Help Wanted - Cobra/Shelby History project

[STG]

Ron,

Call Lynn Park and see if he still has contact information for Dennis Ercek. I knew Dennis years ago when he owned and operated a body shop in Redondo Beach, California. Dennis worked for Shelby as a painter at the L.A.X. facility and painted virtually of the 427s.

Dennis also kept a notebook on each car, listing paint colors, instrumentation, customer ordered modifications, etc. Rick Kopec has been trying to get his hands on this notebook for decades with no luck. Dennis doesn't get along with him.

I used to get a laugh watching owners of original 427s come into Dennis' shop requesting a paint job. Dennis asked what color the wanted. The customer always said, "Original." Dennis would disappear to consult his note book and tell the customer that he'd paint the car the color the customer wanted, but it wasn't original.

The customer would always cite SAAC or the registry, and invariably I would pull the customer aside and inform him that Dennis painted his car originally and kept note of each job. Then, magically the customer would go with Dennis' version of original.

Anyway, I've heard that all that painting finally caught up with Dennis and he had to get out of the painting business and his current physical condition isn't good. A couple of years ago, Lynn told me that he had met with Dennis and traded some great Shelby stories. I think Dennis even let him take a peak at his old notebook.