Mako or mess?

http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w47/the13bats/custom.jpg

Could this be the worlds most radically customized or most hacked butchered Mako front clip?

Looks like they were going for a Corvette summer look and it went all wrong in the scoop area,
All I can find out about this one is it sold last year at the NCRS Winter Regional in Kissimmee

Well, I guess it's not a Mako the fenders don't look peaked enough,
But look under the tacked on extra scoop there appears what almost looks like a Mako cake pan hood scoop,
And look how it's made to fill a wiper door car with just that tacked on piece, Ecklers never did it with the small piece on their one piece front clips,

I sure would love to talk to who owns this one now,

NCRS probably certified this as a prototype.

You know Rock from what I hear all you need is to be in the right clique and they will certify about anything for you,

Hey bats.................. where did you take that pic ??????????

We had a good discussion about that "cream puff" a long time ago after swooning over it at Carlisle................

https://makoshark2.com/community/threads/1817/454-can-am-hits-paydirt

it is really hard to defend some customs............. somebody had a dream !!!

Rick

}>

Did you buy the car do you have it? or was that a joke in that other thread?

I found the pictures surfing the net bored,
All I want is the front clip, take a chain saw to the rear wings and hood scoop.

The pics I have are said to be from Florida

Yikes!

That's all I'm going to say.

I'm not going to bash it, somebody spent time on it and
who ever purchased it likes it.

All I'll say about it is that I don't like it[period]

McBrain

That front clip was virtually worthless from what I remember.
Body filler was several inches thick in places.
What was there was really a mess.
He had a stupid high price written on the windshield, I guess he had heard enough ridicule from passers by.
Hey, if you are going to bring it out, you had better be ready for comments
:+

Build it the way you want it and drive it like you Stole it

I sold that car at the NCRS show 2 years ago. A corvette parts dealer bought the car for parts. It was an Original big block the car I sold with the matching motor and trans used to have a blower on it. Looked like a corvette summer front end before being cut out for the blower. Body weighed a ton with wood and fiberglass. suspension had been chromed and the t tops and rear of the car had bowties made into them. A fellow in central Florida had built the car many years ago. The car is a 71 with air and an automatic. That was the best example of a corvette summer hood I have ever seen anywhere exact in the lower valance and the headlight area and center nose area. But the body had so much bondo and glass the if you drove the car on the road it would crack from the vibration. Art

Thanks for the great heads up Art,

Basically I have been obsessed with the CSC since it came out, don't know why as I can't say I like all things about it,

I have been studying it and putting together the facts for the last 30 years,
The one red car we see in the film is in the Yager museum problem is thru several owners and even Yager the car isn't exactly as it appeared in the film,
I even heard but have not confirmed ( I really don't want to know, its too sad ) that the original paint was redone in a metallic not real metal flake.

I love custom and see with different eyes that most but even with that I can see this car was a mess, only a mother could love it, actually the nose isn't all that close to the original Corvette Summer car, if you placed them side by side or look thru my obsessed eyes, lol

It actually looks a bit more like the one tribute car, one give away is the nose point is cut straight line on this car the movie car has this nose peak tapered, also there is no chin just a 78 style spoiler on the real car,

My guess is the people you sold it to trashed 90% of the fiberglass, all I wanted was the front clip, rework a few things that the builder got wrong, rework a few other things to my tastes and then pull a mold from it , with that mold I can make a good part,
I just hate to trash a good stock clip and start from scratch so this unloved clip would serve me perfect.

Do you recall who you sold it to, they might just have that front clip out back of the shop as a half way house for wayward opossums,
You know one mans trash is another mans treasure.

Many Thanks,
Cheers,
P.
The13bats@aol.com

Art-

Do you have any pix from "back in the day" when this car was running and painted?

13 Bats, I always enjoy reading your thoughts on the Corvette Summer car. That movie changed my life as a kid; funny to think that now, but it's true... I was 12 years old, going on 13, and after watching that movie, I was obsessed with Corvettes and had to have one. I lived in a small town in Idaho, and went to the library to find phone numbers... wrecking yards! I must have rung up $500.00 or more in long distance charges calling across the country looking for "a Corvette rear clip." I didn't even know what a "clip" was; only that if Kenny could build a "clip" into that awesome Corvette, I could too.

Started saving money right then and there. It took me three years, but at the age of 15, I bought my first car, a 1968 427/400 tri-power coupe! It was so damned cool that I didn't really change a thing, other than putting a killer stereo in it over the next couple of years.

I actually did build a CS hood scoop from a cardboard mock-up; overlayed in glass matte and cloth. I made it for a friends '73 Olds Omega (like a Nova). It was actually a pretty good "reproduction"; I have a good eye for detail and loved that show so much that after doing my best, it was pretty damned close. That scoop is probably still floating around Twin Falls, Idaho some where!

I've loved Corvettes ever since, and it was literally all because of Corvette Summer. What a great movie! ~Tim

The movie Corvette Summer came out in 78..,a time people loved car flicks, Smokey and the Bandit, Cannon ball run, Dukes of Hazard, you know what I mean,

Most car crafters ran CB radios and still wore flare legged jeans, but it was also a time of flux, the 80's were coming.

