MOPAR JOHNS B5 DAYTONA RESTORATION!!

[Black Charger]

Mopar John,

Your story is what got me to finally register and join this site instead of just lurking. My love of Chargers brought me here but I have to say that I have really gotten into your story. I can't wait to read some more!

By the way, after seeing your shots from the US 30 Drag Strip in Hobart, IN, I did a web search and I found a link that might interest you: http://www.lostindiana.net/Lost_Indiana/Lost_Indiana__US_30_Drag_Strip.html
Basically, soomeone went to the old US 30 site and took pictures of what it all looks like now.

[Mopar John]

Black Charger,
I am glad I brought you aboard! I hope you find other information on the site informative and helpfull! I have been on the old US30 site and also stop by the old track when in that area. It's about 40 minutes away! Here are a couple of recent updates about that. The original announcer for the " SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY" radio commercials has recently passed away. Also the old Sunoco gas station that was at the corner by the track was recently torn down. As of late it was a very small SHELL foodmart. So as time passes so does the old track that so many went to!

[Mopar John]

                                                              2002!
The winter of 2001/2002 was spent do more remodeling/updating on the house! I also spent a lot of time with my new girlfriend getting to know her and adjusting our lifestyles. In the spring I purchased a new tow vehicle for the box trailer. The 1998 Dodge pulled the trailer very well. But when a semi passed me !@#$%^&*()_!! it was like driving a snake or a rope! I decided to buy a one ton cab and chassis and buy a dump box from my brother in law. At the time he had a nursery/garden center and did snow plows and truck equipment also. For less than a dually pickup I put this dump truck together. I had my compact tractor and was able to do a lot of small jobs myself and use the truck to save money! I raced the 2002 season at ROUTE 66 RACEWAY and again won an event and again finished 6th in the years points. I had Nick Wilson from COMPUFLOW in Medina , OHIO build me a new short block for the season and we were now running close to 10 flat and near the fast end of the PRO ET bracket! We went to the ET FINALS in INDY again! I have attached a picture of the new tow vehicle, the 2002 ROUTE 66 TROPHY and some of the pictures hanging in my rec room from the ET FINALS! ENJOY!

[hemi68charger]

Dang John...  That Dodge will pull anything.........    

Where do you put your luggage? 

[Mopar John]

Troy,
Who needs luggage when your pulling your Mopar to the track or a big show! But really we remove the race car stuff and put it in the nose of the trailer!

[Mopar John]

                                             2002 THE REST OF THE STORY!
Things were working out for Linda and I and one day we spotted a very nice home for sale near by. I know your going to say that I just finished two additions to the shop and parted all the cars out. I needed a fresh start with Linda and always liked my first brick home. The house we were looking at was brick and had a nice shop with a bathroom and 1/2 had a heated floor! This home was about 2 1/2 miles closer to work for both of us and right on a major highway but set back from the road on 8 acres! We looked at the house and put in an offer that was rejected@#$%^&*()_!! We went back when we saw the for sale signs down and made another offer that was accepted! I then had to sell my old house with the 13 acres by the Indiana Toll Road. I decided to call the Toll Road since they had just expanded the semi parking lot across on the other side. I thought they might be interested in the back part since all their drainage and garbage was coming through my place. I made a call and after about 5 differant people I got a legal guy who knew the area. Right then on the phone he told me they were interested in my back 4 acres! Linda and I took a load of dirt over to my mom and dads and while we were driving I told Linda maybe they might be interested in the whole place?? When we got home there was two messages form the Toll Road that they were indeed interested in the whole place! WOW!! We had a meeting and they told me that their legal department would handle the closing if we came to an agreement. They asked me how much I wanted for the place and I told them what I wanted. They had done there home work and offered what it had been apraised for in the recent divorce settlement. I then informed them of the shop additions and all the home remodeling. They told me that they would send an appraiser out and if it appraised for what I was asking it was a deal!@#$%^&*()!! A real nice lady came out and asked me how I got my selling price? I showed her the divorce appraisal and all the receipts from the remodeling and shop additions! She made some copies and said you have no problem here you didn't even add labor! The Toll Road called the next day and said we had a deal! We had our closing with little in closing costs and no realtor fees! The house was sold and they told us that we could take whatever we wanted except for the furnace and water softner@%^&*!! WOW!! Linda asked me to pay off the new dump truck from the proceeds and then added her equity and we bought our new home with a very small mortgage and all our vehicles paid for!! Here was one of Troys GOOD doors opening and a BAD one closing for sure!
My life was changing so fast I couldn't keep up with it. I wanted to wait before I got remarried but Linda was special and if we just bought a new home together I decided we should get married!! I proposed to her right after we moved in in September. She said yes and we were married on November 1st 2002! I took her to a SANDALS resort in Antigua for our honeymoon. There is a picture from Antigua attached along with a couple of the new home and shop! They are even digital! ENJOY!

