MOPAR JOHNS B5 DAYTONA RESTORATION!!

[Dave Kanofsky]

The HEMI Challenge is soooo cool.  I was there in '09 for it.

[Mopar John]

                                               2007 IT'S LINDA'S TURN!
When Linda went through her divorce she left a real nice 1995 Mustang GT convertible behind! She had also owned a 1976 Mustang II COBRA like Farrah Fawcett drove in Charlies Angles tv series. When we got together I told her some day that I would get her a Mustang and it would be a real nice one!! We'll in 2005 we went to the Chicago Auto Show and in the Ford display was a concept of a SHELBY GT 500 MUSTANG! I told her that is what I'm going to get you! She thought I was dreaming! A friend of hers who always had to have what she had ran out and bought a 2005 Mustang GT! She bought it from Jordan Ford in Mishawaka, Indiana. Jordan ford was an SVT high performance dealer so we went and talked to her friends salesman about the SHELBY GT 500. The salesman knew less than we did but took our information and promised to keep in contact! We didn't hear much and again went to the Chicago auto show in February 2006. This time they had a early production prototype car on display with a little more information! We went back to Jordan Ford and couldn't find our salesman? We were told he quit under bad terms and took his contact list with him@#$%^&*()!! I asked if I could speak to a SVT salesman and was introduced. We told him we wanted to buy a 2007 SHELBY GT 500! We also told him it would be a straight up deal no trades! He told us that we were #2 on his list and they were supposed to get 3 of them! We felt pretty good and kept in contact. About May of 2006 we quit getting responses back? I made some calls and our salesman told us that they were getting 3 SHELBY'S and they were all sold!@#$%^&*(!! I asked how could this happen when we were #2 on "THE LIST"? He then says you were #2 on my list. I respond and say I thought you were the SVT salesman? We'll truth be known they were all "SVT SALESMEN"!@#$%^&*()!! He then informed me that the general manager had promised 2 to very good buisness customers and then the 3rd was going to someone on one of the lists. They still had our info but chances were that we wouldn't get a SHELBY from them!!! I went into panic mode because I had promised Linda one of these cars! I found out that each SVT dealer would get 3 and all the other dealers were going to get 1! Call after call was the same answer, all were sold!@#$%^&*!! Then a ray of hope! I called Barile Ford nearby in Valparaiso, Indiana and talked to a saleslady and asked if they were getting a SHELBY GT 500? She said she would ask her sales manager and call me back. When she called back she told me that they wern't getting 1? I wait till the next morning a Wednesday and asked to speak with the general manager of the dealership. They put me in touch with a nice guy named Bob. I asked him if they were getting a SHELBY GT 500? He told me that they were getting 1! I asked him if it was sold? He replied no!! I asked him if my wife could order it and he said yes@#$%^&*()!! WOW!! I'm saved!! We made an appointment for Friday morning two days later when we would both be off. We went in and Linda and I were introduced to the same sales manager that thought they wern't getting one. His name is Ron Earl and he owns a 1995 Mustang Cobra R one of only 250 made and it's still new with only 100 miles on it! We had a fantastic experience ordering this SHELBY! Linda got to hit the send button on the computer! The next day an article came out in the local paper and the dealership had a lot of calls about the SHELBY GT 500! We were very lucky to get that car! Ron kept all the paperwork as he got it. We were well informed of the order and build of the car. Attached are pictures of the 2006 Chicago Auto Show Shelby and Linda!

[Mopar John]

                                       2007 LINDA GETS HER SHELBY GT 500!
Finally 9 months later on January 17th 2007 Linda gets the call that her car is in!#$%^&*(!! We drove right over to see it that evening. It was the middle of the winter and cold and snowing! They put it inside for us to look at it and take pictures! We worked out a deal where they would display the car on the showroom for 2 weeks in exchange for all the dealer materials that they got for the SHELBY GT 500!! Linda got all the salesman training materials, signs, brochures and even the giant banner that was up on the showroom. Ron also kept every bit that came off the car and even bought her Hot Wheels 1:18 diecast to go with the car! It's up on the supercharger in the car show picture! They showed it for 2 weeks and I got to drive it home! Linda has put 500 miles on it in 2007, 300 miles in 2008 and 600 miles in 2009 for a total of 1,400 miles. It is mint condition just like when she got it. The only modifications she has let me do to the SHELBY is to add an autographed dash plaque from Carroll Shelby, louvers on the quarter windows and floor mats with red Cobras!
This car is awesome to drive and I usually get told that I'm going way to FAAAAASSSST (100mph+)! I have attached a picture of Linda with her new SHELBY GT 500. I always ask everyone what is the deepest red? Lindas SHELBY, her coat or her rosy cheeks? There is also a picture of it on display, another with Ron and the last is with Linda at her first car show! I am jealous that Linda has this car orderd by her the way she wanted it and has the ability to keep it very nice for a very long time! All my stuff has been brought back from the dead! I hope you Mopar guys understand this part of the story!

