Cuda Bill

Who is “CudaBill”

My Name Is William A. Stokesbury V

My Story

I began with cars when I was about 7 or 8 years old. When my father was re-building a Model A at our home in Dover, Delaware; I picked up a hammer for the first time and told my father I wanted to help.  Little did I know that I would end that day with my front tooth being chipped, and at that time, I had no idea that hammers could actually bounce back after hitting a floor pan.  My father laughed and said, “Son, if you’re going to be a mechanic, you best expect to get hurt now and then.” So much to my surprise, within no time flat, I was learning to work on old cars. 

Now, in this same time from the early seventies, my mother started taking me to NASCAR races. When the races were over, we would always wait till the track was clear and the pit gates opened. Then we would walk down to the pits and hang out with a friend of my mom’s. My mom was a good friend of Glen Wood.  She was born and raised in Critz, VA. In the town next to Stuart, VA, was one of the most recognized NASCAR race teams(the Wood brothers). It was in this same time frame that Mom became friends with a group of people from those two little towns in the mountains who love cars and racing, as Mom would say it (there wasn’t much else to do, It was the late fifties)  It happened that glen wood would go on to build a race team and become a member of the NASCAR hall of fame.  Of course, I did not know this when I was only 8 or 9 years old.  But I was running up and down the pits, climbing on David Persons and the Wood Brother car, and checking out all the early drivers of NASCAR. In those days, kids could do anything, and drivers and teams enjoyed it.  I have met Richard Petty and Cale Yarborough many times. Also, anytime we went to Critz to visit Grandmom, we would drive by the Wood brothers shop further up the mountain to see what they were building and, of course, for Mom to see old friends.

This was probably the beginning of my need for speed.  To me at the time these cars where badass and just really fast and I loved them. We spent every summer twice a year at Dover downs watching the race and then going to the pits to see the wood brothers.

After my grandfather passed away in 1977, we moved to the old family home in Smyrna, Delaware. That’s where my father and I began building an M38 a1 Military Jeep. I was now at 12, learning how to “ Sand Blast “ parts, paint parts, andfight rusty old car parts by using good ol’ CokeCola. My father eventually found me a 1946 Willys CJ 3-B. I worked on that jeep day and night. I couldn’t get enough of the satisfaction I felt after completing each task. I kept telling myself that if I worked on this Jeep every chance I got, I could hopefully have it up and running by the time I was 16. This way, I would have a vehicle I could call my own and something to drive.  I loved that old Willys Jeep. I drove it everywhere.

That was the beginning of “ CUDA BILL”  all my bumps, bruises, scratches and everything else that goes along with turning/cranking a wrench with dad and going to the races with mom. I didn’t know it at the time but my course in life was set. 

I eventually learned that my long-awaited CJ 3-B Willys and that old F-head 4-cylinder motor topped out at a top speed of 55, and that was really working that long stroke motor. Plus, all my friends at school had muscle cars. So, as one day had it, my no-good luck day came. I wanted to go faster, so I pushed the RPMs on my Jeep and blew up that old F-head. I was forced to park the Willys. Hard lesson learned.

After that, I walked home with a friend of mine one day after school to help him work on his 65 Chevy 2.  We took a shortcut to his house where it was my fate, my lust, my beauty. A roached-out 1971 Big Block Plymouth Cuda hiding in a backyard with flat tires and a cooked paint job, it was a triple black car (black exterior, black interior, and a black vinyl top with a big block and an automatic trans. And the widest Cragar rims I had ever seen.

 From there what can I say, I was hooked. I begged my mother and father to let me sell my Jeep so I could purchase the Cuda 

From here on out this is where it really all began and my love for Mopar’s and Real Muscle Cars.

I began to start street racing. Of course blowing up the motors and having to re-build it. Then the Trans went. By then I became pretty good at building and taking apart engines. Especially on old cars, cars that wanted or needed more speed or as I like to say “Muscle”. So you could almost faithfully find me on a Friday or Saturday night somewhere on route 9 racing. That is where I truly earned the name “Cuda Bill”.

At this point in my young life, I had no idea where all this was heading. I always had the urge to do more to the car and the urge to rebuild engines to make them faster but, at the same time, make that engine sparkle and stand out all on its own. I was lucky to meet many guys and some females around Smyrna who pitched in and helped me make things bigger and better.  At that time, I was the only “Mopar muscle car in high school as a kid.  For some reason, I was always up against Fords and Chevy’s with just a little success on the very little money I had at the time.

My two biggest passions in high school where Photography and Old muscle cars many weekend spent at the track either racing or taking pictures of racecars

After graduating high school in 1983, I worked various odd jobs wrenching on vehicles and made a few attempts working at car dealerships. The only thing I got out of working at dealerships was my ASE certs. Plus working on new vehicles wasn’t a challenge for me. I needed more, I wanted more; there was more inside me that needed to come out. I spent all my down time building the Cuda to get ready to go to the local race tracks. I really didn’t have much luck with that. But I can say I gave it my all (well what I thought was my all) at that time and it just wasn’t enough.

