A Conversation Talk with ‘Fury Jim’ Rawa

The Ultimate Car Guy

A conversation with ‘Fury Jim’ Rawa

By Frank Adkins

Photos courtesy Alyssa Rawa

Anewspaper article published in 1992 heralded 13-year-old Jim Rawa as a “mechanical prodigy” for the

restoration work he had done on his mother’s ’71 Chevelle. Although it might seem this was the first hint of what was to come for the young teen, the trajectory of his life had been set into motion years earlier.

“My grandfather and my uncle were both Zenith TV technicians,” Rawa said. “When I was five years old I learned to solder, and I was already fixing radios by taking them apart and replacing the burned out tubes.”

Not long afterward, he memorized the color codes for resistors. While in the third grade, he took a high school -level electronics class. “I read a lot of books and car magazines, including all of the car books in the school library,” he said. “Between kindergarten and fourth grade I built several car models, and I studied their individual components.”

Growing up in northern New Jersey, by fourth grade Rawa thought he would become an architect. “I loved Victorian houses. My mom would drive me around and I would take photos of different houses,” he said. “Then I would draw my own houses taking various features from the houses I had photographed.”

He was as astute in learning home repair as he was in automobiles and electronics. He watched a plumber replace a water heater when he was 10, and he installed his first water heater two years later. He worked for an electrician between eighth and ninth grades. In retrospect, he said, “I learned what mattered. My Grandpa died when I was 10, and after that I was the man of the house. The things I learned included gardening and how to take care of a home. I had already learned to sew before kindergarten.”

Today his skills include carpentry and cabinet making.

Rawa began working on his mother’s Chevelle when he was 11. “I took the carburetor apart to see how it worked. Then I put it back together so she wouldn’t know.”

Around that time, she began taking him to junkyards on weekends. There he bought various components to dissect. In the summer after seventh grade, he retrofitted a four-barrel carburetor and manifold as well as HEI electronic ignition in the Chevelle. Soon he began doing similar upgrades to other people’s cars.

After filing and re-gapping the points for a stranded motorist with an early Thunderbird, young Rawa was inducted into the Asphalt Angels, a local car club that raised money for charities. “They said I had embodied what the club was about. That was a turning point,” he said. “I went from being very introverted to making announcements on stage as a DJ.” A man by the name of James Montelbano, better known as Jimmy Monte, mentored Rawa. “From 13 on, Jimmy was the closest thing to a father I ever had. His son, Russ, is like a little brother to me.” Jimmy Monte also fostered Rawa’s interest in music, including the late ‘50s “doo-wop” genre. Sadly, he passed away in 2004.

One day the swoopy lines of an old car about a mile from his home caught his eye, and he made a point to visit it regularly on his bicycle. Soon he befriended Bob, the owner. The car was a ’57 Plymouth Fury. “It was the most beautiful car I had ever seen,” Rawa said. “Bob is the original owner, and he still has it. I restored it for him years later.”

Another gentleman in his area had a ’57 Ford, and soon Rawa was helping him work on it. This man collected juke boxes, which spurred Rawa’s interest in them. He acquired several of the juke boxes in this man’s collection, some of which he has restored. He has also built a custom unit utilizing parts from others as well as some scratch-built pieces and even some bits of automotive trim.

While making the rounds in his neighborhood on his bicycle, he often left notes on the cars he found appealing, asking the owners to contact him if they would consider selling them. Soon he purchased a ’72 Malibu. “I worked on it from the time I was in eighth grade, and I got it road ready by the time I turned 16.”

He bought his first ’57 Plymouth when he was 16. Six more cars came into his possession before he graduated high school. He bought the Plymouth that eventually became his signature Christine replica while a freshman in college, and he swapped a 440 in place of its original flathead six. “In its first iteration I wanted to replicate the car used in the ‘Suddenly It’s 1960’ Plymouth ad campaign, but after I had painted it white I discovered that the original car had been yellow. After that, I decided to build it as Christine.” The real Christine was an evil red ’58 Plymouth immortalized in the John Carpenter movie, which was based on the Stephen King novel by the same name.

When he was 20, the nephew of the recently deceased owner of a 17,000 mile ’72 Pontiac Luxury Le Mans called him. “He explained that every time someone left a note on the car, his aunt would put it in the glovebox. He went through the notes, and since 15 of those notes were from me, he figured I really wanted it, so he called me first.” Rawa kept this car for a number of years, and eventually it served a significant purpose.

A teenage girl named Alyssa was a regular in the local car scene. As her seventeenth birthday approached, she asked Rawa to help her find a good driver after the ’67 Camaro she had her heart set on was no longer available. Unable to find a solid car in her price range, he offered to sell her his low mileage ’72 Luxury Le Mans for a fair price, and he agreed to paint it the color of her choice.

Alyssa’s father was an antique furniture dealer. Her parents instilled in her an appreciation and knowledge of all things from bygone eras, including cars and being handy. “I like to think of us as historical preservationists,” she said.

She did her own work on the Pontiac over the next 10 years, and she kept in touch with Jim whenever she had questions. The two began dating in 2011, and soon they married and started a family. Their son, James, is eight years old. He talks cars fluently, and he enjoys spending time in the shop working alongside his father as well as on his own projects. Their daughter, Davilee, is five. She enjoys dance and horseback riding as well as spending time in the garage with her dad and brother. Both kids enjoy riding in the old cars and going to shows and cruises with their parents. Recently Alyssa finally acquired a ‘67 Camaro with a V-8 and a rarely seen column-shifted three-speed manual transmission.

Rawa builds his own engines, transmissions, and rear axles in addition to doing body, paint, and interior work. Hundreds of cars have passed through his hands — 394 to be exact. He currently owns 85 vehicles, including eleven ’57-’58 Plymouths and many other ’57-’59 Chrysler “Forward Look” cars. He also owns several ‘50s Fords and Lincolns, a Studebaker Commander, a handful of Ramchargers, and his mother’s ’71 Chevelle. His tastes are varied, though he is widely known as an authority on the Exnerera Plymouths, especially Christine movie cars.

If you see a family of four traveling in a late ‘50s car while dressed in period garb, be sure to say hello. They are great folks and a true car family.

As early as age 13, Jim Rawa was identified as a mechanical prodigy. He’s spent the rest of his life proving that assessment was correct.