1975 Corvette
Wednesday, December 2, 2009 at 07:30PM By Vern Parker
Long before Guy Hahs became a Sergeant Major in the U. S. Army he was bitten by the Corvette bug.
He recalls seeing his first Corvette as a pre-teenager in Stuttgart, Ark., as he cut through an alleyway on his way home from school. The car he saw was a second generation Corvette that had seen better days but it captured the attention of the 12 year old.
By 1990 Hahs took action and began searching for a vintage Corvette. After a couple of years he found a sad-looking 1975 Corvette coupe in Little Rock, Ark., in the spring of 1992. “It was next to a basket case,” Hahs says, “and it had been bubbasized.” Even so, Hahs bought the derelict because the price was right.
As the Army is wont to do Hahs was transferred to Maryland in 1993. He left his Corvette in Arkansas and sure enough he was reassigned to Arkansas in 1994.
For the next two years Hahs says he tinkered with his two-seat car.
Then it was back to the Washington area for five years, then back to Arkansas for two years before a return engagement to Washington in 2003. On that last move his Corvette came with him – on the back of a truck.
The bad news is that the next year Hahs was sent to Iraq. The good news is that he had access to a computer and the internet. “I ordered parts for my Corvette,” he says, “and they were waiting for me when I got home.”
Finally, Hahs had the time to restore his well-worn Corvette. “I've had it so long that it's almost like one of my children,” he says.
The 350-cubic-inch V-8 engine that delivers 165 horsepower remains untouched. Hahs says rebuilding the four-speed Borg-Warner Super T1- manual transmission was a genuine headache. “I'll never do that again,” he says.
Records indicate that his Corvette was built in March 1975 at the St. Louis factory. It was one of 33,836 Corvette coupes built that model year. Hahs says the base price for the 3,433-pound car was $6,810.10.
Hahs is no automotive mechanic so he purchased an assembly manual as well as a service manual. With the step-by-step instructions in the two books he managed the restoration.
When he bought the car it was painted white, which was the most popular color for 1975 Corvettes. The numbers on the car reveal that it left the factory wearing a coat of Silver Mist. A total of 4,710 Corvettes shared that color in 1975. The interior seemingly is awash in oxblood colored fabric and vinyl.
On the passenger end of the dashboard are several pockets where a glove compartment is usually found.
Hahs' car is equipped with air conditioning, power steering, four-wheel power disc brakes and power windows which are controlled by switches on the console. Hahs points out that his Corvette was the first year for a high energy ignition system in addition to being the first year requiring unleaded gasoline to flow through the Rochester quadjet carburetor. The catalytic converter on the exhaust system is also a 1975 first.
Above the passengers is a T-top, a two-piece roof feature that usually leaked in any rainy weather even when new. Hahs confirms, “It leaks like a sieve.”
During the restoration of the sleek, 15-foot, 5.2-inch-long Corvette, Hahs discovered some neat little extras such as the 12-volt battery compartment under the floor behind the driver's seat and the dealer-installed eight-rib chrome-plated luggage rack on the rear deck.
On the left front fender is a slot to place a key to activate the car alarm. When the car was dismantled Hahs located the alarm siren hidden behind the left rear wheel.
Each wheel is shod with a GR70x15-inch tire.. The wheelbase is 98 inches. Although the Corvette stands a mere 41.8-inches high it is 69 inches wide which eliminates any feeling of claustrophobia for the occupants. The seat belts were standard equipment.
Before the car, with Tru-Flex bumpers, was resprayed Hahs rebuilt the floor pan. In August 2009, Hahs declared the restoration complete, only 19 years after he bought his Corvette.
Now when he gets behind the three-spoke steering wheel and gazes at the 7,000 rpm tachometer with a red line of 5,000 rpm, and the 160 mph speedometer, he says, “I'm never going to go that fast.”
Still, it's nice to know that he could.