Sophisticated Stingray -Steve Weaver’s 1964 Corvette Blends Classic Style and Modern Performance
Steve Weaver is no stranger to Corvettes. Like many American guys of a certain age, he grew up enamored with America’s Sports Car. His fondness was further fueled by an uncle who collected and built Corvettes. Steve would watch and occasionally help his uncle work on them.
“As a kid my mom would take me to his shop on Saturdays and I was introduced to doing little projects on the Corvettes,” Steve says. “My first Corvette was a ’69 I got when I was 17.”
Steve has been fortunate enough to own a number of cool cars throughout his adult years, several of which have been built by the team at Mike Goldman Customs. During a conversation one time with Mike, Steve casually mentioned that he really liked Corvettes and wanted to start looking for one to build. Mike said he just happened to have one that Steve might like.
“It was a ’64 coupe,” Steve says. “It had no motor or transmission but otherwise was a solid build car.”
The Corvette Stingrays were a big hit with buyers when introduced in 1963. The new generation increased sales by about 50 percent over 1962, as customers fell in love with the fresh design. Sales for ’64 improved slightly with a variety of 327c.i. engines as power options. For 1965, sales again improved, especially of the 396c.i. big-block V8 option.
Six decades later, many Corvette enthusiasts still love the long, contoured lines of those C2 Corvettes but want to pair them with more modern performance and comfort. Many ’Vettes from this era are being rebuilt as restomods and customs, and that’s exactly the direction Steve wanted to take with the ’64. He didn’t want to change the iconic design, so the body was essentially restored to its original form, though refined to better-than-stock fit and finish. It also received a ’67-and-later-style Stinger hood. The body was eventually coated with a custom blue Spies Hecker mix called Caribbean Pearl.
“The color originated from an Astin Martin, but Talbert [Goldman] did some tinkering and made it a custom color,” Steve says.
The ‘Vette sits on an Art Morrison GT Sport Ultra Low chassis fitted with Morrison’s contemporary independent front and rear suspensions and 14-inch Wilwood disc brakes with electric assist. Custom-machined 18×7- and 20×10-inch Curtis Speed wheels are wrapped in Diamondback titanium line tires for a distinctive look.
Smooth modern power comes from a GM LS3 V8 producing 495 horsepower. It’s accessorized with Billet Specialties valve covers and a Wegner front drive setup, while the exhaust manifolds guide waste gases through a custom 3-inch stainless steel exhaust system with Borla Mufflers that feed through classic Corvette side pipes. Induction comes from a Borla eight-stack EFI system that was suggested by the Goldman team.
“I never really considered that, but it just goes with that car and I’m glad they talked me into it,” Steve says. Those injector bodies and the engine are painted to match the car’s interior color, while additional custom work was done to the panels surrounding the engine. The GM4L70E automatic transmission is controlled by a shifter from a Chevy Colorado and sends power to the independent rearend, which has 3.42 gears.
The interior is the work of Hot Rod Interiors by Chuck Hanna, who stepped in toward the end of the build when scheduling wouldn’t work with a different shop.
“So, I received the bad news but with an option,” Steve says. “Hot Rod Interiors agreed to do it and said, ‘get me the car as soon as you can.’ Mike and Sherry Goldman loaded up and drove during the night to get the project going.”
The original ‘Vette dash is wrapped in tan Relicate leather, as are the restored original seats and custom door panels and other parts. Classic Instruments gauges replace the originals, while a Sparc Industries wheel tops an Ididit tilt column. Vintage Air provided the cooling and heating system while the electrical components are connected with a Painless Wiring system.
Steve was kept up to date as the build progressed, but he didn’t see the finished car until it was revealed at a show last year. “When I arrived, they had the car covered,” Steve says. “When they pulled the cover off it was like, just, ‘Wow!’ I couldn’t even talk; I was just soaking it all in.”
Now that he’s seen and driven the Corvette, is there anything he would change? Not really. “I have looked and studied this build over and over again,” Steve says. “There is not one thing I would do differently.”
But you can always build another Corvette, right? That’s what Steve intends to do.
“I was so impressed with this car, so we have purchased another Corvette for the Goldman team to build,” Steve says.
Steve and the Goldmans are tight lipped about what they have in store for the next project. But if this one is any indication, you can expect big performance, refined style, and a balanced, well-detailed package that will transport Steve right back to his Corvette-loving adolescent dreams.
Photos: John Jackson
