Corvettes are supercars for everyman.
A chicken in every pot and a big horsepower, fiberglass dreamboat in every garage.
Only problem is, when you mass produce a exotic car, they become a commodity like dixie cups and bathroom tissue and sadly, after a couple of pints of beer and some poster paint, this is what happens.
We’ve talked before about the hazy era of bellbottoms, bongs and custom C3 Corvettes. Alas, the St. Louis factory, assembly line workers, and stoners are long gone. These old custom fiberglass palettes should probably remain unaltered as groovy, maligned art for all to witness.
Most interesting with this old C3, is it was allegedly a big-block, 427 Baldwin-Motion car that met up with an amateur Larry Watson painter and voila, the crappy “panel” paint job you see here was brought to fruition.
Tell-tale signs of Baldwin Motion-ism are clearly visible. The Mako Shark rear clip, Dodge Charger taillights and glassed in headlights are present and accounted for–although the 427 motor is long gone replaced with a plebeian 350 V-8.
To put this into perspective, think of painting a C7 Callaway like this. A C3 was near the top of the sports car food chain and even though “events” like this paint job occur years after a car rolls off the assembly line, it’s amazing to see how a late model Corvette was a viable canvas for these kind of “improvements,” back in the day.

There is hope for this car. Think of this Mako as the blueprint. Like the scene in “Wizard of Oz” when the foursome hits the Emerald City, a thorough cleaning and re-think could do wonders. Remove and straighten body and drop on a Art Morrision chassis with LS power. No one’s done that before either. Oh, and do a badass gradient paint job that would do Bill Mitchell proud.
As usual, we’ll add our Weiner Wednesday disclaimer. To each his own and variety is the spice of life! Tell us what you think in the comments below.