<VV> Origin of "Bone-Stock"?

[Kent Sullivan]

Great story!

I did a few "over the top" things when restoring my '66 Canadian
convertible. The core crew (Duanne Luckow, Duane Wentlandt, and myself) were
very pleased that the many hours of research and going the extra mile on
stock parts resulted in the car getting into Factory Stock Restored on its
first try in CORSA concours (Portland, 2005).

A lot of people might not know this, but the real reason I went all that way
was not to get into FSR, but to honor the people who made the car
originally. I couldn't think of a finer tribute than to try to recreate the
car the day it left the factory (albeit with a paint job that was a bit more
evenly applied and brightwork that had a bit nicer finish, etc.). Some of
you might have been on hand for the ceremony Dave Newell and I put together
in Oshawa as part of the 2006 convention, where we honored a few fellows who
worked at the factory and had gone the extra mile to save and make available
the production records.

I did a presentation at the Buffalo 2006 convention about items that fall
into the over-the-top/extra mile category on my car. If y'all want to hear
about them, let me know and I can explain some of the crazier things here on
VV, for amusement.

And in the spirit of breaking stereotypes, my '64 Rampside truck is wearing
completely the wrong paint job (courtesy of a previous owner), has rust in
several places, and gets used on a weekly basis as a truck (gol' durn it!).
And my '66 500 coupe has a list of modifications a mile long. So while I do
love the challenge of creating a stock vehicle, I also enjoy lots of other
aspects of the Corvair hobby. CORSA was designed as a "big tent"
organization and I do everything I can to see it stays that way! :-)

--Kent
-----Original Message-----
From: virtualvairs-bounces at corvair.org
[mailto:virtualvairs-bounces at corvair.org] On Behalf Of Eric S. Eberhard
Sent: Tuesday, March 02, 2010 10:51 AM
To: virtualvairs at corvair.org
Subject: <VV> Origin of "Bone-Stock"?

Believe it or not, though, it can be fun to try and figure out what 
the correct bolt is, get it, install it.  It is the fun of restoring 
correctly, the fun if the research, the fun of hunting for whatever 
the piece is, and often making it.  One person called it 
"intellectually fun" and that is how I view it.  I enjoy the process.

Funny story.  My brother has a WWII military Jeep that he fully 
restored "bone stock."  Jeeps were made by many companies at that 
time, including Ford, and had minor differences.  His is a Ford.  One 
difference is that all the bolt heads have an "F" engraved in the top 
of them (hard to imagine why they did that for a throw-away 
vehicle?).  They did not exist new, and any old ones are damaged, 
ugly, or stressed.  So my brother (an architect) recreated the design 
of the F script exactly on his computer, programmed it in to a 
machine at a machine shop owned by another family member, developed a 
tray to hold a bunch of bolts face up, and had the machine cut him 
thousands of bolts in all sizes with the correct "F" on them.  He did 
it for his own restoration, but made a lot more because machine setup 
was more than the cost of the bolts.  So he had a lot left over.  So 
he created an Internet company to sell them, and did quite 
well.  Well enough to make more runs.

The name of his company?  F'ing Bolt Company (really) and it did well 
for a decade until he ran out of bolts and lost interest.

Eric