Bamfster's Chevelle, the History & Coming Attractions ...

[Bamfster]

Well I figure its about time I tell everyone about my Chevelle, the car that started Bamfster's legacy...

I found the chevelle down in Parker Colorado (it was a small town about 30 miles from Denver back then) my senior year (1986) of high school. It was pretty much a basket case when I brought it home, and I think I paid $600 for it. It did have a fresh white laquer paint job on it when I bought it. The drivetrain consisted of a small block, M21 trans and a 10 bolt rear, but it was rough.



It had sat in a field for several years with broken out windows and several bullet holes, some of which are still visible inside the trunk. It was originally light metallic champagne green with matching interior that was rotted from sitting for a few years with no windows.

During high school I worked at a full service gas station along with dam near every one of my friends. Somehow we all ended up with some type of "BAMF" on our personalized plates, I had 1-BAMF:



Then we found this little guy at The Cheyenne Frontier Days, and he became known as a Bamfster. We all had one sitting either on the dash or in the backwindow. This one has traveled every mile and every trip down the 1320 with me since that day.



Unfortunately I have lost contact with all the guys from back in the day that called themselves "The Bamfsters".

DF's article in Dec '09 Hot Rod about the Crusher Camaro got me thinking somewhat nostalgic, so I'll update the thread as I find old pics and get them scanned in. Ultimately I'll get to present day and show whats next for Bamfster's Chevelle.

At least now everyone knows the origin of "Bamfster".

[Monster]

Re: Bamfster's Chevelle, the History & Coming Attractions ...

Cool story Dan, thanks for sharing it with us.
I always wondered where Bamfster came from, but was afraid to ask !!
:D

[ksj1]

Re: Bamfster's Chevelle, the History & Coming Attractions ...

X2 ;D

[tiresmoke!]

Re: Bamfster's Chevelle, the History & Coming Attractions ...

The first 4 letters are self-explanatory...LOL

I fiond the backstory to project cars/treasured rides just as interesting as the lowdown on the builds......

[mlcraven]

Re: Bamfster's Chevelle, the History & Coming Attractions ...

The first 4 letters are self-explanatory...LOL

I fiond the backstory to project cars/treasured rides just as interesting as the lowdown on the builds......

X2...looking forward to the next installment.

[Bamfster]

Re: Bamfster's Chevelle, the History & Coming Attractions ...

So with that small block of unknown origins (turned out it was just a mid 70s smog 350) I drove it everywhere and got my fet wet at bracket racing. I did swap in a 12 bolt out of a 71 SS that had 3.36 gears (same housing that's in it now) and I was running 16 second ETs with the 4 spd. There was no consistency running on BFG T/A radials.

Here are a few shots from the summer of '86:



Notice the Lakewood ladder bars hanging under there:



This was in the summer of 1986, after I had graduated. I had a job at a full service garage and cruising in Denver was in full swing. Take a look at the October 2009 issue of Hot Rod, Rob Kinnan talks about cruising Colfax in Denver, in his starting line column.

[jays67]

Re: Bamfster's Chevelle, the History & Coming Attractions ...

cool car cool story's keep them coming

[Monster]

Re: Bamfster's Chevelle, the History & Coming Attractions ...

I noticed the cool personalized license plates !!
;D

[Bamfster]

Re: Bamfster's Chevelle, the History & Coming Attractions ...

When I switched over to collector plates I had to give it up, but I hear that recently they started allowing personalized collector plates in colorado.....hmmmm

[Monster]

Re: Bamfster's Chevelle, the History & Coming Attractions ...

Dan, sounds like some new personalized collector plates are in order.
;)

The first 4 letters are self-explanatory...

They are ?
I wasn't so sure, so I looked it up on Wikipedia and here is what I found;

Bamf (originally Bampf) (pronounced /ˈb?mf/) is a term from the Marvel Comics Universe.
"Bamf" in the Marvel Universe relates to the X-Men character Nightcrawler and the resulting sound he makes when he teleports.
The sound is caused by air rushing into the space where Nightcrawler's body once was.
It has been borrowed as a teleport sound by fans and a generic term for teleporting in general ("...and then he bamfed out...").

"Bamfs" are also small, super deformed versions of Nightcrawler (even wearing similar clothes to his classic costume) and various other characters have been shown owning Bamf dolls. It is unknown if Nightcrawler makes the dolls himself, if he employs someone else to make them for him, or if some outside source makes them and he merely purchases them.

Later, Nightcrawler discovers that female Bamfs don't look the same as male bamfs, they are taller and look very much like female versions of Nightcrawler himself.

[Monster]

Re: Bamfster's Chevelle, the History & Coming Attractions ...

Ahhhh Soooooo said the blind man !
A little more digging brought forth the acronym BAMF which stands for ...

Bad-Ass Mother F@#*er
:o

Now common slang and a St. Louis based ska band.

[Bamfster]

Re: Bamfster's Chevelle, the History & Coming Attractions ...

Steve you are the king...I never knew any of that....I always thought it was just Bad a$$ mother F.....

[Bamfster]

Re: Bamfster's Chevelle, the History & Coming Attractions ...

.....continuing,

With this smog motor in it and running in the 16's, it was enough to break the M21. I'm sure side steppin' the clutch north of 5 grand didn't help either. So in went a super T10, after about a month, the output shaft broke (it's still floating around the basement somewhere). At this point I was really getting into the bracket race thing, money was tight so I opted for a TH400 trans/10" convertor combo. The car actually settled down and ran consistent 16.20s, with and old Marvin Miller nitrous kit, 14.0's were the norm. Thinking back, I think it was in the top three fastest cars at my high school. Nobody would race me since I had nitrous....it was kinda funny.

In the spring of '87 I decided to upgrade the top end for a little more power. A local machine shop rebuilt a set of 461 heads with a mild port job and I added a Sig Erson TQ40 cam (remember Super Shops?), performer intake and 3310 holley. For some reason one of the valves decided to break at the stem and it resulted in this:




It cracked the block and head basically destoying the engine....oh well....

[SpiderGearsMan]

Re: Bamfster's Chevelle, the History & Coming Attractions ...

in my town you would have had to back up those claims on your license plate !!
they used to initiate tattoos , leather jackets etc hahahaah

neat car and it is nice when people can hang on to tradition

[Bamfster]

Re: Bamfster's Chevelle, the History & Coming Attractions ...

When that 350 expired I decided to build a more stout small block. Back in the 80s, stroked small blocks were still kind of exotic, so I opted for a standard 350. We went .030 over, forged flat tops, cast crank rebuilt rods and a set of mildly ported 461 castings for heads.





Believe it or not, this is the same shortblock and heads that now power my camaro....

This combo was good for 14.00s to 14.20s all day long. I was still driving the car to the track, switching to the slicks and changing back before the drive home. As you can see in the pics, a brand new NOS cheater system replaced the old Marvin Miller kit. The best run with nitrous was now an 11.67. Not bad for 1986......