Welcome to the group, Tim.  I have a C-3 (1981).  I am the 2nd owner and the car has 169000 original miles and running like a top!!  What a glorious find you have!!  My wife made the same comments as yours when I got my vette several years ago!!  What do they know about Vettes??  Hope to see more of you on the site and some more pics of your "barn find"

Wow came out nice, tough call.....what are your plans and or future plans for the car. If it's an investment thing leave it all original. If it's for judging you can get NOS chrome but leave the paint.

Now if it's for joy and the paint bugs you go ahead and have it blocked and painted and go show it off, remember only vette nuts will know if it's not original.

My 1980 has 25k original miles original paint that has factory runs, sags, drips, thin spots, dri spots, and is starting to check in some areas. I do not plan to paint it as long as I have it.

Now my Red project car (money pit) I'm going a little nuts as it's something that is my ideas and I don't care what others want..... it's mine......

So I have not helped one bit but was nice to write a bit over a nice cup of coffee this morning!

Either way now that it's running.....you better bring it to a gathering.

Also take all your pictures and make a story board to display at shows.....that car has a kewl history and it's story needs to be told!

ebo

|UPDATED|11/2/2014 7:29:32 AM (AZT)|/UPDATED|

Tim,

|UPDATED|11/2/2014 9:20:18 AM (AZT)|/UPDATED|

That looks fantastic! And to have all that history back to the original owner is a huge bonus.

You say you rebuilt the calipers, but I imagine they are the original cast iron piston bores.  If you put it up for the winter, I would seriously think about sending off your calipers to be stainless steels sleeved.  Other than that, I'd leave the rest alone and just maintain it.  Only change things that allow the originals to be put back on.

Nice find. 

From a historic viewpoint, I say leave that puppy alone! It's only "original" once.
However....if you plan on driving, and enjoying it, then by all means, take care of the paint/chrome that it may need as you see fit. I would suggest that you fully document EVERYTHING on the car before changing/repairing anything. This will add to the value of the car down the road, even if you do restore it.
That being said, it always comes down to this...it's YOUR car, and you can do anything ya want with it. If ya don't like the paint, or chrome, then fix it....it's only money.....

Wow, nice car and fantastic find. I agree with most on the post that it is only original once, but definitely drive and enjoy. Documentation and talking to the original owner is a great feeling. Have you considered taking it back to show him ?? Please post more pics or do a photobucket link, here's one to my 73.

http://s42.photobucket.com/user/jlsigmund/library/

|UPDATED|11/14/2014 12:37:41 PM (AZT)|/UPDATED|

Ya!!  We wanna see pictures of this vette!!.

Thank you for all the nice comments and recommendations! It gives me a good sense of direction for the next steps.  At this point I'm going to replace some of the deteriorated rubber suspension parts - sway bar, rear spring and diff mount and leave everything else just as is.  I plan to drive to some gatherings next spring and summer and hopefully meet some of you. I plan to attend Corvettes at Carlisle as well.

Wow, great paint patina and I love the CB radio !! I wouldn't change a thing !!