Front engine dragsters by Al Bergler

Al Bergler turned 70 this year and is picking up speed as opposed to slowing down. I posted pics of his restored "More Aggravation" dragster earlier this year. Today I took pictures of 2 more cars in his shop that he's working on. The first is Larry Payne's "Gang Green" dragster from the late 60's.It runs on a 140" wheelbase Larry is a local businessman that used to build race blowers in the 60's and 70's.Those of you that attend the yearly "Woodward Cruise" know Larry as the owner of DUGGAN'S on Woodward. It's the epi-center of the cruise. Al is now finishing fabricating the headers for the car. Obviously, it's a dummy block. He'll send the headers out for chrome next week. They look like stainless but they just had them polished,before welding, to make chroming easier.Al made repairs to the original ch***is. He also made the front axle,fuel tank,seat,firewall and steering components.It's just about ready to re-***emble the finished and painted bodywork.The rear wheels and rear axle center section are mag. We had the rear center section Dow 7 coated. I posted a thread earlier this year on where to get the Dow 7 done.The body,paint, chrome,polished mag and aluminum on this car are outstanding............Mike

 

This second car is is the 1969 Logghe Brothers Stamping dragster, currently owned by John Logghe. As you can see, Al is finishing the body on it. He made the original body in the 60's and they found it to be more efficient to re-make the aluminum body for the original ch***is. The nose ,and top panel were missing. The body and nose match the original car perfectly. He still has to finish the cowling at the windshield. This car is on a 180" wheelbase.......Mike

 

Mike, That is the look that hooked me on rails in the first place. Those cars were real works of art. What with the candy paint , polished aluminum and chrome ! Brings back memories. I wish they had not changed to rolling sign boards !

41 Dave

 

what he said!
dan

 

Those are beautiful. Thanks for posting them.

Doc.

 

Mike -- First-rate work! Some of the oldsters are as good now as they were in their prime. Thanks for sharing these projects. I'm looking forward to more on both cars as they progress.

Mike

 

Royalshifter is gonna **** lol looks good................

 

All I can say is you are one lucky individual to have him to visit with.

 

That's great to hear and some very nice work. I love the nose piece on the Logghe digger.

 

Al's my best friend. I'm proud to say that.I totally enjoy hanging out at his shop. We've got a "regular" crew , which includes more of my best friends, that hangs out there and bull ****s, although Al does all the work.. He's done a lot of work on my cars.....like the interior on my roadster...........

 

Damn nice work on the interior.

 

the guy's still got it. I don't thinkyou'll find any better work ,and he does not have all the fancy tools.a "manual bead roller",lots of hammers and home made tool just for workin on the dragsters and funny car interiors that he used over the years.
mike is his best friend and helps track parts and correspondence and he's smart.But we just can't get him to go any events to enjoy his work. maybe someday.
Al was recently inducted into the MICHIGAN MOTORSPORTS HALL OF FAME.

 

Yeah I'm proud to say Al is a good friend of mine and visiting his shop from time to time is a real treat.

The one thing about Al though is how humble he is. He is so talented it's almost hard to take, he lets his work speek volumes. He is a hero of mine but laughs when I tell him that.

Thanks for the updated pics Mike.

 

Mike, You're really tempting me. Is that invitation still open to come down and go to Al's shop (along with seeing some of your collection)? After seeing what you've posted here I'm ready for a tour.

Frank

 

Every recreation I have seen is far nicer than the originals. If Al is like me, every body he did is a work of art. Artists' appear in many different forms. Every car I built was more important as a "work of art" than for the money I received to build it. It's great that he is still able to do the work rather than sit in a chair and watch.

 

Actually the cars that Al has done were very nice back when he built them. "More Aggravation",his recently restored dragster was the very first RIDLER AWARD winner at the 1964 Detroit Autorama.Al's personal '29 sedan delivery has been a Boyd Coddington top 10 car 4 times. Back when these cars were built, and I was around then, none of us knew what a work of art was. Al always has been,and always will be a perfectionist, whether its building a car or mowing his lawn.

 

Hi Rudy, I'll update this thread as the cars progress....I hope all is well with you.

Hi Frank, You're more than welcome to come down and we'll visit Al. We can also come back to my house and I'll show you the cars and parts. We'll have to wait until the ground freezes though. I can't walk very well any more so I have to drive back to the storage barn and our lawn is too soft to do so now.......

 

Please keep us posted on these projects. Long live the front motor digger.

 

Oh my lord that is ****ing cool.........Wow!!!!.... whats that smell?

 

EXCELLENT! That man is very talented.

 

His work has always been very impressive-I'm sure he is still having fun. Hope I am having that much fun at 70-Jim

 

WOW! Beautiful rail! Thanks for posting.

 

Just given his age (and I've seen pics, he looks great), Al is the man, gotta love the enthusiasm. I recall his Motown Shaker funny car, any ideas of the whereabouts? Al still have it?

 

Glad this post came back up, some how I missed it on the first p***. Good stuff and thanks for sharing the pic's and story. I wish Al was my best friend.

 

AL doesn't have any of the "MOTOWN SHAKER" cars.he found the ch***is for one of the vegas in nj,but the owner thought it is worth alot more than it's worth. he is still hard at it though. he is about to start the final ***embly on a logghe dragster owned by John Logghe,should be ready for Autorama in208. he is also doing a some pre ***embly work on a32 thee window for a guy in weateren michigan and he has been invited to take his "MORE AGGRAVATION" along withLarry Paynes"GANG GREEN"AA/FD and ED Golden's"PROBE"AA/FD to the U.S.NATIONALS to cackel .Al is very active for an almost 71 yearold. he is also still working onhis 40 ford with 390 caddy in it.maybe "HEMIFARRIS"could post some pictures of the 40.it's gonna be cool.

 

Nice tin work. Love these digger's.

 

Al finished the restoration of the Logghe Brothers stamping car last weekend, owned by John Logghe.Logghe Stamping was famous for their dragster and funny car ch***is in the 60's and 70's. Here's 3 pictures of it just after it was lettered by "Mitchell" who lettered many race cars in the 60's and 70's .I didn't take any of these latest pics and apoligize for their clarity.The before pics are at the beginning of this thread. Three pics are of the Logghe car and three are of Larry Payne's "Gang Green" that Al finished last year.
The car hauler belongs to Larry Payne and is parked next to his car "hobby shop" where he stores his cars. It has a full machine shop in it.The hauler, carrying 4 cackle cars will be at Bowling Green and various other cacklefests this summer.

Mike

 

wow that is beautiful.

 

The "Motown Shaker" has been restored by an east coast fellow. He got Al's permission to use Al's name and color scheme. It's nearly complete and was just painted/ lettered by "Mitchell". I'll submit pictures as soon as they're available....Mike

 

hot damn is that killer...guys like that are my heroes in this game...