East Providence Welding Co. "Billy the Welder"

When I was 14 years old my Dad told me to do some welding on a 1951 Studebaker, get it set up for a stock car track. I built a roll bar, crash bumpers and exhaust system. Well, I worked on it for a few days. My Dad was impressed with my work and the car owner was even more impressed. Instead of building the run of the mill stock car, this car looked more like a professionally built car. It won several races and was very successful for a couple of years. 

I built several more stock cars and was building a reputation at 16 years old. I got into drag racing and my rep took off. Soon I was doing work on most of the cars that were racing in Southern New England. Such cars as Tasca Ford, King & Marshall, Frank Federicci. 

From 1959 - 1980  - I built Funny cars, Dragsters, Wheel Standers, Stock cars, Sport cars and Street cars or tricked out more than 400 cars - 22 of them were N.H.R.A. National Record Holders. I worked on Jay Leno's 1967 Olds 442 - modified the engine and suspension.  

Back them I didn't have a computer or Aftermarket bolt on stuff. I built everything by hand or went to a junkyard and found something I could adapt.

In the late 60's and 70's, E.P.W. was the place to go to get your car to go faster or get something built that would be competitive from stock cars, drag cars and sport cars. In 1968, with a friend of mine we successfully campaigned a C Sport Racer in Region I to back to back championships. Later we campaigned a 1967 Camaro in Trans Am race -it was the fastest un-sponsored car in the circuit.

I also built motorcycles and custom choppers. One of my customers and I built a twin engine Harley Davidson drag bike which was very competitive.

In the past I met such greats in racing as:

Mario Andretti

Paul Newman

Bob Tasca

Mark Donohue nicknamed "Captain Nice"
Tommy Ivo

Jimmy King

John Healey

Jackie Stewart nicknamed the "Flying Scot"

Steve McQueen

Carroll Shelby
Don Garlits

Bill Jenkins nicknamed "Grumpy" or "The Grump"
and the list goes on...

In 1982-1983, I built and maintained Offshore Race boats that won back to back World Championships under the name "Newport is Sports" out of Newport, Rhode Island.

My wife and I now own a company called OLD IRON AZ LLC. We list cars, trucks, hot rods, classics, muscle cars on www.oldironaz.com website. I am back doing what I love dealing with cars. We connect the Seller with Buyers. We've been doing this for a year now and we are meeting some interesting and very nice people and having fun doing it.

Keep them Rolling!

Bill Abatecola

aka "Billy the Welder" - Widely known as Billy the Welder