With a widebody kit and flashy paint, this extreme 1965 Chevrolet Corvette custom in San Bernardino, California may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s recently had everything “redone or restored” before going up for sale. The elderly owner’s son who authored the listing says it runs great! The ’70s style custom comes to market here on eBay where $40,000 seals the deal via Buy It Now, or use Make Offer to submit an alternate number. Custom cars tend to polarize potential buyers, with purists lamenting any change from factory perfection, and others viewing them as a creative extension of the original design. I’m drawing a blank on the origin of those headlights, but they beat the bug-eyed C2 kits for sure. I might prefer a more recognizable nose, but the design is certainly bold. With little air feeding the radiator through the modified front fascia, let’s hope it draws more ventilation from below.
Keystone-style wheels and BFG Radial T/A tires smack of a late ’70s to early ’80s build, and buyers who formed their idea of “cool” during that time likely comprise the bulk of potential buyers. The owner clearly loves Corvettes, but not all Corvette fans love customs. Don’t be too uptight; there is no shortage of immaculate ’65s around, and that leaves room for custom renditions here and there. If you don’t like this one, don’t buy it!
The interior maintains a fairly stock look with two-tone upholstery to match the paint colors. A three-speed automatic handles the gear changes.
A 327 cubic inch (5.3L) small block Chevy V8 with what looks like later HEI-style electronic ignition maintains a ’70s look in this ’60s classic. True to the description, everything looks shiny and clean, even the stock-looking cast iron exhaust manifold is bright and silvery. A magazine-quality photo shoot would put this custom in a better light. A big-haired model paying tribute to the late Tawny Kitaen would certainly set a vehicle-appropriate anachronistic aura.
While the treatment up front seems completely custom, the lines at the rear are less objectionable to my eye, and echo other C2 widebody kits. Corvette C2 owners have run six lights instead of the original four since the ’60s. It might be wrong to mention such things in today’s world, but since we’re on a trip to the swinging ’70s, I don’t believe I have enough hair on my chest (or back) to own this car. Do you have the right stuff to drive this fully-refreshed custom C2?
Looks like the builder was inspired by the movie, Cars. Maybe Lightning McQueen’s cousin, Thunder?
Between this and the Hudson Hornet in the previous listing, I’m thinking Barn Finds might be going for a knockoff remake.
I think the C2 is one of those timeless beautiful designs and in the same company with the big Healey’s, the E-type Jag, and the like. Why mess with perfection?
One word. . . Overkill.
Another word….fugly!
I think it depends on what area of the car you look. I like the car from the front and the side. But I find it f-ugly looking at it from the tail end.
Car Nut Tacoma,
That is really funny, because I find the front to be a bit awkward, particularly the grille opening. And the rear is OK by me.
Different strokes!
WWTD? What would Tom do? He is a very wise man and is the moral authority on this site.
From the side, it looks a little like an overgrown Miata.
I don’t care if Tom likes it, that thing is fugly
There are lots of Toms out there but this one doesn’t like it!
Looking at the back I immediately thought of Dead man’s curve
“All the Jag seen were my 6 tail lights, but he passed me at Doheny( drug store) and I started to swerve, but I pulled it out and there I was,,,at Dead Mans Curve,,”
Not so sure the graphics help the overall look. Not diggin’ the extra taillights either.
The rear end I can dig, flares are nice, but the graphics and headlights ruin it…
Consistently horrible.
They were lame then and they are lame now. Unless your customization ideas are so good that you somehow improve the original in some way you are only indulging your own ego with this kind of excess. Vandalizing would be a good descriptor, desecration is too strong unless you believe these to be sacred. Some do but to me it is still a car albeit a very special car.. The best advice for most folks considering “Improving” a c-2 Corvette? Don’t do anything at all.
Ask yourself if you can do better than all those designers who put their considerable talent into designing it originally? The designers and engineers who met and hashed out every tiny detail? A project overseen by Zora Duntov? Do you really think that you have somehow, someway found some detail they overlooked? Some idea that they didn’t explore and test repeatedly? You with your toolbox, car magazines and stylish haircut? Better that you sleep on it. Sleep on it many times and then and only then do nothing at all.
