Bill Bagshaw's Red Light Bandit 1970 Hemi Challenger former Pro Stock car will debut on August 29 at the NHRA US Nationals and be on display the entire weekend. The car is the real car that was built by Ron Butler and raced by Bagshaw from 1970 to 1973. As an interesting connection with Indy, the Red Light Bandit Challenger won "Best Engineered" at Indy in 1970, and was featured in the November 1970 issue of Hot Rod magazine.

John Gastman came across the car in 1994 in a package deal with a couple of other Mopars. Gastman held on to the car, and quickly connected with Bagshaw to authenticate the car as the one Bill raced in those great early days of Pro Stock.

The Red Light Bandit has been restored to its former glory at Bucky's Ltd by Bucky Hess and his son Travis. As most of us know, Travis Hess is an incredibly talented painter, and pulled off a miracle to get the Bagshaw car back to "as raced" condition. Nelson Grimes lettered the car exactly as it was in 1970. Cole McAllister, Bucky's fabricator, did the metal work.

Bill Bagshaw will be in attendance at the NHRA US Nationals at Indy next week, as will the current owner of the Red Light Bandit, John Gastman. Gastman is the owner of Roanoke Motors Chrysler/Dodge in Roanoke, Illinois. For those of you who do not know him, Bagshaw is a great guy, and served expertly as consultant throughout the entire restoration process.

The 426 Hemi engine was built to 1970 Pro Stock specs by Bill Bagshaw himself over the past winter. Bagshaw's friend, Ron Shaver of Shaver Racing Engines in Torrance, CA allowed Bill use of his shop. When Bill completed the motor, it was installed on Shaver's dyno eventually produced 679 horsepower at 7800 rpm.

Bucky did an awesome job on the car, and sacrificed testing time with his race car in order to get the Red Light Bandit done for Indy. I can't say enough about the hours and incredible job Bucky and Travis did on the car. We hope that those of you who are attending Indy will stop by and check out the newly restored Red Light Bandit Challenger.

Arvid Svendsen
John Gastman

A pic of the Red Light Bandit Challenger from back in the day.

Not sure, but i think I had that model kit, It was awesome!!!

Here is the car as found by John Gastman in 1994.

The car was in pretty rough shape. Bagshaw sold the car in 1973 to Marshall, who used it for a few years, and then the owner history is shaky until 1994.

A few pics to give you an idea of the condition of the car as found.

Dash as found, has been restored with new parts, but more on that later.

The original cage was saved, returned to 1970 specs by removing the second bar in the entry.

These panels were confirmed by Bagshaw as the panels fabricated by Ron Butler who built the chassis in 1970.

MORE, MORE... GIVE US MORE.

Inner fender panels were also fabricated by Ron Butler, and again confirmed by Bagshaw as authentic.

Hinges as modified by Butler/Bagshaw during construction, again confirmed by Bagshaw.

Even though the car was rough, it was remarkable how many parts used by Bagshaw were still there. In the pic is the (believed to be) Vega gas tank modified by a 63-67 Corvette filler neck. That very tank/filler neck was cleaned up by Bucky, and is now on the restored car.

These seats came with the car, but Bagshaw went to Butler last year and discovered brand new seats identical to the ones he used in 1970. Those NOS race seats are now in the restored car that will be at Indy next week.

This hood with snorkel scoop came with the car, but the restored car is sporting an early scoop that Bagshaw developed when he experimented with the Chrysler IR (independent runner) manifold.

May be a better shot

More like this one, not sure of the source of this pic, sorry if it's a problem.

A pile of parts came with the car when purchased, among that pile is the one of the original motors Bagshaw used in 1970, which I believe is the block on the right side of pic. We still don't get the Hemi motor with injection, but it came with the car.

I believe this motor also came with purchase of the car. Again, not definite about which block from these pics is the one that Bagshaw confirmed, but we found it in the pile, and sent it out to Bagshaw for the build. Bagshaw painted all his motors with Krylon "Cherry Red" paint. Bucky started scraping the motors we sent him, and he found the "Cherry Red" Krylon paint that was under the orange engine paint. Bill built that block, it is now in the restored car.

This trans was also Krylon "Cherry Red" under the orange paint.

Some more lightening holes in car as found.