[hemi68charger]

WOW !!!!!   

A great wife and an awesome home.. That house is awesome.........  Sweet....... Maybe the good financial-door will open for me and Kim soon ........

Being a geology guy and loving front porches, that's a dream house..... Love the stone.........

Troy

[Mopar John]

                                                              2003!
The year 2003 was a busy one! I was landscaping the front yard. Many people would watch as they drove past and didn't understand till it was all done. One section out by the road was high and another was low and always had water setting there! I stripped off the sod and put it on a big pile to rot while I moved the dirt around. The end result was good drainage with a nice rolling setting! I also took the engine and transmission out of the Superbird! I was getting ready for Talladega 2004! I sent the engine to Nick Wilson who built my race engine to rebuild the original numbers matching 440 SIX PACK engine. We also put hardened seats in for the valves with all the changes in gasoline now days. I sent the transmission to my racing partner Keith the " 727 SPECIALIST". Keith also helped me freshen the Dana rearend! It was chattering when truning tight corners! While all this was going on I sanded and repainted the engine comaprtment! I detailed it also buying many parts from a guy named Paul Jacobs from here in Indiana. Remember that name as Paul becomes an important player in the Daytona restoration!
The engine compartment came out real nice and still shows well! I bought from several other well known Mopar vendoars with mixed results! Plans are to have the rest of the Superbird restored in time for Talladega 2014! Make plans now or you will miss it!

[Mopar John]

                                                      2003 PART 2!
I also decided during 2003 to part company with my AMC REBEL MACHINE! I didn't have as much garage space and wanted to use the proceeds to finish the wing cars. I thought when Chrysler bought AMC that the owners from both groups would join forces and that really never happened! I have attached some more of the Superbird pictures getting ready for Talladega 2004!

[Mopar John]

JUST a few updates and added information before I continue into 2004! Last weekend I attended the CMC swap and two individuals stepped up to help me out with the Daytona project! My good friend Don Bishop brought some parts type vacum harnesses along for me to salvage some original plastic fittings. I found the 2 tees that I was looking for but am still on the hunt for 2 straight connectors! Also a fellow Moparts member Joe Sawyer e-mailed me late Friday and said that he had the parts that I was looking for! He also said he would be at the swap so I told him to bring the parts along. He had an original 7290 pinion yoke with the correctly dated straps that I was looking for and the original "H" bolts in great shape!! He also had a pair of assembly line 7290 u-joints with all the clips and hardware#@$%^&*(!! WOW!! That made my day!
  In my 2003 story I told about how I sold my 1970 AMC REBEL MACHINE. I forgot to mention that I did show that car once in 1996 at a NAMDRA show at Great Lakes Dragway in Union Grove, Wisconsin. There were about 7 Machines there and I took 3rd and didn't even have the red, white and blue stripes on it yet!
   Last I am sad to say that the picture of my grandparents buisness that is now known as the pumps on 12 may have been the last while it was opened. It has been closed since the first of the year and may not reopen due to the economy?

[brianz426]

Great story, thanks for sharing. 

[Mopar John]

                                             2004 AERO WARRIOR REUNION!
As I stated the 2004 meet was going to be in Talladega again! I had the bird in the best shape that it had ever been! Newly rebuilt engine, trans and rear end! I also repainted the engine compartment and did a lot of detail work under the hood for this meet. This time the meet was going to be based out of Alexander City, Alalbama near the home of our hosts Tim and Pam Welborn. Thursday was an arrival day and then on Friday we were going to the Welborn home? I can't describe in words my feeling when I drove under the roof connecting the new carriage house and garage. We all parked around the front of the house. The place was ours and we could go in any of the buildings that all had something to see. Pam even had tours inside the period furnished home! I have attached some pictures of the dash plaque and t-shirt from the meet. There is also a shot of me tinkering with the Superbird!

