(text from the ad at car-from-uk.com🙂 This is definitely a car to be seen in. Everywhere we drive. people ask us what type of automobile we are driving. This car is only one of hundred made and is now only one of fourteen known to still be in existence. It was a creation of Jon Tedesco. Dean Giliard and Lenny Borger whose original aim was to create a showpiece that would bring customers into Chevrolet showrooms.
Being as Rolls Royce was a head-turning brand. they began to convert 1976 Monte Carlos into a Rolls Royce “cousin”. The look was so appealing that they decided to mass produce a line of cars that they named Custom Cloud. However. they were shut down by Rolls Royce after a trademark infringement suit was filed.
Now is your change to own a piece of history. This car is in very good condition. considering it is 37 years old. THIS IS AN ORIGINAL PROTOTYPE WITH ITS ORIGINAL 1ST EDTION GRILL. THE ORIGINAL FLYING LADY. AND REAL ROLLS ROYCE TAILLIGHTS! ORIGINAL AS MADE BY JON TEDESCO Custom Cloud Motors of Florida BEFORE THE LAWSUIT WAS FILED.
It is fully loaded with a V-8 engine. automatic transmission. power windows. power doors. power steering and power brakes and drives very well. the engine and transmission function wonderfully and there are no leaks. The AC even works great. just could use a little recharging. The interior is in good order and the tires are almost new. I have receipts totaling about $2. 00 for work done about two years ago for various minor repairs and maintenance.
The car does have some rust that I can see on the bottom of the side doors and the inside rim of the trunk. There is also some cracked paint on the front driver side fender. which can be seen in the pictures. Overall. the paint is very shiny and the chrome in fair condition.
This car is great for anyone who wants to be noticed or who likes to collect rare cars. To be perfect. it just needs a good paint job and some re-chroming.
1976 Custom Cloud Chevrolet Monte Carlo ROLLS ROYCE REPLICA Rare Vintage Car
Sale price: $10,624.00 make an offer
Sale type: Fixed price listing
PS: If you want the full story on the Custom Cloud (it’s a duesy), it’s all here. Oh, and in case you’re interested in buying the Custom Cloud, I realized at the end that this ad looks a bit dated. But don’t let that stop you…
I was definately in love with this car when it came out.
People were saying some uncomplimentary things about the Avanti II several days ago. This one, well, makes the Avanti II look like an original Mercedes gullwing.
You’ve had the Miata for a while, how about this for you JPC? Of course you would have to wear that wide lapel suit while driving it. 🙂
The Econogalaxie in the previous item makes more sense.
This monstrosity is like misusing a trite quotation misattributed to Churchill. The Econogalaxie is a fresh idea expressed in a fresh way. Both are weird, but only one is honest.
Recipe:
Take a RR Silver Spirit grille, slightly rusty
Bury in clay.
Wait to harden
Break clay
Take grille off.
Fill in with liquid tin.
Wait until dry.
Reserve
Take a relatively fresh ’76 Chevy Monte Carlo. Remove front clip, leaving fenders. Remove rear clip.
Rinse and reserve.
Take tin grille and put in bottom of a cliff.
Take Monte Carlo and drop down the cliff.
Attention: drop it nose first. Failing to do this will produce an unharmonious result.
If car survives, take rear clip from Silver Cloud, and attach it with Bondo to rear of Monte Carlo.
Put on sale before it melts.
Serves one fool plate.
It’s not a Deusy, it’s a Rolls! 😛
Believe it or not, I’ve actually seen one of these, or at least something very similar to it.
It was silver over red velour, and I found myself parked next to it at a drive-in movie in Warwick, NY sometime in the very early 90’s. It was inhabited at the time by some high school or college age kids.
Some yahoo in the car to the other side of us was astounded that someone would allow his/her teenager to take a Rolls Royce to a drive-in movie and exclaimed loudly about it.
It was a pretty shoddy facsimile, and the one I saw was 100% Monte Carlo inside, right down to the standard GM multifade plastic lower door panels. Ugly car. ‘Nuff said.
Actually, CC didn’t shut down after Rolls-Royce complained – they removed the Flying Lady and changed the grille. The company didn’t last long, though.
