Quote:
Originally Posted by Hemi Moose
This is the first time I'm hearing that the car was painted 'Black'...as if it wasn't hard enough to track someone down, the previous owners last name was 'Smith'.
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As Mark has said, he has put an enormus amount of time trying to put the history of my car together. It's like this thing drops off the end of the planet previous to Vignonias ownership. Add in the little controversy of it's colors previous to Vignonias ownership also. Silver & red, compared to black & silver. The 2 scoop theory compared to the beat up original scoop the car was sold to Hennessey with.
Paul Pittman, who painted the car for Lou ,told me he kinda remembers the car being silver & red when he paint stripped it in the early 80's.
All evidence that Mark J. has dug up leads to the black & silver car. I mean how many HemiDarts could there have been in Mt. Kisco in the 70's early 80's???. Did it get painted silver & red after it's black & silver scheme???
Was it even the same car????
If it was this car, what's it's history previous to Eddie Smith's?? ownership???
Who's car was this originally???
Was it an east coast car the whole time, or was it imported from somewhere else in the US. These things as you know traveled across the continent, sometimes weekend after weekend..
All I know FOR CERTAIN, is that this is an original LO car, has never been rebodied, or retagged. It wears all it's original sheetmetal & fiberglass it left Hurst with, sans the trunk lid, & POSSIBLY the hood or hood scoop. It is a early build, first run car. It did have a 3 point bolt in Lakewood rollbar when Vignonias's owned it. It had the inner tubs replaced with sheetmetal tubs, & the springs were moved into the frame rails sometime in the 70's.The forward sections of the wheelwell openings were opened for tire clearance probably at the same time. The hinges were cut out when the aftermarket inner tubs, were installed. Tim Hennessey replaced the aftermarket inner tubs with original ones when he restored it in the 80's.He also replaced the trunk lid because it was pinned instead of using the hinges He also reinstalled the trunk hinges. .
It has NEVER had a stick or a clutch pedal installed in it. The dash was modified for gauges indash with probably?? a column mounted cable drive tach.
I believe it was bracket raced in the mid to late 70's acording to the decal in the quarter window.
I want to say thanx for all the help from Mark J. for all the time he has spent on this thing. It's going on 9 years now I believe.
liteweight