 Lil' turned his CNC machine...  Lil' turned his CNC machine loose to produce the two-piece wheel, but the profile help came by way of Alan Budnik of Budnik Wheels. |  The aluminum rearend centersection...  The aluminum rearend centersection housing is fitted with steel axle tubes all garage-built and then outfitted with Strange components and assembled by Currie Enterprises based on a Ford 9-inch. |  Yep, it's a functioning trunk...  Yep, it's a functioning trunk made from the same .050-inch-thick 5052 aluminum by Jimmy for Lil' to carry his obligatory extra pair of Levis on the frequent jaunts across town and country. |
Inside, appointments to the Sam Trout-stitched brown leather interior include the Buttera-fabricated dash outfitted with custom bezels wrapped around the VDO gauges plus a pair of Moal Coachbuilders mirrors. The required wiring comes from an EZ Wiring kit that John Robinson modified and positioned to deal with this unique hot rod. Providing "juice" for the electrics is a Deka (Lyon Station, Pennsylvania) battery, something found in certain H-D bikes and used in NASCAR. Resting beneath the carpeting and upholstered panels is LizardSkin (Lake Havasu City, Arizona) spray-on insulation. Up top is the ididit (Tecumseh, Michigan) column christened with a Buttera steering wheel in Zebrawood. On the floor, you can see a Lokar (Knoxville, Tennessee) gas pedal, a Buttera-built brake pedal and arm, plus the shift lever that operates the B&M (Chatsworth, California) shifter, which is hooked to a Ford C4 trans.
BRIGHT 'N' SHINNY
The Lil' John trademark white paint for the frame and scallop treatment on the body came from another longtime friend, Roy Prather of Arcadia Body Shop. In typical Buttera form, time is a consumable luxury not to be squandered, and Lil' informed Roy shortly after he took the project that he had one week to paint the frame white and apply the white scallop paint job to the fully polished body. Needless to say, Roy made the deadline! Dennis Rickleffs handled the tasteful red pinstriping on the grille shell and the outlining of the scallop treatment.
After a summer's worth of shakedown cruises and never-ending adjusting, rebuilding, and tinkering, the body underwent a paint and polish tune-up before being photographed for this article. Charlie Hutton handled the paint and polish touch-up chore while at Foose Design.
POWERTRAIN
In typical Buttera fashion, Lil' John began this project with an idea of an exotic V-8 that would be made into something streetworthy. Literally in the rafters of his garage was the last '87 Indy Hawk motor he had built for his race effort. Based on a small-block Chevy, the block features a number of ideas incorporated to make the V-8 Indy competitive. Dan Brewer began de-tuning the 366-inch race motor after Bruce Crower jumped in to provide a crank, rods, and cam that helped "de-claw" a once-race motor into something streetable. Mike Hamm of Mike Hamm Engineering (Garden Grove, California) gave the roadster its sound by building the headers, mufflers, and exhaust. Lil' whittled a crossmember that served as a structural part of the frame as well as the bracket that clamps around the mufflers holding them in position. The transmission is a C4 because a Ford tranny behind a Chevy V-8 allows for more foot room. Lil' made the flexplate and repositioned the starter from the passenger to the driver side of the V-8. While in the process, Jerry Stewart (and his sons, Russell and Ryan-Lil' refers to them as the "R" kids) of The Converter Shop (Chino, California) built the torque converter. The sons built the original converter and also saved Lil' from himself when he broke down in Lake Havasu City (where their second shop is located) when driving back to Indy for the Goodguys event. For this, Lil' heaps loads of "way way cool" praise on the "R" kids. Other tranny appointments include the reworked B&M shifter that sports a new shift lever, again made by Lil'.
Cooling is just as important on a racetrack as it is on a city street. With this in mind, Lil' went back to a friend, Chris Paulsen of C&R Racing, who is long on expertise in building NASCAR cooling systems. His Indy-based company provided the specially designed core that allowed Lil' to build top and bottom 6061 aluminum tanks, which in turn were welded into position by Jeff Haywood. Another cooling element is the special water manifolds built by Andy Bondio of Bondio Fabrication since the engine requires special water conduits. Brown & Miller Racing Solutions (Concord, North Carolina) was called upon for all of the fittings, hoses, and subsequent brake lines that were to be used. The engine is topped off with loads of Lil's trademark billet turned parts, MSD ignition, and originally electronic fuel injection. Well, the injection turned out to be just too sophisticated for the project, and in time it ended up as a table adornment and a single four-barrel was dropped into position.
CHASSIS
The chassis is based on a set of unique framerails built from gently curving 1/8-inch steel 'rails without a single kink by David Weismantel's Cebe Co. A set of boxing plates were also provided and then welded into position by Jeff Haywood. He also got the nod to weld the rearend housing brackets once Lil' finished fabricating the steel axle tubes. From there, Lil' John finished out the frame and used 7050 aluminum to make all the suspension components. The frame also serves as the gas tank, holding 13.5 gallons of gas, with the sending unit located in the top of the driver-side 'rail. Other rearend pieces include Strange Engineering pumpkin inners while Currie Enterprise (Anaheim, California) assembled the rearend based on a Ford 9-inch.
Steering comes by way of a Borgeson-Mullins (Torrington, Connecticut) Vega box and accompanying U-joints. The torsion bar coilover suspension was made using QA-1 (Lakeville, Minnesota) shocks and torsion bars from Glen Sander of Sander Engineering. The four-wheel disc brake system is based on a Strange Engineering dual-reservoir master cylinder feeding Wilwood calipers mounted to Buttera-built spindles and drilled rotors mounted to BMW hubs.
At some point you may be beginning to wonder just what did Lil' John do? A lot. From concept to the countless hours in front of the CAD machine, double those hours in front of the CNC machine, followed by the scrapped knuckles, nicked forehead, and hammered fingers, Lil' touched every aspect of this car. He has often been kidded that he should have built the car with Velcro, or at the very least zippers, as he has taken it apart more times than he would care to remember in his constant effort to make it just right. It can be said now that the car runs, handles, and rides the way Lil' had originally envisioned. Credit Lil' with building the one-piece front axle that houses the torsion bars and brackets, tie rod, drag link, spindles, and the oh-so-exotic bracketry that handles the torsion bar and unique shock setup. From here, the crossmembers, engine mounts, and the myriad of brackets and mounts for the rearend are more wonders from the menu list of Lil's CNC machine.
LIL' HELP
Even the best builders need help, especially when a project is driven by a time-intensive deadline. To survive the time crunch, there were any number of friends who came through (as noted throughout this article), but there were three in particular who stepped up big time.
Chris Buttera, Lil' John's son, was there from the beginning of the project to the end. He was always ready to handle any mechanical chore that needed completing, as well as being responsible for a great deal of the assembly. John Robinson (J.R.), son of Fat Jack Robinson, helped tremendously on the overall building, which included the wiring and a great deal of welding. He too was there from the beginning and spent many a late night and an endless string of days getting the roadster ready for the road.
Kenny Koldsbaek, who owns a carbon fiber company specializing in the building of components for NASCAR, came west to help Lil'. He spent the last three weeks working on the car 24/7. Aside from putting in an incredible number of hours, it was also his job to keep Lil' out of the way of J.R. and Chris so they could get their work accomplished. If you've found the roadster to be interesting but wish you could have seen all those photos of the car during its construction phase, don't fret. You can find numerous build photos and additional information of this one-of-a-kind hot rod at www.streetrodderweb.com. Tune in there for the rest of the story.