Somehow, it just looks much better in a darker colour. I can picture this is a deep burgundy red with a red vinyl top, or maybe a dark blue with a tan vinyl top.
Agree on these looking better in darker colors. But, even more importantly, might be the addition (or lack) of chrome headlight bezels. Without them, it just doesn’t look right.
Apparently plans were in the works to turn a Chevy Monza into a Mercedes 450SLC replica.
Why not save a few bucks and start with a Vega?
By that time, the Vega was on its last legs, whereas the Monza was just getting going.
Not to mention that the Monza pretty much was a rebodied Vega.
Looks like the car Lady Penelope went to college in!
I vaguely remember all this from May 1976; some cutting words about the likely shelf life of the Chevy, as it were (top half):
Conclusion:
It even made the cover of Car and Driver. Must have been a slow month.
Snazzy factory photo (eBay):
The 1970s was all about the overwraught, the tacky, the unnatural. Polyester ruled, and fiberglass neo-classic cars fit the bill. Yeah, it was tacky, ugly, unrefined, and died an undignified death, but this really represents the 1970s better than most cars.
Please remember the RR grilles heaped upon Beetles, direct from the JC Whitney catalogue. They begat the 1940 Ford front end, which lasted an even shorter time.
Or behold the Stutz Blackhawk/Bearcat of that era. Same schtick, different car, but the same thing. We seem to be on a 20 year cycle, as the Packard prototype came out in the 1990s. We are due for something similar, or at least a retro-mania for the originals, any day now.
I thought the RR Beetle was hilarious.
Also a useful gain in trunk space.
So many lament GM shit-canning the large, single round headlights for the stacked ones on the ’76 Monte. So this company thought it prudent to continue the theme only to be chastised.
Some people are never satisfied.
I remember thinking how incredibly dumb this was when I first heard/read about them in 1976.
Well, it’s been 42 years now, and I haven’t changed my mind.
And what was Car & Driver THINKING by putting one on the cover? Wow.
This is my favorite of all montecarlos. I saw one in Virginia years ago truly a beautiful car. It should bave been done by Chevy as an alternative to the Grand Prix.
The Grand Prix? About the only thing funnier than GM building a car like this would be to sell it as a Pontiac. Can you imagine this thing sitting in a dealer’s show room next to the Trans Am?
Mitsuoka did it better…
I’ve seen this car in person a few times. I used to work not far from where it must have lived. I always thought it was a one off that someone made in their garage! I was born in 79 so I wasn’t around when it was actually being made. I thought it was pretty ugly and couldn’t understand why someone would go to the trouble of butchering up a Chevy to look like a cheap imitation of a Rolls but I remember thinking that it was well done for it to be someone’s garage project so I respected it for that reason. Now that I know the real story, it’s just ugly…
“This your car, Carl?” “Yeah, whatta ya think?” “It’s really…awful”
I just don’t see the point, there is no artistry of an original custom job, a complete waste of effort.
its Far worse than the original Monte Carlo, and if that got bashed , a few standard parts and it could be fixed
Receipts totalling $2.00? Geez, someone has really spent money on this thing.
That make me chuckle too. And for how long does a pine tree air freshener cover up the smell of the exhaust fumes?
I haven’t seen one of these things in forever! I’m not the biggest fan of the 1973-1977 Monte Carlos, but I don’t hate this car. I don’t love it either, but it brings to mind this car:
That’s what I thought of too.
That thing looks like a Monte Carlo that was stung by a bee and had a bad reaction
Also, kit cars have come a long way. More than once I’ve thought about doing this…
Fun fact: In early 1980 my friends mom was dating the owner of the largest Chrysler dealer here in the Portland, Or area. He hooked her up with a pre-production K-car, for testing. Car was totally devoid of any identification, yet nobody even asked her what it was. It was so plain nobody cared. And is the only hand built car I have ever ridden in.
A car to be seen in — so long as you have a bag over your head. To be fair, the last photo puts it all in context: a lost totem of the liesure suit era.
Amen! Only $2 in repairs? That must be a typo.