Inside a Massive Private Race Car Collection: Vintage NASCAR to TransAm! (AJ Henriksen's Garage)

before we could move it it had a tree growing through the shifter hole and out the windshield it's perfect for a vintage guy just insane cheap what I have is very random started looking pretty rough and then it sat next to so Junior has that car currently it was the backup car that he had at his final race at Homestead I happen to be the last one to drive for juny dony were you swindled or did the guy not know um we're here in Elgen Illinois engineer components and uh they got a pretty awesome car collection in there AJ's going to show us what's going on yeah let's go check it out so you used to race an ARA yeah um my dad's been involved in Motorsport since he was very young he got involved with uh Bob shaed in the mid 80s about 84 or so like that we started our own thing in in in the march of 2000 and then that's when ACC Motorsports basically started some of these cars are active race cars others are displays and that one in particular catches my attention because it's been in one of these videos before but not in this building there there was many cars at that kissing me auction that that I that I really wanted it was just what which ones could we afford and it end up being just the one but it it was that was kind of a sad deal um that whole way all went down there's probably even more history behind that we don't know I'm sure there's a lot of race cars that you just people like oh yeah it was this and then it was this but before all that there's there's there's probably some hidden history that that we don't really fully know yet um which happens with some of these other cars to where I'll have them for a few years and not know the whole story and then little by little you know by giving people you know chassis numbers and asking around cuz this was an old Junior Johnson car so who knows what the heck it did who drove it exactly as you lean on a legitimate Ira car this is uh how did you get the this car is I guy in Colorado had it and he got it at the auction in I think it was 2009 um when they liquidated Iraq yeah which actually I I there was it was one of the first time I ever tried to mess with a computer cuz it was online auction as well for that deal and we saw these cars go for just insane cheap to where I called my father said hey we need to get one of these things and he's like well what are we going to do with it you know at the time we're our full focus and funding was you know you know racing and Arc and stuff like that so he's like what are you going to do with that I was like I I don't know so we didn't get it I think they were going for between 10 and 15 grand roughly but we bought it a few years ago um for a for a little more than that knowing that it's a legit car I mean there's no way to to copy these things many people drove it it's at the most history for sure and then of course Ray figured out that this particular car being car 4 of this gen is car 27 when when Ray ended up you know starting there he wanted to start numbering cars and this was the 27th which I think is is way cool cuz I'm was born the 27th that was a pretty cool deal at lime rock that we brought this car and we're going to do another we're going to do more of that uh montere next year is going to be a very interesting event has that been publicly announced yet um I don't think so would say there might be more irck coming official details pending there's more people that drove this that aren't on that list Trickle and and Jay solder D Marcus they obviously all drove this car a lot cuz it was a test car as as well so they're not on the list but they for sure drove it um there's a few more that aren't on the list for whatever reason that we found out later drove it do you think you'll ever get this on the track at one of those events or just leave it a static show so at Lime Rock I didn't monay we will I want to know more about this this is a odd duck right here the Elliot Marino car yeah that was a onee thing um 1998 um and from what I've been told there's two cars that had a red chassis with this paint Scheme which was the very first race that Jerry drove which was Daytona obviously the this is a short track car so he run this I think it the second race at that time was Rockingham um so he run this one to Rockingham Richmond places like that but it's it's one of two cars that was like I said with the red Chassy with this but then the other one was changed so it's the only one left and there there's a little McDonald's Arch right there yeah yeah so this was a Bill Elliot 94 car and then when they did the ell Marino deal they pulled some of the Elliot cars into that is that that's interesting exactly yeah I've never seen a oil plug down here yeah that's a that's a first for me too I saw you looking at this list for some reason this list is in I was looking at the other day cuz I was trying to think of who drove the other car for Bill Elliot and it was been Dennis ster drove the mick rib this is a list of Def bunk teams as of 09 which is pretty sad list I happen to be the last one to drive for juny dony which is kind of cool from 1950 to 2005 for bu's buttpaste yeah you're the buttpaste I didn't I didn't bring that sponsor it was brought to me and we couldn't turn it down but like there's a the list is like it's you know sad you know like Jasper Motorsports you know 71 you know back Roger Pensky DK ol they all were involved you know it's just a and then the list of bush teams and Craftsman Truck teams I had to save this because this is the time where it all started to go weird and now it's a charter deal and good luck you can't build a car go compete and be fast that's well said just not going to happen I like this still this still even has a little tag on there for the camera thing yeah the little camera logo how did you get this car that's a funny story um it was a late night and for whatever reason the guy was was selling these on eBay this one and the 94 on eBay it went went off at like 10:30 at night and I was sitting there doing nothing at 10:30 ready to go to bed or whatever and I saw that car first you know auctioning off so there was like 4 minutes left in the bid it's like oh my God so there's 24 pictures I'm scrolling scroll scroll I get to about picture number 10 of