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CORVETTE TODAY #274 - Celebrating 40 Years Of Kevin Mackay and Corvette Repair
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Jul 14, 2025
In this very special episode of CORVETTE TODAY, we celebrate 40 years of the famous Corvette Hunter, Kevin Mackay and his Corvette Repair shop in Long Island, New York. Kevin joins your CORVETTE TODAY host, Steve Garrett, to reminesce about his career and the history of the famous Corvettes he has hunted down, purchased and restored. Kevin tells you how he started his Corvette career, his very first repair shop,many of the cars that he has preserved for Corvette history. He also talks about induction into the Great Hall of Bloomington Gold plus his famous cutaway 1953 Corvette VIN #003 that is on permanent display at the National Corvette Museum. If you love Corvette history, do not miss this show! Get to know Kevin Mackay, up close and personal, on this episode of CORVETTE TODAY!
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0:00
[Music] Welcome to Corvette Today, the show that
0:06
talks about everything Corvette with your host Steve Garrett, lifetime member of the National Corvette Museum,
0:13
president of the Corvette Club of Kansas City, Missouri, and radio disc jockey at the number one radio station in Kansas
0:20
City for over 45 years. Here's Steve Garrett.
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Thanks for listening and watching Corvette Today, the show that talks about everything Corvette and the only
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current podcast dedicated to Corvette. I'm your host, Steve Garrett. I appreciate you tuning in. Corvette Today
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very special guest on today's show is a repeat guest. He sought out, found, and restored more significant Corvettes than
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anybody else in the entire Corvette community. His book called The Corvette Hunter chronicleizes all the famous
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Corvettes that are in his Corvette universe. He's also celebrating 40 years in business with his world famous shop,
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Corvette Repair in Long Island, New York. His name is Kevin McCay. Kevin, welcome back to Corvette Today, my
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friend. Oh, Steve, it's always a pleasure. Always look forward to our conversations. I do too, buddy. First of all,
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everybody, let me give you a little Corvette Today history about Kevin McCay. First of all, Kevin is a master
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storyteller. He was first on Corvette today, number 14. We talked about his book, The Corvette Hunter. He was also
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on episode number 74 when we were talking about the number one Lamont Corvette from 1960. And finally, he was
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on episode number 174 where he found the number three Lamont Corvette, restored
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it, and brought all three Briggs Cunningham Lemon Corvettes back together for the very first time in 60 years.
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That happened in 2023. And today we're going to talk more about his shop and the 40-year celebration of Corvette
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repair. First of all, buddy, let's start from the very beginning. When did you realize you were a Corvette guy? You
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know, it's funny you mentioned that, Steve. I was probably seven, eight years old. I was holding my dad's hand crossing the street. I see this amazing
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car with these chrome strips on the trunk. I go, "Dad, what kind of car is that?" Goes, "Oh, that's a Corvette."
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And I knew at the time, I didn't know what year it was, Corvette. But I remember vigiling in my mind the chrome
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strips on the trunk area. I said, you know, that's the 58 that I really made an impact on my life as a kid. And I've
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was always into little race cars and tractors and trucks, you know, anything with wheels on it, bicycles and the
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whole bit. So that always stuck to me. And then later on in life, I said, "Boy, you know, the more I look at those cars,
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the more I really appreciate the style, the aggressiveness of the cars itself." So it made a big impact in my life.
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Absolutely. So when you started working in the car community, what was your first job? I went to an automotive school. I took
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second class. I just ate it up. I just love the theory on the mechanics of it. After I graduated from the automotive
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school, my dad goes, "Look, if you're going to be a grease monkey mechanic, you better get the benefits. You got to
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get paid holidays. You got to get vacation time. The whole nine yards here." So I looked around and with the
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assistance of the schooling that I went to, I got a job working at car dealerships. And I worked at five
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different Chevrolet dealerships. Wow. Think about this. I mean, working for Chevrolet, you work on Citations and you
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work on Dovers and you work on Impalas and you work on Camaros and Chevels and
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you also work on Corvettes. Yeah. Corvettes was a treat for me because they were aggressive and they were
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sporty. And I would go on a road test and people would give me a thumbs up. I remember I do a cam shift on a 66 white
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convertible. Wow. And I see the girls winking at me. I said, you know, this is my kind of car.