[Aero426]

                                      I hope you Mopar guys understand this part of the story!

Tell Linda I am jealous.   I've always liked Mustangs.   My first car was a '66, and this one, the '85 GT I owned for almost 20 years.   I had to let it go when I bought the 7 car.    The '85 was cheap to run and fun to drive.   I hope to get a newer Mustang someday.

[moparstuart]

that is so cool she got to buy her dream car new and you have all that documentation now .  It makes it worth all that much more .  great sorry   

[brianz426]

 I hope you Mopar guys understand this part of the story!

I can totally understand and appreciate this part of the story. Mopars are #1 with me and Mustangs are a close second. I'm planning on buying a GT500 next year and my Mopar friends can't understand   why I would want the Mustang over the new Challenger. Congradulations, her car looks great in red.

[Mopar John]

                                                     2007 SPRING!
 In the fall of 2006 I took the GTX to US41 in Morocco for some post season testing and tuning! I had made some more changes to the car to make it faster! On that day it ran a 9.800 it's quickest ever! I pulled that motor out over the winter and was having a new race motor built! The fast end of the PRO ET bracket at ROUTE 66 RACEWAY was now 9.50! There were quite a few cars getting into the 9's now! I had been buying parts since the late 90's to build my BIG MOTOR! One of the first things I bought was a INDY CYLINDER HEAD 500 cubic inch rotating assembly! It was already balanced and was a complete kit! It had a Mopar stroker crank, Manley rods, Wisco pistons, bearings, rings etc. The next year or so I purchased a set of SR heads and had Nick Wilson from COMPUFLOW port them. I ended up using those heads on my 9.800 motor. I then bought another set of INDY SR's from a good friend Tom Stevens. Tom had a 1963 or 64 Plymouth that was real fast! I bought a lot of his parts as he made his car faster! Tom passed in late summer 2008 to kidney cancer! I have a picture of Tom and his car attached. His widow is still trying to sell this car for $50,000. It's mint and faaaaaasssssst!! It's run 9.18 in the quarter! It has the best of evrything including a RAY BARTON wedge engine! I had also bought a roller cam with good bearings, timing chain and roller lifters. So it's time to get this all put together. I read about a MOPAR machine shop in Morton, Illinois that had state of the art CNC machines to do the top of the block and the bottom of the block. The name was CHENOWETH SPEED AND MACHINE! Their prices were reasonable and only about 3 hours away. I decided to give them a call and go over what I wanted to do. All sounded good and I started to gather all the parts for this 500 cu engine! I kept most of it in the house in the pantry! When I got to the new stroker crankshaft box I noticed a rodent hole in it!@#$%^&*()! This can't be good I thought. We'll I opened the box and some mice had made a condo out of my crankshaft!#$%^&*(! This would prove to be sickning and costly! When Mike Chenoweth checked the crank it had mouse urine on some of the journals and they were pitted! They couldn't be polished out and the brand new crank had to be turned and rebalanced! It gets worse! Mike calls me about a day later and informs me that the mice also got into the box of new pistons and pissed on them too! They all had to be machined! So, I didn't really save anything putting this stuff away a little at a time! In addition the Mopar engine technology was improving rapidly. If I were to do it all over again, I would start a savings acount and go have one built all new. Mike and his dad Dale got the new motor done and ready as promised for the 2007 season. We broke the motor in and went to test and tune! The car was quite a bit faster! It was now running in the 9.60's!! It was so fast that I would have to shift while the front wheels were still in the air and not look at the tach until it was time to shift to 3rd! What a ruuuusssshhhh! I decided to mean up the graphics on the car and made the lime of BITTER LIME to look more like JAWS! ENJOY!

