I started writing the newsletter back in 1995 and there were several reasons for doing so. First and foremost was so that I could find enough guys to get a  run of Rebel Machine stripes together. Without the stripes there seemed no point to restoring a Rebel Machine. For the most part, that still holds true for the Red, White and Blue Machines - those that were assigned the stripe kit designation on the driver's door tags and identified as 25A.

Apart from that I knew nothing about how to go about restoring a Machine or what to look for. I'd owned one from 1970 and thought I knew everything about it until it came to repairing the damage I did to it. I needed help and a lot of it. 

The newsletter was not written the way most car magazines write their articles. Those articles after you've read the two best ones by McGraw and Huntington, are all recycled data with very little useful information and the photos weren't much use either because the things you really need to know aren't visible. Like paint markings, tags, labels and so on - all things you need to know about when you're restoring a car.  

The other  thing that was mostly missing was the human interest stories. These cars all have a lot of great stories attached to them, mostly lost to time. But I managed to capture a few in the newsletters and that added to the character and stature of the cars like never before for any make. 

There were lots of discussions and information passed back and forth. It wasn't perfect. I made some mistakes. Sadly, all of the corrections were in the Seventh issue that never got printed (except for two copies).

What's important is that I'm making the newsletters available again and including the SEVENTH ISSUE.

Altogether they're a good read and the most information in print you'll find anywhere about Rebel Machines. Back in the day, most of the guys in the Registry subscribed. But now there are a lot of new people who would find these interesting. If you want a set send me an e-mail with your contact info to gullyfourmyle@gmail.com

Cost is $40 USD plus postage.

When I produced these newsletters, no one anywhere had ever seen a full colour automotive newsletter anywhere for any car as far as I know. This was groundbreaking stuff. The computer programs I used were Corel Draw and Word Perfect. They were light years ahead of Microsoft Word, Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop. But being Canadian, hardly anyone was using these programs except geeks like me who understood the difference between the junk Adobe put out and this.

Even today, Adobe and Microsoft Word have yet to catch up to where Corel Draw and Word Perfect. The problem in the end was that when I produced the seventh newsletter in an advanced form of Corel Draw and Word Perfect, I couldn't find a printing house that could print it. Adobe PDF was not there yet.

That was tragic because it meant the end of the Newsletter.;

But despite that I went on to design and print the first Rebel Machine T Shirts ever. The first pulls are in the photo above. The T shirt was two sided with BC doing his burnout on the back. It was exciting times that wound down over the years as computer software evolved and I couldn't keep up with the changes and the expense.

I still don't have a solution beyond this website so far but in the meantime you can purchase the overruns. I still have a lot left and no one has come along to replace what I've done or add to it. And add to it I certainly will as long as you guys buy stuff now and then to help support it.

I’ve finally worked out a partial solution to continue the newsletters. That was generated by my Facebook pages for Johnny 5 and my trip to Alabama. Those are evolving stories how I’m progressing with my own projects and how my projects are impacting other Machine owners who need stripes and parts or who tell me their stories and allow me to publish them.

There is as far as I know, nothing in written automotive history to rival the stories in these news letters or the new stories I’m writing. At some point I’m going to sell down on the newsletters; probably at car shows. By then, I’ll have transformed them all into a book along with the new stories and sell the entire collection as a single literary entity.

In the meantime, to keep up with what I’m doing currently you can go to my Facebook pages at: REBEL MACHINE: JOHNNY 5 and THE INTERNATIONAL REBEL MACHINE ASSOCIATION.

The stories that are there will change from time to time so they’re up for a time then replaced as new things happen. So you need to check back now and then.