Modifying a car is relatively easy to do. Changing something simply for the sake of change is a dangerous thing though. Often times, you wind up with a car that no longer carries any ties to its original heritage and you run the risk of building the car further away from those who could appreciate it for what it was originally.
Such is not the case with Paul Wolf’s custom Green 1959 Corvette. While Paul’s ride does have a heavy dose of modifications, his car clearly epitomizes that sometimes, you don’t have to use all the tools in the shed to make a car stand-out. Subtle hue changes and careful selection of colors and combinations ensure that while a major portion of components were modified or replaced on Paul’s ride, the car never ventures far from its roots as one of the most stylish and classy designs of the era.
Paul was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1954, the same year that Corvette Assembly moved nearby from its location in a small brick building adjacent to the truck and bus facilities in Flint, Michigan. Paul grew up seeing Corvettes every day, and with such a seasoning of resin in his veins, he knew he would eventually have one. He previously had another ’59 for a while, but needed to sell it before he could complete its restoration to devote the necessary time and finances to a new-born baby.
With priorities properly handled, he again located a ’59 Corvette with which he could focus his attention. He drove it up on his trailer while sitting on a milk crate. From there, the transformation was nothing short of greatness. So much so, that the efforts of Paul, and the team of craftsmen that he employed to complete the project was recently highlighted by the fine folks at the Goodguys organization.
The components read off like a grocery list of high-quality parts, but what really caught our eye, was how they were put together. As we said, you can go ahead and change a lot of things on a car, but those who have a knack of assembling masterpieces from a blank canvas are quite rare. Everything on Paul’s car blends together with technology and history to show what Chevrolet might had built, if the technology of the time allowed it. The car is still unmistakably a solid-axle Corvette, but we’d bet the way it rides and handles could make you question that completely.
Do yourself a favor and go check out Paul Wolf’s super-clean ’59 Corvette on the Goodguys website. It’s a great read, and if you’re like us, you can’t get enough of staring at a super-nice solid axle Corvette. You’ll be glad you did.