This pic is from when the car was constructed, gave Bucky's fabricator, Cole McAllister, a good idea of how to form new removable trans tunnel. Cole did a great job with fabricating car back to Butler build status.

Just curious with all the lighting mods. did this car have lezion (spelling)glass or stock for the class it was in?

Talking to Bagshaw, the rules required the use of stock window glass.

Car being loaded from John Gastman's Roanoke Motor Chrysler/Dodge dealership in snowy Roanoke, Illinois in January 2011 to be taken to Bucky's Ltd in Martinsburg, West Virginia.

Once Bucky got it in his shop, they stripped the car to bare metal, and did the necessary floor work. Cole left the existing roll cage that Butler installed in 1970, and was careful to cut the floors to fit around the bars. As mentioned earlier, the second down bar in the entry was removed, since that second bar had been installed later, possibly late '71 or '72. The cage in the restored car is as it first rolled out at Indy in 1970.

The original Hurst Airheart brakes were still on the car, and were sent to Gold Line Brakes where they were complete restored/refurbished.

Great thread, thanks for posting! Look at that beautiful back-half race car body. Too bad no one at NHRA has the vision to go back to that.

Happy to post, thanks! I hear ya on building cars like this again. I was shocked to learn that these early Pro Stock cars were still leaf spring suspension. Later as the class developed, larger tires were used, and eventually the tubs and ladder bar/later 4 link suspensions started showing up. Here's the rear of the car after dismantling, I believe I mentioned that the car was a little rough... Bucky eventually had to replace the tail panel.

Just curious if the car has a VIN number and if it is an original Hemi car? I was at S&M shop picking up some parts when they were building their PS and they had an original Hemi car and a body in White. They used parts from the original Hemi car to build the race car. I think that is what the parts guy said, IF I remember correctly.

Interesting in the picture of the rear wheel well, you can see the spring hanger moved over to the frame. I would have thought it would have been moved into the frame by someone later on. Truly a really good find.

Thanks for the pictures. When we could root for a car/driver because they raced cars like we could buy. Way Cool

Awesome to see a memorable car like that restored to its original "race" status! If Bucky and Travis painted it, i'm sure i'll be beautiful.

Isn't this car going to lead the SS/AH parade at the start of the Hemi Challenge at Indy? Just another great reason to be there Friday!

I sold some of the missing parts to Bill. We spent more than as few hours talking on the phone he is a classy guy and it was truely an enjoyment

Bill is looking for any photo's he can use for the story board. if you have any contact me via a PM.

this was Indy 1971

ScatPack- In 1970, Bill was given a body in white from Chrysler and a brand new Hemi Challenger... Orange with dog dish hubcaps. Similar to your recollection of the Sox build, Butler and Bagshaw used the parts off the complete Orange Hemi car and built the race car from the body in white. On the location of the spring hanger, the history of the car from late 70's to 94 is a bit hazy. We were pretty happy to have the car as complete as it was.


Frito- You and I met at Chryslers at Carlisle, good hearing from you. You are correct, the car is scheduled to lead the SS/AH parade on Friday... it will be an awesome deal, hope to meet up.

HemiFred- Fred, you were a tremendous help in locating those hard to find parts, so THANK YOU. Bill had a great time talking to you, thanks for hunting down pics, love that pic of the car with the transporter!

Speaking of pics, attached is pic from Bill's press pack of the car. Bill and his wife are seen lifting the hood off the car.

Same press kit, motor shot. The restored car is remarkably close to what you see here. If anybody has those Dodge decals on the valve covers, please pm me.

Arvid Svendsen

Ok, back to build pics at Bucky's. Rear of shell after dismantling, metal work being done.

Travis Hess, Bucky's son, who handled the paint is pictured explaining work that has been done, and work that still needs to be finished. The great thing about having Bucky and Travis handle the restoration was their passion for preserving the car as an important part of drag racing history. They also build some nasty early iron hot rods.

Dismantling the car exposed some of the tricks of the day to make the car light, but still strong.

More holes nicely aligned. Bagshaw is a perfectionist, so even if it would not be visible, it had to be done right.

The Ron Butler fabricated panels covering the cowl were carefully removed by Bucky and Cole so they could be cleaned up and re-installed. Once removed, more weight reduction artistry was revealed.