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Absolutely. If it gets you girls, that's my car. Now, in 1984, it all started
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with a dream. Tell me more about that. Well, I just fell in love with the Corvette. I bought my first Corvette
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when I was 23 years of age. It was a red Corvette, a 64 convertible. I took my
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whole life savings of $3,800 out of the bank. And I went there, two hours
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spending, the guy was asking $4,500 for the car. I took all my life savings. I said, "That's all I have, sir." He goes, "Well, I'm sorry. I'm not going to let
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it go that cheap." And I walk down the driveway and I hear his wife yell out, "Young man, could you hold on one
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second, please? Honey, can you come in the house for a second?" Next thing I hear pots and pans throwing at him and she's screaming at him, "Will you sell a
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car to the damn kid? You taking his whole life savings away. Just get rid of the damn car. You had the car for many, many years. Thank God for the wife." And
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she came out, uh, young man, the car is yours. We'll take what you have. That's an amazing story.
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Brought the car home. Drove it home. I took plates off my other car and drove it home and I put in the driveway and my
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parents came out of the house. My father goes, "What the hell is this?" I said, "Dad, it's a Corvette. Where's the trunk?" I said, "It's a 64. Doesn't have
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a trunk." You only got one seat in it. Well, you're me and a hot chick. The rest was history. I took over from that and started getting all the car
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magazines, reading about the history of Corvette. And I just fell in love with Go to the library cuz back then there was no internet back then. Everything
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was just buying Fuse magazine and some of the other old magazines on the market at the time. And I just kept reading
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about it, learning the history about them. I just enjoyed it. That's awesome. Now, in 1985, you
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started Corvette Repair in a one bay garage with a lift, didn't you? Yes, I did. Every job I've ever had, I
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got fired from, Steve. I wasn't too good at taking orders too well. And I did my own thing. I saw an old repair place.
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Been there for many, many years. The back of the shop, you can see it was kind of abandoned. They just kept putting parts back there. And I went
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there one day. I said, you know, I'd like to rent out that rear bay if it's okay. What do you want to do? I just want to work on Corvettes. you know, I
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worked at five different Chevrolet dealerships. I have a little experience and it would be kind of cool if I could start my little business right out of
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that one big garage. And he said, "Okay, it's going to be 400 bucks a month." So, I kind of calculated in my head, well,
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$400 a month, not too bad. It's $20 a day. I think I could swing it. And we're on a major road called Sunrise Highway
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right here in Valley Street, not too far from my parents house. And I put up a sign, Corvette Repair with an S. Because
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at the time, I wasn't really incorporated. I was just starting out. I was just trying to get a feel of things. I own two Corvettes at the time. I own a
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64 Corvette convertible and a 65 coupe and I put them on there and I just put the word repairs on them and they
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started flocking in and from the day I opened up that shop I was always busy. Fantastic. Now in 1987 you moved the
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business into a newly constructed facility. Is that the one you're still in today? Yes. The building was built in ' 86. I
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moved in here in ' 87. I've been here ever since. kind of an odd story where
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one of my clients was in the real estate business and the contracting business and he said, "You know, Kevin, you got
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something here. Every time I come here, it's a man house here." And I was able in the one bay, I was able to three Corvettes, one lift with three
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Corvettes. I would put one car up in the air and a Corvette on each side of it. He goes, "You know, I got this piece of property. It's zone industrial right in
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Valley Stream. It's probably about eight blocks away. I could build you a shop." I said, "What? You can?" "Well, I think
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so. I mean, it's zone industrial, but you got to get a loan." I said, "Okay, cuz we got to go to your bank and get a loan and maybe we could work something
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out." I said, "Okay." So, I go down to the bank. I sit down. I was in my 20s and they asked, "What kind of credit you
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have?" And I take out my wallet. I said, "Well, I got a serious credit card." The woman looks at me, he goes, "Well, yo, bad not going to cut it. The serious
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credit cards I we need more than that." I said, "Well, I'm sorry, but we just can't give you a loan." And I went back to my customer and I said, "Jimmy," I
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said, "Look, I really want the property. I want you to build me something. This is something a dream come true." He goes, "Look, I might be out of my mind,
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Kevin, but guess what? I'll hold the mortgage for you. And that's what happened. So, he held the mortgage for me at 13%.
