About Johnson's Quality Machine

I (Mike Johnson) was born into an automotive oriented family some forty eight years ago. My grandfather had a Model T back in the day that had an Ardun overhead valve race head on it, that went over a hundred miles an hour. That was a car that was good for forty miles an hour from the factory. My dad grew up in this atmosphere, had several cars over the years that he built that would beat most of his buddies. After he had a family, he couldn't afford to play as much, but all of his friends brought their cars to him to make them fast, so they could play. My dad was always tinkering with his cars well into his sixties, trying to get as much out of them as he could with the money available.

When my brother was ready for a car, my dad gave him a 1963 Chevy Bel Air, ex-police car that was a family car since it was 10 months old. They completely rebuilt the car, including changing the Powerglide to a Muncie 4 speed, and rear end gears to 3:55s. They rebuilt the 327 under the hood, installing a 350 horse 327 cam, an Edelbrock C-3B hi-rise intake, 780 Holley, 11.25 to 1 pistons, port worked heads, and a set of 2 1/2 inch ram style exhaust manifolds with 425 horse 409 mufflers. This combination ran much better than everyone with lighter cars expected, since all they saw were taillights. Every one of them. For years.

When my brother got out of college, he and a friend built a 1955 Chevy Bel Air for the drags and a little street use. There was a '57 Pontiac rear end with a 5.38 Positraction case, Henry's Axles, and a new Borg Warner Super T-10 (special close ratio). My brother bought a 1970 350 LT-1 crate motor (rated 370 HP) from Chevrolet. They disassebled it, balanced it, ported the 2.02/1.60 heads, put in a .550 lift solid lifter cam, and a tunnel ram with a pair of 660 Holley center squirters. That car would pull the front wheels on street tires.

Then it was my turn. My first car was that '63 Bel Air, minus the 4 speed. The Powerglide with stock conveter that was put back in it, wasn't getting it, so I built a Turbo 350 at the local community college auto class and bought a Holeshot 2400 stall converter. That combo "woke up" that 4000 pound monster again.

My next project was the 1969 Plymouth RoadRunner that my dad had bought new in September 1968. I rebuilt the engine and 727 trans at the machine shop I had started working at my sophomore year in high school. The engine received Sealed Power forged pistons, Clevite 77 bearings, Melling high volume oil pump, Cloyes True Roller timing set, Crane cam and lifters, Isky 3/8 pushrods, iron adjustable rockers, and hard chromed rocker shafts. The motor was balanced, and a Holley Street Dominator intake, Carter AFB carb, Accel competition dual point distributor with Accel Super Coil topped the motor off.

That Plymouth started my appreciation of Mopar muscle cars that has continued until today. I still have both of these cars to this day, some 30 years later.

When I was a sophomre in high school, my first job was working for the local engine wizzard, Dennis Baldi. Dennis' shop was the example that started my drive to have a clean, professional shop, striving for continuous perfection. I immediately realized that building performance motors was what I was called to do. I have spent 18 years in automotive machining, working with some of the top minds in the business. I have also spent eight years working in a precision cutting tool machine shop making precision bore reamers and chamber reamers for the gunsmithing trade. Some of the shops using these tools included most of the major firearms manufacturers.

For over three years I have owned my own automotive machine shop, utilizing all of the knowledge and expertise acquired over 26 total years of machinist experience. Johnson's Quality Machine is a clean, well organized shop, where accuracy and quality are priorities. My calling in life is to build hot motors for muscle cars, hot rods, race cars, etc., and anything else that requires skill and attention to detail.