Since I am new here I thought I would give you all some history on my car. I've had a few of you ask some questions so I thought I would throw this together real quick.

I bought the car back in November of 2003 just one day after my son was born, talk about some convincing I had to do to pull that off with the wife! Here's a few shots of it in Detroit where I picked it up









Overall the car didn't look too bad but it had almost ever problem you could imagine. The entire front end had to be rebuilt and rear end was shot as well. I couldn't drive it for a couple months until that was at least done. After I got the poor thing running I immediately put some new wheels and tires on it to give it a better look and added some Hooker side pipes. Cleaned up the engine bay pretty good for an old tired L82. Yes the paint looks pretty good in most of the shots but that was after a ton of buffing and polishing. The black paint was not bad but the body was real wavy and when you looked up close to the car is where you could see the problems. I think I did a good job of hiding most of it through the detailing. It’s hard to make a bad black paint job look good.





I lived with this for a few years until I had the money to do what I've always wanted to do and that was have a kick azz green paint job. When I was very young my dad had a '65 vert that was metallic green and he sold it when I was 17. I knew someday when I had the opportunity I was going to get my own. Of course a C2 would have been nice but that was out of my ball park so my second choice was a C3. I took the car to a guy that I heard a lot of people talk about around Mid Missouri who did a ton of hot rods over the years. He was pricy but well worth it in the long run.












I’ve always like the Stinger hood so I opted for that but still wanted to keep the car’s classic lines. This hood was a pain because the front of it where the spear comes down to a point has very little clearance. I had to remove the stock fan set-up and go with an electric, which I was going to do anyway. Also the radiator core support had to be modified as well and bent down to allow room for the hood to shut. Once the body work and primer was set I ran out of money due to some personal finances that had to take place first. I took the car home in this condition and worked on the undercarriage cleaning and painting until I saved up some more money.








Six month later I had the means to return it to the shop and finish what I’ve been waiting for a long time.







Rolled out of paint booth after buff and polish





If you look close you can see the stinger is marbleized under the paint. It was a nice subtle touch.


The color is House of Kolor cosmic candy green laid down on what you saw was a sliver base coat. As you can tell this thing looks a mile deep and pops like mad in the sun light. There are a lot of Corvettes and not too many that are green. Even more, there are very few that look like this. To complete the look I opted to go to some bigger wheels and added some classic look with the TT2’s.






I had the interior all redone as well. The seats were re-covered in leather as the old ones looked like a rat had its way with it.




A couple of years later I met a guy who eventually turns out to be one of my best friends. Durango_Boy, or as I know him as Matt. This guy and I hit it off great and he has helped out so much with my car I could never truly repay him. He is a huge asset to this site for all of you. We did a stereo upgrade which is phenomenal. We then started talking about an engine swap. It was really the last thing I had left to do. We started with a 350 Vortec out of a 1996 Tahoe. It was a full roller motor which is what we were looking for. We added some RHS heads and a ton of other stuff that I just don’t have time to list. Lets just say this thing wakes up the car a whole lot better than the tired old L82 that was in it. Here some shots of the install. Almost every blanket I had wrapped this car up. No way was I going to scratch this car in the process.










Clean-up time!





Safely in place!








Thanks for your help again DB! This whole process took approximately 5 years to get where it is now. Oh and of course like most of you it’s still not done, they’re never done!

Here’s the little lady that allowed this to happen.




Here's a video I made a few years ago. It was my first so forgive the amateur abilities






Hope you all enjoyed this. I’m glad to be apart of this forum. Everyone has been great!

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Wife: Curtis, have you seen the bed linens, I can't seem to find them.
Curtis: Uhhhh, yeah honey, I, uh, sent them out to be dry cleaned. I know how hard you work and I didn't want you to have to worry about them.
Wife: Oh, Curtis, you are soooooo thoughtful....

Is that something like the conversation you had? Not in my house....lol.

Pics look great. I think the transformation from when you bought it until after you detailed it looks amazing! I like the subtle touches, too, changing the hood, the emblem (the circle on is ugly, IMHO). Great job, man.

Matthew

PS.....don't try to fool everyone into thinking that's "Detroit" where you picked it up....

That engine was really fun to build...actually the original engine project was going to be an 8100, or 8.1L from a late model truck, either carbed or fuel injected. This Vortec was better on the project budget and I think it suits the car better anyway.

Thanks Curt for the kind words. You know I love to help and I think of you as a brother so of course I'll work side by side with you on this car until the day you die...when I take possession. LOL.

