Historic Tin Indian Drag Racing Pontiacs - Tin Indian

A prototype intake manifold mounted a 1,050 cfm Carter Thermoquad. Like the stock Rochester Q-Jet used on production Pontiac V-8s, the TQ was a spreadbore design but featured a phenolic resin main body to insulate heat and was able to flow more air in stock form.

Arlen was fortunate in that all of the exotic pieces that made the engine so rare were still with the car, making the rebuild a fairly simple exercise. The engine was rebuilt using as much of the original componentry as possible, including the 11.5:1 forged R/A-V pistons, augmented with new Sealed Power rings and the forged R/A-V crankshaft, treated to a new set of Clevite 77 bearings.

Retained were the original camshaft, valves, roller rockers and all the major castings and bottom end parts. The Thermoquad still uses the 0.087 primary and 0.113 secondary jets it raced with, and an ACCEL distributor and wires fire the AC sparkplugs. A new set of Hooker Super Comp headers with 2-inch primaries and 3.5-inch collectors replaced the badly weathered originals and, with that, the engine restoration was complete.

Moving to the transmission, which is the original M-40 Turbo 400, Vanke retained the custom pieces it originally was built with, including the 4500 rpm stall, 9-inch Vitar torque converter, manual valve body, shift kit and Hurst Dual Gate shifter. Power is transferred to a 10-bolt rearend with Safe-T-Track and a set of 4.56:1 Shiefer gears.

All those years in Virginia were fairly kind to the Judge. Although it had been neglected for most of the time down there, the absence of salt saved the body and frame from major corrosion damage. As a result, the restoration of the car itself also proved to be a fairly straightforward affair, with no major surprises.

"It spent a lot of time outside with the hood off, so there was quite a bit of rust in the engine compartment," said Micky Hale in a recent phone interview. "We replaced the front fenders and inner fenders with NOS pieces, as there was some damage from a towing mishap. The rear quarters were in good shape and only needed some minor patching. There were a lot of drill holes in the trunk due to different electric fuel pump configurations. We fixed all of that, of course."

The chassis received the same sort of treatment. Hale and his team retained as much as they could, such as the original boxed control arms. Hurst 90/10 drag shocks were installed up front and 50/50s in the rear, and vintage Keystone Klassic 15x6 wheels shod with Firestone Drag 500 front tires and 8.00/8.50x15-inch Drag 500 rear slicks.

Due to its pretty rough shape, the interior had to be replaced. Hale used PUI components, including the Comfort-Weave seat covers, to recapture that new-car appearance. Race-spec Stewart-Warner oil and water gauges were reinstalled, as were the radio and heater delete plates.

Fortunately, much of the Judge's original livery was still on the car, albeit in very weathered condition, right down to the sponsor decals and the mylar Knafel lettering, making the duplication a relatively simple task. The lightweight fiberglass nose originally used was retained and, after the bodywork was completed, the vintage colors of Polar White and Lucerne Blue were resprayed in a modern PPG basecoat clearcoat system.