1968 Chevy Corvette - Cursed With Ambition

For almost half a century, the Corvette has inspired legions of enthusiasts and admirers with its sinuous lines and aura of raw performance. The spirit and passion that these cars stir is consistent through each generation, yet every era has a distinct flavor. Inevitably, Corvette fans tend to be attracted towards one of these "flavors" more than the others.

Dan Spindler of House Springs, Missouri, is drawn to the early Sharks. "I've always liked the body style of Corvettes," Dan says, "especially the curves of the third-gen cars. I think that 1968 was among the best because of their chrome bumpers and gills." That's why, when he was 18 years old and barely out of high school, Dan took on a second job just to buy a '68 Vette. It was a good-looking (superficially, at least), no-options 327/four-speed coupe. That was in 1984, and he's been working on and playing with it ever since.

After buying the '68, Dan began to realize that it wasn't nearly as solid a car as he had first thought, but he had no regrets about his decision. The road Dan traveled as he repaired and modified the Shark was long and slow, but he moved ahead whenever time and money allowed. Around 1995, Dan took a big leap and rebuilt the '68 from the bare frame up. Then, a couple of years later he went back and chromed and detailed the entire undercarriage. "I love customizing my Corvette," says Dan, and the Shark was really shaping up nicely. Alas, in September of 1999, on his way to Mid America Designs in Effingham, Illinois, to buy some parts for the '68, he was involved in a wreck that took the Vette out of commission for a while. Since it was parked and needed repairs anyway, Dan decided to really make his Corvette special.

The outside of this Shark is simply incredible. Over the course of this project, Dan has not left a single spot on the car's surface untouched one way or another. He had never worked with fiberglass before, but thanks to a seemingly endless supply of patience he learned and gave his '68 a facelift. Being a tall guy, Dan couldn't afford to give up any headroom by chopping the top, so he did the next best thing. With the help of Dale Harding of Dale Harding's Auto Body in House Springs, Dan raised the deck lid, chopping and slightly angling the rear window, to give the same aggressive impression. The back glass is 5 inches shorter, but still removable! Dan sculpted a 4-inch spoiler onto the rear of the car, and grafted '70-style fender flares on to add a more muscular look. He raised the rear license plate recess by 5 inches, and created a custom roll pan and inner skirts that would provide an unobstructed view of the workmanship on the highly detailed rear suspension. He also notched 1-inch-deep recesses into the T-tops for more character, and grafted a '67 big-block "stinger" onto the '68 hood.

Dan has revised the Vette's nose slightly, adding Bow-Tie-shaped turn signals at both corners. The door handles are now made of milled aluminum, and a crossed flags logo is etched into the gas filler door. Dan chose to paint his Vette in a unique color called Candy Burple, a cross between navy blue and purple, supplied by House of Color. Dan created "ghost" crossed flags on the front fenders with a few layers of the Candy Burple and some careful masking, and then sprayed the entire car with seven coats of the stuff. The center stripe is a mix of silver with blue pearl, and even continues on the smoothed underside of the hood.