Dean Jeffries, 80, died on the 5th of May. He was a famous Hollywood customizer, one of the original grtoup from the '50s that included Cushenberry, Barris, Gene Winfield, etc. He is most famous for his Mantaray show car using a Maserati frame , his own hand formed body and a Cobra engine given to him by Shelby, for whom he painted the first Cobra several times (to make people think Shelby was just churnin' out Cobras). He was also given a GT40 roadster by Ford in the hopes that he would put it in the movie as he was not only customizing cars for the movies but driving the cars. He even broke his back filming a stunt in Romancing the Stone. When I last visited his shop a couple years ago he was still finalizing the transplant of a four cam Ford Indy engine into his GT40, determined to show this is how Ford should have built the GT40. You could say his restoration of the car was one of the longest in history. His life is profiled in a book by Tom Cotter that is $25 on Amazon.com
There is a GT40 roadster coming up for auction soon..is that Jeffries' car? Since there were only four, I thought there's a 25% chance it is. It is white , dual blue stripes, blue cloth interior. His had a non-stock Indy four cam so I think this has a 289 but don't remember the engine shot
