MOPAR JOHNS B5 DAYTONA RESTORATION!!

[Mopar John]

We'll I've decided to try and share with you my story of me and my  B5 blue Daytona! This will not be just about the car but me, my family and friends met and lost along the way. I will also tell my story of what made me decide to get a Daytona and all those who got me to that point. Stick with me and you'll see plenty of pictures of the Daytona I have at least 2,000 of the restoration by TROY ANGELLY RESTORATIONS. I am going to do my best with this and ask for help. I will start the journey with the first picture it was taken at Tim Wellborns museum on Friday of the Talladega meet. It has in the picture my wife Linda, myself and our freshly restored B5 Daytona. Linda told me that I wasn't going to get anything for Christmas after we spent all our savings on the restoration. Well, this weekend she went out and had these picture Christmas cards made! I'd be happy with these as a gift. So to all you Dodge Charger.com members here's our Merry Christmas wish to all! Linda is a car gal and if it wern't for that things like this wouldn't happen! I love her to death even though she likes Mustangs. But she isn't all bad her birthday is April 26th ( 426 )!!!! How's that for a Mopar Wife?
  The next picture is taken at Troy Angelly's shop on Tuesday October 27th when we stopped on the way to Talladega to pick up the Daytona. In the picture from left to right is Troy Angelly the shop owner, his employees Dwayne who did a ton of the sanding and Phil who did a lot of detail work. This was one of the happiest days of my life! The Daytona was dropped off on November 15th 2008 with the greatest of hopes that it would make it to Talladega. I told Troy that I would haul what was done down there even if it wasn't complete. The car is not done and may never be done if you car guys know what I mean. We have more NOS parts to replace some of the reproduction parts that were on the car to get it to the AERO WARRIOR REUNION.
    I want to stop here and acknowledge Tim and Pam Wellborn!!! They don't realize how much they are doing for our aero car hobby by holding these reunions!!! I don't know how many stories I heard about people going the extra mile to get a car done and make it there. The young couple next to us in the front row of the panoramic shot with the black Superbird just finished it and drove straight through from California as an example. Cars would never get done if it wern't for these type of shows and get togethers. I would also like to thank Doug Schellinger and his helpers from the club end on putting the reunion together job well done.  Enough verbage for this initial post.
Mopar John Borzych
   
 

[Mopar John]

I told you that I would ask for help on this. Could someone tell me what size picture the post takes so that everyone reading it won't have to use the side to side arrows?
Thanks!

[hemigeno]

The answer to that question is going to be different for everyone.  It depends on how large of a monitor they have, and what their computer's display settings are.  Those factors determine how large of a picture will display without involving the dreaded scroll bar.  What will display fine for one person may not display w/o scroll bars for another.

If you go too small, the pics will display as you wish on everyone's monitor -- but at the cost of detail.  Some of us thrive on the detail, y'know!

[Mopar John]

Gene,
It is ironic that you are the first to reply to my post. Thanks for the info on the picture size! I will leave them as is for now. I know everyone will want as much detail as possible! I have enjoyed your post and I think mine will enhance it. We both have a severe passion to make our Daytonas the best that they can be but we have traveled much differant roads to get there. Differant shops both with great experience and reputations as an example.
Mopar John

[Dave Kanofsky]

Thanks for taking the time to share your story John, That is truly a fantastic car.  I look forward to the rest of the pics.

By the way, I totally agree with you on the influence that these reunions have on the hobby.  I know I did a bunch of extra detail work, I think everyone does too, and it shows.  I do think it is funny how much extra effort we all put into a show with no prizes or trophies or judging.  

Also - did you have your car at the show in Rosemont, IL a few weeks ago?  A Pontiac guy was telling me about this awesome Daytona he saw that was blue on blue with a white stripe...

[Mopar John]

Dave,
I hope you enjoy my story. My car was not at the Rosemont show. We want to finish more details before it goes to another show. Talladega only comes around every 5 years and who knows what could happen by the next one?

[Mopar John]

My journey starts in January 1954. I was born on 123 or January 23rd to a Polish union electrician and a polish stay at home mom. So at least I'm a pure bred Polack and proud of it just ask my family and friends. My mom and dad are still alive and I just helped them move from the buisness that they retired from and helped support us. It was a little 12 room motel on HWY 421 south of Michigan City, Indiana called Norberts motel after my dad. Here is a picture of mom and dad on that day near the back of my box trailer.

[hemi68charger]

John..
You truly have a wonderful family and car. I look forward in reading more about the car and your journey. I saw it there at the reunion and loved the car. Sorry I didn't get to spend time chatting with you. I think a lot of us were caught up reconnecting with distant friendships....

Cheers,
Troy

[Davtona]

Well I'm liking this story already.    By all means please continue. Very interesting.

