John Silva Shorttail

Paul Silva wrote: My father found the car in a man's backyard about two years ago. we are from Peabody,MA so we know all about the John Silva Maco Shark. When he went to ask the man if he was selling it the guy practically chased him away. all of a sudden about six months back the gave us a call out of the blue and a …

Back side of door.

Randy did make a thread of this showing how the
short tails measured out compared to the original
and he did a great job I might add, I just wanted
to gather some more high detailed shots just to
put everything in sharp perspective.

The two images I've attached to the past two posts
are the areas I need the shots of.

Again thank you for your help Rick.

McBrain

2Sharks wrote: Send me pics, I will post them for you. makoshark@triad.rr.com

At the top of the door does the door line go straight
twards the body or does it curve inward?

At the top base what is the measurement from pillar
to door jam. I believe the measurement is the same
wheather it's a short tail or not and I believe that
your door curves inward as well but I just wanted to
confirm this as fact, so as to not assume.

Thanks
McBrain

The13bats wrote: I have seen a few with a longer door cap cutting into the rear wheel well cant decide if I dig that on a street car especially if I wanna run a big old flare. but then the big flares cuts into the door so 6 of one 1/2 dozen of the other, but what is the "short tail" what is the difference, do you …

Can someone please direct me to that post/thread comparing the cut of the short tail to long that you say Randy posted,
Many thanks
Cheers,
P.

skip wrote: Hi- I think what is being called a shorttail is the removal of 16 inches from the rear deck area which is how John Silva did mine. He never gave me a choice of any other way. There is no spare. Just use flat fix! He built mine around 1973. I drove my 68 from Phila to Boston to have it done. If …

Bryan, the top of the door is the same............... the rear edge just goes straight down from the top outside point.

Silva left a gap at the flair where the door closes........ Randy had already glassed in a lip on the drivers side, and I did the passengers side to match. Looks better when the door is open and it should keep the back of the door a little cleaner. These pix should help you understand how the doors are different at the door ! Rick

454CanAm wrote: Here are some pix............. old and newer of my short-tail I bought from Randy. You can see how the door opening works in these pix ! Hope this sheds some light on the difference in the short-tail.

By the way...................... Skip --------- We're still waiting to see some pix of your ca …

Wow!

Thats beautiful.

Thanks for your help.

McBrain

2Sharks wrote: Send me pics, I will post them for you. makoshark@triad.rr.com

Hi all- Hmmm- the more I read, the less I know. I thought the term shorttail referred to the removal of the 16 inches from the rear deck, eliminating the spare. I dont know what a long tail would be considered, maybe lss removed? I was not given the choice by Silva when he did my car.
As to the wheelwells, I think there are 2 reasons they are high. On stock vettes, just about every tite and different rim rubs. Plus on small block cars, the rear springs are softer, so more squat on acceleration causes cmore rub. I had a speed shop back then and many suppliers made these larger rear flares that went onto the original bonding strips. This is from memory, but I think it made the opening 2 1/2 inches higer. But it also was a larger diameter. Remember back in the early 70s, 60 series had just come out, and they were wider, but not as tall as 70 series, so if you ran nthem, the opening looked larger. In addition, you would want to match front and rear. Ive seen some of the ebay macos with the stock rear openings and large fronts and it looks silly for sure. I think that when the peak of the front fenders was raised the 2 1/2 or 3 1/2 inches, I cant recall which, they wanted to keep the distance, vertically, the same above the front wheel opening to the top of the fender edge similar to stock. I saw a car where they took a stock fendered car and bondoed it up about 3 inches to make it look like a maco. And in fact, the guy who bought it thpo7ught it was a maco. It looked sad, out of proportion. I suppose you could always buy some suv tites like 30 inches tall (bfg calls it LT something), , they have some with regular tread to fill the space. The other thing that could be done is to use 17 inch rims to give the illusion of filling up the space. You can get 60 series in 17 inch I believe, 18 would be better, but I dont think you could get a tall enough tire.
MY car does not have the maco rear windo, I have the stock vette roof. My car was a street car, daily driver and I needed to be able to park it. So, I could still remove my reat window, and I found a great set of aluminum sunshades that hinge up for the rear and the gas cap is under that.
My door area flares have a custom mudguard built into them at the bottom of each wheel opening so I dont have that missing peice issue as the car pictured has. I was told that my doors wete stock, but with some buildup at the back edge to meet the flares. I dont recall it being thick there. Ill have to look.
Pictures, I have some, I have to play with the scanner . Maybe I can figure it out. When I have a little more time. Got to eat first!
Skip

454CanAm wrote: Skip, you mentioned that there was no room for the spare.............. I decided to go this route, since the rear is so prominent !!!!

For 454 canAm- Hey- if my butt looked that good, Id leave it exposed too!! It looks great! I did the opposite, I made a pan that went a few feet under up close to the rear. like a bellypan, but in the rear. I also had the license on the left, recessed, and a single backup lite on the right (a 100,000 candlepower driving light). Never hit anything backing up!

Skip