[Mopar John]

                                                           2007 SUMMER!
So here we are in the summer of 2007 and Talladega is only 2 years away! We need to get the blue Daytona restored somewhere? I decided from all of the horror stories about restoration shops, that the one I choose had to be within a days driving range! I also wanted a shop that had already done an award winning restoration on a Daytona. I didn't want to pay them to learn on my car! Names like Roger Gibson, Nostalgia Lane, Vance Cummings were on my list. Then I received the March 2007 issue of Mopar Collectors Guide. On the cover was a small photo of Steve Fox's black Daytona with a red stripe. I couldn't wait and read that story first! While I'm reading this the name Paul Jacobs is mentioned. It stated that he and his partner Troy Angelly had restored this Daytona. This is the same Paul Jacobs that I bought all the Superbird detailing parts from a few years back!! I called Paul and it was that same familiar voice on the phone. I talked with him about Steves Daytona and asked if he would be interested in restoring another one? He said that I would need to bring the Daytona to his shop with all the extra parts. He would have his partner Troy Angelly who does the body and paint there also. So we agreed on a day that I was off and the plan was in motion!@#$%^&*()! WOW! After 28 years I might be getting the B5 blue Daytona restored! I have attached some pictures of the magazine article that got this restoration in motion!!

[notabird]

Steve Fox's Daytona is awesome,I was fortunate to get to work on that car (a little bit).I sure made my day when PJ called. Brent

[nascarxx29]

Mopar John I noticed you had 70 Coronets on one of your post a banged up in the front blue RT conv.Always wanted one of those 1of 237 RT ragtops .  I had 70 RT/s Super Bees .And kept my original low mile survivor N code 383 4bl burnt orange on burnt orange buckets console AC Disc brakes car.All the snow and ice melted and it was still there .Still hunting for GM aero car pictures I got

[Mopar John]

nascarxx29,
Yes, That was a blue 1970 Coronet R/T convertible. I bought it as a parts car but turned out to be
too nice and too rare to part out. I sold it to someone in Illinois in the early 80's!

[Mopar John]

                                                               AUGUST 2007
Linda and I met a guy who transported our NOS passengers side quarter panel to the Mopar Nationals! We now had both NOS quarter panels for the Superbird! After the Nationals I cleaned all the extra parts out of the B5 Daytona. I also had to sort through a bunch of parts because I had put parts in both cars. I changed my mind and was restoring the B5 car and the R4 car had a lot of the nicer parts. One day I pulled the Daytona out of the shop and was going to dust it off and wash it. I just get started and I get a call from Doug Croxford ( petty bird on this site ) who was passing through the area. He wanted to know if I would be home. I said yes and you'll never believe what I'm doing! He asked what? I said I have the B5 Daytona out and am cleaning it up! Doug stopped by and decided to stick around and help! We blew the car off and then washed it! It had years worth of storage dust and overspray on it. We also cleaned out the inside and trunk! We had to clean overspray off all the glass and trim! Doug also got the idea to use Gunk and degrease the engine! We spent several hours working on it! When we got done Doug took some pictures from that day. Later he e-mailed them to me and I am going to attach them to this post! I did not tell Doug why I was cleaning the car up. You can imagine his surprise about a year and a half later at Talladega! Thanks for the help and pictures Doug!

[hemi68charger]

Wow,, she's come a long way !!!!   

What a great starting point.........

Troy

[moparstuart]

                                                               AUGUST 2007
Linda and I met a guy who transported our NOS passengers side quarter panel to the Mopar Nationals! We now had both NOS quarter panels for the Superbird! After the Nationals I cleaned all the extra parts out of the B5 Daytona. I also had to sort through a bunch of parts because I had put parts in both cars. I changed my mind and was restoring the B5 car and the R4 car had a lot of the nicer parts. One day I pulled the Daytona out of the shop and was going to dust it off and wash it. I just get started and I get a call from Doug Croxford ( petty bird on this site ) who was passing through the area. He wanted to know if I would be home. I said yes and you'll never believe what I'm doing! He asked what? I said I have the B5 Daytona out and am cleaning it up! Doug stopped by and decided to stick around and help! We blew the car off and then washed it! It had years worth of storage dust and overspray on it. We also cleaned out the inside and trunk! We had to clean overspray off all the glass and trim! Doug also got the idea to use Gunk and degrease the engine! We spent several hours working on it! When we got done Doug took some pictures from that day. Later he e-mailed them to me and I am going to attach them to this post! I did not tell Doug why I was cleaning the car up. You can imagine his surprise about a year and a half later at Talladega! Thanks for the help and pictures Doug!

I'm not proud i would have driven that baby just like that 

[jonw29]

I just had the oppritunity to meet Doug at this most recent reunion,he seems to be a super guy.I mentioned to him that during the 04 reunion my son had his picture made in front of the Sonic on the wing of Dave Kanofsky's Daytona.Doug promptly told me that if I had his picture made on one last time then it HAD to be done this time and off we go to his Superbird.