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Wow. $4,000 a month was my mortgage. I had to come up with $1,000 a week for 15 years.
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And you know something? I was never laid on a payment. I was able to pull it off. I just worked 7 days a week, 14 hour
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days, whatever it took to keep that shop open. And he built me my dream shop at the time. I kind of outgrew it, but
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we're still busy. And I'm so fortunate to have a great team behind me because I've always said this, it's not just one
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individual. It's all about your team. And I've had some very gifted and craftsman work for me for many, many
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years. And to this day, I've been very blessed. You do have a fantastic team of people working for you. And buddy, like
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everybody says, the rest is history, isn't it? It really is. And you know something, what you put into it is what you get out
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of it. And I like to be treated the way I treat my workers. And that's why we're like family here. I have guys here over
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30 years. That's fantastic. Well, buddy, let's take our first break. When we come back, we're going to talk about some of the
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[Music] I'm Harlon Charles and you're listening and watching Corvette Today with Steve
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just give him a call 833-639-4231. I'm your host Steve Garrett. With me is
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my buddy Kevin McKay. We are celebrating 40 years of his world famous shop Corvette Repair in Long Island, New
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York. Kevin, you're famously known as the Corvette Hunter. Let's list out a few of the monumental Corvettes that you
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found and restored. Oh, there's a long list, Steve. top of my head basically of course Bobby one of
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the most famous cars of car number three and car number one bricks going to handle lemons Corvette I've survived
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believe it or not and I think I told you a while back that just rode to Lama and I was able to get the holy grail of good
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numbers of Corvettes that race at Lama and I just went shopping most of the cars that people had in their collection
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or in their garage had no idea what they were. Yeah. So I had an advantage because I knew the history of the cars. People that had
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these cars probably bought them as a street car and that's what happened. Most of these race cars were converted back to street. So I just been fortunate
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to get those cars. The Rebel car we found in a junkyard, bought for seven grand and car sold in 2014 at Barrett
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Jackson for 2.68 million which is the record a factory ZL1 that we did for
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$3,140,000 believe it or not. Wow. Uh years ago. So it's been a great ride.
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We did a 56 Ebring car, 57 car, a couple of motion cars, a Phase 3, a phase 3 GT.
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We worked on the 62, the only 62 Corvette that went to Lama. Worked on one of only two built hyphen SR2s that
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went to Sebring in 1958 as car number three. The the number 48 4950 cars we
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worked on the BFG cars did restorations on those. Number four, Rebel Lemon's
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car. The serve two XBA19 which is a permanent display at the National Corvette Museum. The Owens Corning
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Corvette that was also one of the winningest Corvettes ever in history. the summer DX cars. We worked on the
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class winner car 1968 car number three. We also worked on car number two. We also worked on the Gulf oil car that was
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also a Sebring Daytona class winner. Also worked on one of one the Pina Rodine Corvette. We worked on We Styling
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cars. I worked on a three or four maybe five factory 67 L8s as well. We've been
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fortunate. It just keeps going on. It does keep going on and you have been fortunate my friend. Also, let's talk a
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little bit more about the see-through Corvettes, the famous 53 Corvette cutaway car that's on display at the
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National Corvette Museum. Well, that's a great story. I remember looking at that chassis back in 1982 at
