New Ford Man Coming to Town

[spookypt]

Dear Forumers, a friend of mine, Layne Smerdon from www.fibregrafix.com in the USA is moving back to sunny QLD later this year. He is a Brissy boy and has built Cobras amongst other things over there. Here is a bit of info on him and his future plans.. You may be interested?

Layne hopes to be back in Oz by early next year and plans on continuing on with his business working on/with early Ford products…like rods, classics and muscle cars. (Mustangs, T birds, Cobras) In the early ‘90s Layne was making ‘glass molds and custom parts’ for mainly racers (supplied doors and front clip for Victor Brays first Murray Anderson-Castrol 57) but also did a few bonnets and bumpers for street cars. He then worked at Liquip in Brisbane running the paint shop (doing everything as far as paint and panel goes) In 2002 he moved to Barrington, IL and worked for VFN Fiberglass (drag race parts mainly) doing mainly prototyping and mold fabricating. He left there in mid ’03 to start his own business in building, fabrication and restoration. He moved into his own shop in early ’04 and in the last 3 years has built up 3 Factory 5 Cobra replicas,(1-5.0 EFI, 1-5.0 Vortech SC,1- dual quad 460 BB with IRS) 1 Classic Cobra (302W), restored a ‘289 ’66 Mustang coupe, restored his own 393 ’67 Mustang Coupe, some major ‘glass (removable roof) to a ’57 T bird, ground up builds of 2 Porsche 550 Spyders, restored an old ‘70’s vintage Bugatti replica, small bits and pieces to rods and ‘60s yank tanks and right now he’s up to his eyeballs in a major resto-mod for a ’36 Ford pick-up original body and frame with a 289/C4 and 8 inch. He has a ’23 Lakester booked in for headers, frame paint and bodywork. The guys is seriously FLAT OUT!

Before he leaves the US and heads back for Oz he also has to rebuild his S code ’67 FB stang. Right now it is just a stock pile of panels and parts- no frame, nothing. It’s a true ground up build. Layne has also attended Replica build workshops in Michigan, Lincoln Electric Motorsports Welding course in Ohio(certified Moly TIG welding), Jerry Bickle Race car workshop in Missori. He has even treated himself to a Comp Dragster class (and NHRA license) at Frank Hawleys school in Indy last year. This year he became a member of SEMA and the Hot Rod and Restoration Alliance.

When he gets back to Brissy he plans on continuing his work with building, fabricating and restoration. He’s bringing over somewhere between 2 and 4 Aussie distributorships- He’ll be the only one in Aus supplying these brands of-suspension, electrical, air con and a model specific replacement parts/trims. He plans to return to the US hopefully every year for parts acquisition and other purchases, but in the meantime he plans on negotiating a regular form of part importation. Yes I can hear you all thinking...........

So for any of you guys who are looking for some good ol US of A parts and am not sure where to buy or who has the knowledge or contacts best stay tuned for Layne’s renaissance back to OZ. If you want anything now he can be found at www.fibregrafix.com but I would suggest he will probably be more use to you when he gets back to QLD. Stay tuned!

SpookyPT