Thanks to our friends over at the Bowie News for this great article and photo by Barbara Green.
Molding the future- Bowie businessman 'just likes making stuff'
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| Yancy Cordell works with George Barris (center) and Steve Sanderson as they create a customized Dodge Challenger. (Photo by Barbara Green) |
By BARBARA GREEN
I just like making stuff. It started with little cars when I was a kid.
Yancy Cordell has taken that creativity sparked as a child and is turning it into a business spanning drag racers to custom cars with a top designer. Yancy Fabrications began one year ago creating performance products and functional composites; but having his own business is a longtime dream.
The son of Lee and Ruth Cordell, Yancy was born and raised in Bowie. He recalls trying to make all sorts of things as a youngster and later learned from his dad who made his own molds for his concrete business.
Pretty soon, he was making car parts for his vehicle in high school. Cordell went to work at Lockheed and General Dynamics, where he fell into the same thing, making airplane composite parts. At the same time, while living in Decatur in 1991, he began doing kit car parts and kit plane parts part-time. By the late 1990s, he had started making small dragsters for his son, Jonathon, to drive, along with parts for the racer.
It sort of grew by word of mouth from builder to builder,? says Cordell. ?It amazes me how word of mouth works. Now, I have customers in Kansas, San Antonio, California, Houston and Gainesville.Yancy Fabrication produces fiberglass bodies and shells, seats, ducts, scoops and pretty much anything that can be molded out of fiberglass. Just over one year ago, the 41-year-old took a leap of faith, quitting his job to give the business a full-time shot. Along with the fabrication duties, he is working with a race car team, Aaron Tatum Motorsports of Oklahoma City. That was a connection that occurred by happenstance.
Cordell saw a man driving down the highway in Gainesville pulling a new dragster on a trailer. He chased him down and met Joe Monden, who tunes engines on the race team. Cordell began doing some parts and later was asked about working with the team. So he joined them.
Now he has joined with legendary car customizer George Barris and Texas customizer Steve Sanderson for a project to customize a Dodge Challenger in a limited edition.
For more on this story pick up the Sept. 7 edition of the Bowie News or become an e-subscriber.
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