MOPAR JOHNS B5 DAYTONA RESTORATION!!

[Mopar John]

nascarxx29,
I would love to see time capsule pictures of that new aerocoupe if you dig the up! Thanks!

[nascarxx29]

Nice impressive collection
I was looking at aero coupe pontiacs and aero coupe Montes Pontiac I think they had a Richard Petty version of the 2 + 2 I think but not sure of .But I got to find my non mopar aero car pictures.

[Mopar John]

                                           THE HOOSIER MOPAR ASSOCIATION!!
  During the winter of 1992/1993 a couple of local guys reserved a meeting room. They sent out fliers with the information about a meeting to see if there was enough interest to form a local Mopar club? The results were overwhelming! There were at least 50 guys there for that first meeting. One of the younger guys present was the son of a local restaurant owner. He said he would check with his dad to see if we could hold our monthly meetings there. The answer was yes! This was the start of the HOOSIER MOPAR ASSOCIATION! I was very active in the club and was a membership director early on and then events director for a while. We had meetings every month and formulated a plan to have a car show at a local drive-in the same weekend as the very popular POPCORN FEST in Valparaiso, Indiana. You could go to the car show and also get in free for the movies that night. Our first show was in 1993 and we called it MOPARS AT THE DRIVE-IN. That first year we built a float with one members large 2 car trailer and had another member pull it with his new Dodge dually. There was a small version of the drive-in movie screen and our Superbird parked on the trailer like we were watching a movie! There are a couple of pictures of the float. One picture has my son Mike with his girl friend Missy in it. I also have a picture of my charter member t-shirt. These were given only to those that were at that original meeting. I was very active in the club for about 5 years!

[Mopar John]

                         1993 MOPAR NATIONALS AT INDIANAPOLIS RACEWAY PARK!
In 1993 for the first time the Mopar Nationals were held in Indy! I had been there before as a spectator but never as a racer! The Mopar Nationals was just the ticket to get to race on this really famous dragstrip! I attached some pictures from that event. As you can tell I was becoming more comfortable with the racecar and dividing time between it and the wing cars. The Indy dragstrip was the best I had run on up to that time! Plenty of shutdown area and several turnoffs depending how fast you were going. A first class operation from announcing to track officials.

[Mopar John]

                                               1994 MOPAR NATIONALS INDY!
In 1994 I went to the Mopar Nationals in INDY again. It was so close and all the things that happen at that event! Our club was also involved with the swap meet. Again I took the 70 GTX dragcar! It is so much more fun at these type of races without all the brand X cars! I will just attach a couple of good shots from this event. The car is dialed at a 12:13! Working my way down to the 11"s!!

[Mopar John]

                                     1995 WINGCAR NATIONAL MEET!
In 1995 the WINGCAR national meet was held in Des Moines, Iowa. It was held in conjunction with the 7th ANNUAL MOPARS ON REVIEW car show. Either I didn't take a camera or can't find any photos from that event. I will show you what the dash plaques looked like. I do remeber a guy who was there with a freshly restored Daytona! He built a plexiglass enclosure on top of his flatbed trailer to keep the car in!! The car was out of the weather but you could still see it!

[Mopar John]

                                                        1996
 1996 was a busy year! It started out on January 1st with our 25th anniversary criuse to the Carribean! Michelle was now married and she had our first grandchild! I am now old @#$%^&*(! I am now a grandpa! My wife who had cut back on work to earn a nursing degree graduated! We attended the wing car national owners meet in Ann Arbor, Michigan! We went to the Chrysler Proving grounds again and had a great time. Since I had been there several times I didn't take any pictures? Sorry! I have a couple of the dash plaque and the event t-shirt! The
t-shirt had some of the replica wing cars of that time on the back of the shirt!

[moparstuart]

                                     1995 WINGCAR NATIONAL MEET!
In 1995 the WINGCAR national meet was held in Des Moines, Iowa. It was held in conjunction with the 7th ANNUAL MOPARS ON REVIEW car show. Either I didn't take a camera or can't find any photos from that event. I will show you what the dash plaques looked like. I do remeber a guy who was there with a freshly restored Daytona! He built a plexiglass enclosure on top of his flatbed trailer to keep the car in!! The car was out of the weather but you could still see it!

that would be joe murnans green daytona out of nebraska , he goes everywhere with it behind plexi  LOL

  He had it restored by dean who restores dicks birds.  Joe also used to own dicks hemi bird .

[Finn]

Haha why is the wing gone?

