Nostaglia Funny Car Body Builder

Posted by pikesan on Apr 28, 2008 in Racing | 11 comments

If you want to have some funny on the net, type in Nostalgia Drag Racing. From wild fuel altereds to stockers banging 4 speeds to top fuel funny cars, I like it all! No delay boxes or throttle stops there, just honest drag racing. I can’t get enough. So stumbling around, I found Army Armstrong of The Funny Factory. You ever wonder who builds the bodies for the growing wave of nostalgia racers? You found it. The Funny Factory’s got a short but impressive list of funny car bodies and it sounds like they’re growing. Here’s what Army had to say about his business:

We were mainly racers so I guess the funny factory was kind of an accident. We mainly wanted to race a 1969 Charger bodied F/C but settled for a 1972 Vega body. Nothing against Vega’s, but we really wanted to be different so the search went on for a few more months with no luck. During the search, we heard a rumor of a Charger mold hiding in Chicago. With a few phone calls we were on a road trip to get the mold… Once we got it home, we started looking for a fiberglass shop to make one for us. After trying 4 different fiberglass shops, 3 of which laughed at us and the 4th wanting an arm and a leg, we decided to try it ourselves. Next thing you know it’s 4 years later and still growing. So far, we build a 1972 & 1974 Vega, 1968-69 Charger, 1970 Cuda, 1969-70 Nova, 1973 Duster and 1978-79 Vette. We’ve got plans too. The future holds a 1971 Mini-Charger that we have already started on and should be ready by May. Then, its on to a 1965 Corvair and a1974 Camaro.

We’re currently building and moving into a new shop. Plans are to do everything in one shop by 2009. We’ll still have the body builds, but we’re adding a Chassis shop and more.
It’s all done by family and friends, wife and son (Nicole and Trever Armstrong)
father (Robin Armstrong) and good friend Heith Fike. A special thanks to Dennis Salzwimmer for pushing us to go for it and make the bodies ourselves and for all his help and advice since then.

The best part of all this is the people we’ve met along the way. Like Henry Gutierrez. We made a mold and new bodies for him, and now Henry and his gang are some of our best friends! He’s also helping me get my AA/FC license by driving his all new 1972 Camaro “Jungle Jim” tribute Funny Car. (here’s a cool website about Jungle Jim and Jungle Pam) Another cool part of all this is when your at the track and someone comes up and asks, “Where’d you find this body?” And you can reply with “two five gallon buckets” at The Funny Factory.

So maybe the original bodies are out there somewhere, but if you want one for your funny car operation, give Army a call.

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