that car was like cool bought it I think it was 117 was the bid so we went to pick the car up it's a good thing that we brought our hauler we almost brought a single car trailer went to go get it and the guy's like so here's the other car I was like what do you mean like well yeah these are yours like didn't and so we were literally on the way home and I'm scrolling through the what I bought and I get past picture 12 and now it's picture 13 through 24 is of this car and I didn't even fully read the full description just pulled the trigger thought I got that for 117 end up getting them both for 117 really what a freaking deal that was it was insane deal which is why believe it or not this is the only car in this whole area that I would I would sell and I would sell it for a good price because I got it I just told you what I paid um I'm not scared to tell people what I PID for some of this stuff but uh yeah I'll give I mean someone I I think we're looking at like five or something where maybe we can get more than that but I don't need to you know so someday maybe someone vintage race this thing needs a little it needs a little bit of love and we started to buff the windows a little bit just to see if they're savable and I think they are it's perfect for a vintage guy yeah this is this is really really cool especially at being a a Bill Elliot car that and being it being a short track car it's already got like you know the big holes in the nose you don't got to cut the thing apart you know it's already been it doesn't have duck work in it now but it's you know so the car you thought you were buying I want to learn about that next we see what's under here I mean it's it's it's a clean ride that's for sure and honestly we haven't done anything to it we we've just just barely cleaned up a little bit in fact like the whole car looked like that down there like it was like see how like this is all nasty it's all of it but had this Grime of whatever on it the guy you got it from did he buy them from some liquidation auction or how did he get he ah there was an auction in Dawsonville I think cuz there's pictures of Bill signing this one at some Warehouse he said in in it was somewhere in Dawsonville he bought it from a guy that bought it from Bill yeah um this one's pretty interesting because it was a a Speedway car for 1999 and then they used it for the 19 you know the 25th anniversary so this and from what I from what I've been told this is one of the only there might have been a few other show cars but they're not around anymore but this is one this the only 99 body Taurus that they used for a show car in 2000 is why it has that sticker on it oh okay so like that sticker was added and the contingencies this is different from when it when it actually raced this one was old uh we got this it was one of Jee Felton's restores we don't know the origination of like who drove it or what but we do know that it was a a bush car it's got a V6 still in it it's like when you say Jean Felton you could be it could be real or it could be something else yeah he did a little bit of everything and then this guy Jack tant I've never heard of him until we got this engine I looked up and he's some legendary Builder that's that's pretty cool he raced too didn't he that name sounds really familiar like this one just toys you know like this a giant Die Cast really I I just and and the one back there the dupan that's a real toy it's not even it's not even a car it's just a body now what about this uh darl wal trip car over here with the engine in it we went to Travis's Travis Carter we were pretty tight with him and loose cyel my team was really close with him for so many years he called up L say hey I got a bunch of cut off bodies I know you guys are looking for a cut off body cool so we go look at this cut off body we got it for good price whatever and then we're walking through the shop and I over hear someone saying well we got to get rid of that car because Todd won't drive a Hopkins he wants he wants all llin did you know that American homeowners have over $32 trillion in equity and criminals are targeting it with a growing scam that FBI calls house stealing scammers can transfer your title out of your name by using a onepage document they file at the county then they can take out loans against it or even sell it behind your back and the scariest part you won't find out about it until a collection or foreclosure notices start arriving in your mailbox leaving you with a financial and legal nightmare the best way to protect your Equity is with home title locks exclusive million dooll triple lock protection this service offers 24/7 monitoring 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us a smoking deal I mean they had like brakes everything on it um we ran it quite a bit in ARA uh it's had a front clip it's had almost all new sheet metal except for a roof well Greenhouse is still original which you can kind of tell I don't know if you can still tell you can tell it was at one time a 2 or 99 cuz I'm under here's a filler panel oh yeah it's got the the oval window yeah if you look straight behind the seat oh yep but it was one of Daryl's favorite cars um it was the car that he drove a lot in his final season it was the backup car that he had at his final race at Homestead so after all that we when I moved back up here we just we wanted to do something different so I figured hey let's paint it about back to the way that it was when Daryl drove it I happen to be helping a guy he was he bought a bunch of storage units and he he's like hey I bought a bunch of storage units can you help me move them so I helped them move some storage units and as we're moving stuff there was a bunch of decals and they were all marked 66 Travis Carter was like wo so like all the decals like all this is all original I didn't have any of that it was I got lucky too like some some some areas they did like this never actually stuck it's been like that since I put it on but you know what the decals like the paper was yellow and it was just it was it was a chore to get the old paper off and then clean all the glue off the decal without ruining it and then repaper it and it was it was quite the project what are the odds you stumble across an entire decal set for a car that you have that's why I just had to do it and