1962 CORVETTE trashed in a sinkhole at the National Corvette Museum will now be restored at the museum. Visitors to the museum will be able to watch restoration on the car. (Corvette Museum)

The National Corvette Museum will commemorate the Feb. 12, 2014, third anniversary of a sinkhole forming in the museum, with the restoration of the 1962 Corvette that fell into the hole.

“Last year we opened the (Corvette Cave In! The Skydome Sinkhole Experience),” said museum Marketing and Communications Manager Katie Frassinelli. “We’re kicking off the restoration of the 1962 Corvette.”

This is the final of three Corvettes to be restored, Frassinelli said.  Eight Corvettes fell in the sinkhole.

“Now we have a maintenance and preservation area,” she said. “We’re able to repair it in-house ourselves. Visitors can watch the restoration take place.”

It could take up to a year to repair because “we want it done right,” Frassinelli said. Almost all the work will be performed in-house by Daniel Decker, the museum’s vehicle maintenance and preservation coordinator.

“We’ll work on the ’62 here and there. It gives visitors a chance to see work in progress,” she said. “It’s hands-on action people can actually see.”

The 1962 Corvette is black with a hard top, Frassinelli said.

“Corvettes started in ’53 and it’s a ’62 so it’s an early model. It’s the last year of the first generation of Corvettes,” she said. “The ones you can buy today are seventh generation.”

Two of the cars that fell in the sinkhole were on loan from General Motors while the other six were owned by the museum. The ZR-1 Blue Devil and the 1992 one millionth Corvette have been restored. The other five – the 1984 PPG Pace Car, 1993 ZR-1 Spyder, 1993 40th anniversary, 2001 Mallett Hammer Z06 and 2009 1.5 millionth – will be displayed as is, Frassinelli said.

“The day after this happened, GM came forward and said they would restore all the Corvettes. Experts said no one at GM has experience to restore (the 1962 Corvette). They made a donation to restore the car,” she said. “They left it up to us whether we wanted to do it ourselves or send it off. Now we’re able to fix it ourselves. I think people will enjoy seeing Daniel work on that car. We plan on doing Facebook videos and pushing out to YouTube so people can see where we are on the restoration process.”

The Corvette needs about $15,000 worth of new parts, including a complete front end assembly, hood panel and windshield, but overall the damage was minor compared to the other cars, according to a news release. Because of the generosity of General Motors, all $25,000 in restoration expenses are covered.

The 1962 Corvette was donated to the museum in 2011 by David Donoho, a die-hard enthusiast who saved up enough money to buy the car in high school and owned it for just over 50 years, according to a news release. Donoho was so obsessed that he earned the nickname “The Weather Man” because his friends would tease him about how closely he watched the weather and quickly take his Covette home when there was a chance of rain. Donoho died in 2013, Frassinelli said.

— Follow features reporter Alyssa Harvey on Twitter @bgdnfeatures or visit bgdailynews.com.