One of my friends has a '68 Mako shark convertible under a tarp. How do I identify it? It is obviously a mako shark, but I have no idea what the engine is supposed to be. The color is British Green and the trim is STO (I think). The original engine is gone and the trans is a turbo 400.

|UPDATED|7/22/2003 12:30:07 AM|/UPDATED|

We can help, but you will need to get some numbers off of the car. There is no way to identify the correct engine by the vin number. On the top left side of the gas tank its possible that the tank sticker is there. If so, this is the key to all your answers. You will have to drop the tank to get at it so you can read the options that the car came with. If no sticker, then look at the tach redline. 5300 rpm = 327/300hp, 6000 = 327/350hp, 5600 = 427/ 390 or 400hp, 6500 = 427/435 or 430hp. Open up the drivers door and there will be a plate on the A pillar. This will tell you the paint and trim code. It also tells the date the car was made. Get those three codes and let us know and we can decode them for you. Also get the block casting number. This will tell us if it is a corvette block. Three blocks were available in 68. 914678 was a 327. 3916321 and 3935439 both were 427's. Also get the numbers off of the pad. Its located on the passenger side just in front of the head. There will be two numbers. One is the engine code and the other is a partial vin of the car. To see if its the orginal transmission, for a turbo hydra-matic, the production codes are on the passenger side on a vertical plate. If its orginal, the partial vin number will be there. Suggest you get those numbers also and let us know and we'll decode them for you. Also, check the fron sway bar. small blocks had a 3/4 inch bar and big blocks had 15/16. Exception is small blocks with the F41 supension option, but that is rare. Also, if the car has a stock rear sway bar, its almost positive that its a big block car. There are other things, but I've got to limit this for now. Suggest you get those numbers and I can tell you what color trim, paint, etc. the car came with.

Mark
68 coupe

Thanks Mark, I got a chance to stop by briefly and look at the car again today. The trim code looks like STO but it is hard to read. The paint code is 983 for British Green. The tach face turns yellow at 5000 and red at 5300 so it looks like it came with the base 327/300hp engine. There is no rear sway bar. I know the engine is not original and I didn't even bother to check the numbers, it is sporting a 2 barrel carb on an EGR manifold and some crusty M/T valve covers. I didn't get a chance to crawl under it and look at the tranny, plus I was wearing good clothes. Dropping the tank is a remote possibility, as I would imagine that any sticker would have gotten lost whenever the Mako Shark body kit was put on. It has a flip-up fiberglass nose and the rear deck sports '67 firebird tail lenses. There is also a gas fill in the middle and two small grilles above it further out on either side. Thanks for your help.

OK, now we're cooking. The paint code 983 stands for British Green. STD stands for Black Vinyl interior. As the tach red lines at 5300 looks like a 327 small block rated at 300hp. To tell when it was made, look on the A pillar tag and it will have a letter and two numbers.
A = August 1967 build date. The number would be the day of the month. B= Sept 67, C= Oct 67 and so on. 68's were built up and into early August of 68.

Hope this helps.

Mark

I believe the build date is May of 1968. The interior is indeed black vinyl, though rather dilapidated.

|UPDATED|7/22/2003 7:37:49 PM|/UPDATED|

Thanks for your help. It really is an interesting car, but it needs a total restoration. The frame appears to be solid and the body is rust free. LOL. The metal parts of the doors are good and it has both hard and soft tops. Oddly, it has no headlights or front bumper. It looks like a movie prop car or something. I have a pic but no way to post it.

Next question is how much do you have to pay for it? Sound like a possible basket case. Suggest you get a Corvette America or Mid America or Eckler parts catalog to see what interiors, etc run. Also check ebay. You can pick up some good items there also. Each of these catalog companies have web sites, so you should be able to order their catalogs on line. Sounds like a $4,000 top $5,000 car.

Mark

I am going back to finish my last year of grad school at the end of the month and I have decided that I just don't have time to get involved with the vette. If anyone wants to see photos I have listed the car on eBay. I am acting as an agent for my friend, who is paying me a nice commission to photograph and sell the car for him. It is item number 2426131020.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=6168&item=2426131020

I took a look at the pictures and I do believe you're doing the right thing. Grad school vs. restoration. Wow! There is a lot of work there and it would be expensive. Car really needs work! Good luck! Now, after grad school you have got to get yourself a C3 Vette. Suggest one that is running, etc. so you don't get bogged down and loose interest.

Mark

If Motion made it it "should" have a little plate in the door jamb, Silva also numbered his cars, of course someone might have just built it which in that case it's a custom and the ID will really only mean the year, engine , etc....
For a fee Mr Motion will document a car as to being his, worth it when you consider how much real Motion items fetch.....Ebay Motion key fob...over 400.00
Best of luck, and how about some pictures,
T.

