Features Corvette hot rods - picture thread

Jim you are so right, now that most if not all of my friends, mentors and hero's are gone I think back often. "Chuck, I envy the fact you got to see the car run, as well as compete against the big boys as you did. As I get older, I find some of my greatest possessions are my memories of drag racing back in the 60s and 70s."

And corn fed that's the only way I can tell them apart.

Pat

 

Chris I can understand your sentiment on Mazmanian's wheelwells and I only wish I had been there to stop them when they cut them the way they did, but the car is iconic in a sense today and it would be criminal to change the car today IMO. I cringe when I look at them but the car looks pretty similar to the way it ran in the early 60s and I for one am happy that someone left the car as it was. Hess opened up the wheelwells on Wildebeast but they were done pretty well IMO. The sad part may be that someone found Wildebeast in the 70s and decided to take it back to stock. Old Vettes were modified to drag race and custom configurations and leaving the better ones as they were modified is just right in my book. As much as Hayseed restored may look pretty good, it sure had a great look as a drag car and that can be recreated but it is not the same.

If I owned Mazmanian's car I may shake my head as I jumped in the car to take it for a ride but I would keep it as it is now. Crazy as it sounds, almost every time I get behind the wheel these days, it takes me back to the 60s-great memories of my buddies 61 that was a super compe***ive junior stocker (although that is not what we called it then). When I bought my black car it had wheelwells like Wildebeast but one day I was out in the country and my air shocks blew and the body came down on the tires and were cutting into the tires-billows of smoke as I looked in my rear view mirror. I was quite a ways from home and so I ripped the flares off with my bard hands so I could get home. I then changed them back to stock. I know a bit of the history of my black car but I only wish I could prove it was Wildebeast-wishful thinking.

 

The 56 posted by Anthony has a real tale of horror behind it. Somewhere I have a file on it with a bunch of pictures when it was in disrepair. Some call it a 57 although it is really a 56 as I understand and is called the Super Sport (not to be confused with the SS of the same era). It has a 283/283 which would of course be quite rare for a 56. The car was involved in a street racing accident in the 60s I seem to remember and eventually ended up in a junkyard. Then there was some dispute that involved lawyers as to the proper ownership, which I thought involved persons from Oklahoma and New York. Took some time to sort it all out but the car is now restored and back to it's original glory.

 

On the '56 is the cove painted silver or does it have an aluminum insert?

 

Aluminum insert Doug-fancy stuff.like the SR cars. The car cost a few dollars to build-forget what I have read but for the day it was a tad pricey. I seem to remember they went over the top with the engine compartment, making it quite the jewel.

 

Thanks Jim, I thought it looked like an insert. Don't think I have seen the car before.

 

As seen at a store in Mackinaw City today..guy was quite the accomplished racer..

 

VERY COOL
loveoftiki

 

Moraiarty I have read in the old magazines that John's car was candy persimmon but I also know that in the early 60s it was difficult to find mixed candy colors and most often they were mixed by the painter. I went to work in my grandfather's paint booth at his restoration shop when I was 13 (summer of 64) and to this day I enjoy mixing colors. I did quite a bit of show paint work for years but now restrict it to my own stuff since I breathed enough fumes in my life.

Not sure if you remember the thread on Mazmanian's Corvette color and Dean Lowe seemed to say it was candy red (or closer to it) if I remember correctly and his RPU was candy persimmon which was more orange in color. I wonder if Wildebeast was more candy persimmon at least in some pictures it appears to be a candy orange shade.

As an aside with candy red, I repainted my avatar car about a year ago to do some repair and the color was PPG Tri Coat Candy apple red. When I tried to order the paint I found they scrubbed the formula from their computers since two of the components had minuscule traces of lead and they no longer sell the paint. I contacted PPG and they were not much help but luckily I found the mixing formula under the paint label on one of the cans. To try and get the two components (diamond dust and amber glo) took me weeks and several failed attempts and one component (amber glo) they wanted $1100 for three ounces.-which I did not go for. They wanted $600 for three ounces of diamond dust although I was able to find a bottle for $200 unopened. I kept at at and finally found someone to send me basically a teas**** of the amber glo which was enough and I had the paint mixed. Amber glo is essential since that is one of the components that makes candy pop. In the end though the guy mixing the paint put too much black in the mix and the final result drives me nuts. If you look at the car from one angle you can see a black hue but if you walk up on the car it disappears or if you move a few feet one way or another the black hue seems to move. It is like flip flop which I am personally not a fan of. When you get close it looks perfect-drives me absolutely crazy.

