[Ghost Missle]

This is the original car as verified by Butch Leal and by Gary Hansen who built the car at Ron Butler's. The car was being raced in Super Pro with a 440 that had fenderwell headers and a powerglide. The interior was full of starting line electronics and a single light weight seat. The access hole to the transmission area had been significantly enlarged and the original Butler roll cage, while still intact, had been added to with a front hoop, an under dash bar and lower side bars. Over the last 40 years the hood, deck lid and doors had been replaced with race-weight fiberglass components and a Lexan windshield was fitted. The car had been completely repainted at least once and the original wheels had been polished. A fuel cell had been installed and although the original Butler ladder bar rear suspension was intact, the leaf springs had been replaced with coil-overs while all of the original leaf spring mountings are still in place. Dual battery boxes on either side had replaced the original truck battery in the right rear. The entire front inner fenderwell and core support structure had been removed and replaced with lightweight panels. Naturally the image of the car “as-purchased” looks different than the 40 year old “as raced” pictures. Even the rear slicks which are 3” wider and 1” shorter than the originals and required spacers to be run behind the rear wheels for frame clearance give the car a decidedly incorrect look.

We are replacing the front half of the floor with a new AMD piece. The front panel structure, firewall, doors, hood, fenders and deck lid have been harvested from a completely rust free 1975 Duster bought in Texas. All non original roll bar pieces have been removed. The spare tire well is being replaced so a new stock fuel tank can be fitted. We have already removed the rear coil-over shocks and test fitted leaf springs; even the pads on the rear end were still there. The proper seats were purchased last week in Carlisle and will receive new Legendary covers along with new door panels. I have some old Super Tricks that we are going to use to experiment with for techniques to restore the original wheel finish. We have a Hemi, The correct Weiand I.R. intake, some 16-plug parts, headers, bellhousing and the car came with a fresh unused slick-shifted A833 4-speed. We still need to buy the proper sized (true 14 x 32) rear tires and the wheelie bars.

All of the contingency stickers still available were sent from the various manufacturers and the three or four that were no longer available will be recreated by our excellent graphics technician as will paint masks to make it possible to accurately replicate all of the original graphics and logos. Note that the paint scheme was even changed in the year and a half that Butch raced the car with the top half of the “California Flash” lettering on the doors being all white on the early version (as ours will be) while the later rendition had the top half of the letters painted red. Included with the car were the transferable rights to use Butch’s California Flash paint scheme and name. Every effort will be made to return this car to it’s original 1975 Image and specification. Original unpublished photographs taken during the creation of the Car Craft article were sourced from Peterson Archives. A lot of people can attest to our capabilities with this platform and on this board perhaps Daryl Klassen would be the best source to impart what to expect.

Now there will be a brief intermission in the build as the walls of our new 36 x 48 shop reach for the sky, the front half framed in the last two days. The car? We can’t wait to get back at it!