[jonw29]

I enjoy the cars.However the stories that go along with them peak my intrest more than anything.Keep it coming.JW

[moparstuart]

awesome car and story so far , would love to here about the kansas city connection and about the sister car too ?  

[xs29j8Bullitt]

Well I'm liking this story already.    By all means please continue. Very interesting.

   

[tan top]

Well I'm liking this story already.    By all means please continue. Very interesting.

   

     

this is how i resize my pictures  ,

http://www.picresize.com

follow the insrtructions  , click on custom settings ,  risize in pixels then type 400 in the box nest to it , that works for me , prolly not the best was to do it though

[maxwellwedge]

Great story John! Now, if you could just change that horn relay to an NOS one.......    

[Aero426]

awesome car and story so far , would love to here about the kansas city connection and about the sister car too ?  

It's a good story, but I won't spill the beans...

[moparstuart]

awesome car and story so far , would love to here about the kansas city connection and about the sister car too ?  

It's a good story, but I won't spill the beans...

me either ? LOL    I wont tell anyone about the jail time  LOL  or the third car that had a Hemi .

[Mopar John]

Thanks everyone for the positive comments! I think I will have you all covered as this goes on. I just finished two twelve hour midnights and got this started when I got home. My mom and dad and I lived in a small block home that he helped build right across the driveway from my dads mom amd dad or my grandma and grandpa. But their place was special!! My grandma had a soda counter and a restaurant called LAKESHORE BARBEQUE and my grandpa had a gas station called BORZYCH's SHELL. Can you see where this thing is going?? We'll when I was about one year old everyone was excited and telling me that I was going to have someone to play with and it was going to come out of my moms big tummy??? The day finally came and my mom and dad went to the hospital and my brother TOMMY was born. Everybody was kind of happy. Tommy was born sick and only lived nine days! I don't think I ever got to see him but I miss him and what could have been. This was my first experience with death. I didn't like it then and I don't like it know! The days following that were really bad! My dad would go to work and put wires in peoples houses and my mom would stay home and cry. Some times she would send me over to grandamas and grandpas to help? One of my earliest memories of their place was I had a three wheel tricycle with a pickup type bed on the back. The place was laid out kind of like Pocono with a tri oval going around the differant rooms. When the buisness was not open I would race around this thing. One day I was hanging to the inside too close and caught one of my grandparnets light poles with the back inside wheel. This thing was made out of wood and was high with a big white thing on top. They would light it up when it got dark out. The lamp pole came down fast and hard before I could do anything about it$%^&***! The big white thing on top hit the back end of my bike and broke into more pieces than I knew how to count back then. It was my first attempt at suicide. My grandma was angry and using her other talk that she used when they didn't want me to know what they were saying.
  Their buisness was on HWY 12 or the DUNES HWY near Michigan City. It was real busy in the summer time, REAL BUSY. If you took route 66 west to Chicago you finished the drive on HWY 12 to Detroit. I remeber helping!
I would run this thing that had a bunch of squares. My grandma would peel potatoes and then hand them to me and I would put them in the square machine and make a lot of long potatoes that I know now as french fries. The ones at McDonalds taste like crap compared to grandmas and mine! I also remember making hamburgers, piles of them! She would make them up and I would run the squasher and flatten them and put paper in between. These also tasted great and everyone else must have because did I tell you this place was busy!!! When I got older I got to help my grandpa on the gas station side! WOW!!! I remeber carrying metal things with painted stuff on them that I now know as numbers. We would go out and change his signs, sometimes several times a day. He would get angry and talk about a gas war and it would scare me. I was wondering if someone would hurt us with the gas he pumped? I remember he had these round cans all stacked up in differant colors and cars would come in and he would open the front up and pull this thing out. If he didn't like what he saw on it he would stick this shiny thing in the top of the can and pour it into the car. Some of these cars would make there own clouds but close to the ground?? There were all differant cars big and bigger some shiny and some looked like the fire truck dogs??
My grandpa would let me look at stuff when there wasn't a lot going on. This my friends was the beginning of my car interest ( THANKS GRANDPA!! ). I am going to visit Linda at work near my old home and my grand parents buisness today. I am going to try and get a picture for you later today! Stay tuned for more!!

[hemi68charger]

 

[nascarxx29]

Thanks for sharing your cars story

[tan top]

  

....................

[Mopar John]

I went to Lindas work site and on the way I took the pictures as promised of my childhood home and my grandparents buisness. It has been remodeled and expanded. There is no longer a driveway between them but you will get the idea of how close it was. The buisness is no longer a gas station just a roadside eatery with good food! Not as good as grandmas! They still have the old gas pumps but there enclosed in a summer eating area. The yellow pump that was regular still shows 17.9 cents per gallon and the white pump that was called ethyl is at 21.9 cents per gallon. They made a living off that back then??? When I got back home tonight my Talladega panoramic photo was here! Who needs Christmas presents with stuff like this going on. The B5 Daytona the subject of this post is in the front row just one car left of center. If you notice the front center is red, white and blue cars. That was the making of Dave and Barney Kanofsky fellow CMC members of mine that also own one of those R4 red cars with a white wing.