what about this one looks like it's under construction yeah that's another another find where uh Bob sha he found that and had a tree growing through it wouldn't it be nice if Bob was here to tell us about it yeah that would be pretty cool oh wait he's right over there and then we got some of the restore pictures he can tell you about the the process of what he did here AR AJ were watching the movie and then Arie called me up the next day and said you know didn't you build some of the cars for the Days of Thunder movie and I said yeah he goes well I want a 46 City car I'm like okay and then he told me what what he wanted me do and everything I says where am I going to find alumina lumina's ain't been around in years you know so we searched around look trying to find one and you can see in one of the pictures there it had a tree before we could move it it had a tree growing through the shifter hole and out the windshield that's just some of the branches that were left in it and we drug it out of the field and you can see we you know we chopped on it and cleaned it it took us about a week to get it to where we could start red doing it and then I took it and had it all sand blasted and cuz it was Rusty and stuff like that and then we put a whole complete body and stuff on it other than the greenhouse and stuff like from door tops down and then we painted everything and made it you know kind of the same way that we made the cars for the Days of Thunder do you know what it was so originally we're we're pretty sure this was a piper uh Bush car that Bobby Allison had cuz it's got the three link suspension underneath the back of it you can see there where the third link was at so the some of the history we think it the when you can tell in some of the pictures the color that the inside that orange and stuff was some of the stuff that Bobby Allison had back in the day when they're running the three link stuff in the bush uh Series so was it it wasn't three link anymore when you found it no it was a truck armed car because they changed the rules to where you couldn't use a three link anymore and uh and it was a it's a Laughlin chassis and uh we look for numbers and stuff on it but they didn't put numbers on them like they do today like you know in the Seven bar and stuff like that so but we the best we could track down is you know where it came from and some of the history back to where where it came from before it wound up out in the field with a tree growing through it that Mak sense if Bobby was a Laughlin guy wasn't he Bobby was a Laughlin guy he was originally brought you know Laughlin to the party there back in the day and you know NASCAR Winston Cup stuff you know front steer cars especially when the radial tires came in so so yeah and then you know Bobby was the first one you know come up with the three-link stuff too originally are the rest of the three-link brackets under there or just the top one gosh I really don't know for sure to is for sure yeah the top one for sure is there I don't know if it has the the ones on the side here or not tell you the truth on that side you can kind of see over there the pocket a piece of 2x4 and come straight at that it's still there on that side yep I can see the right side oh there it is see it they're both still there are they okay yep holy crap that's now that's pretty cool yeah so was that top one the top one's still there yeah do you think you'll get this one to a running State and do anything like to I mean it's it's on a it's on the back back back burner right now obviously but uh yeah someday I mean maybe before the new movie comes out would be pretty cool which is I got a couple years so that's good they're going to start production on that I think next summer that's what they're talking about yeah were there any strange things that you couldn't really or had to be detailed about to make sure the body was right for alumina versus building a body for a normal no I mean you know we used the top parts of the quarter panels so I mean it was easy just to make you know the sides you know to cover the tires you know there were no character lines and stuff we kind of put some of the flare into it like we were doing you know building the big fenders for down Force and stuff like that try to make it you know kind of along the way the cars were a lot of the cars were the speedway cars you know from the movie and stuff like that and then the 46 car that we built like this when we first gave them this car for the movie it was one of the cars that Tom Cruz actually liked better when he drove it himself than the rest of the cars see the rest of the cars a lot of them were from Hendrick and stuff like that but when we delivered this car the way it was it had a real race motor in it seat the whole nine yards and some of the scenes in the in the movie with cruise were that car that me and Mike Mike Mack worked with me back then and him and I built the cars and for the movie but they always some of the guys told me that that was one of the cars that he liked more than the rest of them car that we built for him and cuz when you put it out there it was full-blown like it was set up the right parts bolted to it when when we the first car we did was this car not this particular car but the one for the movie and you know we thought it had to be a real race car so it had a real race motor in it and the whole nine yards and then when we get there and see some of the cars were thrown together cow you know I'm like really so the couple cars we built after that we just kind of you know I had an Old El Camino we took the motor out it and stuck it in one of the cars long as it it moved and made noise that's all they cared about you know and then they would keep either painting them or whatever for each scene cars were all you know different all the time so they had people you know working right there on the on the set almost you know painting cars as they were shooting the scenes you know no how did you get contacted to build that car so if I remember right I think it was through Hutchinson Pagan you know cuz I was running Winston Cup back then and uh I think dick Hutcherson or Ron one of them asked me something about you know do I want to you know do some luminas and this that and the other thing and I didn't really know what they were talking about…