Another angle for instruction in Pro Stock construction circa 1970.

They must have wore out few hole saw blades building it back then, so where was this one sitting all these years, sure will be a nice one once it's finished.

Lots of saw blades, no doubt. Side pic of car in process.

So how fast was this car back in it's day?

Racerx
Good question. I'm sure you know that Grumpy Jenkins had the first nine second Pro Stock run, a 9.98 at the 1970 Winternationals. Bagshaw's car was eventually in that range, and by the time the car was sold in 1974, Bagshaw reports that the car was running 9.20's at 145 mph.

Since we're talking horsepower, we were thrilled when Bagshaw agreed to do the rebuild on the Hemi motor that would go in the car. Bagshaw is longtime friends with Ron Shaver, owner of Shaver Specialties Racing Engines in Torrance, CA. Ron gladly offered Bill a space at his shop to build this motor. Bagshaw did an outstanding job putting it together with mostly period correct parts. Note Krylon "Cherry Red" engine block, as used by Bagshaw in 1970.

Very cool!

At Shaver Specialties Racing Engines, the Bagshaw-built 426 engine was installed on the dyno. After some break in runs and a couple days of tuning, the motor produced 679 horsepower at 7800 rpm.

Finished Red Light Bandit 426 Hemi engine, complete with Holley carbs found by Moparts legendary HemiFred. The carbs were then sent to Holley, and restored to new condition. Bagshaw then contacted Ron Butler and asked him to duplicate the trick carb linkage that they used back in 1970. To our delight, Butler agreed to make the linkage, and even by today's standards, it still looks state of the art.

What a great car to restore. I've heard Bill has intense notes from every car he raced. I would image this car has nearly unmatched ability to document and recreate the car to a specific time point.

Quote:

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Bagshaw is a perfectionist,

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Troy here worked for Bill for years at Pro Parts. IIRC, there were specific instructions on how to sweep the floors!

Not surprised about Bagshaw's instructions on sweeping, he definitely likes things done right. That's why his race cars were so impeccable.

Back to build pics... still checking out dismantled shell with floor work done, Bucky is showing present owner of the RLB, John Gastman, sections of floor that had to be trimmed to work around cage. The idea was to leave Ron Butler's work undisturbed.

Speaking of the work of Ron Butler, here's a quick pic of the engine compartment panels from the original car that have been cleaned and stripped.

A lot of time was spent looking at pics of the car in its original state, and making sure to return it to period correct status. Left to right, Bucky, Cole (fabricator), and present owner John Gastman.

Cowl panel set on the car, not yet installed.

Ron Butler inner fender panel, stripped, set on the car, not installed.

Butler cage front bar, cleaned up.

We left Bucky's shop, but not without a quick look at his SS/AH race car. We are big Bucky fans, and certainly wanted to see Bucky spend time getting ready to race. Bucky ended up having to sacrifice testing time on his race car in order to complete the Red Light Bandit, and it was much appreciated.

We discovered these proofs which were taken some time during the early stages of the original 1970 build of the Red Light Bandit. They might have been pics taken in conjunction with the November 1970 Hot Rod magazine article that featured the construction of this car, but not sure.

More pics from the 1970 proof sheet.

Bigger look of fiberglass fenders and hood going on the RLB from 1970 proof sheet.

Our next trip to Bucky's a few months later saw great progress. Getting fiberglass to fit together right and be straight with the doors was a big part of getting the car right. The body gaps on the restored car are outstanding. We bought the fiberglass fenders from VFN, and got the hood from AAR.

Better look at getting the gaps right.

Rear look at the car with panels.

We got a lot of parts from Jeff at 521 Restorations (970-227-0588) who was GREAT to work with. We got the AMD tail panel from Jeff, and a whole lot more stuff. Thanks Jeff!

It might have been said before,but i'll ask again with all of the lighting holes that's in the car,what was the race weight of this car in the 70's This is a interesting thread.

The original car had a removable trans tunnel for quick maintenance. Cole was able to expertly recreate that the tunnel with the help of the pics in the November 1970 Hot Rod magazine article.

The original fiberglass fenders were saved, but too crusty to use. When Bucky got the new VFN fenders, he compared to original fenders to them, and was able to stretch the front wheel well opening to match the original car. So here is the original fender being held up to the new VFN fender that is already mounted to the car.

