I found this at a flea market this morning. The guy selling it didn't know who drove the car and whose signature it was. We talked him down to $15 from $20. We knew who signed it and whose car it was and told him. He still sold it to us for $15. You be the judge! The signature is a near perfect match for authentic autographs of this driver and the paint matches his Spree car #45. I just haven't been able to tell what series it is from yet: ASA, ARCA, etc. (UPDATE: Shouldn't be an ARCA car because it has GOODYEAR above the fender well, not Hoosiers...possibly a Busch grand National car???)

There is some writing on the piece that says something that ends in "...TA Crash" with "99" under it (wording before TA is missing due to chipped paint, but I am guessing that was the location/name of the race). It also says "Brain Damage" in paraenthesis which I am told possibly refers to the fact that the motor may have been damaged beyond repair (not sure if this is true or not). Here's the pics and lmk what you think:

front lt quarter panel with seam for hood and holes for attaching front clip

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y69/dsturmjr/My%20other%20racing%20PC/Adam%20Petty%20auto%20sm/S4200089.jpg


Autograph on piece...the one and only ADAM PETTY #45


http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y69/dsturmjr/My%20other%20racing%20PC/Adam%20Petty%20auto%20sm/S4200085.jpg

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y69/dsturmjr/My%20other%20racing%20PC/Adam%20Petty%20auto%20sm/S4200092.jpg

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y69/dsturmjr/My%20other%20racing%20PC/Adam%20Petty%20auto%20sm/S4200101.jpg

Example of similar car paint scheme I think SM came from:

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y69/dsturmjr/My%20other%20racing%20PC/Adam%20Petty%20auto%20sm/45sceme.jpg

Wow, thats pretty awesome! Congrats! :)

Ashley

WOW......... VERY Sweet

I was skeptical about the piece, but figured I could take a $15 chance. The auto is pretty close to perfect and I'm not too sure someone could replicate it that well on sheet metal with black market. It's faded as expected with something that's been signed probably 9-10 yrs ago and has been out in the elements. The paint matches the Spree scheme, but I haven't found a pic of one of his cars that the stickers match exactly so I'm not sure if it's ASA, ARCA, Busch Series, etc. If anyone can shed some light on this, plmk.

The only picture I could find that looks even a bit like your's is this one which would be the 1999 Busch car. But like you said, not all of the stickers match up.

http://www.jayski.com/schemes/99bgn/45bgn99.jpg

And then I found this one from 2000. The stickers match up pretty good but I dont see any yellow above the orangish color.

http://www.jayski.com/schemes/2000bgn/45sprint-side.jpg
Ashley

That's what's getting me...there is no yellow paint on my piece near the stickers. The paint is bright orange throughout most of the piece except for where it starts tapering over on the top where the hood would be. The cars pictured both have the yellow vertical curved paint design aft of the fender well and I haven't found one that doesn't have the yellow yet

Im gonna guess it's ARCA or ASA. I recall Adam winning some kind of race that wasnt NASCAR and the paint scheme was almost identical to the SPREE car. With the TA on the end of the writing im gonna guess Atlanta, with brain damage being a reference to hitting the wall or another car or something.

He did race in a Busch race in Atlanta on March 13, 1999 in the Chevy Spree car. He finished 34th due to an accident in the Busch race...sounds promising. He did not drive in the ARCA race on March 12.

and also remember that sometimes diecast and publicity type photos dont always have the stickers where they end up on the actual car...I feel like you might have yourself the March 99 Busch race fender

niiice pickup...but hey if anything goes wrong its not like you spent $100...$15 aint gonna kill ya! :) -Mike!

Wow! That's VERY nice! Congrats!

Thanks for sharing!

Darin

I'm 99.9% certain this is a Busch car piece now. The Good Year above the fender well is a hint. His ARCA car had Hoosier above the fender well. The paint matches his ARCA colors and you can see the bright orange does extend to where the stickers are, but the "GoodYear" is making me lean towards it being a Busch car. The purple on the hood of the ARCA car is also further towards the middle. My piece shows the purple along the edge of nearly over 50% of the piece above the fender well. The ARCA car is mostly orange-red above the fender well

http://www.teamterrier.com/RacePics/05NC/NC507-pp.jpg (http://www.teamterrier.com/RacePics/05NC/NC507.jpg)

I still haven't found any pictures of a car of his that would exactly match the sheet metal I have. There's not many old photos of his cars out there.

Howdy, SWEEEEET,i hope its a real auto... !! Do they authenticate sheet metal, hehehehehe

Tyrant

That is pretty cool
Sounds like it might be the March 99 Atlanta Busch fender

bet if you talk nice to Alex..he can find the picture...

Excellent pickup Don!! Can`t beat the price also! That`s a sweet addition to your collection for sure. Congrats on gettin it! Thanks for sharin the pic also.

Tom

Awesome deal, congrats, hope you have a place to keep it.

I'm assuming you mean Alex Barber??? If so, do you have a current email address for him or a way I can send him this link to see if he might be able to help me out with narrowing down whether or not this sheet metal is legitimately an Adam Petty piece?

Thanks for any help Pimp
Don

bet if you talk nice to Alex..he can find the picture...

will send a pm with his e-mail....

why does it say "fatal crash, brain damage" its not the same scheme he crashed in
http://cache.viewimages.com/xc/1467101.jpg?v=1&c=ViewImages&k=2&d=17A4AD9FDB9CF1939057D9939C83F1067B1BE37BDE228A38 5A5397277B4DC33E

It says "...TA/ 99 CRASH (Brain Damaged). The car you are referring to is the SPRINT car he died in at New Hampshire. In Alanta, he raced the "SPREE" candy paint scheme in th Busch race. I'm not sure what "Brain Damaged" means, but someone mentioned it might be that the engine or something else was unrepairable after the car was wrecked

why does it say "fatal crash, brain damage" its not the same scheme he crashed in
http://cache.viewimages.com/xc/1467101.jpg?v=1&c=ViewImages&k=2&d=17A4AD9FDB9CF1939057D9939C83F1067B1BE37BDE228A38 5A5397277B4DC33E

I still say the "brain damage" remark was in reference to a driver error that caused the wreck...just my take

Throwing this back out for more info. I still don't know what car this came off of. Anyone have any other ideas/opinions? Anyone know what something like this might be actually worth if I get it authenticated somehow??

Brain damage must mean engine problem as that is the brain of the car. Although the brain could be the driver too....IDK.

Opening this back to see if any new members might have any insight on whether or not this sheetmetal came from an Adam Petty car...I still have no definitive proof on what car this came from. Thanks for any info

could have possibly come from a show car, not all the stickers are in the same place because they dont have to be mandated by Nascar, it's just a guess though. AMAZING pickup BTW his stuff is SOOOOOOO hard to come across!! Just for haha's did you contact the Petty Museum? They might be able to help you out.

Here's my best guess.....

It says TA CRASH 99. Now obviously looking at the piece, there was more to that word than just "TA."

The only racetrack that would fit would be AtlanTA. And if you go back, sure enough, he wrecked in the 99 Atlanta Busch race, driving the Spree car which has that same paint scheme.

So yea, like others have said.....most likely what it was from.

http://www.racing-reference.info/race?id=1999-04&series=B

That is a very cool item!!!