A 1957 Corvette custom show car named Bali Hai that disappeared in 1965, still wearing its original body mods and custom Tommy the Greek pinstripes, has been found in California. What makes this find so special is that the car is a time capsule from the last Oakland Roadster Show, held in February of 1960. It reappeared at the Grand National Roadster Show in Pomona, California in 2022.
The car was originally purchased as a used car in California in 1957 by 20-year-old Oakland resident Bill Shelley. Using $3,000 earned from selling cows, Shelley bought it in Polo White with a red cove, 283ci engine, and a three-speed transmission. The previous owner had added a low gearset in the rearend and set it up for drag racing.
Shelley raced the Corvette at Half Moon Bay and Vacaville before meeting Corvette customizer Bob McNulty at a drive-in. McNulty was known for building a ’55 Corvette called The Shark that appeared in the August 1959 issue of HOT ROD in a Best Corvettes section of the magazine.
McNulty was getting away from lead sleds because of their weight and instead using fiberglass and bondo to shape custom cars. Together, McNulty and Shelley modified the car in McNulty’s shop. “He would bend rods [welding rods] to the shape he wanted and screw them into the existing fenders of the car,” says Shelley. “He would tape cardboard over the top of the rods to get the effect he wanted, lay a light layer of glass over the top, and then he started building the body up.”
When the body mods were finished, McNulty painted the car. “Bob wanted to paint his ’57 ‘a sparkly type of color’,” Shelley continued. “At that time we didn’t have metalflake and he used mica—roofing paper mica. He took a spray gun and drilled out the tip to get the [mica] flake to go through, and he kept on mixing sacks and sacks of this mica with the paint. Then, after so many coats, he’d have me rub it down with steel wool to knock the flakes down so it wouldn’t sit up in the air. When he got it down to where it was pretty smooth, he’d start putting the clear coat over the top.”
Shelley’s brother worked for the legendary pinstriper Tommy “The Greek” Hrones, who haunted Oakland and the Bay Area, pinstriping cars for shows and at his shop. In 1959 or early 1960, The Greek finished the job with purple scallops and his familiar teardrops around the headlights, taillights, and on the decklid.
62 years later those ancient specks of mica and famous lines of paint could still be seen when the car was sold to its new owner. Bob’s application of 53 coats of clear did its job. Shelley guesses that he ended up paying Bob “maybe $4,000,” which would be equivalent to almost $40,000 in today’s money.
The new owner is keeping the dirt intact for now. The car will be professionally cleaned to determine what should be done with the vintage paint and stripes that represent artistic expressions of a custom car era that reached its zenith in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Keyword: Iconic 1957 Custom Corvette Show Car “Bali Hai” Found after 62 Years