Bucky gave us a preview of the "spear" on the back quarter.

Racerx-
1970 Pro Stock rules required 3000 lb minimum. The industrial battery Bill mounted in the rear of the trunk weighed 137 lbs. The restored car has the original battery tray, so we have the same size battery, but it is not quite as heavy.

As an aside, Supercar Collectibles did the diecast car a few years ago. They did a really good job with it, quick pic. They used the six pack hood, which is the hood that was originally on the car. However, Bill quickly changed hood when he started getting different manifolds from Chrysler requiring greater clearance.

Skip ahead a couple months, the next time we went down to Bucky's, he has done a ton of work on the body. Special focus centered around the hood scoop. As mentioned above, the Six Pack hood was the first hood used. Then, when Bill got the Independent Runner intake manifold from Chrysler, the hood scoop had to be larger. Bagshaw was one of the first to get the IR manifolds, and one of the pioneer guys building a bigger scoop. Bagshaw says that Butler, who had built road race cars, Cobra style cars, had a number of scoops in his shop. He went through inventory, and came up with the scoop top, and then fabricated the sides. Gastman and Bagshaw agreed that that early hood told a cool story about the development of Pro Stock, so Bucky was asked to recreate that scoop. Although it might look somewhat primitive, with the fiberglass top and fabricated sides, that is what they were running. Further, Bagshaw says they were constantly experimenting with scoops and tweaking fresh air supply, but that this first scoop was just about as effective as any of them. Attached pic is the scoop on the mocked up body.

It i shard to tell from the trunk pictures, was this car minitubbed. Were the inner wheel wells moved over to the frame?
Thanks for sharing this awesome car with us. I can't wait for you to show more of the painted finished product.

You are welcome, it's been awesome to be a part of this project. Wheel wells were lengthened so they would not hit the front of the wells, cut, and moved in to framerail. Leaf springs are moved inboard. Attached is a pic of inside of the car.

Yes, thanks for sharing!! Lots of work to post all the pics and info. Great insight as to just what is required to do a first class resto job on an old race car - and keep it authentic.

THANKS AMX
How did Butler hang the rear of the springs on this one. Did he add a bar from frame to frame with new shackle hanger brackets?

Very Cool!!

Awesome project Arvid!

Scatpack1
I had to hunt down this pic, I believe this "as found" pic will answer your questions. Thanks for your interest!

Arvid Svendsen

Sorry I have not posted in a couple days, had a few things going on. Picking up with that scoop we decided to go with, here is a closer look at it. Again the fiberglass top with the fabricated aluminum sides riveted to the hood is as raced back in the day.

Side view of the scoop... Bucky, Travis, and Cole figured out the size and look from studying the pictures.

So on this visit, Bucky had fitted the panels, gapped the car, stretched the fenders and wheelwells, fitted and finish welded all the floors, fitted the engine compartment Butler panels, painted the cage and floor and engine compartment, and built the scoop.

I should have shown this picture earlier, don't think I did. Here is RLB as found with John Gastman showing off the holes cut in the door by Ron Butler, verified by Bill Bagshaw.

Same door with holes, cleaned up, fitted, primed, and edges and jambs painted.

The "before" pic of the door shows black jambs, but we are convinced that the black jambs was a later paint job. We found a pic in Mopar Muscle of the car from back in the day, don't want to post it since I don't have permission to do, but that pic had Bill warming the car up, and the jambs were yellow. So jambs are yellow.

RLB was blocked extensively prior to receiving final primer, didn't mind seeing some dust on the newly painted floor and Cole-fabricated removable trans tunnel panel.

Rear of the car with close to final primer/final primer? Not sure, might have been a little more blocking after this pic.

Trunk fitted, blocked, and edged.

Dash inner structure cleaned up and painted, all Butler work preserved.

Passenger door is also original to the race car with lightening holes.

New AMD tail panel, nice part.

Bucky doing final work on side marker light opening. Bagshaw retained the side marker on the car as raced, so we did the same.

Intermission, I'm sure most of you are aware, but here is Bill Bagshaw's Red Light Bandit Dart that he bought new from Chrysler in 1968 and raced until fall 1970. The car is now owned by my buddy Gene Mosbek. I took this pic about three months ago while visiting Gene.

