Magazine Appearances

From the article: "To get some expert advice on how to deal with this issue, we spent a day at Muscle Car Restorations in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. These guys are well known for their world-class full restorations, but they are also glad to take in partial work. This is doable in one day, so you shouldn't have to miss your next event."

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From the article: "All the previously mentioned issues are certainly the case with the wiring harness in the '68 Barracuda that Muscle Car Restorations (MCR) is tackling as a testbed for their new program -- the Progressive Restoration. This is a new consumer available process where instead of restoring the car all at once, the car is done in stages, one section at a time. It's a great concept ..."

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From the article: "Mike Creglow of Welch, Minnesota, the owner of this super clean '65 Plymouth Satellite, had a revelation one day. He knew that he wanted to build his '65 into a show-quality race car and had been working toward that goal for seven years when he realized that, at the rate he was going, he was going to run out of time before he got it done. ..."

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From the article: "So, we would like to introduce a new series of articles to help you restore you dream car one bite-size piece at a time. The inspiration for this comes from our friends at Muscle Car Restorations (MCR) in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. Owner John Balow, responding to a need in the restoration market, has started a new program called Progressive Restorations. The basic premise is to do only what can be done during one winter season so the owner gets his car back in time for summer cruising."

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From the article: "Why did Nick bother to build a car he knows he can never drive? Because it was his dream, and he refused to let it go. ..."

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Feature page

From the article: "When it comes to advanced restoration metal work, we don't know of anyone more experienced than the guys at Muscle Car Restorations (MCR) in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. Ownver John Balow got his start working on Mopars when there weren't the resources available like there are today. He and his team have been doing this kind of thing for almost two decades ..."

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From the article: "This car has 40,856 miles on it since being restored by Muscle Car Restorations, which was completed in Aug. 2006 ..."

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From the article: "Muscle Car Restorations has come to be known in recent years for turning out some of the most outrageous Pro Touring and custom Mopars on the planet. The shop boasts perhaps the most complete one-stop facility in the country for building a state-of-the-art custom, with virtually all of the work being done in-house."

Visit our feature page on the car for build photographs and more!

From the article: "John Balow, Fred Kappus, and the entire crew at Muscle Car Restorations in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin have done it again. In the last half dozen years, we've come to expect great things from these guys, be it in the restored OEM-style old Mopars, or with radical customs. Last summer, however, we were taken aback by something so complete off-the-wall and unexpected it even left us speechless for while, pondering it's complexity and craftmanship. Yes, we know it's hard to believe anyone here at MCG would ever be speechless, because usually you can't shut us up, but the yellow E-body staring us in the face caught us, and everyone else, off guard."

Read more: Cover scan, scan 1, scan 2, scan 3

Visit our feature page on the car for build photographs and more!

From the article: "John Balow of Muscle Car Restorations in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin had been tossing around the idea of building a Challenger T/A-style retro Pro Touring car powered by a modern 5.7 Hemi. A veteran in the field of building customs and restoring stone stockers, John has a network of close allies in the Mopar camp. He was getting good feedback on the theory when he bumped into Dean Skuza. ..."

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Keep an eye out for our recently completed 1970 Challenger (Skuza T/A) project on the cover of an upcoming issue of Mopar Muscle Magazine! Read the article on pages 102 through 110. Click here to read more about this project.

From the article: "John Balow's shop, Muscle Car Restorations (MCR) in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, was responsible for turning Editor Bolig's drab army-green Valiant into the arrow-straight, eye-blindingly white A-Body it is today. They also have had many of their clients' Mopars featured in our pages, including a pair of Super Stock A-Body clones, outstanding street cruisers, and some of the most perfect concourse-grade restorations we've ever seen. So when John came up to us at the SEMA show in Las Vegas with this wild concept, he had our attention."

Also look for a second MCR article in the same issue on pages 32 through 38 titled Color Sanding 101

Look for the MCR painted Cobra on the cover of the 2007 Kit Car Buyer's Guide!

Read more about the car here.

On the Cover: John Balow and the crew at Muscle Car Restorations in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, helped us out a ton by setting up our cover shot and having Mark Ehlen shoot it. The car is a rusty '69 GTX, and that's John himself manning the grinder while cutting off the quater-panel.

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To get us going, we asked John Balow, owner of Muscle Car Restorations (MCR), to help us add a set of tail stripes to an A-body with a minty-fresh paint job. ...

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... This one happens to be the 440 Six-Pack creation that Muscle Car Restorations will be bolting to the A-833 four-speed we showed you a few months ago, ...

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... John Balow at Muscle Car Restorations (Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin) had painted the car, and he did some overnight 'glass and paintwork to get it ready for the competition. The color is Auto Air's Metal Blue Silver.

