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Frank
and Roger have been partners for approximately 15 years in
their parts business and continue to strive to bring the hobby
the most authentic and highest quality parts and services.
Check our site regularly for exciting restoration and detailing
tips as well as our newest quality parts additions.
Frank
Badalson has been involved with Mopar since the late 60’s
and early 70’s, his first car being a 1970 Barracuda,
318, 2-bbl. That was the smallest engine he was destined to
own. His first ride in a hemi came at the hands of longtime
buddy Steve  Sowar
around 72-73. In early 1975 Frank owned his first hemi, a
1971 hemicuda. Over the years Frank
has owned 55 other original performance Mopars, five of which
were original hemicars. Since1973 Frank has amassed a large
volume of technical material, factory literature and bulletins
as well as original photographs which are a valuable reference
source now used in our everyday business.
Frank's restoration business, American Performance, LLC now specializes in restoration services. See our Restoration Services section for details.
Roger
Gibson officially started his business, Roger Gibson Auto
Restoration in November of 1980. Prior to that he worked as
a mechanic at various new car dealerships, diesel truck repair
and managed an independent garage. Roger received his formal
training working as a Porsche mechanic, which he did for 6
years. The philosophy imposed on Roger during that time was
very influential throughout his career. After a normal work
day Roger had another shop where he would work on hot rods
and high performance cars, mostly building motors and doing
custom paint. Roger began buying Corvettes that needed repair
and fixing them for resale. The goal of his repairs was to
do so with such craft that the repair was undetectable. This
ultimately led to the restoration business.
In the early 80’s, Rogers’ primary business was
repair and restoration of Corvettes. He always had high performance
cars (other than Corvettes) of his own at that time, but it
was almost impossible to get paid to restore or rebuild them.
The “muscle car” boom of the late 80’s changed
all that. Roger began restorations of muscle cars for Otis
Chandler. The steady growth of the muscle car market has become
the main focus of his business, which continues today. Currently
Roger does about ten muscle cars for every one Corvette.
Rogers’
early Corvette background helped shape his philosophy used
today in muscle car restoration. Roger was a judge for the
Bloomington Gold Corvette certification throughout the early
90’s. He was responsible for bodies and mechanical as
well as the motor numbers judging on the 66 big block team.
Roger has been a member of NCRS (National Corvette Restorers
Society) since 1981 and he was very involved with this organization
throughout the 80’s and 90’s. Roger helped write
manuals and participated as a judge at regional and national
meets. Roger developed the Level type judging for Mopars that
was used at Carlisle for the Five Star award in the mid 90’s.
The
main focus of his business today is state of the art restoration,
with Mopars being the primary cars. Roger has developed a
worldwide clientele including customers in England, Canada
and all across America.
Rogers’
knowledge, superior craftsmanship and skill as a mechanic
as well as association with long time friend Frank Badalson,
spawned Auto Restoration Parts Supply in 1994. Their goal
was to manufacture high quality reproduction parts and supplies
for 66-71 Mopar restorations.
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