[pettybird]

                                                               AUGUST 2007
Linda and I met a guy who transported our NOS passengers side quarter panel to the Mopar Nationals! We now had both NOS quarter panels for the Superbird! After the Nationals I cleaned all the extra parts out of the B5 Daytona. I also had to sort through a bunch of parts because I had put parts in both cars. I changed my mind and was restoring the B5 car and the R4 car had a lot of the nicer parts. One day I pulled the Daytona out of the shop and was going to dust it off and wash it. I just get started and I get a call from Doug Croxford ( petty bird on this site ) who was passing through the area. He wanted to know if I would be home. I said yes and you'll never believe what I'm doing! He asked what? I said I have the B5 Daytona out and am cleaning it up! Doug stopped by and decided to stick around and help! We blew the car off and then washed it! It had years worth of storage dust and overspray on it. We also cleaned out the inside and trunk! We had to clean overspray off all the glass and trim! Doug also got the idea to use Gunk and degrease the engine! We spent several hours working on it! When we got done Doug took some pictures from that day. Later he e-mailed them to me and I am going to attach them to this post! I did not tell Doug why I was cleaning the car up. You can imagine his surprise about a year and a half later at Talladega! Thanks for the help and pictures Doug!

I'm not proud i would have driven that baby just like that 

That's what I told him too!  I thought it was totally cool to have the 'barn fresh' car.  

That day I figured I'd call and see if he was around, stop by for a half hour or so, and head home.  I ended up being there past dark and arrived DEAD at home!  

Mom grabbed me at the Wellborns' house to go look at a stand-up info sign next to a B5 Daytona.  I had ZERO clue about the car as John had told me nothing.  I started reading.  B5 car, fresh resto, one of blah blah blah, this and that (it was boilerplate wing car stuff I knew by heart) so I skimmed down quickly.  I got to "Owners: John and Linda Borzych" and nearly fell over.  I couldn't believe he hadn't let anything slip since I'd stopped by!

I went by last month as I was in Chicago and heading home, and told him I wanted to make sure he wasn't trying to pull anything over on me again  

[moparstuart]

                                                               AUGUST 2007
Linda and I met a guy who transported our NOS passengers side quarter panel to the Mopar Nationals! We now had both NOS quarter panels for the Superbird! After the Nationals I cleaned all the extra parts out of the B5 Daytona. I also had to sort through a bunch of parts because I had put parts in both cars. I changed my mind and was restoring the B5 car and the R4 car had a lot of the nicer parts. One day I pulled the Daytona out of the shop and was going to dust it off and wash it. I just get started and I get a call from Doug Croxford ( petty bird on this site ) who was passing through the area. He wanted to know if I would be home. I said yes and you'll never believe what I'm doing! He asked what? I said I have the B5 Daytona out and am cleaning it up! Doug stopped by and decided to stick around and help! We blew the car off and then washed it! It had years worth of storage dust and overspray on it. We also cleaned out the inside and trunk! We had to clean overspray off all the glass and trim! Doug also got the idea to use Gunk and degrease the engine! We spent several hours working on it! When we got done Doug took some pictures from that day. Later he e-mailed them to me and I am going to attach them to this post! I did not tell Doug why I was cleaning the car up. You can imagine his surprise about a year and a half later at Talladega! Thanks for the help and pictures Doug!

I'm not proud i would have driven that baby just like that 

That's what I told him too!  I thought it was totally cool to have the 'barn fresh' car.  

That day I figured I'd call and see if he was around, stop by for a half hour or so, and head home.  I ended up being there past dark and arrived DEAD at home!  

Mom grabbed me at the Wellborns' house to go look at a stand-up info sign next to a B5 Daytona.  I had ZERO clue about the car as John had told me nothing.  I started reading.  B5 car, fresh resto, one of blah blah blah, this and that (it was boilerplate wing car stuff I knew by heart) so I skimmed down quickly.  I got to "Owners: John and Linda Borzych" and nearly fell over.  I couldn't believe he hadn't let anything slip since I'd stopped by!

I went by last month as I was in Chicago and heading home, and told him I wanted to make sure he wasn't trying to pull anything over on me again  

   great story

[Mopar John]

Yes! pettybird is keeping a close eye on me now! While I'm on pettybird he pointed out something in Talladega that he felt was wrong on the Daytona. With his own picture I will verify that is the way it left Creative Industries! Doug came up to me and said that he thought that the ballast resistor was installed wrong! If you go back and look at his engine compartment picture you will see the same original ballast resistor mounted in the wrong hole. It still has the Creative Industries overspray on it! There was also a shadow behind it. I will mention here that the B5 Daytona had a lot more overspray under the hood than the R4 Daytona? Back to the ballast resistor, we decided to put it back the way it left creative! There will be a few more things to raise controversy along the way! These cars were not all built the same!!!

[maxwellwedge]

Hey great stuff John!