Note: MCR did not do the overnight repair work on this car as stated in the article, but we did paint it

Click here to see photographs of the paint work!

Scan, scan, scan (Photographs used with permission from Hot Rod Magazine)

Be sure to check out our advertisment on page 156 also!

... and John Balow, owner of Muscle Car Restorations, was quick to respond with the offer of an A-833 (Hemi four-speed) rebuild ... Zumbrota Bearing and Gear in Zumbrota, Minnesota, supplied the parts necessary for this rebuilt. ...

... This month, we finally got to sit in it, turn the key, and stomp its guts out. Man, was it fun!

... MCR's John Balow and his boys turned our FFR Cobra from three boxes of parts into a a running, driving, fire-breathing Cobra that would make Carrol Shelby if not proud, at least a little jealous. ...

... Watching the progressions of the Holley Road Runner project, Craig decided that only the boys at Muscle Car Restorations were worthy enough to tackle his beloved Charger ...

... By adding a Keisler Automotive five-speed manual conversion, you can have all this horsepower, steep gears, and still drive it.

... Muscle Car Restorations has installed a new Mustang Chassis Dynamometer that will allow ...

... Nestled away in Wisconsin is Muscle Car Restorations (MCR). They can honestly be called one of the best in the country ...

What the heck is Project M? It's a project car we did a few year's ago and decided to reinvent, so to speak. Remember the Holley Road Runner? That car will now be known as Project M. Realizing enthusiasts are never really finished with their cars, we decided we weren't finished with this one either. Each year, we want to take Project M on the Hot Rod Power Tour to see how our new conglomeration of parts performs. Remember, this is Mopar Muscle -- anything's possible.

... It has been a pleasure to work with such a great group of people at Muscle Car Restorations. I feel extremely privileged tohave been party to this fantastic restoration ...

... This classic muscle machine was the beneficiary of a full four-year-plus restoration by Muscle Car Restorations and it is a past "Best of Show" winner at the highly competitive Mopar Nationals ...

... Dan enlisted Muscle Car Restorations to remove and replcae all traces of cancerous sheetmetal caused by years of exposure to Wisconsin's salty winter roads. ...

... The shop that consistently showed commitment to quality work and owner involvement in the restoration process was John Balow's Muscle Car Restorations ...

... John Balow Puts His Low-mileage Super Bird on the Road

... As a follow-up to the no-holds-barred Holley Road Runner, it was determined that we needed a 'real-world head-turner' ...

... Noted artisan John Balow of Muscle Car Restorations in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, was tagged as the point man on the project. ...

... While some may that an original four-speed Road Runner should restored rather modifed Balow considerd that Plymouth built 84,420 of them in '69, nearly half of which were four-speed cars. Beyond that, the Alabama car was a base 383 car, not a Hemi, 440 six-barrel, or convertible, and the oringinal driveline was long gone. As a result, these cars often trickle down untilthey are turned into racecars, crashed, parted out, or saved by a project like this.

This '70 Challenger R/T is REDEFINED EXCELLENCE Challenger

Sublime Challenger

... John Balow's '64 Belvedere was painstakingly restored as a race Hemi. John operates a respected restorations operation (Muscle Car Restorations) in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin ...

Since this project began, John Balow and his staff at Muscle Car Restorations have been rockin' on the Roadrunner ...

So when the dialogue began about what would make up this Roadrunner, it was decided a potent big-block built by Indy Cylinder Head and a complete build-up by John Balow of Muscle Car Restorations would combine the ultimate in performance with the ultimate in aesthetics.

... The car has been meticulously restored by John Balow of Muscle Car Restorations ...

... John took his '63 Max Wedge Plymouth Sport Fury to the Mopar Nationals and won first place in class ...

... John has been a successful business machine merchant for a number of years ...

... Wanting it to be in 'factory-fresh' condition, he called on John Balow of MCR (Muscle Car Restorations) ...

... electro-chemical priming process which ensures that every single nook and cranny of the car is covered with primer prior to painting. This is a Muscle Car Restorations exclusive.

... This better than new restoration was completed in less than six months by John Balow's crew at Muscle Car Restorations ...

... is the realization of a lifelong dream

... went together piece by piece with concours accuracy.

... including the 24K gold leaf lettering ... John and his crew did a truly remarkable job of undoing the various modification made to the car over the years.

... We've seen numerous restoration facilities coast to coast. There are only two that we've seen which approach concours caliber. One is in California and the other is MCR ...

... Bruce Hinrich's '64 Polara 500 takes Best Of Show at the Mopar Nationals ...

Paint-Pourri