Back to the build, Travis goes to work, perfecting the body, laying out the paint scheme, and matching the color. We got help from Bagshaw who sent Bucky chips of the colors.

More pics in the paint booth, what a difference!

Passenger side in paint. Travis Hess spent an incredible amount of time making sure that all the lines between the paint breaks were perfect, and they are amazing.

When we got back to Bucky's, the car was painted, and assembly had begun. These Firestone Drag 500's are real deal vintage tires, size 31.25 x 12.20 x 15. We were also extremely fortunate to find Drag 500 fronts, a story in itself... Bottom line, the restored car has real Drag 500 tires all around.

Great Thread! I saw this car down at Buckys when it first got there and then again when a bulk of the work was done, pre-paint.

All I can say is they went to the right shop!

Travis sure can paint

Nice work by everyone involved

Great story and a dandy restoration!! I wondered where the dart went. I haven't seen Gene at the track for a long time. Is he still racing?

You're right, Gene has cut back on racing over the past couple years. However, he's done a bit more this year. Gene just raced last weekend at Brainerd, with Tim racing Scott's '63 Dodge, and Tom racing the Demon. Gene also raced at the Joliet national event, again busy working keeping his son's cars racing. You've probably seen his race car, but here's a shot of it at Joliet last year.

Thanks for the pic! He is a nice guy to talk with!

tboomer, no problem, yes, Gene is a great guy, and Mopar to the bone.

Back to the Red Light Bandit, we came back to Bucky's with paint done (except for final buffing) and the car in the midst of assembly. Bucky already had the k frame and suspension, Dana rear and springs, and motor installed. I thought it was cool that the car was now in his "race shop", essentially a smaller building that houses his race cars. At this point, Nelson Grimes was in the midst of lettering the car. I did not get a chance to meet him, but the guy is phenomenal with lettering.

These fronts are real 15x3.5 Fentons, they were purchased in early 70's and never mounted on any car. We found them last year in Wisconsin, honest guy with a couple Mopars tucked away. There was not even the slightest lug mark on the wheels. I suppose it's possible that the wheels were cleaned up, but we are fairly certain that they were basically nos wheels, never used.

Just as a quick thread jack, here is a picture of Mosbek's Demon when my buddy Mike Jeffrey owned it.

Slant thanks for the pic, very cool!

So, back to RLB, Nelson Grimes duplicated the font for Bagshaw's name used on the doors, while the Dodge callouts on the quarters and hood are silver leaf.

Nice thread......Thanks for sharing..... I'm flying into Indy Friday morning so I'll get a chance to see it in person...

You're welcome, thanks for reading it.

Couple more shots of the car being lettered. This lettering was not done when I snapped it, but already looks spot on.

Overall look at the car, again in the midst of lettering. Nelson Grimes was doing the silver leaf on the hood. Grimes is a major talent. Grimes lettering with Travis painting and Bucky building is as good as it gets.

If Bucky ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.

I think the question went something like, "Hey Travis, how do you like prepping a pedal assembly?"

JericoGTX- cool pedal assembly!

Bill used Hurst Airheart brakes in 1970, and they were still on the car when Gastman purchased it in 1994. Those brakes were sent out to Goldline Brakes in CA and restored, then installed on the car.

We located NOS Stewart Warner gauges, sent them out to Bucky, and he installed them and cleaned up the original dash panel that Bagshaw had used. Of course, we installed new switches and starter button.

In talking about the interior of the car, Bagshaw said that he used a naugahyde shifter boot installed of a rubber boot, and that he had a larger red shifter ball made of a textured material something like velvet that made it less likely to slip off the shifter. We had an interior guy make up the shift boot, and since we couldn't find an NOS shifter ball that Bill had used, Bucky painted the shifter ball body color candy apple red.

With the car assembled, Bucky took the car for a ride down the back streets of Martinsburg, WV. Bucky had it up to 60 or 70, open headers, freshly built. While driving it back to the shop, a neighbor of the shop came out with a brick in his hand as if to attempt to throw it at the car... he didn't throw it, but he did call "the law". In Bucky's words, "It was awesome".

Attached is completed car, without the scoop, as of last week.