Detroit mechanic quietly transforming muscle cars
CLINTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. — The men talk of Plum Crazy Purple, Vitamin C Orange and Sassy Grass Green.
These are the colors of their childhood.
These are the colors of classic cars that bring back memories of a simpler time so long ago, when America had just three TV networks and driving to the grocery store with mom or dad felt like a reward.
It is why a little-known 48-yearold mechanic who works a day job from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at Fiat Chrysler in Warren, Mich., is considered a top muscle car restoration expert in North America.
Dave Dudek does most of the work in an unmarked garage in Clinton Township, having moved from Warren after someone bought the building and evicted everyone. His small private business is word-of-mouth only and he turns away more projects than he accepts. His clients over the last decade have been mostly men.
“The funny thing is, the Chrysler was the poor man’s muscle car. In the collector market, they rule,” Dudek said. “This is the first car they took their wife out on a date with — and brought their baby home with.”
Dudek, a skilled tradesman who lives in St. Clair Shores, has repaired lift trucks and carts in the Fiat Chrysler Stamping Plant factory for 23 years. As the son of a hot-tar roofer and homemaker, he fell in love with muscle cars when his dad brought home a blue 1969 Barracuda convertible.
“Dad was into cars a little bit but I fell in love with that car. I was, like, 14,” said Dudek, who grew up in Taylor and Sterling Heights. “If he was getting a gallon of milk or a loaf of bread for mom, I was going no matter what.”
He is working on 11 cars from clients who live in Miami, New York and near Alberta, Canada. Transforming them is his hobby. A single car can take up to a year.
And finding original parts is like a national scavenger hunt of junkyards.
“I put in a couple-three hours a day on these cars,” Dudek said. “I am making sure every bolt is the exact bolt the car left the factory with. Each one has an insignia. Who made the bolt for Chrysler or GM or wherever? If they’re supposed to be silver zinc, it’s silver zinc. I’m constantly running into dead ends. I’ve got six bolts I need and I have four bolts and I need to find a junkyard in Arizona or Minnesota to see if they have two bolts for me. It’s just a constant challenge.”
‘Poor man’s muscle’
Peter Swainson, 61, of Red Deer, Alberta, in western Canada has worked with Dudek for more than a decade. He has a collection of three dozen-plus classic muscle cars housed on his farm.
“These cars represent our youth. For guys my age, it’s about the memories,” Swainson said. “Guys liked to cruise in the cool cars that made noise and had some speed. It was an exciting time with wild colors and individuality. Now all these cars today being built look alike. They’re all gray, black or white.”
Looking back, he noted that the Plymouth Road Runner was supposed to be “a poor man’s muscle car” and the company discovered a niche with guys who wanted high performance on a tight budget. These cars, Swainson said, commanded respect.
He described how Dudek goes beyond restoring cars to their original condition by rebuilding everything to maximize performance.
“He’s using more updated material. I look at my motors and they look completely stock — the appearance, color, engine. All the components attached, all original. But the internal motor is updated with pistons, rods, crankshaft and camshaft. More modern materials give peak performance,” Swainson said.
Watching the process can be awesome.
“You completely disassemble the car. Every nut and bolt is removed,” Swainson said. “We put what’s remaining of the body on a big huge rotisserie, like a roast or chicken or turkey,” said Swainson, who owns Southside Dodge in the province of Alberta. “My father started our dealership in 1971. And I bought it from him. From the time I was 10 years old, I was nuts about Chrysler products.”
Swainson sometimes races his cars. He also just likes to drive slowly by himself.
“It’s a good mental break, just relaxing,” he said. “Today’s cars are so easy and simple to handle. But this is 50-year-old technology. You feel the car a lot more, you feel you’re part of the car. The dual exhaust thunders and it gets your heart pumping when you step on the gas and hear the throaty sound of the motor. Guys love that.”
The private car restoration business happened by accident for Dudek.
About 15 years ago, he took his repainted 1968 GTS Dodge Dart to a car show in Columbus, Ohio. Someone left a note on his windshield asking to do a magazine photo shoot. Dudek knew his friends were around and thought the note was a prank. But it was legit.
Since then, he has worked on hundreds of cars — from total restoration to special treatment including engine modification. So he does authentic restoration and also engine modification, making the cars more reliable than they were originally. These are called resto-mods.
His current projects include two ‘70 ‘Cuda convertibles, a ‘71 ‘Cuda convertible, a ‘71 Hemi Charger R/T, a ‘71 Charger R/T, a ‘71 Charger R/T with a rare sunroof, a ‘68 Charger R/T, a ‘69 Hemi Road Runner, a ‘71 Hemi GTX, a ‘69 Dodge Daytona and a ‘69 Plymouth Belvedere.
“The Belvedere was a low-end Chrysler product but I’m putting one of the Hellcat engines in it,” Dudek said. “The ‘71 Charger, he wants to enjoy the car with modern technology. I took an engine out of a Hellcat and put it in the old muscle car. You cannot match the reliability of the new cars.” Car sells for $450,000
A man from Rochester, New York, paid $450,000 for a rare 1970 Plymouth ‘Cuda convertible in Sassy Grass Green and asked Dudek to tear it to pieces and put it back together.
“The whole car needs to come apart and each detail needs to be redone,” Dudek said. “It may be worth $700,000 when we’re done with it.”
That same guy paid $2.1 million and $3.3 million for two other ‘Cuda convertibles.
Record $3.78 million sale The current record for an American muscle car to sell at public auction is $3.78 million for the 1971 Plymouth Hemi ‘Cuda convertible that sold in 2014 by Mecum Auctions, noted Jonathan Klinger, vice president of Hagerty, publisher of the Traverse Citybased Hagerty Price Guide and the largest insurer of classic cars in the world.