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the insurance National Regional Meet down at Cypress Gardens, Florida, and I had a big son at Believe It or Not O3,
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the world's oldest production chassis in existence. And I followed that car, and then the car, the chassis vanished. I
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saw it on eBay for sale. I said, I don't believe that chassis is for sale. It was a rolling chassis. I said, "Boy, that
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would make a great display. Maybe building either a drivable chassis, which we've done, or some kind of
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suspended body exhibit. We've also put chassis sideways, a sideways display." So, I said, you know, I have a real good
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friend of mine named Ed Force, who was a big collector. Most of his cars in his collection, he had about 46 cars,
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Corvettes. Most of his cars were 10,000 original miles, but we did quite a bit of work for him over the years. And I called him. I said, "Ed, I got this
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oldest production chassis on eBay. It's advertised for sale. we could build something crazy. He goes, "You know something, Kevin? Give me the item
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number." I give him the item number. He works out deal with the owner of the car, who was an attorney, actually buys the chassis, brings it here, and I go,
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"Ah, what do you want to do?" He goes, "You know, it's up to you. I could do driveable chassis." "Yeah, but you've done that before. We could put a chassis
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on its side, display that." I call it sideways Corvette. He goes, "Ah, yeah, that is pretty cool. You've done that for me already." "Well, we could do a
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cutaway car." "Cutaway car." "What side is the VIN number?" I said, "Well, the side of the VIN number is on the driver's side." He goes, "Let's do a
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cutaway car and let's keep the driver's side open so they can see the VIN number." I said, "That's great." So, we
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got a donor body, a 1954 Corvette donor body, and we designed it on on a couple of pieces of loose leaf paper. It was
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about 5,000 man hours two years later. We put it all together, and the car was a tremendous hit. This is a drivable
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cutaway car. Everything was functional on the car, and it was just a great educational display. But I just love
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people taking photographs and taking notes and just learning what the inner workings of an early early Corvette was.
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And knowing this was the actual oldest production Corvette chassis in existence, which I believe it still is. It was just really cool. We campaign
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that car everywhere. Ed did a great job uh preserving history and he donated to the National Corvette Museum, which is a
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permanent display there for the rest of his time there. That's fantastic. I'm thrilled. Every time I go there, I just pinch myself. I'm just so proud of
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that being there. What's nice about that, they even have all the restoration photographs that I gave to them step by
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step how it started from the very beginning to the very end, how it was built. That's cool. I guess a PowerPoint presentation they
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did. That was really fun. I was really taken back by that. But they asked me, Kevin, we we'd like to get some photographs of the restoration. So, I'll
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give you the whole file. And they just took it and ran with it, which is wonderful. But what we're going to do in the future here at Force, we did another
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C2 see-through Corvette for him. So, our plan is hopefully in the near future, if the Force family allows it, I've been
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dealing with their son Matt, have the C1, C2, and C3 cutaway cars all
20:52
together. Ooh, that'd be cool. I know that Chevrolet has a C8 cutaway car, and we'll put that in there, too.
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It'd be great to have all these educational displays and the inner workings of different technology in different years. What's this all about
21:03
here? Talking about an education, it just be mind-blowing to me. That's fantastic. And you know what? I would be remiss if we didn't tell the
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story about the 1960 number three Corvette from Briggs Cunningham and Chip Miller. That's a fantastic story.