[Mopar John]

                                        2004 AERO WARRIOR REUNION PART 2!
Tim and Pam didn't have the museum so all the cars were stored at home or a warehouse near by. They brought all the cars home and parked them in the garden area down below the carriage house and pool. I couldn't believe the number of 1971 HEMI Chargers and Superbees !@#$%^&*()! WOW! There were all differant colors all lined up for us to see. There were a couple of Daytonas, a 1970 pink Charger R/T, an AAR Cuda and a Challenger T/A. There were a couple of 1971 Plmouth HEMI cars and some special 1971 Chargers also! I have attached some pictures of the cars I took. There is also a picture of Tim from Saturday at the Talladega museum holding the Nascar speed record sign board for a picture with Buddy Baker! Enjoy!

[Mopar John]

                                   2004 AERO WARRIOR REUNION PART 3!
On Saturday we went to the Talladega museum for a panaromic photo of our cars outside the museum. Another highlight of the weekend was all of the AERO drivers that were in attendance for us including Buddy Baker, Neil Castles, Charlie Glotzbach and Bobby Allison !@#$%^&*(! They had a panel discussion about our cars and racing back then! What a discussion it was with alot of inside information from those who were there! I have attached some pictures of me and the drivers that Linda took for me.

[Mopar John]

                                  2004 AERO WARRIOR REUNION FINAL THOUGHTS!
I don't have any pictures of the parade lap or raceday? I think we were using our new DVD recorder for that. The raceday was hot for October and we spent some time during cautions cooloing off under the grandstands. I have attached one picture that I took of Linda standing between two Daytonas. They were lined up this way for the parade lap. The significance of the photo is that we own two Daytonas with those color combinations. That day we discussed how we could have our own cars in a picture like that. We also discussed how we should get one of them done before the next AERO WARRIOR REUNION in Talladega! Well as you all know we got the B5 Daytona done and had it down there for the 2009 AERO WARRIOR REUNION! THANKS LINDA!! THANKS TROY ANGELLY!!

[hemi68charger]

                                        2004 AERO WARRIOR REUNION PART 2!

Man,, this was my 1st AeroWarriors-of-any-kind event and it was GREAT !!!!!

[Mopar John]

                                                               2004
Late in 2004 we decided to upgrade the front of the shop area. The shop is real nice but it looked like they poured extra cement in small spots each time they had leftover when building the house. It wasn't very big and every time you would wash a car you were in mud by the time you were done! We hired a concrete guy who broke up the old stuff and poured a new 56 foot wide by 24 foot deep pad angled away from the shop with a grated drain. This looked better and works great with the hose out there!

[hemi68charger]

                                                               2004
Late in 2004 we decided to upgrade the front of the shop area. The shop is real nice but it looked like they poured extra cement in small spots each time they had leftover when building the house. It wasn't very big and every time you would wash a car you were in mud by the time you were done! We hired a concrete guy who broke up the old stuff and poured a new 56 foot wide by 24 foot deep pad angled away from the shop with a grated drain. This looked better and works great with the hose out there!

[Mopar John]

                                                                   2005
                                         GOOOOOOODD! VS BAAAAAAAAADD!
I will set the scene for you. It is August 20th 2005 and we are at the last points meet at Route 66 Raceway for the year. I wasn't having a real good year because I was tinkering with the car too much! I was trying to get it to run 10 seconds flat when it was warm out. I was so far out in the points race I decided to run the Mopar Nationals. I normally wouldn't take the chance of putting extra runs on the car if I was near the top ten and had a chance to go to the ET finals in Indy. The week before we won two rounds at the Nats and broke out in the third round with a 10.255 on a 10.26 dial! Linda couldn't get the DVD recorder to work properly at the nats and was bummed because we did so well there! Back to Route 66 on August 20th. Linda has the DVD recorder working and is going to record my racing! It takes 7 round wins on a normal points meet to win the event. Round 1 I have a good light and the opponet breaks out! Round 2 I have another good light and run closer to the dial in! Round 3 we both red light but I'm the quicker car and win! Round 4 I'm running a real fast 9.70 car and I have a decent light and he breaks out trying to catch me! We are now down to 5 cars in PRO ET! My ex racing buddy who had an affair with my ex wife has been coming up the other side of the ladder and some of the friends that took his side were with him. I had Keith who was already out helping me cool the car down and fuel it between rounds. He was also helping put me in the water box the same each time so there would be no errors made! We'll my ex buddy draws the bye run and I have to race to advance! I have to race another real fast 9.50 car! I have a great light and he has a real bad light and never catches me and another win!! Now we are down to 3 cars and I draw the bye into the final @#$%^&*()#$%^&*()!! WOW!! Round 6 I use it as a time trial and go last and watch the other run and my old buddy wins!! Now it's time for an all Mopar final round 7 the GOOOOOD VS the BAAAAAD! This run is the last run of the day and the last run for the points meet season!! Most all the top 20 teams are hanging around to see how the points shake out and who will get to go to the NHRA DIVISION 3 ET FINALS in Indy! Everbody is up by the track for this one knowing our history! Here we go another fast 9.76 car that has run 4 9.76's in a row and me dialed in at 10.10. I need to mention here that he was running according to the NHRA rulebook an illegal pnuematic throttle controler! The track was aware of him and a couple of others but never did anything about it! Maybe that's where all the consistancy comes in? I had run as quick as 10.116 and knew I had to take this one all the way out the back door to have a chance! I stick to my routine and light the first set of yellow bulbs first. I'm revving the engine waiting as soon as he lights his first yellow I move up and light my second yellow! As soon as he lights his second yellow I set the transbrake and foot to the floor!! The christmas tree activates and I do my job and I leave first and it's greeeeeen!!! He drops the hammer as soon as I leave and red lights -.022!@#$%^&*()#$%^&*()!!! I see his red light on the tree as I pass it and I look up and the win lights across the top of my scoreboard are on!@#%&*!! I stayed in it and ran a respectable 10.120 on my 10.10 and he throws away another 9.766! WOW!! Linda had been DVD recording all the runs but when he red lighted her and Keith started yelling and jumping up and down. Needless to say she didn't get much of the run after the red light. I came back up the return road in front of the stands with everyone cheering, clapping and giving me the thumbs up on the way to the winners circle! This was probably one of the best days of my life!!!!!!!!
     
