Bill Lynch has been with our club since it's meager beginnings and has attended almost as many of our get togethers as your editor has. Bill is what I would consider a car guys mechanic because he's been around cars for longer than he will admit, and there's very little he couldn't troubleshoot or repair.
I originally learned about Bill when I saw his car in Kit Car Illustrated, but I had a hard time contacting him to tell him about the club since they spelled his name wrong. After he learned about us, he's been a regular at most of our meetings, and I think we've all enjoyed his stories from his days in New Jersey fixing, buying and selling cars.
His kit car is a 1956 T-Bird replica from the now defunct company Prestige Classics. He purchased this kit when he was still in N.J. in 1982. He brought the unfinished kit to Colo. a few years later, and finally completed it in 1998. It utilizes a VW Bug chassis and a fairly stock 1600 VW engine which really raises some eyebrows at car shows. Most people assume if someone were to build a replica of a front engine car, they use a front engine donor, but in the 70's and 80's Bugs were all the rage for many types of kits. Bill and I still chuckle about our visit to the VW's On The Green show in spring 2002. When he drove his car in to be parked, one of the officials said 'You can't park that here; this is a VW show!' So Bill had to pop the hood (excuse me, trunk?) to prove he was welcome.
The car is a fairly good replica of the original Ford vehicle, and from a distance most people can't tell that is anything but what it looks like. The porthole windows, removable hardtop, and grillwork on the sides are a really nice touches. Through the years, Bill has done some modifications to make the car more usable and to run better. The original bench seats didn't fit well in the car, so Bill replaced them with bucket seats from a Chevette and created a center console that adds some helpful storage. To improve the air flow to the bug engine, Bill added some functional scoops in the rear wheel wells that vent to the engine compartment and to improve performance, he also added a water injection system which increases the moisture in his fuel mix.
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