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Well, Chip and I were best of friends for many, many years. We had a lot in common and we talked every day,
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sometimes two, three times a day and we traveled together. We went camping together. We went to the movies together. God knows how many times went
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out to dinner and breakfast and lunch and we just had just wonderful relationship. I got real close with him
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because Lance, his son, was in college. So, he took me under his wing. I even had Trip's wife Judy do my laundry for
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me. It was great. We had a lot of fun. It was just a wonderful family. An amazing event. Carlile events. I have a
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Mr. Corvvis Carlile. Well, I think they first came in in 1982 and I've been there ever since. I just love it and I
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love the people and I just love looking at old parts. But to get back to your point here, we talked about this where I
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wrote to Lama and I was able to get the holy grail of VIN numbers of all the Coressa race to Lama. And so we went
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shopping and the car was originally was going to be for me, but Chip, the way he was, he was such a gentleman and such,
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he did have a bad bone in his body. He says, "Kevin, if you ever decide that you would give up that car, that's my
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all-time favorite car." He goes, "Matter of fact, I graduated high school in 1960. I remember that car went over to Lamont. I really like to have that car
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if you ever got it." And I said, "You know something, Chip, we're best of friends. There's another car I'm going after. I can't own them all. After the
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fun is to hunt in the chase. We know where the car was, but the guy just didn't want to sell at the time. I said, "You know something? I'm going to get
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you the number three Cunningham lemons Corvette and I'm going to go after that Roger Pensy number nine Corvette. That's
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what I want him in my collection." And it worked out where we got him the Cunningham number three car. I got the Pensky car and we showed him together
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and we just had a blast doing it. That car is owned now by the Irwin Croy collection who has that car and it could
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go to a better home. He's taken great care of it. We normally show that car and we show the number one car together
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quite a few times. as we went out to Monteray when they had the celebration of Chevrolet a 75th anniversary and that
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was a lot of fun. We're going to keep plugging away on those cars here. But, you know, reniting the original drivers of the car cuz when we're in the middle
23:09
of a restoration back in 2001 when Chip finally got the car, we did our birthday celebration, his 50th birthday, and we
23:16
had Bob Gman and John Fitch here at the shop looking at the car to make sure it was the number three car, which it
23:22
turned out to be. That's fantastic. And that number three Cunningham Corvette went back to Lamad to celebrate the 50th anniversary with
23:28
Lance Miller, too. That's a great story in and of itself. Well, Chip, his dream was supposed to go
23:34
there together with both drivers and have Bob and John drive that car around the track for the 50th anniversary cuz
23:40
they were there from 1960. Here it is, 2010. And that was our plan. Of course, Bob Gman passed away just before we
23:47
finished the car. And of course, Chip, we know that story. He got gravely ill and he passed away. But before he passed
23:52
away, he told his son, "Promise me you'll take that car back to Lamar. Promise me." And of course, Lance did
23:59
exactly what he promised his dad. Dad, I will take it back over to Lamar. I give you my word. And the rest is history.
24:04
So, knowing that John Fitch, here he is, 92 years old, going around that track where he was 50 years prior is truly
24:11
amazing with that car. It really was. It really was. He was treated like a rock star, too, wasn't he? Oh, there was singers. That guy signed
24:17
autographs. He couldn't be any more of a humble gentleman. He'd like his naps during the day. John was just an
24:23
incredible human being and what a hero he was. I mean, he was shot down in a plane and hid for a couple days. At the
24:29
end, it was end of the war in 1945 and he survived. He was very lucky. And he was also engaged to one of the Kennedys.
24:35
I think I told you this. He was engaged to Kathleen Kennedy. He used to play football with John and Ted and Robert.
24:41
And he said, you know, Kevin, the mother loved me. I said, "What happened?" Because, man, she was high maintenance, so I couldn't afford her anymore, you
24:46
know. And that was it. I would go on the sailboat with them. I play football with them up there in Boston area. He goes,
24:51
"Oh, yeah. It was a great family to know." So, John just had all these amazing stories about his life. He lived
24:58
a great life. You know, he lived until he was, you know, in his 90s. Just amazing. That is amazing. Well, buddy, let's take
25:04
our final break. When we come back, we're going to talk about more career highlights for you with Kevin McCay here
25:09
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Hi, I'm Mark Falter, host of the Retirement Income Hour podcast and Corvette enthusiast. I know when I
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bought my Z06, I was thinking two things. These cars are fantastically fast, and wow, are they expensive?
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financially and literally. Investment advisory services offered through Mid-American Wealth Advisory Group, an
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listening and watching Corvette Today with Steve Garrett. Hey, thanks for listening and watching
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Corvette Today, the show that talks about everything Corvette. Corvette Today is brought to you by Wheelcraft.
