Dan Hampton

Look at the floor of that hangar. You could perform open heart surgery on that. Unbelievable.

richwahne

Hi,

If I may, I'd like to clear the air about something that has been on my chest for over thirty years?

I am the guy that was approached by Rev. Mike Ernst in the early 1980's to help bring his 1962 Corvette back into it's original race colors of 1962; after about 15 year of it being a street car.

Mike told me that he had just purchased a 1962 Corvette. Not just any 1962 Corvette mind you...this was an ex-Gulf Oil race car, #2 to be exact. He had an amazing, and long, story about how he found it, bought it three times, had finally gotten it from Ohio, and wanted to restore it to the way it was when it raced in the 60's.

This is where I really come in to the story. I was the owner of Concours Auto Body in Santee, CA and at the time was doing all of the body and paint work for Vintage Vettes (YES...John Siler's Vintage Vettes - for those of you that got taken by him...I apologize...so did I...to the tune of over $20,000.00) Anyway, Mike had contracted Siler at Vintage Vettes to do the restoration, and as we at Concours was the chosen shop for all the body and paint work on all Corvettes being restored at Vintage Vettes, we did all of the stripping, body work, preparation, and beautiful white paint with blue inserts...and at a state of the art for the early 1980's.

Well the reason I say Mike Ernst REALLY let me down is, he didn't keep his promise to me or my shop! Ernst NEVER mentioned the fact that Concours was the shop, in the early 80's, that took the car from it's street condition, and put it back into it race colors. As a matter of fact, I actually allowed the Reverend inside the spray booth with me to watch while I applied the white paint...in exchange for his mention in all of his soon to be (at that time) articles. You see, he was a contributing writer for The Corvette Restorer Magazine, and had the perfect outlet for such an awesome story.

He was so excited that I would allow him in the booth with me, to watch me paint the car (something that I had NEVER allowed before or after), he promised to mention me and Concours Auto Body in his upcoming article (which turned out to be entitled) "It's Better to be Lucky Than Smart" (which was printed in The Corvette Restorer Magazine (Volume Thirteen, Number Three, Winter 1987)...but guess what? He NEVER mentioned a single word about me or my shop! I'm positive that it wasn't because he wasn't happy with the work that I had done for him. He gladly paid the bill, gladly stood in front of the finished beauty for pictures, and he proudly took it up to the Monterey Historics at Laguna Seca, in 1987.

I saw the car at Laguna Seca in 1987, where it actually raced with the original driver, Tony Denman, at the wheel. I saw good old #2 at the Monterey Historics (now call the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion) again in 2002 right after it had been restored again...very nice job too.

I am THRILLED that this car has the kind of history that it does, and that I actually had a LOT to do with a piece of history, and a car that sold at auction for $1.485 million dollars! I really am! I just wanted to say my piece, and be at peace with it all! Too bad the Reverend wasn't a man of his word back then.

Peace to all!

ps...I just re-read the "...lucky..." article again, and NOPE, no mention of who brought #2 from the street colors to its racing glory colors. As I finished reading the article, here are Mike's final words..."Just look what happens when you go to church a least twice every weekend!"

Hmmmm you'd think they would talk about honesty and honor at least once per weekend at church; wouldn't you?

Thank you for allowing me to vent!

tyoneal

When did the "Gulf Livery Colors", go to Powder Blue and Orange?

I'm guessing just as GM pulled out of Racing, Ford picked up the Gulf sponsorship for their Cobras and GT40's.

Would that had gone from 1965 to 1969, Then switch over to Porsche in 1970 and 71?

When did Gulf quit their Blue and Orange Livery?

As you know I'm doing my GS in the Powder Blue and Orange, a "What if GM hadn't been so Stupid and stayed in Racing.

Thanks,

Ty O'Neal

62corvette

Rich,
I'm sorry you feel that way. The sign-board I had with the car at every show the car was at for years attributed the paint work to your shop. When it comes to articles, there are writers, and there are editors. I am simply a writer.
So you got this off your chest to the whole Corvette community. Your inaccurate venting didn't make my day. I am honest and honorable.
By the way, I sold the car in 2002 because I was having health problems at the time. I sold it for FAR less than it did later on. The individual who bought it from me completely re-restored the car, including body and paint.
Mike Ernst

ChattanoogaJSB

now I'm definitely subscribed to this old thread!

63Corvette

WOW! I am surprised by some of the information posted here today. I hope all are or will be reconciled

Loren Smith

While this was a fairly polite vent, this still sounds like a low blow by someone who got paid for his services, coming from out of nowhere. I would hope the mods delete this thread instead of just locking it. Just my 2 cents.

napa68

All of your post and especially THAT comment, could have been saved for at least a PM. My Father and I have delt with Mike on several occasions (25 years) and do not have a bad thing to say.

You sir IMO, are out of line.

Respectfully,

Tim Schuetz

richwahne

Mr. Schuetz....Thank you for your reply, and I certainly appreciate your opinion...but I don't believe that I was out of line with most of my comment; granted there were some points that I probably should have left out. I did something for a customer, in exchange for a future payment, and that future payment never happened. Sure maybe I chose the wrong forum for my venting, but then again, this is where I saw the article about Gulf Oil #2.

In Mike's reply he says "When it comes to articles, there are writers, and there are editors. I am simply a writer." Let me ask you this…in an article being written for a Corvette magazine, about a 1962 Corvette being returned to its glory days, where a major part of that return process involved the car being painted, and the writer of the article actually got to be in the booth watching history being made with his own eyes as the brand new white paint was being applied…do you REALLY think that an editor would remove such an important part of the article?

In Mike's reply, he says that my venting was "inaccurate"…I posted that Mike agreed to mention my shop in his article, that didn't happen; where’s the inaccuracy? I still have the article that I mentioned in my vent, and every time I read it I get excited that I had so much to do with bringing the car back to its historical look…but I’m also let down that there isn't one word in the article about the paint shop that helped bring it back.

After reading the replies to my post, and re-reading my post, I agree that I went a bit too far, and for that I apologize to Mike and the rest of the forum!
Sincerely
Rich

steveale

Do you mean this car?



I was at the 30th homecoming show in BG in 2011 and it was there. I snapped a number of photos of some of the indoor part of the show. Here is my PB link to the pics...enjoy.

http://s813.photobucket.com/albums/z...ming%20071611/

vettebuyer6369

I think we are done here.