When I see something like this I feel only relief that it isn’t my problem.
The gotcha with custom vehicles is they are customized to one person’s taste. That’s not a problem until the time to sell comes along. Market demand for customs such as this or the yellow ’69 RS/SS is severely limited when compared to interest in an unmodified vehicle. Price-wise this Corvette will be a deal for someone whose taste aligns with the owner who customized this car. Finding that someone can be a challenge.
What’s a 3 speed auto glide? More likely it’s still got a 2 speed powerglide.
The worse thing is the “modern” exterior plastic mirrors with dumb blinking lites.
The only mods i would make to these early vettes are halogen headlites, dual circuit disk(at least up front) brakes & a thicker collapsible steering col.
Definitely not to my taste. I’ll leave it at that.
So nobody said anything about the bland afterthought of a grill opening during construction?
Owner to body shop:
“The grill needs to be more mouth like.”
Nice interior. We have a shark in south Florida that looks just like the front of this car.
If you have seen the mouth on a the living Stingray or many other ray fish you will see that this grill opening looks more like the mouth of the fish than the original car did.
On the 3rd photo I waiting for it to start talking!! 😂 The rear is nice since I seen my fair share of Vettes with the flares and duck tail. What was he thinking coming up with that front design! 🇺🇸🐻🇺🇸
When I saw the opening photo, I could feel the hate from the commentariat eminating off of this one.
I’m thinking the front never got finished.
If a car could cry, there would be water-stain streaking from under the inboard edges of the headlight housings. Larry Shinoda, Pete Brock and Bill Mitchell certainly would Saab at the sight.
Wow, Fugly comes to mind.
I dont mind it in the least.
Red flags do go up when i see selling for so and so and they say a ground up resto, yet the interior and enging shots show pitted and tired looking components, the opposite of a ground up restoration.
Unless, of course, ground up is used in the same sense as hamburger is ground up steak.
Good luck to the seller, but for reasons of my own, “I’m Out”
Looking at a beautiful 51 Hudson convertible still in its original stock form after 70 years and then this once beautiful Corvette turned into I do not know what!!t
How to depreciate a collectible C2 with the swipe of a pen and check book. Does it come with Ahooga horn?
I just wish that I had been quicker to pull the trigger on this one! A beautiful car from my past! We will be having our 50th reunion in September due to the pandemic last year and what would have been cooler than pulling up in this Corvette!! Lots to be said about all the big blocks but a great tuneup on a good small block works good for me!!
Relisted:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/373678125929?ViewItem=&item=373678125929&vxp=mtr
It looks like a constipated pufferfish.
You’ve seen one??
No sh*t?
I’m really digging that set of clear-lensed 8th-generation Honda Civic headlights, but I will probably just buy the lights when the time comes instead of an entire donor vehicle.
I ain’t diggin all the unsightly, cloudy, scratched, & sometimes turned yellowish headlte covers in too many parking lots these days, with older Hondas being the biggest offenders. I can not beLIEVE the feds not only won’t force recalls, or at least issue fines, but that they actually APPROVED those in the 1st place!!, as well as the bump-me-for-outrageous damage $$$$ “bumpers”.
I have an original ’60’s sealed beam hi-low beam AMERICAN made 7 INCH circular glass headlite that still is as clear & scratch free as when it was new.
Blame Mark Hamill!
https://st.hotrod.com/uploads/sites/21/2017/12/1972-corvette-stingray-corvette-summer-1.jpg
I think I saw this in the Pixar movie ‘Cars’.
Whew, I figured this would rattle some nerves. 1st, let me say, it’s a cool custom, but in a sad way, people today, especially ones from California, have lost what we hold dear in cars, and this is what a modern classic( THERE’S a conundrum for ya’) should look like, and 2nd, for someone to butcher a timeless classic ( in my eyes) and turn it into this, tells me, we’re doomed and it all starts in California. Larry Shinoda and Bill MItchell are spinning are spinning in their graves, for sure!
That small mouth does look like it’s about tell us something we probably don’t want to hear . . . Someone went to a lot of trouble to “F” up a Corvette . .
“What kind of car is that?” ” It’s a 1965 C2 Corvette” ” Gee I hope no one was injured”.