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call 833-639-4231. I'm your host Steve Garrett. With me is
29:03
my buddy Kevin McCay. Kevin has been in business for 40 years on Long Island, New York in Valley Stream and he has got
29:09
Corvette Repair. We are celebrating 40 years at Corvette Repair. Kevin, you've been nominated for the Corvette Hall of
29:16
Fame multiple times and in 2012, you were also inducted into the Bloomington Great Hall. Tell me that story about
29:23
Bloomington. I was really very blessed. Nothing better than your peers vote you in. I just love what I do, Steve. That's
29:30
always been my focus. I just love the people. I love the history. I love the challenge. I just love hunting down
29:36
these cars that might have been gone forever. you know, whether I found him in junkyards or barns or behind someone's house, I just love that whole
29:43
thing. And knowing that I was considered and then I got inducted into the great hall, it's just been a dream come true
29:49
for me. My family was proud of me and all that sacrifice I did and hard work over the years, you know, working those
29:56
14-hour days, six, seven days a week, it really, really paid off. And it's nothing better than to be recognized for
30:02
what you you work so hard for. But remember, it's more of a passion and a drive and a love of what I love to do.
30:08
It's been my whole life. Yeah. I mean, Steve, I didn't get married till I was 50 years old for a reason. Wow. You I missed out raising a family. I
30:15
just couldn't wait to go to another show and see a lot of my friends and hunt down another rare car or finishing a
30:21
really special car with great history and here I'm going to debut it for the first time. It was really my life. I'm
30:27
going to continue on. And when I got married, I told my wife, I said, "Honey, I love you for who you are and hope you
30:33
love me for who I am, but I'm not going to change you. I'm in my 50s. It's going to be pretty tough to change me." And
30:38
she supports me and she's been terrific. I'm a little bit stubborn. I'm always on a mission. It's been great. But yes, I'm
30:44
fortunate. And I know I've been considered for the Hall of Fame multiple times. I'm very blessed about that, too.
30:49
And I've been there from the very beginning. I'm one of the original founding members of the National Corvette Museum before they even had the
30:55
museum. I had cars in the Corvette annex. I helped out with the suspended body exhibit at the Corvette Museum back
31:00
in '94. I went down there a week before, set it all up. I had the Rebel Corvette there was one of the first cars I got
31:06
into the National C Museum back in 1994. And I think I had six or seven cars there now on display today besides the
31:13
number three cutaway car and my 69 see-through car and I have a couple of race cars there over the years. The
31:19
XP819 car. There's another permanent display there which is great and a client of mine donated it to the National Corporate Museum. So, I've been
31:25
very very involved with it. I mean, I worked with Dan Gail, who was the head man. I've also worked with a guy named
31:30
Ray Batalini who's still involved also in the Hall of Fame in that museum. I worked with him back then back in the
31:35
early early 90s. It's just been a great ride. We We had drivable chassis there, spent body exhibits there and everything
31:41
else. But it's been great. You deserve to be in the Corvette Hall of Fame at the National Corvette Museum. That's for sure, buddy.
31:47
That's okay. I mean, I'm not going to change my life. I'm going to continue what I love to do and just go to events and have fun.
