That was quite a tour we went on. Juilus Steuer used his contacts in the restoration business to help organize an extremely informative tour. We went to Just Dashes, Speedway Auto Body, and Restorations by Julius. A total of 36 people come out to participate ! That’s a great turnout and all the businesses were quite impressed.

First we started at Just Dashes around 10:30 a.m. Quite a few members brought out their Mopars too. Irwin , owner of Just Dashes, provided breakfast treats for us to get going in the morning. He explained the history of his business and some of his recent accomplishments. Then he took us in the back and showed and explained some of the process for refurbishing interior components. He explained making an 70 E-body dash while one of his employees worked on an E-body dash right there for us too see. It became obvious the intensive labor that goes into producing such a quality part. After the dash, he had a E-body convertible rear panel that was prepped to be recovered. With his employees, he fixtured the panel on the huge vacuum former and made a recovered panel right before our eyes. This recovering took seconds, but it you could see vast amount of prep time and finishing time that had to go into a complete product.

Then Irwin showed us the paint and new product development area. He explained the paint process to us and gave many helpful tips. He also showed us a lower cost alternative 68-70 Charger door pad that he is trying to develop. Pretty impressive that he is trying to make new products that more of us enthusiasts can afford. Thanks! We had a lengthy question and answer session too. Most all club members had never seen or were familiar with work that Just Dashes does and the tour was very enlightening. When we left, there were free drink insulators and refrigerator magnets for us to take home.

Next, we gathered up all the cars and proceeded to cruise to our next destination. We had quite an impressive group of Mopars. It was fun to see pedestrians take notice of our cars while they pointed and gazed at us. The lengthy train meandered through the Valley to our next destination.

We got over to Speedway Auto body around 12:15 p.m. The owner, Peter Jenslund, took us through he steps of a complete full on restoration type paint job. Peter had cars displayed for us in the significant stages of the paint and body process. He explained what parts are needed for paint, stage of disassembly, and how he preps the body. He showed some body straightening and rust repair that he was doing. The were cars in the body fill and primer area too. A painted car was displayed that just received wet sanding. Peter held a question and answer session.

At about 1:15 p.m. we finally arrived at Restorations by Julius, owned by fellow club member Julius Steuer. He and his wife Dale had all the food, drinks, and treats waiting for us. We arrived a little late, but time flies when you’re having a good time. We munched down the food while checking out all the cool Mopars awaiting a restoration transformation. With all the Mopars in the shop and with all the club members cars, it seemed like we could of had our own little show right there.

Julius had a bunch of Hemi’s around for customer’s cars. He demonstrated engine assembly for us on a Hemi of course. He explained block prep and cleaning. He then proceeded to put together a short block in front of us. All the while fielding question from the audience. He showed how to install pistons and bearings. Then he plastigauged the bearing clearances then torqued down those extra bolts on the Hemi main caps. Wouldn’t we all love to go through that extra effort. At the end, he showed us some of the special tools needed to do the job and answered all sorts of restoration questions. This demonstration/lecture was really informative to club members. It was knowledge gained that we could really take home and apply. I even saw a club member taking down notes.

Many club members have used the businesses we toured. I think they might make a few more customers too. As a matter of fact, club member Phil Roche’ took a dash to Just Dashes that very next week as a first time customer. Many thanks go out to the businesses that opened their doors on Saturday just for us. And much recognition should go to Julius Steuer who helped organized the event.