The restoration of the legendary “Northwind” Top Fuel Dragster continues at a feverish pace as Team Northwind scratches one item after another off their long list. With the debut in Seattle set for the weekend of July 20-22 at Pacific Raceways, the continuing efforts of a large group of people have helped to chip away at the once-long to-do list. Painting and lettering the car while keeping it all original took a lot of time. A lot of things have changed since the mid-60s, so plenty of planning needed to take place at each stage of the project to get it right.

I can’t say enough about Dave Jacobus at CarStar Auto Body and his crew in Vancouver, Washington. They took on the project of painting the legendary Northwind exactly like it was back in 1965. It seems as though gold metalflake paint is made a lot differently now than it was 40 years ago. Dave consulted with folks from the House of Kolor on how to accomplish the task at hand. Lots of mixing, testing, and more searching took place before the right ‘brew’ was concocted that would make the car glitter in the sun just as it did way back when.

The car has already been preassembled to make sure that everything fits where it needs to. After fuel lines, brake lines, and a fuel shutoff were mounted and installed, a fire-up of the Jim Albrich Chrysler was in order. A small, permanent starter motor has been installed well out of sight, making the fire-up procedure a lot easier than with the heavy old style portable unit that hung on the blower drive. A special aftermarket starter fit perfectly along side of the frame rails and then bolted to the bell housing so a simple plug in and 18 volts will allow for easier firing of the awesome Chrysler. (As we get up in years, easier is a lot better!) Besides making it easier to fire the motor up, it sure is a lot easier than having some goofy 22-year-old crash the push car into the beautiful, gold flake tail section of the body. Hey, I’m all for that!!

Working at a feverish pace for the debut

The restoration of the legendary “Northwind” Top Fuel Dragster continues at a feverish pace as Team Northwind scratches one item after another off their long list. With the debut in Seattle set for the weekend of July 20-22 at Pacific Raceways, the continuing efforts of a large group of people have helped to chip away at the once-long to-do list. Painting and lettering the car while keeping it all original took a lot of time. A lot of things have changed since the mid-60s, so plenty of planning needed to take place at each stage of the project to get it right.

I can’t say enough about Dave Jacobus at CarStar Auto Body and his crew in Vancouver, Washington. They took on the project of painting the legendary Northwind exactly like it was back in 1965. It seems as though gold metalflake paint is made a lot differently now than it was 40 years ago. Dave consulted with folks from the House of Kolor on how to accomplish the task at hand. Lots of mixing, testing, and more searching took place before the right ‘brew’ was concocted that would make the car glitter in the sun just as it did way back when.

The car has already been preassembled to make sure that everything fits where it needs to. After fuel lines, brake lines, and a fuel shutoff were mounted and installed, a fire-up of the Jim Albrich Chrysler was in order. A small, permanent starter motor has been installed well out of sight, making the fire-up procedure a lot easier than with the heavy old style portable unit that hung on the blower drive. A special aftermarket starter fit perfectly along side of the frame rails and then bolted to the bell housing so a simple plug in and 18 volts will allow for easier firing of the awesome Chrysler. (As we get up in years, easier is a lot better!) Besides making it easier to fire the motor up, it sure is a lot easier than having some goofy 22-year-old crash the push car into the beautiful, gold flake tail section of the body. Hey, I’m all for that!!

Can’t say there have not been problems along the way. We were ready to fire up the Chrysler when water was found to be running out of the oil filter. Oh no, the block is cracked!! Well, it seems that someone had installed seals in the sparkplug holes many years ago and when they drilled them in the heads they had put some small pin holes which were overlooked during the valve work by Earl Floyd. Once the problem was found it was an easy fix to plug the holes. (I suggested getting a waterproof oil filter but that didn’t go over too well!) When we successfully fired up the motor a huge sigh of relief was heard throughout the shop.

Once that throaty Chrysler had been lit up on nitro and had shook the walls of the shop of Bear Machinery in Vancouver, Washington, it was time to tear the whole thing apart and get it over to CarStar Auto Body. The body detailing and paint took about two weeks to accomplish, including late nights and weekends. Boy, is it a sight to behold. I certainly believe that the bodywork and paint looks better now than it did back in 1965. Every detail is perfect, with hours and hours spent on each body section, including the Dale Withers-built tail section. I can’t wait until this beautiful racer rolls off the trailer in Seattle. Our good friend, the Ace, won’t believe how beautiful this car is and I’ll bet the memories of long past will be swelling up in his eyes. This car is really where it all began for him and as they say, “there has been a lot of water under the bridge” since those old days when this farmer slipped between those frame rails.

