6/20/13

BURBANK    MOTO: UNION SHOW '13

BURBANK    MOTO: UNION SHOW '13: Never been prouder of the Panel Beaters CC, especially member, Eddie "Munster." After many hours of organizing, gathering, spon...

BURBANK    MOTO: SUTTON

BURBANK    MOTO: SUTTON: It's great to know that hard work and passion has it's rewards. Not necessarily in monetary terms, although it helps, but in this c...

6/18/13

El Chop and UNION 2013

I am a few weeks late in posting this, but I made it to my car clubs premier gathering, Union, in Los Almos Ca. with my latest project El Chop. Although I started this project almost 13 years ago for a customer/friend, I only recently got it running. Only the chop and El Camino conversion were done when the original owner lost interest in the car and it sat idle in my back yard for years. November 2012 I decided I needed to drive this car to Union and with a lot of help from my club members, success! This car came to me without a motor or transmission and the week before Union I discovered I was missing the hood latch too! That's the reason for the bungee cord.
                                    
I had a motor and transmission from another build that I decided I could use, I had the rims and tires and sometime back I picked up a powerglide rear end with 3.55 gears. This means I can cruze at a respectable speed on the freeway with the original 3 speed trans and torque tube. I had 5 months to pull the body, rebuild, air bag, and paint the chassis, install the motor and trans, re-wire it, and put the body back on. No problem, right?
Obviously there were concessions made due to my deadline and those will be addressed now that to show has come and gone. Like filling that huge hole in the rear fender where the original gas door was, finishing the inside of the "bed" area and about a dozen other things. More custom tricks are in the planning stages so it will be a rolling work in progress for some years to come.
It was very rewarding archiving my goal and driving this into Los Almos Ca after more then a decade of watching deteriorate in my yard. Although I had my doubts, I did not allow myself to quit. When I was tired, I worked on it. When I was not inspired, I worked on it. Too hot, work. Too cold, work. When I just didn't want to work on it, I dragged myself outside and I worked on it.
HUGE thanks Larry, Shaun, Munster, Nobu, Rob, BigE, Travis, My entire car club "Panel Beaters" those that helped me take the body off, then put it back on, then off again, and back on, etc. sorry!
And my long suffering wife, Lorry who recovered the seat and gave me a comfy place to sit.
Thanks Coby Gewertz at Church CHURCHEQUIPPED.COM for the photo, you rock!



                                       No, its not done, Yes, it will get paint, someday.

Cut, Hammer, Weld, RIDE

I need to build a bike








5/13/13

IT LIVES!

Sorry, I have neglected my blog, again.
For weeks I have been wrenching non stop on El Chop trying to make it road worthy and yesterday I reached a milestone, I drove it! This car has been in my possession for over 10 years and in that time its never moved under its own steam, but on 5/12/13 it did. OK, it was only around the block, once, BUT it run. it steers, it goes up and down, and most important it stops!.
UNION, here I come!
It still needs a TON of work, but the light at the end of the tunnel it getting brighter. I just hope thats sunlight I see and not a fright train.

4/6/13

EL CHOP!

                                    Updates here have been few and far between, sorry. I have a reason, this thing.
                                    I am trying to get this road worthy for upcoming Panel Beaters gathering,
                                                                              Union!

                                                                           EL CHOP!




2/11/13

That baby blue 54

Its been a long time since my last post, a vacation, getting sick and trying to build another car can do that. To bring this to life again I'll share a great picture of my old 54 Chevy, The Chubby Chebby. Photo by my very good friend Coby Gewertz of Church magazine. Legg Lake, Ca. show a few years back. An old Lowrider from ELA, I got the car from a co-worker. It had all the extras, visor, door guards and spot lights. It was all removed and sold. I got 1/3 of my original purchase price back selling all the accessories at the Long Beach swap meet. I meet the best bunch of car guys driving this car and was invited to join their club, Panel Beaters, So. Cal. A lot of miles and a lot of fun on the 235-three speed, it had road rash and was getting tired. The car is in pieces now and waits a rebuild. I am collecting parts, replacing the front fenders with a pair of NOS units. And I will trade the 6 cylinder and stick shift in favor for a V8 and auto trans.  It will be a better driver then before, but with the same mild custom flavor.
Heck, it might even be painted the same color! HA!