The combination of Tropic Turquoise exterior and Light Fawn interior is relatively rare and highly attractive. Capturing the correct colors with a camera proved difficult, however. Some of the pictures on the previous pages and the one at right were taken with a digital camera. A 35mm camera was used for the other pictures including the ones below, which make the body color appear much darker and tend to wash out the light tan color of the convertible top and boot. Ron and I spent hours trying to accurately portray the colors. Lighting conditions impacted the results.

The Corsa's previous owner had kept the car in a heated garage with a cover on it to keep it free of dust. It had spent much of its time in storage, and accumulated only 2000 miles in the 5 years since its restoration.

According to Ron, the ragtop will continue to get the special treatment it is accustomed to. He never drives his baby in the rain. He won't even venture out if it's cloudy and threatening to rain. He rarely washes it, and when he does, he follows a special protective routine.

He washes the car with the top down, which forces him to avoid getting water inside the doors and quarter panels. He also leaves the windows down to keep water away from the window fuzzies. He uses a hose-end water shut-off valve to control the flow and a flower-watering nozzle from the end of a Miracle-Gro bottle. This guarantees that the water won't splash. To dry, he uses an industrial leaf blower and compressed air to blow out all cracks, crevices, nooks and crannies. Typically he spends ten minutes washing and about an hour drying. He does not want rust, and he's willing to risk being called a Felix Unger nut-job, to avoid it!

When washing isn't necessary, he uses multi-folded cotton flannel polishing cloths to knock the dust off and then applies Eagle One spray-on wax at least once a week. Since he doesn't wash it too often, the wax finish lasts and makes it easy to keep the paint looking good.

"I get a lot of comments," he told me. "The other day, a guy with a few passengers passed me at an intersection, said 'Sweet,' did a U-turn and followed me for about a mile before doing another U-turn and disappearing. The car turns heads and draws remarks like 'Nice car' or 'Beautiful!' To tell you the truth, I am not tired of the comments yet. They make me feel like a proud papa!"