, it was hard to believe that a car could get so run down in only six years. The original green paint was peeling and cracking, the rugs and seats were torn apart and the original 427 tri-power engine was replaced by a rather tired 396 with a four barrel. After laying down $2,100.00 for this rather sad looking vehicle I set upon the task of turning it into my dream Vette. First things first, you have to look good driving down the street, so off came the old paint replaced by multiple coats of white with gold racing stripes. I designed the stripes as a combination of the Motion Corvette paint job and the Dodge bumble bee stripes. After about 6 months of daily commuting, the old 396 decided it had taken its last breath and left me stranded on the side of the road with a spun bearing. Having anticipated the need for an engine change, I had already purchased a 4 bolt main, 350 short block from Chevy and set upon the task of making this an engine. At this point in our fuel history we were experiencing our “first” gas crisis, so economy was more the issue than all-out speed. A set of mid-60's,” double hump heads” and a quadrajet carb produced acceptable power with decent MPG. Back on the road and all was well....for now. After about two years I realized the white I had chosen to paint the car was an off-white and not the true Corvette white. My car always looked dirty when parked next to other factory-white Corvettes. The only remedy to the color problem was to strip the car and repaint it the correct Corvette white.
	For the next five years the Corvette served me well as everyday transportation. Thru sun, snow (G60 snow tires), rain and wind, the Corvette proudly went logging well over 100,000 miles in the process. During this time period three C2 Corvettes came and went, two of them being used to pay for new houses. In retrospect, I probably should have kept one of them and sold the 68. By 1980 it was time to buy a third car and allow the Corvette to relax and be used on a less regular basis. Not having to rely on the Vette as daily transportation meant that I could redo the car at my leisure and turn it into more of a show car. Right around that time, I joined the Glass Society Corvette Club, which really encouraged the “show bug” thing.
My redo started with stripping the paint for the third time and repainting it the same color as before. This time I took extra car to block sand, reinforce potential stress areas, and seal the glass surface before painting. Once the paint was applied and rubbed out, newly chromed bumpers were added along with any other items that needed a freshening up. With this nice new paint job, the original rally wheels just didn’t cut it. My first car was a 1930 Model A Ford and I have always had a soft spot in my heart (or head) for wire wheels, so I purchased a set of chrome true-spoke wire wheels. My next area of interest was the interior. The seats had been upholstered a few years prior to this and still looked good. Unfortunately, everything else needed to go. Mechanically, the car was in excellent condition, since it was maintained by me as my regular car. The “gas mileage” engine was no longer a necessity, so the engine was pulled to be “freshened up”. The heads were removed and treated to a valve job, relieved ports, screw-in studs and guide plates. The cam was replaced with a 350 HP unit with anti-pump up lifters and a double row timing chain. A double pump 650 cfm Holley carburetor replaced the Rochester on the Edelbrock manifold and the ignition was boosted with an MSD unit. One of the greatest performance improvements came when I replaced the original close ratio Muncie four speed with a wide ratio unit. Hooked up to a rebuilt 3.73. Posi rear, the car really hooked up. Along with this new transmission came a Hurst shifter, an 11" Hays clutch and pressure plate and a Lakewood scattershield to keep all those new parts away from my legs. For the next ten yours I drove and showed the 68 from Massachusetts to Pennsylvania. If there was a Corvette show within driving distance, we would try our best to get there. During this time period, I began to got more involved with the Glass Society, later to morph into Corvettes East. As a member of the Board of Directors, showing my Corvette took a back burner to helping run shows for other Corvettes. By 1991, Corvettes East had run its course and the club ended along with my desire to donate any time to driving or showing the Corvette. I had purchased a 1934 Ford street rod coupe, got heavy into street rodding and left the Vette in a corner of the garage to be used primarily when one of our daily cars was laid up.
	About two years ago I got the bug once again and decided to pay a little attention to the old ‘68. Almost 25 years of use had started to take its toll on the body and paint. Stress cracks were starting to form and body work was beginning to sink, but the paint still shined as much as the day I rubbed it out in 1981. I decided to leave the body as it was, hell, can any of us say we look as good now as we did 20 years ago? The redo started with the mechanicals. Rusted trailing arms were replaced along with adjustable strut bars and new brake calipers on all four corners. The engine still ran great so there was no reason to do anything other than a detailing. Time had done a job on my wire wheels, so they were replaced with a set a chrome American Torque thrust D wheels. The next project was deciding on a the color for the new convertible top. Over the last thirty years , my car has had 2 white tops, a tan top, a black top and a gold one. The current white top was dirty and torn, so I opted for a tan top made out of the new Corvette top material, installed by Neumann Auto Top in Huntington. The interior had really taken the brunt of the wear and got the most attention. I replaced the original seats with 1976 high back units and had leather covers made for them using the original 1968 color leather to match the rest of the interior. New carpeting, hatch covers, kick panels, CD player and a coat of tan interior paint made the interior look new again. I joined LIV in 2004 because I wanted to start driving my Corvette again with others of its kind. Corvette shows are still not my favorite thing. I would much rather be looking over the hood at the road ahead and a string of Corvettes in front of me and behind me. After all, aren’t Corvettes at their best when being driven?