I wasn’t able to interview the owner of this 2000 Corvette with a custom paint of Lara Croft from Tombraider. I just thought this example of a C5 Corvette with a 350 cubic inch (5.7 liter) engine was simply badass. The pictures I shot of the artwork applied to the paint job aren’t good enough to do them justice. I can tell you the detailed paint job generated a lot of attention from the tourists on the beach today.The only thing missing was Angelina Jolie signing autographs to all her Lara Croft fans.
The attention to detail for a devout car owner is never too small. This 1962 Corvette, owned by Richard Galope, was purchased from a former club member and was no where near the show condition at the time of purchase. Some of the restoration work included replacing the interior pieces, installing a new soft top, and finding the right set of whitewall tires to match the car. The rebuilt engine even has its own story. Richard was able to find an engine with matching VIN numbers that was sitting in a Noblesville, Indiana garage. Richard made a trip to Noblesville, verified the VIN, loaded the engine on a truck and drove to the port of Oakland in California. Whereby, the engine was crated and shipped to Hawaii.
Another example of a show car that was just over the top was Dean’s 2000 Vette that had hours and hours of labor and love. Dean, who lives on Maui, did all the customization work himself (except for the paint job) and used the Superferry to bring the car to O’ahu for the car show. For more than 30 years Dean has been fixing up cars and trucks with the enthusiasm of an 18 year old. Dean may live on an island, but his exhaustive work has not gone unnoticed and has been featured in several major car-buff magazines.
After purchasing a pristine 2000 Corvette from the original owner who only put 7,000 miles on the car, Dean broke out with his set of tools and customized his latest project car with a vengeance. The following are just a few notable customizations dreamed up and installed by Dean. Scissor-doors that open outwards like a normal car door or upwards Lamborghini-style. The hood is designed to accommodate twin-turbos for the LS1 engine. The nitrous bottles, which look pretty impressive, are actually 8 inch subwoofers. The engine’s custom paint job was done by David Akion of Maui. Ron Heiglan painted the hood and spoilers. My pen nearly ran out of ink jotting down all the cool custom touches Dean built into his Vette.
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