I decide to branch out on my own and see what I could do. I knew I wanted to build, re-build motors and transmissions. That’s where I saw my dollar signs. Through out all this time I was collecting and stocking up on all types of Cuda parts and really any type of Mopar part I could get my hands on everything and anything. 

In 1987, my at that time girlfriend, who eventually became my wife, became pregnant. So now, this is where the rubber hit the road, and I had to become more serious about things. Not only was I working for myself and my girlfriend, I now had to put an unborn child into the mix. I learned quickly how to juggle becoming “Cuda Bill,” the mechanic, and “Cuda Bill,” the father. I heard of a car show in Englishtown, NJ. That was the first-ever Mopar Nationals East at Old Bridge Township, also known as NHRA Englishtown Raceway Park. It was a swap meet and racing all in one on the weekends. I threw everything I needed into a truck and took off to NJ. That weekend, after everything, I came home with $6000.00 after selling Mopar parts and Cuda parts. “I WAS HOOKED” it was from that moment on I knew what I had to do. Seeing that there were old Mopars all over Delaware, which at the time people considered junk, well, those old car parts became my fortune. Just like the old saying, “One man’s junk is another man’s dream”. I started buying every muscle car part I could find. Learning how to strip cars to sell and how to take the best of stuff and re-build cars for sale.

I started out as “Bill’s Muscle Cars & Parts” in 1988.I got my first real shop in Clayton,De. I was doing body work to motor jobs or other things people needed done. With Clayton being such a small town the ones that had lived there for years looked at my little shop as a junk yard. They didn’t see or understand the process of re-building cars. They just saw old junk cars and parts. Not seeing what becomes. Eventually I got kicked out of Clayton.

  From there I moved to a bigger place out on a highway.  I was in that shop for about 3 years. The rent was outrageous and had me working 7 days and it felt like 24 hours a day. Being on the highway did generate business for me. People could see what I was doing from the highway, and they became curious which led them to stop in and ask questions. A lot of men thought it was a cool idea to work on muscle cars and try to bring them back. During that time, I met a lot of Mopar guys and learned even more. I was lucky enough to get an old-school teaching from the men who raced and drove them the way they were meant to.

Eventually, I had to relocate again. This time, I found an old pickle plant. That was turned into a mini storage center. With this, I would know the space. I was finally able to take all my learning and abilities learned and really put them to use. I began collecting more car parts. Everything I could get my hands on. This was it; this was the space I needed. In 1991 I opened “Muscle Cars Inc.” This was a full restoration shop. By this time, the internet was taking over, so I began to advertise the business for “Muscle Car Restorations & Mopar Parts”. Needless to say, from there, I was swamped with work. The next few years of my life just ran all together. I had Mopar’s and Cuda’s everywhere, and with more parts than I needed. I was doing at least 8 car shows/swap meets a year. Running a 13-car restoration house and having 4 to 6 cars going on at any given time was busy for me. Remind you all the while I was running a business and by then now a father of 3 daughters and on my second marriage. My little ladies became my little helpers around the shop. They all also became good at working on the old car with me.

The “CUDA CRAZE” hit in the early 1998s, and I was doing pretty well selling Cuda clones into projects through E-Bay. And that’s when things started to become out of control, so to speak. I couldn’t find enough talented restoration mechanics. I was doing both: running the office and also doing cars. At one point, I had nine E bodies being restored at once. This was no easy task. 

My girls were all hitting their teenage years, which required more of my time. It was as if I wasn’t ever home long enough to help them with their problems. So yep, you guessed it … everything comes to an end. After years of long hours and not being at the house enough in 2003 I ended up getting my second divorce. That threw me into a major bankruptcy and so was the end of the big restoration house. Its was at this time i decided to sell the old house intown to be a museum in honor of my family’s heritage and to start a new life.

 Not only did I relocate to a smaller shop, but I also moved a house. I was lucky enough to find a small, quaint place in the country where I could finish raising my girls as a single father and still do the work I love. A few of my clients stuck with me. After all, a great mechanic that tells you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear, is hard to find. I was a little burnt out at this point in my career. I was in awe of everything that happened, and I had to build myself back up slowly. What I needed was a short break.

In 2005, I started working with the State of Delaware on diesel buses. Now that I have secured a retirement and the benefits I needed. I am free to pursue my passion again. As the saying goes, “You can’t hold a good restoration mechanic down,” I began once again in 2007, slowly selling and re-building cars here and there. At this shop, I was a little limited as to what I could do. I was now doing other things, such as re-doing the interior of cars and metalwork. Doing this helped me build a bigger shop on my own property. In 2014, I, along with my girls, started going to the Mopar Nationals in Ohio. Once again selling Mopar parts and doing what I do best, talk about re-building. Everything started coming back to me little by little. Now I re-build cars by invitation or word of mouth, friend to friend. But now and then, I run into a good “Muscle Car’ that I just can’t stay away from, and we all know what happens then….