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From the CarStar Auto Body it was off to our good friend Don Pennington and his artistic lettering brushes. With a half a dozen photographs in his hand, Don needed to match it perfectly to the original color and lettering styles. The Albrich-McCulloch-Floyd name is on the cowl with many of the sponsors like Mickey Thompson, Goodyear, STP, Mondello and Chassis by Fuller on both sides of the body. The huge NORTHWIND is on top of the nose along with the #1 and the Drag News logos adorning both sides of that new tail section. Pretty simple and basic for a mid-60s race car, but that’s the way they were back then.

Each time I see the car it brings back memories of those old days. The struggles that these early pioneers of the sport of drag racing went through were enough to drive anyone away from any sport. The research I did, uncovered the “always broke” financial end of all of those involved as they continued to borrow parts, or get hooked up with another partner and try to persevere for another season. You’d think that we’d all cave in and give it up as a loss cause, but those years formed our very characters to what we are today. Those continuing financial battles left major scars in our lives making us appreciate the good times when they came along. Certainly, these troubled times left us all with a special bond with those that we were in the trenches with way back when……….a special bond that seems to be stronger now than it was during the hardest of times. It’s kind of like you helped me get through all of that and now I owe you for all your help.

I remember how Ed McCulloch used to keep all his finances in balance when he had little or no money. Ed would send the electric company a check to the water company and vice versa. Back in those days, they’d think a mistake was made and you’d get a few weeks of “float time” as they mailed the check back for the exchange. By the time you’d get it back you could get one or two weekends of racing completed and generate some additional dollars (hopefully, depending on how well you did) and then you could cover all the checks and get them going to the right vendor. To keep on racing, desperate problems called for desperate measures, ingenuity came into play.  It was a really tough business back in those days just staying afloat to get to the next race. After going through this scenario for years and years it certainly makes a guy feel good when things started going well. You can be sure of one thing………the early days of drag racing were never easy!

Gordon Young got the flatbed open trailer all completed. This trailer looks like a modernized version of the 60s trailers. Most of those early trailers were the flatbed type but this one has an all-aluminum deck and storage boxes. The tilting mechanism allows for one person to load or unload the race car by themselves. That will allow Jack to take the car to displays all over the Northwest without needing a crew member with him. In addition to the Seattle and Bakersfield events there is several sponsor commitments along with some booked in displays to do. The car will be quite busy throughout the summer and fall as a schedule of displays is currently being assembled.

Now that the painting and lettering has been completed it’s final assembly time for the sleek racer. Great pains will be taken to make sure everything is right as final assembly takes place. With pictures of the Northwind hanging all over the walls at Bear Machinery

All the items installed need to look exactly like it did when the car captured that number one spot in the nation in June of 1965. The chassis had to be shortened; roll cage completely revamped; new front axle and steering wheel; a pool ball mounted on the brake handle and even a set of the Avon tires that are mounted on the original front rims.

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When those that knew this car in the 60s see it again, they’ll do a double take, as it is 1965 all over again. Even the nuts and bolts on the car are chromed or anodized as they were back then. We gathered up old photos from many places so as to compare a bunch of different angles of the car, which assisted in getting everything the same as it was. A big inspiration was the story in Speed and Chrome Illustrated in the winter of 2006. The story, plus the photos by James Hardy, really sparked the Jack Coonrod-led movement that took place to find this car wherever it may be. Those photos also assisted in the restoration process so details could be copied to get the car back to its original condition.

It is nearly impossible to take on a project of this multitude without the help and support of a lot of people. As this project moved forward the sponsors and helpers jumped aboard as help for the ride to the finish. Many of them along the way remembered the Northwind and what that meant to drag racing here in the Northwest. It was a time when car clubs flourished and racing was plentiful but mostly at small airports in the Northwest. That made no difference to those that were in it and giving their all everyday. Cars and drag racing was their way of life. They would eat, sleep and dream drag racing.

The incredible success of the Northwind represented a huge accomplishment for a group of Northwest racers as they fought the fight of making it in this sport. On June 13^th at Woodburn Drag Strip a group of hot rodders from the “north woods” shocked the drag racing world by knocking off “Sneaky” Pete Robinson for the coveted number one title. In beating Robinson, the Northwind with Ed at the controls ran a speed of 206.42 mph. That speed was as fast as anyone throughout the entire country in June of 1965. A statement was made then and there that Northwest drag racing is alive and well and as good as it gets anywhere in the USA!!