[Mopar John]

I will now continue on the things in life that make a motorhead/car guy. Now I'm 3 and mom is going to have another baby? I am going into this with mixed feelings. She does smile again but what if this one doesn't make it? Well, all went well and I have a baby sister Maria. About this time I also got my first friend Timmy Lang. Timmy's mom was a stay at home mom and his dad had a buisness a BODY shop. I didn't know what bodies had to do with cars but they would bring in wrecked cars and Timmy's dad and his guys would fix them. They would haul them in with the old tow trucks that would only lift up one end not the whole car like they do today. When they brought them in they would back them in the building or put them in a fence next to it. I remeber the first time we walked down to Timmy's house. We had to walk since mom was a Chicago gal and they didn't have cars so she didn't know how to drive. I felt sorry for her! When we got by the fence for the body shop 2 real mean dogs came running at the fence with the biggest teeth I had seen up to that point in my life! I had pretty good control of my body functions by then but lost it and wet my shorts. I also remeber a great smell that would come out of that place kinda like my grandmas baking. I always wanted to go in side and see how they fixed them cars. They would be out front waiting for the owners to pick them up when they were done and they looked great. Timmy and I were good friends and had lots of fun. Well when I turned 4 a lot of things started to happen. My mom was learning how to drive and my mom and dad were going to open their own buisness a MOTEL! My dad would come home and set up stuff in the yard and my mom would practice driving. It didn't go so well and I got my chance to see the inside of MR. Lang's body shop. While he looked over the damge to the car I looked over the shop. They had cars apart and chains in the floor to pull things back in shape. But way in the back I found what I was looking for. Thats where they painted the cars and thats the smell I craved. I still love the smell of fresh paint on a car!
I have attached a picture of the Langs old body shop that is now a differant buisness. If you look close you will see the Pumps On Twelve in the distance to see how close by it was.
 My mom and dad sold our home to my grandma and I thought they were going to move in there and make more room for the buisness. My dad bought a big red DODGE truck with a flat bed for building the motel. I would ride with him a lot in this truck and helped build the motel. They had just built the Indiana Toll Road and his motel was right by it. It was built in a clay farm field and I didn't like that stuff then and don't like it now. I have never seen so many stuck cement trucks in my life! Sometimes two at a time. There were tractors and even bulldozers that had to come get them out. I always wondered what would happen if they didn't get one out and the cement got hard in the truck? Well mom and dad had a good buisness and we didn't get to go on any vacations except when they took me by grandmas and granpas to help! As I grew up I saw a lot of things pass through the motel. New trucks and equipment, circus animals, hearses transporting loved ones you name it. I would help with a lot of things like shoveling snow, raking stones back on the driveway and mowing the lawn. Later dad decided he needed a restaurant to feed the guests so he put one up. There was two things that I liked about it. First if I didn't like what mom had for supper I could go get a hamburger ( not as good as grandmas ) and the trips to town. If we ran short of something dad would say Johnny we have to run to town. He would fire up one of his V8 Buicks and off we'd go on the 7 mile trip with only one stop light. The speed limit on HWY 421 was 65mph back then and I know we would exceed that and it was GREAT!! We would be back in time for the guests to eat and not now what happened. At first I would push mow the grass and then we got our first riding lawn mower! It was fun to do that now! When that mower wore out my dad got a new one and let me have the old one. I took the mower deck off and kind of used it like a big go kart. One day I was in the shed and there was an old pair of snow tires from a car we didn't have anymore. Back then everyone had an extra set of wheels with snow tires for the winter. I asked my dad if I could have the old snow tires and he gave them to me. I wanted to mount them on the back of the old lawn mower and make it FASTER. I had to make a plate for each side because the lawnmower used three bolts and the snow tires had five. I finally got them mounted and it sat like a pulling tractor and it was FAST! At least for a lawn mower. I drove that thing everywhere. One day I was coming down a hill at the neighbors and the front steering came loose. The lawnmower rolled and broke the caruretor off the side of the motor. This was my second attempt at suicide. It was junk!
  I hope I havn't bored you but I wanted to share things in my life that formed the desire for my hobby!
My next verbage will start with me asking my dad about getting me a car$%^&*(())!

[hemi68charger]

Continue John...........   

[moparstuart]

Continue John...........   

yes continue   

[tan top]

Continue John...........   

yes continue   

good story .............