August 23, 2004
The initial car was found gutted, except for the engine, in the back meadow of a farmhouse in Ohio. Little is known about it's history, although the body has a tag under the front fender that indicates that the body was manufactured by a company in Tittusville, Florida. They are no longer in business. The 1972 Mako Shark Corvette,was completely rebuilt by John Cika of Parma, Ohio. It took eight months and thousands of hours to restore this car to it's current condition. With the body removed you can see the detail that went into restoring the engine. Headers were added which terminate out the back through twin tailpipes that are centered in the middle of the car. The engine didn't look that great when the car was discovered in actuality the engine happened to be a very good high performance engine that would be resurrected thruogh lots of money and hard work. Unfortunately, this engine started burning oil on the drive from Ohio to Florida soon after the car was complete. By the time I drove in to the driveway, only two cylinders were firing, but the engine still looked beautiful if that counts for anything. I had it replaced with a new $3000.00 crate 350 engine (not a rebuilt, but a new) by chevy with a 1 year everything under the hood warranty. It orginally belong to one Brett Arquette. He did most of the body work or had it done, then it went to one John Ley of Marrieta, Ohio where I purchurseed off of E-Bay. Actually the orginal winner of the bidding couldn't come up with the money so John contacted me because I asked if he'd go though esrow.com so we arranged a agreement where we used esrow.com. I would advise anyone buying something like a car to use esrow.com because you can see what your getting before buying it!
Thanks, Jimmy Pelham, New Hampshire, james_m17
james_m17