The Scoop
DAVE BOUCHE’S HAND-PAINTED, OLD-SCHOOL RESTORED STREET STOCK
Posted on: Friday February 3, 2023
Algoma’s Dave Bouche poses next to his restored, hand-painted championship street stock from the 1995 season. The restored Monte Carlo was painted by Bryan “Woody” Wodack of Sturgeon Bay, WI (bottom photo courtesy of Panske Enterprises)
The hand-painting of stock cars is virtually a lost art these days.
But the coaxing from a friend and customer pushed Bryan “Woody” Wodack to break out his brushes and hand paint a race car for the first time in close to three decades.
Wodack, who owns and operates Woody’s Signs in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, got a call a year ago from old friend Dave Bouche. Bouche had gotten ahold of his championship street stock Monte Carlo – the actual machine Bouche wheeled to a pair of track championships at dirt ovals in Sturgeon Bay and Luxemburg in 1995.
Bouche’s car was painted by one of the best in the business back than – Ace Eckola otherwise known as the Sign Wizard. Eckola had some beautiful hand painted race cars. But by the mid 1990’s most race teams in the region had their cars lettered with vinyl stickers instead of hand paint. It’s quicker and can be easily replaced if need be.
Wodack, who hadn’t hand-painted a race care in close to 30 years, broke out his original paint brushes to complete the job. (Terry Conlon photo)
Wodack, who hand lettered an off-road buggy at the age of 14, doesn’t even recall the last time he’d actually hand painted a race car. “It is probably close to at least 30 years,” said the 58-year-old Wodack. “I actually got nervous about this project. I had to be in right frame of mind. I mean Ace (Eckola) was one of the best and this job was different. I had to basically copy what he did.”
Wodack had the car in his Sturgeon Bay shop two days before he even applied a stroke of paint to the restored Monte Carlo. “In my mind I had to switch over from vinyl to paint and it’s not an easy thing to do,” Wodack explained. “I literally locked the door to the shop every time I worked on the car.”
Wodack said he spent close to 20 hours painting the car over a two-day period. That’s compared to when he stickers a race car with vinyl decals which takes on average six hours.
Wodack did his best to copy the work of the late Ace “Sign Wizard” Eckola, who hand painted the car originally in 1995. (Terry Conlon photo)
One other unexpected issue was Wodack’s chocolate lab dog Kobe. Kobe is Wodack’s companion in the shop 24/7 but for this project Kobe had to remain in his kennel. “I just couldn’t risk having Kobe rub up against it and smudge up the paint.” Another obstacle Wodack fought was father time himself.
“I’m no spring chicken and I had to lay on my side on the ground to letter the numbers, for example,” Wodack explained. “It’s hard getting up off the ground. It’s a real issue. I had my good friend Terry Conlon here to lend a hand if I needed one.”
The original paint brushes Wodack used more than 30 years ago are the same ones Wodack used on the Bouche car. He just bought new paint. “The paint nowadays is better than 30 years ago,” Wodack admitted. “The brushes cleaned up nicely. I even cut some of the old Gold Star Racing Supplies feature winner stickers that were on the car.”
Before the car was delivered to Woody, Bouche had a pretty solid core of friends who were able to chip in to make his vintage restoration project a reality. “Larry Gilson and Phil Ranker helped me restore it,” Bouche said. “In fact, it was Larry who first helped me out building this car the first time around back in 1995.”
Gilson is also the man who discovered the abandoned race car sitting in a field overgrown by weeds in Door County. The car was for sale on Facebook marketplace.
This is what was left of Bouche’s abandoned Monte Carlo street stock discovered in a field in Door County.
The discarded Chevy was in rough shape and needed a new body to boot. Luckily Bouche’s racing connections pulled through. After all, those mid-1970’s Monte Carlo bodies that were so prevalent in the street stock ranks in the ‘80’s and ‘90’s are pretty tough to come by these days.
“My buddy Jeff Ladwig still had a 1977 Monte Carlo in his backyard,” Bouche said. “So really this restoration project would not even be possible without him.”
Veteran racer and ace body man Darrell Massart of Brussels painted the car while Brian Belleau assisted with the body work on the number 21 machine. “Luckily Shawn Olson and Dennis Weidner had some vintage tires and rims laying around that we were also able to use for this project,” Bouche pointed out.
According to Bouche, this car will be a true ‘No-Go-Show Boat’ just like the Beach Boys song and will not be raced. Instead, this vintage racer will be put in display at certain events and maybe an occasional pace lap or two during any track’s respective national anthem.
Bouche’s restored racer will be for show only. (Woody Signs photo)
Once Bouche picked up his shiny new restored racer, he brought it home and kept it under wraps until it was to be displayed at the Luxemburg Racing Show February 4.
You can likely count on one hand the number people in Wisconsin who are still willing to hand paint a race car in 2023. “(Hand painting) race cars are a lost art for sure,” Wodack pointed out. “Would I do another one? I’m not sure. I am going to put some gold leaf down on a Rat Rod I’m doing for T-Mac (Tim McCormick) but truth is I’m not getting any younger. I have always had the utmost respect for Ace (Eckola) and I hope he’s looking down and appreciates what we did. Ace was a classic.”
Bouche will be competing in his 33rd season of stock car racing in ’23 at northeastern Wisconsin ovals in the IMCA stock car class.