31:52
Yeah. Now, in segment number two, we talked about the number three Cunningham Corvette, but you also found the number
31:58
one Cunningham Corvette and restored it. Now, Bruce Meyer from the Peterson Automotive Museum in Los Angeles owns
32:04
car number two, which is on display there at the Peterson. But in 2023, you brought all three Cunningham Corvettes
32:11
back together after being apart for 60 years. Tell that story of how you found that number one car, restored it, and
32:17
then brought all three back together. Well, Steve, that was 63 years in the making. And Bruce Meers got that car
32:24
through my connection because Bruce heard through the grapevine that when I knew where the number three car was, he
32:30
wanted to purchase that car. And I said, "Look, I promised a mutual friend of ours named Chip Miller." Oh, Chip's such
32:36
a wonderful guy. I said, "I know." And I already promised that car to him. He goes, "Well, I want to get a car with brand wheels on it, and I want to get a
32:41
car that went at lemon." I said, "Well, the only other car at the time has been located was found by Michael Pillsbury,
32:47
who is no longer with us anymore." The family sold out to two brothers up in Connecticut, and that was the number two
32:53
car. And I was able to get Bruce and the two brothers together, and they worked out their own deal, and they got the
32:59
number two car together, which is great. So, the only car left to find was number one car. It took me 19 years to get that
33:06
car. That car just kind of fell on our lap. when I was getting inducted into the great hall at Bloomington. Lance
33:11
Miller gets a call from a gentleman up in Connecticut. He said, "Hey, you're not going to believe this. I just got a call from a guy down near Tampa area
33:18
that he claims he just found the number one car." He said he left the body off to look at the numbers on the chassis
33:23
and it had VIN number 3535. And he went on Google search, came up the Cunningham website. That was a missing number one
33:30
car. Wow. I'm about to get inducted. Lance calls me out and goes, "You're not going to believe us. They found the number one car." I said, "What are you talking
33:35
about?" I said, "No, Lance, I know you like to kid with me and play with me all the time. Listen to me. This is my big
33:40
moment. Let's talk about this later." He goes, "No, I'm not joking around." And sure enough, he wasn't joking around. When I got back from Bloomington, I
33:47
checked my email and I knew instantly it was number one car because the photographs I got from the gentleman
33:52
down in Tamper had the wiper hole still in the car, which they moved it from the
33:57
outboard into the middle of the body. That was Cunningham's trademark. So, I knew it in probably half a second that
34:03
was the missing Cuttingham car. Eventually, I was able to get it. Went through a legal battle, which is behind us. The car went for a public auction
34:10
and the Cunningham family bought the car back. I approached the Cunningham family at the National Corbin Museum. They were
34:16
there because Briggs Cunningham was getting inducted into the Hall of Fame and I went up to the family and I said,
34:22
"By the way, I know where the number one car is, which actually that Briggs personally drove himself at Lama in
34:27
1960." Wow. Took my card and they called me a couple months later and they said, "Mr. Hey, we
34:33
did a little background check on you and we know you're for real. We have a great interest to get that car back with the
34:38
family. Now, of course, rest is history. They got the car, purchased it at auction, sent it directly to us and we
34:44
did a complete restoration cuz the car the car was really a train wreck. Steve, it was pretty bad. We saw the
34:49
photographs of it online. We brought it back to life and we came up with idea. We debut at the Ritz C down in Mill
34:56
Island. We got hold of Mr. Myers and we had all three cars together. We watched the movie The Quest, which is an amazing
35:03
movie. If you haven't seen that movie, I highly recommend it. Talks about the history of mother Cunningham race effort
35:08
at Lamar in 1960 and having all three cars together. But was really neat about it, I had to get permission from the
35:14
family, I made up a custom-made mask of Briggs Cunningham. And at the end of the movie, I sat in the car with a car cover
35:19
over me. And we unveiled the cover. I'm looking right at the daughter who's like 78 years old, the baby daughter Bricks
35:25
Cunningham. And she's looking right at me. And for a split couple of seconds, she thought she was actually looking at her father behind the wheel of the car.
35:32
That's fantastic. I was down there with you at Amelia Island there and it was a fantastic event
35:37
with that or what? And I was wearing John Fish's original uniform. They raced at Lama. Oh my gosh.
35:42
To borrow that just for that, but people were all they were clapping. It was just a highlight of my life believing doing
35:48
that. But I had to get permission from the family. They had that me goes, "Look, whatever you do, don't tell your mother." was of course the grandson her
35:55
son just said we got to do this Kevin and we did it. It was fantastic. Now buddy, you've put out a book called The Corvette Hunter.
36:02
Talk a little bit more about the book and where you can still purchase it. Well, the book is sold out, but I have
36:07
probably a couple of cases left. It sold out within a year. You can buy it on my website, which is corvette repair.com,
36:14
and I'll be glad to sign it for you. And it's just some of the cars that we hunted down and restored and some great
36:20
stories. You know, Steve, I only have a high school education. I was a pretty good athlete, but I was a lousy student.
