Tuesday, September 27, 2011

stained spruce facia



I have been working on installing the front wood on the bar and finally finished but it looked like a wild west saloon with the untreated spruce standing out like a sore thumb. I bought and returned five or six pints of stain before enlisting the help of wood stain guru and all around good guy Ross Morgan of Morgans Woodshop for some faux treatment consultation. I began with a watered down pail of white kilz paint and rolled that on. I let it dry then watered down a water-based black paint and brushed it on for that 'old' look. Thank you Ross for the direction. I am very happy with the results.

Friday, September 23, 2011

New exterior shot



I have almost completed the spruce exterior and will probably just install the wood around the door and paint the door red. Ross suggested I do a silver "wash" of black and white paint watered way down and rolled onto the wood to mimic the silver color it will turn as it ages. I can't wait that long. I want it silver NOW. I have all of the booths and will go purchase the vinyl for the bottoms that I am missing and some shiny red vinyl for the inside panel on the door.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Seven new HEATHENS videos

While trying to master the video editor, I put together seven new Heathens videos for you to enjoy. It's FAST humor. http://www.youtube.com/user/chmediagroup

Hook Up sign night view and bar wall construction







Here's a photo of the completed sign after Ky installed today. Next is the installation of the spruce facia and front bench fabrication. Mason and I built about half of the bar yesterday. We will build the radius that leads to the other wall tomorrow and possibly the bar top. There's only about 27" between the front and rear beer coolers for the bartender but I guess I don't need much distance to move around back there anyway.

Trike seat fabrication





Here is a photo of the bike with the rear seat structure. Rodney and I put a small grab bar in front of each seat for safety's sake but there isn't much safety for the riders of the Pleasuredome, that's for sure. Tomorrow we mount the headlight and taillight/license plate bracket and make a battery box.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Making a new sign for the bar.



First thing you do is pick a name, measure the panels for the signage, design a panel and take it over to your local sign guy, mine being Sharp Signs in Westminster, CA. Ky at Sharp Signs has fabricated all the signage I have ever designed from the Avalon arrow to the church cross neon to the Charles Todaro Gallery sign and all plastic signage in between. Here they are laying out the panels...

Monday, September 5, 2011

Yokohama trike coming along smoothly.



Rodney and I have been bending up the tubing to mount the rear seats and oil bag and it is looking like a real bike now.

How to buy and build a bar in 60 days.







The Monroe Club was, I am told, the last true dive bar in Huntington Beach, CA. The last owner was running hookers out of it....rumor has it, of course...not a week before I got it. I have known about the bar for the last four years and stopped by weekly to talk to the property owner to check status. In June, the owner mentioned that the lease holder was in arrears thirty days on rent going on sixty. From that day forward I carried six grand in my back pocket and stopped in to the property owners office every morning at opening time. Eviction was begun and the Sheriff was expected to post the eviction at any moment. I could then sign a new lease and get the place. Up until the moment the Sheriff tacks the notice up, the lease holder has the right to pay his back rent and continue his lease.The owner had it on the market for 125k and couldn't come to agreement on price. He then turned his electricity off which constitutes abandonment. He did that on a Tuesday night, I was there on Wednesday morning at 8:30 signing the new lease and twenty minutes later the old lease holder is arguing with my locksmith in front of the bar while holding a check for 11k to pay the back rent and penalties. Too late. Gotcha on a technicality. The new bar is called The Hook Up.

When building a bar, you want to cut costs wherever you can. I have taken to scavenging behind local warehouses for wood. Here we have Mason post load up of the 1" ply, 3/4" ply, built radius corners and moulding I got from behind an abandoned warehouse off of the 405 and Goldenwest. That wood ain't cheap. Mason says it's worth at least 400 bucks if I were to buy it from Lowes. This should build the bar back, bar top and armrest plus the raised dj booth. The last photo shows the giant beams stacked near the pile we pilfered from. Holy crap those were big trees!

1960 Ford Starliner body and paint completed






The galleon is almost completed and it is looking very nice. Maestro, my 125.00 a day bodywork friend and I knocked out the 'to the metal' bodywork job in two weeks of eight hour days. As we worked, I had my friend Tran stitch up a full show interior in white naugahyde covered in diamond stitch pattern, which I am fond of. (see interior of panel truck) I am cloning a car that I had many great memories in...Joe Kennedy's 60 starliner which he called 'The Galleon'. Joe, Pokey and I were coming back from somewhere in Huntington Beach, up Beach Blvd at about Talbert when a car full of women pulled up and told us to pull over. We pull over, they pull over, a couple girls jump out and jump into our car and off we go. We didn't even talk. It just turned into a make out session down Beach Blvd. That happened on Beach and Slater once when I was on my motorcycle. I'm glad Russell witnessed that. That shit only happens in movies.

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