Layton Vehicle Restoration

For all you Corvette lovers this is the dream car for you and so very many others out there! This is a 1972 C3 Corvette! I mean there aren't a whole lot of cars out there that beat this car! They even had the fender flares build into the contour of the body to reduce damage from rocks and other wheel-thrown debris! That is a lot better then most of the vehicles now that look like the flares are bulky add ons! That way you get the sleek, sexy look ,that the Chevrolet Corvette has mastered so very well over the years, and still get to keep your paint in perfect condition! Now this C3 that we have in our shop right now is getting the full once over to bring it back to its former glory as one sweet ride! We are bringing this Corvette back to the factory look and quality! When we are done with this bad boy it will look like it was just driven off the showroom floor in 1972! Just as the customer ordered! 

  People have different opinions about which car was the very first muscle car. Some would say it was the very early 1949 Oldsmobile Rocket 88, while others argue that it was actually the 1964 Pontiac GTO. Still others point to the 1964 1/2 Ford Mustang, which was definitely the first Pony car, but could it be called the first muscle car? Each of these cars were trail blazers in their own way, so we thought we’d take a look at each of the 3 vehicles and give them the respect they deserve for their roles in influencing the American muscle car trend. #1 – The Pioneer: 1949 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 Does 1949 seem early to pin the term “muscle car” onto? Experts do point to the end of the 1940s as the first spark in the muscle car trend when they look at the Rocket 88. Oldsmobile was the first American automaker in the mainstream to put a high compression, dual overhead cam equipped engine into one of their cars. The engine was really consi ... read more

Part of our Most Sought After Muscle Cars Series The Buick GSX (1970) had the body of a good midsized driving vehicle, the Buick Skylark, but ramped up with a monster engine. It was available as a sedan or a convertible. The Grand Sport debuted in 1965 but it took a few years before it really caught attention. The 1967 incarnation of the vehicle was pretty robust, but it was the 7.5-liter engine in 1970 that really hit all the right marks. If you really want to catch people’s attention, try 400 horsepower! 400 horsepower depended on upgrading the heads, valves, and camshaft. Otherwise, the Stage 1 GSX hit 360. Once people knew about the 400 capability though, they were hooked!  It could hit a quarter-mile in 13.38 seconds. When it came to color, the Buick GSX was famous for its lack of selection. There were exactly two colors. Will it be the Apollo White or the Saturn Yellow? In ’71 and ’72 they did start to offer more colors, but if you real ... read more

Part of our Most Sought After Muscle Cars Series What’s the most important onscreen muscle car of all time? Arguably, it’s the Dodge Charger. Let’s look at its television and film credentials: The Dukes of Hazzard​"Bullitt" with Steve McQueenThe Fast and the Furious Because of the car’s distinctive hardtop, just about anyone will recognize it, not to mention the front grill and hidden headlights. It’s a memorable car that embodies rebellion. Dodge created the vehicle with the idea that it would have excellent street performance and be great for drag racing too. It’s got great handling with some serious suspension. The popularity of the car combined with its scarcity makes this a very sought after vehicle. When the car was first launched, there were only 37,000 produced and they sold for a base price of $3,500. Now you might pay as much as $170K. Eve ... read more

Part of our Most Sought After Muscle Cars Series The Plymouth Barracuda is a car that was produced from 1964 to 1974, but it’s really the third generation 1970-71 that’s part of our “most sought after muscle car” series. When Plymouth started in 1964 on this two-door car, it was based on the Plymouth Valiant. It was an A-body car with wraparound glass in the back, very distinctive, but it wasn’t a particularly popular car. The second-generation ran from 1967-69 and was still Valiant-based, but with a lot of redesign. There were convertible, fastback, and notchback versions. For the third-generation in 1970, things changed a lot. They ditched the Valiant-based design for an E-body&nb ... read more

Part of our Most Sought After Muscle Cars Series Sure, there are six generations of Camaros, but when it comes to the really beautiful cars, it’s the first-generation Camaros that we’re talking about.  The Camaro is a car that has come in many different variations. Some of the models would be classified as more of a pony car rather than a muscle car; affordable, compact, highly styled, sporty, and performance-oriented. And then there are the truly powerful muscle cars. These are the ones that we love here at Wasatch Customs. Chevrolet first created the Camaro to compete with the Ford Mustang, code-named Panther. Wikipedia tells a funny story about how Chevrolet approached the new vehicle in the press. On June 21, 1966, around 200 automotive journalists received a telegram from General Motors ... read more

Part of our Most Sought After Muscle Cars Series Whether it’s driving, restoring, or showing off, classic cars are truly an American obsession. In our case, the passion is for muscle cars, and this week we’re taking a look at the 1971 Superbird 440 from Plymouth. Now those are some lines! Sleek, with a powerful engine, this is a car with some attitude. More than any other Plymouth, the hardtop hits most car enthusiasts’ best-of lists. This car was Plymouth’s answer for NASCAR. It was originally based on the Road Runner, which was featured in our last edition of this blog series, but the Superbird was redesigned to meet the NASCAR requirements. Vehicles that wanted to participate in the race had to be available to the general public and sold through a dealership. In 1970, they had to build 1,920 Superbirds in order to meet th ... read more

Part of our Most Sought After Muscle Cars Series How can you go wrong with a name like Road Runner? The Plymouth Road Runner was first introduced in 1968. It was a very popular car with more than 80,000 units sold in 1969. And for good reason! It’s hard to believe the jaw-droppingly low price tag of $3000 for the base car, and the cartoon tie-in was part of Plymouth’s ingenious effort to seduce young people. Previous marketing had never considered the youth market, and the opportunity that Plymouth seized with this car proved to be groundbreaking and game-changing for the car industry, and so many other industries too. In case you aren’t familiar with it, the Road Runner car completes the cartoon theme with the Warner Brothers’ character's signature "beep-beep" horn. It wasn’t just the gimmick and the lower sticker price that made the Road Runner such a notable car. While the basic, no-frills design stayed mainly the sam ... read more

                We love muscle cars from the 60’s and 70’s, but what about new muscle cars? Interestingly, the popularity of new muscle cars is on the rise thanks to the latest Ford Mustangs. In 2016, the Ford Mustang outsold both the Porsche 911 and the Audi TT in Germany, for example. The Ford Mustang is particularly popular in Australia where sales have exceeded those of the family SUV over the summer. Why is the Mustang suddenly making such a comeback? Well, it seems that the need for speed is back, and the latest Ford Mustang is performing well. Car sales aren’t up for all sports cars—it’s particularly the Mustang. The statistics for other models are down by 12% in the ... read more

Do you love muscle cars? Because we sure do! So what’s the definition of a muscle car, anyway? A muscle car is defined by the combination of a lightweight body and a powerful engine. While you may associate muscle cars with the 60s and 70s, muscle cars were actually born into the American car industry in 1949. The public at that time was demanding speed, and so Oldsmobile came up with the very first muscle car: the Rocket 88.  That first muscle car in 1949 shared some similarities with previous cars (in this case, it had the same body as the Oldsmobile 76, which was originally designed for a six-cylinder engine) but the Rocket 88 had some key differences. This lightweight car had a high-compression overhead valve V8, and its combination of a fast engine and light body established the precedent for the muscle cars to come. In the NASCAR circuit in 1950, the Rocket 88 absolutely dominated races, and from there, the thrill for speed became unstoppable. After the Rocket 88 c ... read more