[Mopar John]

                                                                      1997
With my wifes nursing degree finished and two incomes I decided to try a full season of drag racing in 1997! The track I decided to race at was a fairly new one called US41 DRAGWAY in Moroco, Indiana. It was a little over an hour away and was an IHRA track. They had a summer points series where the top 12 cars in each catagory went to Norwalk, Ohio for the division finals. There were 22 points meets starting with 2 the first weekend, 2 in the middle, 2 at the end and all the rest singles mainly on Sundays. My confidence was blown away the first weekend! The regulars there were good and I was deep in the hole after that first weekend. I climbed my way out and finished the year 13th missing the division finals by just a few points! I made some new friends who also raced Mopars. I have a picture of my good friend Keith Long now known as the 727 SPECIALIST. He has his own transmission buisness. Keith won the last 2 points meets and almost won the track championship! The differance was only a few points! In the picture is his 1970 Dodge Challenger in primer. We ended up trading body and paint work for race transmissions. If you remember I was having a hard time getting 727 transmissions to last. This was not a problem after I had Keith building mine! I also have a couple of pictures from that track!

[Mopar John]

                                                              1998!
The winter of 1997/1998 was a very busy one! Most of us that raced at US41 were looking forward to the new stadium of drag racing being built in Joliet, Illinois! It was to open in the spring of 1998 and would be a first class NHRA facility! Over the winter I rebuilt my 440 engine. I also took my 915 angle plug heads over to see Nick Wilson from COMPU-FLOW in Ohio. Nick showed me what he could do with my ports in just a short time. He had improved the flow significantly. I left the heads there and he did his majic on them. We were also doing the body work and paint on Keith's 1970 Challenger! The winter went by quick but we were ready for the new track! Michelle graduated from college and I have a couple of pictures from her graduation ceremony. One has her holding my new grandaughter ASHLEY and one of me with a beard! No one liked it and I havn't had one since! There is also a picture of our new 1998 Dodge Ram pickup and US CARGO enclosed box trailer! I bought it so that all the cars would fit inside including the Superbird!

[Mopar John]

                                                           1998 PART 2!
The new track in Joliet opens and were ready to go! There were only about 12 points meets for the season here! It was a relief after 22 the year before! My car was now running in the low 11's! This track was built for the NHRA elite but we got to use it in between big events. I signed up for the season points. I was much more prepared for this track after running the car so much the year before. I have attached some pictures of the car at the new track sporting new lightweight Weld Prostars. There is also a picture of me holding my grandaughter. The last picture shows my trophy from that inaugural season. I placed 7th and got to go race at the NHRA DIVISION 3 ET FINALS in Indy!! That was neat because I was already familiar with that track from running the Mopar Nationals there a couple of years! I won a couple of rounds in Indy to cap off a great year of racing!!

[pettybird]

the '96 meet was a blast.  I passed two cars (including mom in our B5 car) in the petty car and held it floored in the top lane until the speedo and tach stopped going any further.  I was way back from the lead cars and had nearly half the length of the track before I had to shut down. 

I had kyle peters (glenn's teenage son) in the back seat and jerry service (longtime wing owner and friend of my dad) in the passenger seat.  I was flat out, a foot from the armco and concentrating HARD, kyle was in the back seat strangling my headrest posts so hard his knuckles were white and jerry just sat in the passenger seat, telling a story about my dad, as casually as if we were in his living room.  totally awesome. 

I have pics too but they're buried somewhere and I'd have to be as high tech as John in posting them as I don't have a scanner either 

[Mopar John]

                                                                   1999
        @@@@@@#######$$$$$$%%%%%%%^^^^^^^&&&&&&&&*******(((((((((()))))))!!!!!!!!!!
My TITANIC hits an iceberg!! The plans for 1999 was to run the full points season at ROUTE 66 RACEWAY with the 1970 GTX and to attended the 30th AERO WARRIOR REUNION with the Superbird. The season started out great with the car running well and in the top 10! There were 4 of us with Mopars pitting together and helping each other out! We were all in the top 10 and things were great! Keith had built the transmissions for the cars and I had painted a couple of them. Early August I got wind of the fact that my wife of 26 years was having an affair with one of my racing buddies @#$%^&*()#$%^&*()@#$%^&*(#$%^&*()@#$%^&*()!!! This reopened the wounds from 1980!! This disaster affected my family, my friends and my hobby! People outside the marriage got involved and took sides and it became a real mess! I filed for divorce and had the opportunity to buy back my home and my cars! Michelle was out of the house and married, Mike was out of high school and working and Matthew was going into his senior year. Keith the 727 SPECIALIST stayed at my side and is a true friend to this day! The others went to the dark side as I call it. As bad as things were I made the decision to keep racing and actually ended up having one of my best years! I won a non points Mopar event! I also one won of our points meets and finished 5th for the year! I also got to participate in the NHRA DIVISION 3 ET FINALS in INDY again! I spent a lot of time with the kids and my grandaughter. I also started organizing and remodeling the house. By the way several people tried to take advantage of this situation and try to buy one of the cars at a bargain rate and are no longer my friends also!! I would have sold the house and moved back in with my mom and dad before I would have sold the cars!! Well enough on that, I know there are others on here who have gone through bad times. In my next segment I will cover the 1999 TALLADEGA REUNION! Yes, I did go and NO I didn't drive it down there after all the blown sidewalls in 1988! Besides I could keep the Superbird locked up in the new trailer at night! Enjoy the pictures!

