Richard Galli’s ’70s-style Blown ’58 Corvette Street Machine
This story was first published in the September 2020 issue of Vette Vues Magazine.
This is arguably the only 1958 Corvette with a C3 independent rear suspension.
The expression, “where there’s a will, there’s a way” is as old as the hills, but it is still true today. Many people go to a car show, take in all the beauty, and ask, “Who can afford cars such as these?” We’ve all wondered the same thing. Well, with enough imagination and skill, a street machine such as Richard and Monica Galli’s 1958 Corvette can be realized without cashing in the 401 K.
Richard is a machinist and owns Custom Tube and Manufacturing in Paso Robles, California. Richard and his father started the business in 1977, so Richard lives in the world of fabrication and can make nearly anything. Richard and Monica’s tribute to the mid-’70s “Street Machine” craze is a stunning example of what can be done when you have “know-how” and don’t want to burn through tons of cash.
The 1958 Corvette shown here was built from at least 30 different cars and wasn’t just a basket case; it is a big jigsaw puzzle. Richard is the first one to say that he couldn’t have done it without the help from his long-time car-guy friend friend and professional painter, Gary Longfellow, and the patience of his wife, Monica.
According to Richard, “I owned several Camaros that I modified, then I built an L88-powered 1969 Corvette, and instantly became a Corvette guy; I just love the horsepower and torque of the L88. But, I always had a soft spot for 1958 Vettes, I just loved the look of the four headlights and the extra trim.”
Running a small business can take a lot of time, and for several years, Richard did not have a project car in the works, but he was thinking about one. In 2012, Richard finally decided to get back into the car project games, only this time, with the Corvette of his dreams: a 1958 model. “After driving and enjoying my 1969 L88, I realized that I wanted my dream ’58, but with a C3 chassis and suspension.”
Most Corvette fans know that the C1’s wheelbase is 4 inches longer than the C2/C3 frame, so major structural surgery would be needed. Richard thought, “I can do this!” Richard’s car-guy painter-pal, Gary Longfellow, said, “Yes, we can!” The guys added the extra length to the perimeter frame, just ahead of the front cross-member.
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The ’70s Street Machine scene was an outgrowth of the popularity of drag racing, so most of the street machines looked like Pro Stock and Gasser refugees. Richard had to first acquire parts and pieces. The basic plan was to build a blown 427 ’58 Corvette using a C3 chassis and suspension.
For supercharged configurations, tall-deck 427 big-block Chevy engines are an inexpensive beginning because the tall-deck big-blocks are designed for truck applications where lots of torque is made for hauling. The ’69 427 Corvette chassis and basic 1958 body were liberated from a salvage yard – the body for the project came from at least five different 1958 Corvettes.
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Richard and Gary had to build the chassis and engine first. Lengthening the frame was one thing, but mounting the body to a frame it was never designed to sit on is another thing. Knowing that the 427 would be making around 800 horsepower, Richard added box-section tubing to brace the rear section of the frame to the rails of the C3’s perimeter frame. Richard also engineered his own torque tube to house the driveshaft to tie together the front and rear of the frame (similar to the C5 chassis) and for added safety.
The body parts, the front end, the cowl section, and the rear section had to be carefully positioned, glued, and glassed together. With the body and frame basically together, the guys started the painstaking work to fit the body to the frame so that the car looked like a stock ’58 Corvette, but with a big supercharger up front.
The body mounting points were all modified to accommodate the newer frame. Richard also does fiberglass work, so everything was mocked up with cardboard before glass panels were cut and bonded together. The car’s trunk is most evident in the careful work that went into getting the body to sit just right.
After careful consideration, Richard decided everything fit right, and it was time to take everything apart for the restoration part of the project. The chassis was disassembled, refurbished, and fitted with heavy-duty L88-grade parts. The refurbished brakes use L88 calipers with street brake pads.
The 427 big-block with square-port heads was given a once-over machining. The engine received a GMC dragster-style 6-71 supercharger, two Holley 1025-cfm 3-bbl cars, a roller cam, and Hooker Header side-pipes. The car does not have power steering but does have a big-block Corvette master cylinder brake system that Richard engineered to fit onto the C1’s firewall. To make the side-pipes work, Richard added 4-inches to the collector, just ahead of the long tube that houses a Hooker “medium” sound-level muffler.
R
ichard did not want an obvious aftermarket fuel cell in the trunk and instead decided on a new steel tank thathad to be modified to fit the C3 chassis.
The C1 frame has a large x-member that ties the four corners of the perimeter frame, the C3 chassis does not have the X-member, allowing the seats to sit lower in the frame instead of on top of the frame. The entire interior was done by Al Knoch Interiors. The interior was trimmed in turquoise and white leather, and except for the small-diameter steering wheel from Corvette Central and two gauges in the center console, the interior looks very stock.
The body was gel-coated and block-sanded three times by Richard and Gary sprayed the car with turquoise basecoat with clearcoat that perfectly matches the factory 1958 Regal Turquoise. Note that the close clearance is between the hood opening and the supercharger.
To keep the engine from rocking from side to side, Richard engineered his own unique motor mounts using box-tubing and large rubber motor mounts. A solid motor-mount setup would have caused the frame to twist, requiring more frame gusseting and bracing.
The rest of the build was not unlike a restoration. Any parts that could not be refurbished and re-chromed were replaced with new parts. To maintain the ’70s Street Machine look, Centerline Wheels were shod with BF Goodrich 70-series tires that the supercharged 427 has no trouble lighting up.
A first glance, Richard and Monica’s Street Machine 1958 Corvette looks like a Hot Wheels ’58 Vette with a big engine. But their car may well be one of the few, if only C1 Corvettes with a C2/C3 four-wheel independent suspension.
Sometimes when we are kids, we see or experience something that sets our life path. Richard recalls, “Seeing all those great Street Machines, muscle cars, and drag cars when I was a kid in the ’70s, I just always wanted a cool hot rod that looked like it was from 1975. The car drives much nicer than my L88 ’69 Corvette. The supercharger on the 427 has to spool up like a turbocharger setup, but when the 850-horsepower kicks in, it’s a rush! I finished the car in mid-2017 and don’t have any other plans for the car. In 2019, we entered the car in the Mid-State Cruisers Car Show in Atascadero and won Best in Show. We were very happy about that. All I do now is keep the car clean, show it, and enjoy it.”
Sounds like a great place to be, but I’d bet that there’ll be a few more project cars for Richard. – Scott
PS – This story was first published in the September 2020 issue of Vette Vues Magazine.
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