Muscle car gets pumped up

It'd be quite a stretch to try to fit four people into a standard Chevrolet Corvette.

Gene Swatek of Carleton has made that stretch - twice.

Mr. Swatek's second endeavor to turn the classic sports car into a family vehicle - Family Vette II - will be among the custom cars featured at the Detroit AutoRama at Cobo Center this weekend.

"I've been working on this for over a year." Mr. Swatek said. "I did most of the work right out here in the barn."

He chopped the 1986 vehicle in half, lengthened the frame by 38 inches and added two rear doors that open from the center out - so-called "suicide style."

"There's been a lot of hours in welding and bodywork," he said.

With the help of auto body customizer Larry Sabo of New Boston, Mr. Swatek has added the two extra doors, front and rear spoilers and a rear fin. It took two ground effects kits spliced together to do the segment under the doors.

He enlisted the help of Paul and Rick Hoffman of Hoffman Brothers Upholstery in Monroe for the interior.

"With custom rear doors, there were no panels I could just go out and buy, so we had to special-fit everything, even the carpet," Mr. Swatek said.

He labored over the paint job, starting out with a white base paint, a clear coat with red pearl in it, another clear coat, wet sanding, buffing, a glaze and then hand-waxing.

"When you look at the car one way you, see white. When you look at it another way, it will appear red. When you get it in the sunlight or under the auto show lights, it's just going to glisten.

The car now is 18½ feet long. He built a red stretch version in 2004 that was 20½ feet long.

"I guess I'm just car crazy," he said. "I wasn't happy with the way the first one turned out. It just didn't have the lines I was looking for, and I wanted a convertible."

"Too many people called it a ‘Limo-Vette', and that wasn't the impression I wanted to achieve," he said.

He doesn't have a roof for it yet. A convertible roof with 38 inches added wouldn't fit within the storage compartment on the back deck. He'll have to either enlarge the deck area or use a roof that looks like a convertible top but lifts off.

Mr. Swatek's wife, Bonnie, said she still enjoys the first Family Vette because they use it as transportation.

"It's not just a show car. We trailer it around."

They've taken it to the Woodward Dream Cruise each year and drive it on jaunts around town.

When they went to a Corvette show in Carlisle, Pa., they could hear truckers remarking about the car over the CB radio. There was a lot of "Whoa! Did you see that" and "Check out the Limo-Vette."

"I love the look of a Vette," Mr. Swatek said. "It doesn't matter how old it is. The style will never grow old."

On the Net:

www.familyvettes.com

www.autorama.com/casi/detroit.htm