Look at your passenger side valve cover. Does this look familiar?

[Mopar John]

Jim,
It looks like the same guy put the numbers on the valve covers! If you look close in the picture there is a #5 on the front of the drivers side valve cover!

[maxwellwedge]

Jim,
It looks like the same guy put the numbers on the valve covers! If you look close in the picture there is a #5 on the front of the drivers side valve cover!

It looks bang on! I thought I saw something on the other side!

[Mopar John]

                                                AUGUST 2007 CONTINUED!
So it's the big day I have the B5 Daytona and all my extra parts loaded in our box trailer for the trip to Paul Jacobs Restorations! We agreed to this date and were to be there right after lunch! Paul was also having his partner Troy Angelly who does all the body and paint work meet us there! So Linda and I leave early that morning for Evansville, Indiana! Indiana is a long state when you travel from the very top to the very bottom! We arrive at the Jacobs shop and everyone is there and waiting! My emotions are going 100mph! Troy Angelly also brought his wife Eli who almost looked like she could be Lindas younger sister! We all hit it off well and it was time to look at our Daytona! I opened the trailer and dug out all the extra parts and laid them out. While I was unhooking the Daytona Paul and Troy were looking over the extra parts. Some of the parts were Daytona specific and some were NOS! Then we all pushed the Daytona out on the driveway. I would call the Daytona a 24,000 mile survivor that had been stored poorly outside over the years. But it also was very original in many aspects! Original engine, transmission, rearend, interior and paint! I opened both doors the trunklid and hood for Paul and Troy to look! I knew something was up when they both got out cameras and started taking detail pictures all over the Daytona! Here are the good things that happened, they agreed to restore the Daytona and the estimate was very fair based on what I had heard of other top shelf restorations. The bad is that a lot of the parts I bought were incorrect !@#$%^&*^&*(! For example I had bought some NOS sidemarker reflectors that were wrong! My NOS ones were of the 2 part section and the correct ones for a Daytona were the 4 part section. I have attached a picture of the 2 types side by side. Many of the Daytonas at Talladega had the wrong easier to find 2 section reflectors on them! I had also bought the wrong back up lights! There are about 5 differant kinds! We had a thread about them a while back on this site. The exhaust system that I bought through the parts department at KOELLER DODGE back in the 80's was all wrong except some very correct early exhaust tips!  Paul and Troy sorted the parts for me and I knew what was good for the restoration and what would end up being sold. We took a tour of Pauls shop and saw a 1968 HEMI GTX convertable being assembled. By the way that car won OE GOLD at the 2009 Mopar Nationals! I think it also won best of show! Paul also had a red Cuda that had just come back from Troys with all the body and paint work done! I could not believe the quality of the body work and the paint was outstanding! Linda and I were both blown away! So then Linda and I discuss this very expensive venture and she agrees to get the Daytona restored!
!@#$%^&*()_! WOW!!! I then ask Paul where he wanted the Daytona parked? He kind of chuckled and informed me that both shops were full and they had a waiting list!@#$%^&*(! I then informed them that we needed to have the Daytona done by October of 2009 for the 40th AERO WARRIORS REUNION! They told me that it was possible! WOW!! We'll we loaded the Daytona and the parts back up for the long ride home! Paul said they would call a couple of month's ahead of when they would be rady for the Daytona. I started selling the wrong parts and looking for any NOS to make the restoration better! I was focusing on the outside of the car. The reason being was as soon as Troy painted it, the rest of the Daytona better live up to that standard! Now the long wait begins!

[nascarxx29]

Ive seen very few armest daytonas .I know of a silver one.I also had a T/A challenger with that seat combo .Notice a challenger in your garage

[Mopar John]

Ive seen very few armest daytonas .I know of a silver one.I also had a T/A challenger with that seat combo .Notice a challenger in your garage

For a long time I thought I had the only Daytona with column shift and center armrest. But I think there was a picture on this site of another. This may be the silver one you refer to. Yes, In my garage at the time of the picture was a 1970 Dodge Challenger. I was helping a friend with some body work. Also pictured is an adult go kart and one of my favorite toys a HUSTLER Z 72" 28hp zero turn mower. We have about 4 acres to mow and on that mower it's a blast! When I was doing research on buying it I was looking for the manufacturer website at work. When I put in HUSTLER SUPER Z some things came up that almost got me kicked off the computor at work!@#$%^&*()!

[Mopar John]

nascarxx29,
I am happy to say that I mastered the quote transfer from you to my last post! I will know how to work this sooner or later! I still get messed up when I try to use the same picture a second time! It locks up my whole post and I have to go back and rename the picture and start over!@#$%^&*(!