I've been doing a lot of research lately, and I have heard that the first few Silva cars were actually hand laid. Also Silva put his hand print underneath on the back half. Don't know if it means anything, just could be a unique item to show people.
There are so many variations on these cars that it would be hard to verify just exactly who built the kit and when. Its a neat car. Wish I had the bucks to attain it!

______________
Randy

I TOTALLY must get a third gen VETTE after Grad School. They are so awesome looking. An L88 would be nice (LOL) but a running small block car is more what I'll probably be looking for, not a total resto project. I wish I could ID this car as a Motion Maco, sounds like it would be worth a ton of money. I didn't see any little plates inside the door jamb though. I'll look again. Any other tips would be quite welcome.

Thanks,
Frank

Tyla,

I'd be more than happy to burn all the pics I have onto CD rom and mail it to you. I have a crummy 24k dial up connection and it would take a really long time to email them. I probably have 20 pics and the average size is like 250K each. I can also take more if you want to see anything in particluar.

If you want to send them to me on disk that would be super cool,
Davids site makoshark2 supports uploading pics, if you don't have time or feel like doing it I would be pleased to so we can let everyone get a look at this car.
email me for my address tyladamour@aol.com

I doubt it's a motion car, could be motion parts like my front clip is motion, the silva/motion business union made between 3-5 turnkey cars no one has proved with paperwork the true number of silva/motion cars out there, but I believe all motion cars did have the motion trademark flip top gas cap.
where silva put the little vent at the base of the rear louvers.

Motion pulled his own molds off silvas parts after they parted ways so that's how motion built more makos, and sold kits, again only paperwork proves numbers made.

before I get the horse ahead of the cart is this the one for sale on eaby?
Cheers, P.

How do I contact Mr Motion? What are the chances that this car is an early motion prototype? The glass around the supports was definitely applied by hand. The oddest thing about the car is it has no bumper or provisions for mounting one. It has no headlights either. If you look carefully at the fiberglass, you can see where two circles are in the nose, like they were meant to be cut out for headlights there or something.

The more I hear the more I wanna see pictures,
here's mr motions email
joel@motionmodels.com
Joel Rosen,
He might give you a general idea if the car is could be his but to document it he charges a rather high fee.
P.

Hi Tyla,

Yes, I decided not to buy the car and listed it on eBay instead for my friend on commission. I could have bought it myself for a fair price but I decided it was just too big of a project for me. He offered me 20% if I sold it for him on eBay which I found more than acceptable. I'd be glad to take any photos you want of the car.

|UPDATED|8/11/2003 10:24:30 PM|/UPDATED|

Do you have the link to the ebay page for the car?
please post it here...
P.

Cool that worked. I emailed Joel Rosen and sent him one pic. I need to get to bed now. My email is frankiesaysrelax@excite.com. Goodnight all.

Mr. Motion said it could be a Baldwin car but a search would be necessary to find out for sure. He left a number I'll try calling him tomorrow.

$1500 for a search, WOW!!!!!!!

Anyway, the auction closed at $4,606.56. The winner seems very excited and I'm glad. This car deserves to be restored. I'm sending him a link to this post so he can check it out and maybe you guys can help him out.

I wished that I had bid on that car. But, with 2 already, and both needing work, I just couldn't justify it. I hope that he enjoys it.

______________
Randy

Alright now Randy, two is a set, after that you are collecting....if you start collecting macos/makos you'll be a big boy and get where you wont speak to me.....just kidding with ya man, but before you can buy a third fish you need to get one of yours driving.....how's the blower car coming along? ....remember the line from Mad Max, "The blower man, look at the blower!"

You know the one I wish I could buy is that rough black one with the red Silva-ish stripes, don't know why but I'm drawn to that car.
Cheers. T.

I know, I know, my wife doesn't understand my need for more projects. Actually, I have been working on all the cars just about every evening. Progress is kinda slow, but I am moving forward. The blower motor is on the stand, minus the blower itself. Right now I am working on the latch set up along with a hinge modification to allow for a spring to aid in lifting that heavy hood.
I will be all over the place at carlisle, if there any sharks there, you can bet I will get us some pictures.
I just hate that we have to take the black c4 to the show, you know how those guys are with black c4s!
Later man.

______________
Randy

Yea them owners of black c4 are a freaky bunch....
hey while you're kicking around that mega swap meet see if you see this wing at a good price ( 400.00 ) new
to fit my c4 already have one on the c3....
cheers, T.


|UPDATED|8/14/2003 8:12:58 PM|/UPDATED|

You wouldn't mind a used one would you?
Give me a "don't spend more than" dollar figure and I will see what I can do.
Looking at being in Orlando on oct 10 and 11 for the correct craft reunion. Looks like thats when I will bring you your hood and other stuff.
One of the guys is bringing a truck with us to carlisle, so we can haul it back if we find one.
let me know.
Later

______________
Randy