Do any of you get down to Tampa? When I was in St. Pete last week I went up to Tampa and ran into a shop on Dale Mabry Highway called, Corvette Shop and Supplies. Owner- Michael Sylvester. He had some awesome Corvettes that he refurbished and sold. He had a great collection of Vettes that dated from the 60's up to C6s. He also sells parts and supplies. I thought the place was so neat I asked to stop and take pictures. Have any of you guys been there or do you go there?

 

Not as yet, but thanks for the tip! Next time I'm in Tampa I will check it out.

 

Guys,

If you want to see some great muscle cars, take the time to drive down Route 41 to Punta Gorda, FL. There is an old Wal-Mart that was purchased and converted to Muscle City. It has over 200 GM muscle cars. Here's the website. Take a look, it's a great trip..

http://www.musclecarcity.net/

 

I have stopped by a few times. The people there were always friendly and the cars look very good. Most of their cars have rebuilt titles which for me is a deal breaker. If you are on a budget it might not be a bad place to start shopping.

 

Use them to change the oil. Only a couple of miles from my house. Do a good and quick job of it.

 

Yeah, I stopped by once, did not seem real friendly. Their cars are mostly rebuilt and are priced on the high side, IMO.

 

Im in Tampa every day

Ive been to that shop twice and never got the warm fuzzy feeling about them.

www.TampaTuning.com

 

They were really nice to me and they didn't mind that I took pictures of their cars. I didn't ask about any prices but their cars sure did look nice. And they had a lot of them.

 

http://s1156.photobucket.com/albums/p569/jimwills3/

 

There use to be a Corvette shop on Dale Mabry called Beltrams

 

I know a lot about this place. I like them. They did all of the work on my C5 and most of the stuff on my C-6. They also did the pre-purchase inspection on my C6, put it up on a rack and everything. Didn't charge me anything.

One of the most important things a shop like that can do is pull codes and diagnose. That way when you later go into the dealership, you are armed with the most important thing - knowledge.

I mean how many of you have had broken rocker panels 'cause the shop didn't put it on the lift right? That's just not gonna happen at this place. The people that run the place know pretty much everything about all six generations. For example, they know all about the electrical problems with the C5, the oil pan gasket stuff with the C6, etc. And once you get to know them, they don't mind if you watch while they are working on your car. Their bays open to the driveway, so you can stand there and watch if you want.

Big Mike and Jennifer, the couple that runs the place, are a little standoff-ish at first. They get a lot of lookers and a lot of low-ball offers. They have some rare vettes in there. But once you get to know them, they are invaluable.

They have a real niche market. They take wrecked vettes and restore them. They know every screw of every generation.

And they can do just about anything. They have converted some C5 Zs to convertibles (it doesn't look as bad as you might think) or they can take a C3 Vert that came with a small engine and put a big engine in there for you.

I'm not sure about the pricing on their vehicles. A lot do come with salvage titles and while they are priced well below a similar model with a clean title, I'm not sure how competitive their pricing is.

I'm pretty certain that if my Vette is wrecked, I'm having it towed to that place, especially if it's my insurance. If it's the other guy's, maybe I will go to a stealership.

 

I visted Beltrams in 91 and they wanted a hundered bucks to let me test drive a used Vette (middle aged guy w/wife present) so I said bite me; bought my 1st Vette from Roger's in Orlando instead.