Peter Max 36 Corvette Collection - Being Restored

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• published: 29 Oct 2014
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Many of the Corvettes still sit in a garage in Upper Manhattan. The cars — a set of 36, one from each year starting with the model’s 1953 debut and continuing through 1989 — have long been famous among Corvette followers. They had been owned by Mr. Max, the Pop Art star who gained fame in the ’60s for his preternatural ability to capture (and market) the zeitgeist. Mr. Max stored the cars for years in publicly accessible parking garages without much thought for their upkeep. The collection originally came together as the grand prize in a contest sponsored by the VH1 cable music channel. The winner was Dennis Amodeo, a carpenter from Long Island, who soon sold the collection to Mr. Max. Mr. Max was interested in using the cars to pursue his vision of a grand art project fusing his bright hippie imagery with the distinctly American iconography of the Corvette. Once the cars were delivered to New York, Mr. Max did some preliminary work, taping color test strips in place on several. But he was busy with other projects as well as a legal battle with the I.R.S. that led to a guilty plea for tax fraud. After a few years of inattention, Mr. Max’s ambitious Corvette project was abandoned. Over the years, the collection was housed in parking garages in Midtown, the Flatiron district, the Prospect Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn and finally a garage in Upper Manhattan, where many of the cars now reside in a former Packard dealership. Dirt encases the cars, suggesting the aftermath of a volcanic eruption.The interiors are largely intact. Some, though, were stored with the windows down, their insides coated with dust. The Hellers were part of a group that bought the Corvettes from Mr. Max earlier this year. Thirty miles east of the Manhattan storage site, at a shop in Hicksville, work is proceeding on several cars at once. Not being Corvette experts, the Hellers engaged Mr. Mazzilli to help evaluate the collection and prepare it for sale. About half the cars have matching chassis and engine numbers, Mr. Mazilli said, a factor that attests to the cars’ originality and increases values. Cleaning off the grime alone can take two weeks. Each car gets washed five or six times; carpets and seats are shampooed over and over. Some of the cars have significant damage to the fiberglass bodies: holes in quarter panels, smashed bumpers, shoddy repairs from years ago. The 1955 model, one of 700 made that year, is getting an extensive restoration. The remainder of the cars will be thoroughly cleaned and restored to running condition. The group doesn’t have a specific plan for the auction yet, Mr. Mazzilli said, but they would like to find someone interested in buying the whole set. But if a buyer with such deep pockets doesn’t emerge, the cars will be sold individually. More great car videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMXrrRWSTCRn-JZH1yAqvF5_AEvW1aY-c Soundtrack Composed And Produced by Samuel Cernuto