Lots more to do to both of our cars, but Curt's is by far the best looking C3 I have seen in person and I'm not biased when I say that.

PS...I loved that pic of Goat's beer belly above. LOL

Amazing transformation, and you have a good woman to be supportive of your passion. The result was definitely worth all your hard work!

I posted in the other thread about the paint color..... truly amazing color. When I eventually paint my Chevelle, I will be stealing your color.

Nice documentation of the build!

DG

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Yeah, she questioned the blankets but she was out of town the entire week Matt and I did this. So she didn't know about it until I slipped up and started showing her pictures of what we did. That was actually a funny moment.

I didn't get the car in downtown Detroit of course. It was a suburb of Detroit.

Thanks for the comments.

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I'm just poking fun a little bit. I'm from Detroit, so I can make comments about it

Matthew

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I used to live up that way as well. We moved to Missouri in 2002. We used to live in the NW suburbs of Chicago. Schaumburg to be exact. The winters are cold in Mid MO but not like Chi-Town.

Do you know if there will be a "Vette Fest" again this year at the McCormick center in Chicago? I went a few years back and it was a pretty good show. I didn't take my car however, I was just a spectator.

Scumburg, huh? Why the move? I've driven through St Louis, and it's exactly like Detroit was. Dirty and run down. Ugh.

As far as Vettefest, they had one last year but I didn't go. My buddy had his vette in there a few years ago and even he hasn't gone recently. I dunno why. I couldn't tell you if the participation has been high or low, but they have a website.

http://www.chevyvettefest.net/

Matthew

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You should take a road trip through Missouri and visit Columbia. It's a smaller city, but it feels and grows like a big city but without the 'old' 'rundown' and 'crime' that really sours a good city.

I've been to Chicago many times. Schaumburg, Elgin, Rosemont...the Hooters in Rosemont was a favorite and there was a fantastic BBQ and ribs joint around there somewhere too.

I sure do love Columbia though, and I have lived a few other large cities to compare it to.

That's the kind of history lesson car guys love

Welcome to the Guru, Curt. Beautiful car!

Curt,

I just caught this... I have been gone all weekend.

What a beautiful car! Lots of love showing through on it too!

Welcome to the Guru

Don

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Hey Don,

Thanks for the compliments!

Welcome Curt. Wow, small world, I had saved the video of your car that I found on Youtube a while back. I loved the build and the changes it went through, especially the paint job. Sweet color, candy is a difficult color to apply and look good, great job. You bought it a day after giving birth? Wow, most people would have to sell it at that point to buy a more reasonable family car(that is from my wife's voice in my head). Kudos to your wife for her support of your Corvette lifestyle.

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Thanks man! I'm glad you like the video. That was my first time messing around with the video maker.

Yeah, the wife was real cool about the whole thing. Timing was not too good, but I was able to pull it off. She's never held that against me so she is indeed pretty cool. The only time she gets mad about the car is when her leg touches one of the side pipes. LOL...........

Curtis1974

Here's another video I made awhile back. Just thought I would share!

Hey Curtis,
Nice video. I'm at work and have some kind of corp filter on the system that filters pic's so I cant see any of your pictures but for some reason I could watch the you tube video. I've liked that stinger hood of yours sense the first time I saw it.
Your wife have a nice single sister? LOL.

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Sorry man, no luck!

I want that paint. One night, I am gonna sneak out to MO and steal it. Just the paint.

damn.

That was so cool to see the evolution and transformation of your vette. Thanks for posting!

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That's funny, LOL.

Curtis

one word bro. "Perfect"

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Thanks!

Yep the entire car has been tastefully done. Great choice on the paint color.

thats really neat. you get the car you always wanted and get to build it the way you want to. reminds me of back in the 60`s when i was building my race cars. love the paint and the interior looks great also. looking forward to meeting you and the others out west there. when are the get togeathers out there. could you post them or pm me.

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The Corvette Cup here in Columbia is Friday April 3rd.
http://www.corvette-guru.com/modules/ ... 00000326&caldate=2009-4-1
It'll probably be cold and rainy like the last two years have been but we'd love for you to make it to that one.

Next is the big car show down at the Lake.
http://www.corvette-guru.com/modules/ ... 00000385&caldate=2009-5-1

Finally, my favorite, and the one I hope the most of you come to, is the Hooters Bikini Car Wash Corvette show.
http://www.corvette-guru.com/modules/ ... 00000325&caldate=2009-5-1