Afx cars-who's right??-lets clear the air

[64BEL]

I met the Tignanelli Brothers at MCACN in 2018. They had their '68 Hemi Barracuda there. They were both just super nice, and it felt like I'd known them for years. Tom had me come around to the back of the car and he pulled those titanium torsion bars out of the trunk and handed them to me. They're light as a feather. He told me about a bunch of trick stuff that car has on it including how the whole bottom of the car could be raised or lowered inside of it depending on what they wanted to do. He used that car as a test bed for all kinds of tricks.

 

[mmissile]

Thanks. It's just having been in the right place, at the right time. It couldn't be planned. I watched Shadowoods race at Motor City and Detroit, all the time as a teen. They were my local idols...and reachable, if you made a intelligent effort. Tom always helped-out the young guys. To this day, I've never been more impressed by a mopar team. Honestly, I've been blessed to know them and the Missile team, personally. All great people and minds.

 

[rmchrgr]

Not trying to hijack things but since a few people have posted their own cars, I thought I'd provide a small window into my past with these things. About 30 years ago I was obsessed with the A990 and A/FX cars. I had the '65 Belvedere below that I was building into an A990-style deal. I was in my 20s at the time. I didn't have the money for a hemi so it was going to be a wedge. I bought it as a roller out of Stockton, CA for $2K(!) and had it shipped out here to the east coast. Heater delete car and mostly rust free save for some pinholes in the floor and frame connectors already installed. It actually came with a real A990 radiator which was probably worth a couple bucks by itself. It needed paint and body work so I dove in.

This was my first real project and I put a ton of work into it. I even filled in the trim and outside mirror holes with lead. I eventually got it to the point you see in the pic but unfortunately never finished it. It ended up sitting like that for a few years and I lost interest in it. A couple weeks before my oldest was born in March of 2008 I sold it to a guy from South Jersey as a painted shell with two truckloads of parts. Never saw it again. I had that car for over 10 years and never drove it once.

The icing on this cake was going to be a set of 1964-casting American Racing Magnesium front runners I had for it. I held on to them for a while after the car was gone but ended up selling them a couple years later for more than double what I paid for them. I don't really miss the car but I will always regret selling those wheels.

Back home after being repainted in the original 1965 SS1 Ivory.

I was modeling mine after this car which is a real A990. Got part way there I guess.

'Mag' wheels. The red stuff inside the hub is from having them magnafluxed at an old-old-old-school speed shop in the furthest reaches of Queens, NY. No cracks, perfect shape. And yes, they were alive. Had to regularly coat them with WD40 and store them in plastic bags.

So it goes.

Back to the A/FX research.

 

[topside]

One of the coolest wheels ever.
That '65 - looks like it's on the Pomona return road - was in SoCal in the '80s; super-nice car. It seems to come up for sale every few years.

 

[RemCharger]

Pretty cool thread. My best buddies uncle went down to California in 75-76 and bought a record holder 426w 64 Plymouth with an aluminum front 2dr hdtp I'm pretty sure. It ended up in nova scotia back in the 80s I believe.
It's still known I'm sure.

 

[Dave6T4]

I used to see the Shadowoods cars race at Norwalk in the late '80's and '90's. I did not know much about them, except that they were from Detroit. Thanks for filling me in on some of the history.

 

[rmchrgr]

That '65 - looks like it's on the Pomona return road

It is. That pic is from a HRM article published about 25 years ago. Jack Goodrich was the name of the guy that owned it then. I think he was friends with Bob Mosher? It had S&S white-painted headers, you can see the decal on the fender.

The really sad thing about selling those wheels was I really didn't have to. I just didn't think I was going to use them because I had gotten away from the early B body cars. I owned them for at least 10 years and the entire time they just sat wrapped in plastic. Plus I knew I could get decent money for them. The guy that bought them from me was super stoked to get them so I know they went to a good home. Too expensive to buy them now if I could even find another set. I even looked into getting them coated with Dow 7. Mosher told me they used aluminum repop torque thrust wheels and painted them with some kind of antique bronze rattle can paint to make them look like they were coated with Dow 7.

Mosher's was the best BTW. I was out in SoCal in early 2002. I went up to Monrovia to visit a friend who lived up the street from the shop on Magnolia and he knew them well. On the way to my friend's place Bob drove by me going the opposite way on Foothill Blvd. in his light green '62 Plymouth. I almost crashed my rental car craning my neck to watch it go down the road. After visiting my friend, I just went down to the shop and introduced myself. Amazingly they let me walk around and check it all out. It was the old shop which was small. Coolest place I've ever been too and Bob was gracious to let me poke around.