06/05/2026
Here's a good little tid bit for us racers.
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1G5rP4mczN/
Ted Dzus Jr., affectionately known as “The Quarter Turn Man,” played a major role in bringing the famous Dzus Fastener from the aircraft industry into the worlds of motorsports and custom automotive performance. The fastener, commonly referred to simply as the “Dzus Fastener,” was originally invented by Ted’s grandfather, William Dzus, a Ukrainian immigrant engineer who worked for an aircraft company on Long Island during the 1930s. Designed to secure aircraft body panels that tended to loosen and rattle during flight, the fastener used a simple but highly effective over-center locking system consisting of a spring wire and button shaft mechanism that locked or released with only a quarter turn.
Following World War II, Army and Navy aircraft mechanics who had become familiar with the fastener’s strength and convenience began adapting it for race cars. One of the earliest recorded uses in motorsports came from the famed Justice Brothers team in California, who installed the fasteners on a Kurtis-Kraft midget race car. As the racing world recognized the value of quickly removable body panels, the Dzus Fastener rapidly became a standard component across many forms of motorsports.
Ted Jr. worked alongside his grandfather and father in the family business during the 1960s, and his passion for high-performance automobiles helped expand the company’s reach far beyond aviation. After Ted Dzus Sr. became president of Dzus Fasteners in 1964 following William’s death, Ted Jr. later assumed leadership of the company in 1982. Under his guidance, the Dzus Fastener became deeply embedded in drag racing culture, especially after racers such as Don Garlits and many others adopted the product. Companies such as Mr. Gasket and Moroso helped market the fasteners to racers and hot rodders everywhere.
Ted Jr. also promoted the fasteners through his own automotive projects, which included drag race cars such as a 1973 Vega, a 1980 Chevette, and a 1955 Chevy, along with custom street rods including a 1951 Mercury and a 1951 Kaiser Henry J. Beyond racing applications, he developed specialized versions of the Dzus Fastener for valve covers, radiator hose clamps, battery mounts, and hood pins.
The innovation did not stop with motorsports. Ted Jr. expanded the technology into the medical field by creating a variation of the fastener used in orthopedic procedures to repair complex long bone fractures. Through decades of innovation and promotion, Ted Dzus Jr. helped turn a simple aircraft component into one of the most recognizable and widely used fastening systems in automotive racing history.