[moparstuart]

wow john sorry to hear about your bad year . 

[69_500]

John, sorry that it took so long but you asked to see the plaque I had hanging up in the garage from 1982 at Indy as well. Well here it is.

[The70RT]

wow john sorry to hear about your bad year . 

X 2

[hemi68charger]

John..
Glad you were able to still focus on yourself and enjoy life. After all, it's YOUR life when it's said done and you took charge !!!!!   

When one bad door opens and closes, another good door is soon to open.............

Troy

[Mopar John]

Troy,
I like your philosphy about the doors opening and closing! It took a while for the bad door to close but the good door or doors were right behind! I am a very lucky guy and will share some of the good door type stuff soon!

69_500,
Thanks for the followup on your dads second place trophy! I am glad it is still displayed in a place of honor! You also mentioned Dave Jones taking 1st with his Hemi Daytona. I'm just wondering what happened to Dave? I havn't seen him at any wing meets and wonder if he still has an AERO car?

TALLADEGA 1999 SOON!

[69_500]

Troy,
I like your philosphy about the doors opening and closing! It took a while for the bad door to close but the good door or doors were right behind! I am a very lucky guy and will share some of the good door type stuff soon!

69_500,
Thanks for the followup on your dads second place trophy! I am glad it is still displayed in a place of honor! You also mentioned Dave Jones taking 1st with his Hemi Daytona. I'm just wondering what happened to Dave? I havn't seen him at any wing meets and wonder if he still has an AERO car?

TALLADEGA 1999 SOON!

Dave Jones is still on the east side of Indianapolis but he does not have any AERO cars that I know of. He sold the V2 HEMI Daytona several years ago and it was the last of the AERO cars that he had. I believe he has a 1970 Coronet R/T now.

[Mopar John]

                                                          DAYTONA UPDATE!
We have been asked by Troy Angelly to display our Daytona in his booth at the INDY CYLINDER HEAD trade show on March 6th and 7th. We have accepted and since we'll be down there have reserved a swap space right next to Troy's booth. So if your going to the show stop by and see us!
  Several members here on the forum contacted me about the NOS Charger weatherstrip on EBAY. Thanks! They saw that I was looking for one on my want list. I have purchased it from Frank Mitchell and crossed that item off my list. I am really surprised at all the NOS parts that I have found this late in the Game!
  I am going to Troy's shop tommorrow to drop off some parts to be detailed and to take pictures of the NOS parts for the restoration documentation book he is making. I will also check out the Daytonas being restored down there!

[Mopar John]

                                             1999 NATIONAL MEET TALLADEGA!
  The 1999 national meet was going to be held at Talladega, Alabama again. This was a meet not to miss!! I had already made motel reservations and bought four tickets. My soon to be ex was going along with her brother and his wife @#$%^&*()#$%^&*(?? I didn't know what I was going to do about all this. I contacted my soon to be ex brother in law and he said the he didn't have a problem with me. He said he didn't want his sisters actions to ruin his vacation and was looking forward to the meet and the race. I asked my youngest son Matthew to go along and he jumped at the chance to go! So we were all set. The format was the same as in 1988 where the Welborn's hosted the show out of Birmingham. We had a car show on Friday, the Talladega museum on Saturday and the parade lap and race on Sunday! I have attached a picture of Matthew at the track early Sunday morning and some of the event credentials. More soon!

[66chargerkid]

Very cool!

[tan top]

 more good reading & pictures  , John      awesome stuff 

[69_500]

I will be up there at the swap meet in Indy in march, looking forward to seeing you there and checking the car out once again. Didn't get to really look it over down at Talladega spent too much time down there chit chatting with old friends more than looking at many cars.