In case you havent heard lil john buttera has passed away

[Dave]

John passed away this morning..
Another real builder gone..
RIP
Dave

[kb426]

Been a bad week for car guys. :cry:

[enjenjo]

Another one of my heros gone. :cry:

[chimp koose]

Truly one of those craftsmen I wish I could have met in person.I think part of why I became a machinist was because of some of his magazine featured work. Lil John didn't put cars together ,he built them.Many of the cars he has built I would refer to as timeless works of automotive art. I saw a feature in a magazine a couple of years ago that featured a 26T sedan that he built in the '70's . I remembered the car well, as I used to study the feature on that same car in a mid '70's street rodder magazine as a kid.The sedan was featured ,essentially unchanged ,in this last magazine article. Truly a tribute to a timeless style .I  greatly respected this man's work . We have lost a legend,may he rest in peace.

[GPster]

I particularly liked him. He always showed the idea of function leading to form and style was the result of that. He always seemed to be a man behind the scenes. I certainly can understand why. I can recall seeing him on a "Monster Garage" show (I think it might have been the one where Jesse was going to race Richard Petty on snow-mobiles). He was on the show as a technical advisor. John told Jesse (the show's star) that all the horsepower wasn't going to get him anywhere without traction. John was right and Jesse failed again on his own show. Of coarse values change. I can remember when Butterra was a Technical Writer for "Hot Rod" magazine and did an article on athe proper way to use hole saws. I learned something there but I must have been wrong because Jimmy Shine was giving the flegeling builder from Ohio a hard time for using a hole saw. He said it took too long. He then demonstrated how you could cut it apart with the bandsaw, cut a radius with a flat blade,weld it back together and then dress all the edges with a file. A time saver. I'll miss his influenceevan when somebody else puts their name on it. GPster

[kb426]

John built funny cars, Indy cars, hot rods, weird stuff just because he could. He was one of those talented guys that God gives the extra to.

[jaybee]

The guy was a brilliant builder and it was nice that a whole bunch of people who might not remember him were introduced to his work through the track roadster that was in the magazines last year.  Another Buttera masterpiece.  He was instrumental to the street rod resurgence of the 70s and will be missed.

[57larry]

saw John really wasted at street rod nats in Columbus, ohio in the 80's