We are offered up this at best "B" movie that Mark "Luke Skywalker" Hamill didn't want to do it, he hated the idea, but was in contact with MGM for the Starwars flicks and had to do it, his feelings shows in his lack luster acting.

It was a car flick but a bit more It was a coming of age film, so many fellows see themselves to some degree in the Kenneth W. Dantley, Jr. character Hamill plays,
He is the shop class outcast loser and as Vanessa says he gets the girl and the car, what a feel good flick.

In the 70's Stock was yawned at, People then didn't want to be just another sheep in the flock, like they want to be today, people wanted to make whatever they drove more personal, Corvettes especially,
Then the Corvette Summer car, so many guys in the right age group at the time in all honestly had limited knowledge of vette's much less custom ones, custom vettes were still pretty high priced at the time and all the rage,

What Korky was told to do was build a radical custom that you just had to look at, the big weird scoop played such a big part of that build, if that same car wore an L-88 scoop and been painted black never would it have had the impact which is has had,
Korky made the ultimate custom vette.

Post the car on any vette or car forum today and any gear head worth his grease knows pretty darn fast what car it is,
Like the car or hate it, the Corvette Summer car is not forgotten and that is a 30 year reign and still going strong,

While not as old as Hamill really was at the time, I was around the same age he played in the film, I to was forever changed by the film,
I couldn't afford a vette but at 15 bought a Camaro that I customized, traded that car and cash for a 72 BB air roadster that is the only car I regret selling,
I too have loved vettes ever after,

Now 30 years after the film I plan to turn my 76 into a tribute car, I call it tribute because I don't want a clone, to me building a copy car would rate right up there with doing a stock restoration, it requires no free thinking, like painting by numbers,

One huge difference is I will turn my car into a vert, to make up for that 72 I let get away,
When I get it done people will say why did I ruin a vette and that's just as buttfugly as the Corvette summer car,
When I hear that, I will know I made the mark,

Do you happen to have pictures of that scoop you built?
I am not doing anything that tall on my car, Korky started with that old 60's tunnel ram scoop and it's a bit tall for my taste,

Seems every custom vettes either has an L-88 or Twin Turbo hood, yawn, hey they are cool scoops but you seem them by the zillions at any vette meet,

I have been working out a few Ideas I have, I want something radical, tasteful in my eyes yet just a bit over the top tacky,

Here's a picture of my first 'Vette, Bats!

I just found this old picture of me and my first Corvette. I didn't share the entire story... I couldn't quite afford it myself. I had saved up $3.500.00 and I found this '68 427 tri-power coupe for sale for $5,200.00. I asked my Dad if he'd loan me the rest of the dough, and he wasn't real high on the idea... shot me down. So I formulated my plan....

There was a sleazeball in town named Ernie who owned Ernie's Audio Wherehouse. It was where all the stoners would go check out car stereo stuff; guy was rumored to deal coke, the whole enchilada. I went over to his store with my cash, and said I was interested in a killer home stereo system. You remember those days; a killer sound system was on everyone's list back then. He fixed me up with a bunch of brochures for all this high-dollar stuff, and I took them home, "accidentally" leaving them on the dining table where my pop found them. He came up to my room and asked what the deal was. I said I'd be busting my butt for a couple/three years now to get a Corvette, and my dough was burning a hole in my pocket. If I coudn't get the 'Vette, I was going to shoot the moon on the killer sound system and do a car later.

Well, my Dad couldn't bear the thought of me giving old sleazeball Ernie my hard-earned cash, and he coughed up the extra dough for me and I got the car!

Here's a picture of me right after I brought the car home, grinning like a madman... couldn't believe I just brought home a Corvette! That was a fun car; made lots of great memories in that 'Vette. ~Tim

Here's a picture of my first 'Vette, Bats!

What a cool picture,

Yep, those cars were still cheap then, My 72 BB air roadster was about 5K
I will scan the only shot I have of me and mine when I am in the office next,
Those old BB might have been lower on HP but the torque was scary I ragged two trannys just playing a round,

No big stories with buying mine the fellow who had it had bought it for his son who managed to get enough tickets in like a month to loose his then new license,

The first day I had it overheat on the highway when I pulled over to hunt water a couple dudes like cheech and chong helped me but turned evil when I offered 10.00 for the help and water and they wanted 50.00 so they got me peeling out gravel in their face and no money,

Changed the thermostat and problem fixed,
The only other big issue was the power steering belt was so off center it had knife edged the pulley, can you believe a Chevy dealer still stocked it back then,
Fixing that I notice the filler neck on the power steering pump is broken off, as my wrench slips and the palm of my hand is cut right to the bone on the metal sticking up from the pump reservoir,
I didn't get it sewed up, should have the scars were there a very long time.
That cut Still give me creeps talking about it.....Boy, I miss that car :-(

rockcrusher67 wrote: NCRS probably certified this as a prototype.

That is one heck of a mess if you ask me