Back in my experimenting days I used to mix pearl with different colors which was interesting although I remember two jobs came out less that ideal so I had to do them over from scratch which is a bad as it sounds. I still have some old tincture gold pearl and would love to do one more job with candy rootbeer and the tincture gold pearl (not mixed together but maybe the coves on a Vette). I have a old Vette I have built out of parts that I would love to finish and use the combination. These candy paints today are a bit easier than the old style with multiple coats of lacquer but either way it is hard to beat candy IMO. I painted a 61 Vette years ago in candy green lacquer-ridiculous number of coats and the owner had me repaint the right side door when someone put a big scratch in the paint. Damn near lost my religion doing the repair and ended up having to do a fade on the right side to make it right.

 

It’s unfortunate that the main identifying feature of the Mazmanian Corvette is the only flaw in the whole car. Kind of like the Graffiti coupe’s cut down grille shell….looks bad but makes it immediately known what car it is. Luckily, the chances of me owning either are super slim so I’ll never have the moral dilemma of changing them.

But since I’m dreaming big here…..I’ve always thought the Hayseed is probably the best looking Corvette ever. Years ago I saw it in it’s factory restored form and about cried. If I won the lottery I would have no problem spending whatever it took to buy it and whatever remains of it’s racing parts and restoring it to it’s red version.

 

Chris I pretty much agree with you on Hayseed-restored it is very nice of course but the drag car versions are pretty impressive to me. It made its bones as a drag car and not as a numbers matching restored 57. I understand the value deal but good drag cars bring a healthy amount of money and I believe Hayseed the drag car may bring more today than in the restored form.

 

Does anyone have a picture of Hayseed as it appears now?

 

Dan here you go

 

Thanks Jim. As nice as the car appears I have to echo what others have expressed. For me it is a shame and a loss. I realize the owner that restored it to stock appearance simply may not have had an appreciation for what was lost. Depending on the condition of the car when found they may have thought they were saving the car. I wonder how far back this was done. Was it before there was an appreciation period race cars? I think many of us can remember when a car with old race histories could be e bought for cheap. I've bought two over the years. One is now over closer to you Jim than it is to me. It's back to one of it's race liveries. I have to wonder if hayseed is now true to what the car's original configuration was or what someone wished it was.

Are there photos of what the car looked like when the restorer started?

 

Dan, as I understand Doug Juonis who raced the car still owns it and restored it. He saved some of the original drag racing parts, like the straight axle and probably the headers etc and I have heard that a friend of his may do a clone of the car using some of the original parts. I have heard Doug is a great guy and may have some regrets about putting it back stock so I do not want to pile on but as a drag race nut, I know the way I lean. Not sure it would be the same to me as a clone. Back in the 80s I met Mike Ernst who owned the 1962 Gulf Oil racer that won 12 of 14 races including Daytona and Sebring and won the championship in 62. Mike and I horse traded some parts and we became friends. I asked him if I could sit in the car. Sitting behind the wheel and thinking of what a great piece of history it was and is, was beyond cool IMO. As corny as it might sound, it was probably a highlight of sitting behind the wheel of any car-due to its history. If it had been a clone it would not have been the same. Sitting in the restored Hayseed example would not be the same to me either.

The car is still "The Hayseed" but I only wish it had been "restored" to as raced condition. As much as I like the red livery I also like the black livery-maybe more. I run Tubular Automotive headers on my red car and they have continuously made headers since the 60s. Only drag car I can think of that proclaimed he ran them on the side of his car. I like the car behind Hayseed which is Sam Cunningham's 61 roadster. Sam's 61 is arguably one of the greatest Corvette drag cars that raced in the 60s. I wish it had survived (and if it did I am not aware).

Here it is in red.

 

I really wonder what shade of red it was back then. Every one of the old photos looks different. I like to think it was a darker shade.

 

Bones

 

this one been posted yet

 

The Hayseed is making me feel good about my choice of American 5 spokes for my 59 I will post my hood scoop choice as I get closer, Did anyone ever mention Vette parts are a little pricey?

 

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Moriarity do you have your name painted on that spot or is it the same picture you have posted before? I can't wait to get my 57 together because that's what I would do, just go get coffee.

Pat