36:25
My fortune was working with my hands, putting gadgets together. That was my thing. I'm not the kind of guy to go
36:31
behind a desk. I was kind of guy that would be underneath the car, you know, working on something. Anything mechanically I always love. I love
36:36
putting models together. I never read the directions. I just looked at something, figured it out on my own. And I made my mistakes along the way like
36:43
everybody else has. But you learn from your mistakes, and then you improve as you go along. It's just been an amazing
36:48
ride for me because I know where I started. I haven't changed a bit. I'm very fortunate that we've been so
36:53
recognized in this hobby. Just about passion and just loving the history and loving the people. And as long as I got
36:59
my health, Steve, I'm going to keep on plugging away here. I still work my 14-hour days coming at 5:30 a.m. in the
37:05
morning and leaving here at 8:30, 9:00 at night. Wow. That's amazing, buddy. You've been doing it for a long time, too. Let's
37:11
talk about some of the accolades that you've got because you've got achievement awards, magazine covers, sports car market awards, all those kind
37:18
of things, too. We're in over maybe 120 cover cars, cars that we worked on along the way. I
37:23
didn't realize that we were on that many covers, but I started putting them all together here and I put it like a little collage of all the magazine covers that
37:29
we made. It's amazing how these cars could have been gone forever, right? guys like me made an effort to find some
37:35
of these amazing cars with great history and preserve the history and to tell the story bringing people together and
37:42
bringing the old-timers together. And a lot of these oldtime racers I became great friends with, spend the weekend with them. I just love the history. The
37:49
history has to be told because we're not going to be here forever, Steve. So, as long as I can preserve the history and
37:54
tell the story, that's what it's all about with me. I want to keep on going. There's a couple other cars I want to go after. I found them, but I can't tell
38:01
them who I am because they'll do a Google search on me and I'll find out I'm going to lose that car. Yeah. Tell me what you're working on
38:06
now. And if someone wants to reach out to you, how can they get a hold of you? Well, we got some special cars in our
38:12
shop. We've always have some special cars in the shop here. We have the 100th Corvette ever made. 1953, SH number 10
38:19
0. We're doing a nut and bolt restoration on that car. It's going to be a pretty boy. We also have another car that's one of one. It's a tuxedo
38:26
black silver leather headrest 66 four and a quarter car. Most people say that doesn't exist. Well, we're showing it
38:31
this weekend actually. We're going to an insurance beat and then we're going to bring Bloomington to show it to go for the gold. We also have the only 68
38:38
factory LED car black with red interior convertible. No one's ever seen one. Well documented. We also have here a
38:44
24,000 mi black on black sidepipe 435 car. Survivor car the guy had for 50
38:50
years. I just bought that car a couple years ago and we're going to show that these next couple of weeks. Also, we
38:56
have a Z6 tanker that came out of Yanko Chevrolet. We have another 66 four and a quarter tanker. The guy had for 53
39:02
years. We have also 69 factory sidepipe LDA car that we're working on right now.
39:08
Get that car ready for Bloomington. So, that's some of the projects that we have here. So, we're staying pretty busy. Yeah, you are. If someone wants to reach
39:14
out to you there at Corvette Repair, how can they do that, Kevin? Very, very simple here. Just go right to my website, corvetterepair.com, and
39:21
throw an email at me and I'll respond usually within 24 hours. That's awesome, buddy. Thank you so much
39:26
for being back on Corvette today. Congratulations on 40 years of Corvette repair. I appreciate you, your family,
39:33
buddy. Steve, it's been great. And I tell you're knocking out of the park, too, my friend. You work your tail off. You
39:38
deserve it. What you put into is what you get out of it. And I'm really proud of you, too. I remember when you had one segment. Now you have what, 280? I don't
39:45
even know. I lost count here, Steve. You just keep doing what you're doing cuz we're going to rock this hobby. So, that's what I want to do. All right. Be
39:50
well, my friend. Okay. Absolutely, buddy. Thanks again for listening and watching Corvette Today. And be sure to tell your family,
39:56
friends, and other Corvette enthusiasts about the Corvette Today Show. And thanks to our sponsors, Wheelcraft. Want
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