Maserati GP car now pearlescent white Kustom Car

This is not new news, but decades ago a Hollywood customizer (sometimes they are called Kustom cars, why I dunno) reobided a maserati GP car with a tube frame atop its original frame and put a hand formed aluminum body on it to make the famous Manta Ray.
Cobra powered. It is one of the most original designed customs ever made and has been in many of the "beach blanket bingo" type movies of the Fifties.
He says he got the car from his father in law who had two Maserati GP cars rotting in his back yard.
During my visits there, once every 20 years or so, I heard the story afresh but forgot to ask what model of GP car and whether they are famous "lost" Maseratis, maybe that belonged to some early postwar sports car fans like Tommy Lee, or Shaw that raced one at Indy, or Briggs Cunningham. Or maybe it was even used in a Fifties movie like "on the Beach" where they crashed a car. Or "The Racers" . I know Phil Hill was the stunt driver in one of those films but I can't remember what brand of car he crashed for the cameras.
If someone were to buy this car, i would like to hear an opinion from someone who has restored a vintage Italian race car if would it be cost effective to rebuild it as the Maserati or not worth it if you had to find an engine, transmission and God knows what else is messing?
As much as some people love custom cars, I still think it would be better off as a Maserati because most custom cars are drek (another strange word which for foreigners I will translate--weird junk.)

 

Not sure what you're looking for, but are talking about this:
http://www.kustomrama.com/index.php?title=Dean_Jeffries
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This is a custom car, based on a prewar (or late 40s) Maserati chassis. I saw this car on display in the PEterson MUseum about 8 or 9 years ago. But unfortunately I could not see the rear end of the chassis frame to see the VIN. The fitted US-V8 made it much likely that the chassis had been modified.

 

So, Walter: can we still call this a Maserati? I am not sure but I think no. Too much of the Maserati is gone from it. If they had kept the engine -- then maybe.

 

Yes, its still a Maserati. But if it would be rebuild than its not a good one!

 

I'd have to go with the chassis as giving it the correct DNA to call it a Maserati. There are Ferrari finders who built up and restored a Ferrari starting with only a fragmentary chassis, adding an engine, gearbox, suspension, body, interior, dashboard gas tank, etc. so if the whole chassis is still there you have to say this is one helluva interesting Maserati and still better than most Kustom cars which are in their own little world that hardly ever changes)

I'd like to know percentage wise how much of the chassis is still there...and where the engine went. At least Jeffries kept the other car that fell into his hands for free--the Ford GT roadster. He's been offered $4 million for it.

 

There was a nice article on Dean Jeffries in a recent issue of Octane Magazine, and he talks about the Maserati based custom.

 

His 62 Ford Cougar is pretty cool looking.

More shots here: http://www.carstyling.ru/en/car/1962_ford_cougar_406/images/9993/
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Did he say he did that? I think he was more aligned with Ford in the Sixties.
By the way the way he got that GT40 for free was to walk through a building at Ford with AJ Foyt who said "YOu want anything in here, just name it."

So he names a car that today is worth $4 million. I don't know if he's sold it yet. He had the goal of putting a four cam Indy engine in that GT40 roadster which Ford never did back in the day (they had an Indy V8 engine in the '64 prototypes at first but it was a pushrod version, and unreliable over 24 hours)