Wallingford, CT
October 2012
Pictures & Story By: Al Liebmann
When it comes to T-Buckets & Fluid Transfer Hoses no one knows better than Jim Wilkos and COOL-FLEX & WINTEC. Jim has been around Hot Rods since he was young. His first car was a 1969 Camaro and he still has it!
Jim started working at Total Performance in 1992. He was brought on as a sales guy, but also worked his way through the shop in every department to learn first hand how things were done. His first involvement almost from day 1 was building the pink Lady Luck flat head powered T-Bucket that was featured in many publications. Over the years they sold thousands of kits and was involved in 100’s of builds. Jim worked his way up to the Cool-Flex product manager and traveled all over the country doing trade shows for Total Performance/Cool-Flex …NSRA, GoodGuys, SEMA.
In 1996 COOL- FLEX used his car as a marketing tool and was known as “The Cool-Flex Camaro”, one of the first full air ride suspension cars. Over the years he became Vice President of Operations and was involved with every aspect of the business until he purchased the company.
A short time later other products were being made in addition to the well known radiator hoses to Cool-Flex Motorsports. In 2009 the next move was to continue in the area of expertise of 1923 – 1934 Ford chassis/body/suspension products and created a new division “Wintec Fabrication. Wintec offers products for 1923-1934 Ford projects and cater to the first time car builder.
You have questions? We have answers. Now with 2 decades of experience we can help get you from dream to reality.
The next challenge was to create a stand alone product that would be unique to Wintec Fabrication. Having his deep roots in the T-Bucket market he decided to give people what that have requested for years. More room in a T-Bucket! Now you can build an inexpensive, easy to build, fun hot rod that you can actually fit in. With room for 4 or room for chairs & cooler. This is the “Wintec Roadster” T-Tub. The Right Coast Association giveaway car for 2013 at the Syracuse Nationals will be a Wintec Roadster .
Check them out @ www.coolflex.com www.wintecfabrication.com and a fan site on Facebook www.facebook.com/wintecfab. If you are in the area check out their retail store conveniently located on the main drag (RT 5) right in the center of town ..
Wintec posts often with new products, special offers, and even their customer’s cars when they come to visit. WINTEC & COOL-FLEX … MADE IN THE USA
