Irons Works

Words: Roger Meiners

Living the Mopar® Life the Family Way IRONS WORK

Jack Irons is a third-generation Chrysler employee, a skilled sheet metal fabricator at the axle plant in Detroit—a building that’s been there since 1917. His family hasn’t been around Chrysler quite that long, it just seems like it.

Jack’s grandfather and father both worked for the company. His father, R.L. Irons, worked at Plymouth’s Lynch Road assembly plant in Detroit and then at Dodge Truck. Jack remembers going with his mother to pick his dad up at the plant and watching a non-stop procession of Road Runners and GTXs being driven from the assembly building to the storage lot across the street—tires smoking, as the drivers tried to outdo each other. His wife Lisa’s grandfather and father also worked for Chrysler. Her father put in 43 years as an electrician before he retired. Other family members are or have been employees. It’s probably a no-brainer to figure that the Jack Irons family is Mopar® personified. You would figure right.

Mopar’s David Hakim agrees. “The Mopar passion runs deep with the Irons. They are truly a family that lives the Mopar life. Jack has a supportive wife and two sons who do a tremendous job of representing the Brand.” Hakim adds that their skills, the effort they put forth and their attention to detail is obvious in all they do. Jack does everything on a car build; fabricator, engine builder, painter. “I wish I had 1/10th of their ability,” says Hakim.

But we’re getting ahead of the Jack Irons story. The first automotive-related thing he did was climb on a mini-bike when he was seven years old. By age 15 he was a seasoned racer. That was the year he won the World Mini Cycle Grand Prix title in Valencia, Calif.

He graduated to four-wheeled vehicles as soon as he could get a drivers license. His first Mopar wasn’t a car, though. It was an engine. A 1967 383 out of a ’67 Coronet. It went into his father’s 1937 Oldsmobile, along with a 727 automatic transmission and 8 3/4-inch rear end. The car was christened “Oldpar.” Jack drove it during high school. He still has the car.

It took a while, but in the mid 1970s Jack had his first complete Mopar—a ’68 Charger. He did the usual things to it: paint, custom wheels and exhaust system. Then he got a ’73 Charger, a ’68 Barracuda and a ’71 Challenger before family responsibilities closed in and he took a break from cars while he pursued his working career.

He got back to the Mopar thing later with a 1969 GTX, a ’69 Charger and then a ’69 Plymouth Road Runner.

When we visited Jack’s garage in Ortonville, Mich., we saw a stunning black 1967 GTX with a 500 cid HEMI® in it. The car looked familiar; it was the one on display at this year’s Autorama at Cobo Hall in Detroit. There’s also a feature on it in the May 2008 issue of Mopar Muscle. It belongs to Jack’s son Jack Jr. He and his dad put it together on a rotisserie in the family shop over the last three years. The project actually started in 2000, but there were some pauses for other obligations along the way.

Part of the job involved a custom, adjustable, rear suspension system that Jack is patenting. His company—Irons Works—will manufacture it.

There’s also a yellow Road Runner that belongs to Jeff Harrell in the shop. It has Jack’s stroked Street HEMI powertrain in it, and runs on F70 x 15 vintage whitewalls. It’s a very deceptive piece indeed. It looks bone stock, but it is the first such car to get into the 10s at the drag strip on street tires. The car ran 10.90 at 128.00 mph in 2004 at the Milan, Mich., Dragway, and backed that up the same day with a 10.87 at 131.01 mph. The car runs in the F.A.S.T. class (Factory Appearing, Stock Tire).

Another car in the garage awaits the Irons touch. A 1970 Sox & Martin Super Bird clone belonging to John Pappas.

Jack’s current cars include a 1966 Plymouth Belvedere II with a 273 V8 and A/C. It is a driver, but someday might get some updates, possibly a new HEMI and 5-speed automatic—and modernized suspension, so it goes and handles like a new car.

The Irons collection includes a 1970 Charger Jack bought from the original owner in 1986. It’s a 383 4-speed car. There is also a ’69 GTX bought in 1987 with 12,932 original miles on it and a ’69 1/2 Six Pack lift-off-hood car.

One of the most interesting Irons vehicles is the 1974 Dodge Travco motor home. It has a 440 in it, with headers and dual exhausts. The interior has a Route 66 theme. This beast is well known at the Mopar Nationals.

The family daily drivers include a 1999 Jeep Cherokee Jack drives to work, and a 1997 three-quarter ton Ram diesel 4WD tow vehicle that gets all the cars where they need to go—so Jack can keep all the Irons in the fire.