General Info

The roots and spirit of our companie ( s ) go back to World War II, when our dad ( Fred ) worked as a toolmaker at Chance-Vought Aircraft building big-bore/torque-heavy Corsairs- the plane that helped ( in no small way ) win the War in the Pacific. His skills in these disciplines, we`re sure, kept him ( through Navy Department Deferments ) home during the war, where he was almost as proud of those warbirds as his family. Our mom didn`t lose him on the beaches of Normandy, but she lost a little bit of him to the addictive effects of horsepower personified in the terrible beauty of those Corsairs. He lived this out in his cars, first a `53 Catalina Custom ( Sinatra had one ), a succession of Bonneville Convertibles, a Grand prix SJ, and three Trans Ams culminating with an `89 Indy Turbo ( 16.5lbs. of BOOST @ 72yrs. OLD !!!! ). After the war he worked in a few machine shops, and in 1962 he was forced out of work due to a bout of Bell`s Palsy ( can`t work on a lathe if you don`t have the ability to close your eye ), but this gave him his dream of starting his own business- F.J. Weidner, Inc We all helped out as kids, Jack started full-time after high school, Randy in `78 after Art School, and three years as a free-lance Illustrator in New York. Dad ran the company from `62-`82 ( when he had the worst of three strokes ), and we have run it from `82 to the present. The business concentrated on machined components and assembly fixtures in support of the Electronics and Automotive Industries. In the early seventies we met Mark Levinson and the thrust of our work has been concentrated in the High-End Audio field. We have done mechanical design and assembly engineering for the aforementioned Mark Levinson Audio Systems, Cello Ltd., Roumanis Recording, Red Rose Music, Sterling Sound ( NYC ), MasterDisk ( NYC ), and most recently Viola audio Labs. Of course, ( as luck would have it ) in 1989 DODGE showed a concept called VIPER....... and boy did that throw an axe handle into the works! An AMERICAN Exotic! "Oh well- they`ll NEVER build THAT!".....OOPS!..... they ARE building it! And that`s not all........the COUPE got built also. The rest is history, we bought a new `94 Roadster.......built some parts for it......got asked "hey- will you build me a set?", and before you know it, the other company ( ZAF ) was making Viper parts. The coupon for the Blue Coupe showed up, and the Weidner kids will HAVE to have one of THOSE too ( it helps to have a kid sister working for an auto group with a Dodge franchise willing to pitch in ), but hey she got to wheel those grumpy Vipers around town..... ( all 100lbs. of her ), and she met a guy with a yellow roadster at a VCA Event.......VIPER WEDDING! Now there are three in the family!