   You will notice that I didn't mention my ex wife in this. That's because they got married right after our divorce was final in the summer of 2001. Which means I had to endure them for the remainder of the 1999 season along with the 2000 and 2001 seasons! From my previous chapters you all know I did well in spite of the distractions. We'll they had bought a motorcycle so that they could ride with my boys who both had motorcycles trying to drum up some type of bond with them. We'll in the fall of 2001 I get a call late one night from my ex buddys dad asking me to find the 3 children and inform them that his son and their mother had been involved in a horrific motorcycle accident! I did my part and notified the children who had mixed reactions but I did what was asked of me!  Later I found out that at dark that evening they turned on a yellow and were hit by a car that went around an oncoming van that was also turning on the yellow! She was hurt and he got all busted up and almost died!! Shortly after he was somewhat recovered they split up! He came back to racing in 2004 and made his car his life!

I have attached a picture of the winning time slip, the winners circle with Linda, Keith and my trusty GTX. I almost forgot, a picture of the $1,000.00 check! WOW!

[Aero426]

That's a great story John.   

[hemi68charger]

Hope you took Linda out for a nice dinner with that $grand.....   

[Mopar John]

                                                           2006
When we were all racing together and I won some money I would invite everyone out for a victory dinner!
On this day I think we went to Al's steakhouse in Joliet for dinner. I savored this victory all winter! Also over the winter I upgraded the GTX from a steel 5 point rollbar to a 10 point chrome moly cage! I thought it was going to add weight but that old steel bar was so heavy that the GTX actually weighed 30lbs less when it was done! I was really happy because I am always looking at the weight of the car. Less weight=faster times! I also applied for and received an NHRA drivers license good down to 8.50! The car was dipping into the 9's and I wanted to be legal!
During the summer I was told about a small body shop nearby that did a lot of work on Mopars for years. I stopped by and had a long talk with the owner and found out that he had a pair of NOS 1970 Road Runner quarter panels!!
We agreed on a price and I bought them for the Superbird restoration. When I went to pick them up the drivers side was for a 1970 Road Runner and the one behind it was a passengers side for a 1970 Coronet !@#$%^&*()!!
We'll I bought the drivers side and started looking for a passengers side. I always wanted to redo the quarters and trunk floor that I put on years back. The summer went by quick with racing and working on the cars. On labor day weekend Linda and I went to the US NATIONALS in Indy for the HEMI CHALLENGE! This is the big 1968 HEMI A Body super stock race of the year! I have some pictures of us and the cars! ENJOY!

[Mopar John]

                                                                   2006
More pictures from the HEMI CHALLENGE at the US NATIONALS!

[Mopar John]

                                                                      2006
Another surprise at the US NATIONALS was a tribute to Ronny Sox! They had a presentation to his wife and then a parade of all the cars he drove! From what I understand, most of the cars in the pictures were real cars that he had driven. Most were restored! They went down the pit road right in front of the grandstands! What a sight to see! The sound of all the engines was great also!

[tan top]

more awesome pictures &  memorys John .... thanks for sharing