Groups like the Historic Stock...
Groups like the Historic Stock Car Racing Association make it all happen and take on the detective work to track down a race car's roots.
"The Earnhardt car is really special. It's a warrior," Mountanos continues. "We bought it right from the Richard Childress shop and haven't done anything to it other than maintain it."
He says the Lumina's pedigree makes it among the most valuable stock cars in the series, its history pushing the value to between $150,000 and $200,000. "I don't think Linda would ever sell it," he says, "she's always been such a big fan of his.
"Anyone can take an ex-stock car and make it into a show car. All that takes is time and money. But you can't put back the patina that is acquired in competition. Once that is gone, it can't be reproduced."
Mountanos says his crew will paint and replace panels that are damaged in competition, but won't go beyond what a race shop would do during a season.
Because much of the value of a vintage racer is in its history rather than the sheetmetal, there is little risk in writing off the entire car in a wreck. "The cars can be worth a lot of money," Mountanos says, "but they are easy to fix and don't cost a lot to repair. The hardest part about keeping them original is finding the decals."
"The details like the right decals will drive you crazy," agrees Chuck Shafer, who recently finished restoring an ex-Richard Petty Plymouth. Shafer estimates he spends 10 hours a week doing research to find just the right parts for his modest fleet of race cars.
Petty raced the car in '71 and '72 and it is probably the one Petty won in at Riverside. He sold it to Hershel McGriff, who was both a friend and driver for Petty. McGriff, who retired from driving this year at the age of 73, finished fifth in it at the 1973 Daytona 500.
The car ended up with McGriff in the Pacific Northwest and went through a number of owners. Each new owner knew less about its history than the one before and the car finally ended up on a quarter-mile dirt track.
Shafer, of Portland, Oregon, says that Petty shop numbers were discovered on some castings on the car and that other identifying marks were unearthed under seven layers of paint.
Shafer is more particular than most historic racers. He insists that even his race machines look museum ready and are uncompromised originals. Shafer's shop is located next to J.R. Enterprises, operated by Hershel McGriff Jr. The son of the NASCAR legend helped with some of the interior detail and sheetmetal work.
"I've spent hours looking at old photos and going through picture archives and back issues of Stock Car Racing magazine for photos of the car," says Shafer.
Matching decals and parts can prove challenging. For instance, while Chrysler Corp. at one time sold cars they called "Petty blue," Shafer knew the factory color wasn't an exact match for the race cars.
"I had to go to Petty Enterprises," he says. "It took a bunch of letters and calls to do it, but I finally got permission to allow the paint supplier to mix me up some of the original color."
He jokes about getting into a bidding war on eBay for a decal and losing the piece with two seconds left to go when his competitor topped his offer.
The work by Shafer and others provides new life for old cars. If you ever wonder what happened to a car driven by one of your favorite racers, chances are it is involved in an "old-timers" race at a track near you.