central coast run

Junko and I drove the 47 up to Atascadaro, CA for Don Coffin's birthday at the Molochs clubhouse. I packed up the panhead and we drove non-stop and made it in six hours at 55-60 mph or so. I had already changed the rear end gears to a Patrick's 3-55 set and put 16" wheels with 650-16 Cokers the day we split. What a change! I went from 47 mph with a screaming whine to 60 mph with no noticeable sound other than my windows rattling and my door handles jiggling off every hour. The bike fit in with inches to spare after leaning the 1/4 seat forward. Junko posted up in the back in a lawn chair and we rolled out. The last grade into Atascadero, the truck kept slipping out of 3rd but mellowed out on the level straights. I guess I need my syncro's synroed. We pulled in at dusk and got the bike out. Don hadn't ever seen it so I got my hands on Keith's new baby and the crew got a good freak-out on the bike. I got a few jack and cokes under my belt and we were off to Don's for elk chili and a solid pass-out on the living room floor. The morning found us back on the road and a stop off in Pismo for breakfast. We pulled off for a short nap on the grass in Seaside and back home. Lot's of fun and Junko held her own again. She's hardcore. The club guys like being around her.

Completed lamp installation

Here are three lamps that were built for Dwellings Interior Design in Costa Mesa last year. This was a fun project. I look forward to building more of these fixtures.

some random photos from week

I saw this great painting at the Long Beach Antique swap last weekend and I'm glad I shot a photo. It has great perspective. There is also a nice shot or two of Hannah, daughter of Jun and Seiko. She was kicking around on the gym and I took a pic. Also a photo proving that she is taller than a vintage 100 watt Marshall head. There is also one of Tran, the apholsterer for the AvalonBar getting set up for our nightly poker game. The 1932 Ford 4 door was taken at the shop this afternoon. Pokey put that car together in a week.

surf wagon

monarch boardtracker

I am not sure what bars these are off of but I have a similar pair on a tandem I restored last year. They look just right now that I put them on the boardtracker. Joe got me a nice pair of chain tires from Long Beach swap so I'm footboards and a seat away from tearing down main street.

panel progress

Here are some photos of the shop where I spend my days at and of the panel with it's newly restored and apholstered two-piece suburban bench seat. I have two openings on the floor under the seat where I need to add plates so I can mount the suburban seat correctly. The seat's mounting bracket drops into this hole. I went to IMS metals in Irvine and spent an hour digging thru the remnant pile and ended up just going up to the front and buying a new sheet of 26 gauge for 67 cents a pound. They wanted to charge me 24 bucks for three cuts on the shear! DAmn! I'll take it to Banzai Machine tomorrow and use his shear. There is a nice view of the recently painted dash also. It looks like I am going to need to remove the head and take it to a guy in Santa Ana who removes broken studs and taps. A drag but it will give me a chance to spice up the engine compartment a bit more. / So the shear was too weak at Banzai so I had to go back to IMS to cut the plate and damn it if it isn't just barely off and a centimeter too big. Figures. That and Rodney has my hand grinder. My template sucked. That will teach me to measure twice before having something cut. The guy at IMS gave me the Saturday price. 3 cuts for 10 bucks! Alright!

partial restoration of panel interior

When I am not fixing up the bar or at the shop working on the 53 Chevrolet truck, I am at home working on the panel. I did up the jams and put in the weather-stripping and painted the interior a bit. Still plugging away but it feels good to get this together. I can't wait to get the seat installed. Tran is upholstering it now.

Monarch Boardtrack project!! Fast and dangerous!!

Here is a photo of the motor in the frame. I'm not too far off now!

Oh man. Now what?

Ah, the delicate touch of Mason Byers has brought me to this low, low place. Here are a few photos of the tap broken off in the head, where not a week ago, the stud got broken off. I'm not sure what else we can stick in there to break off but if anyone has any ideas, i'm up for suggestions.

the panel hit a roadblock.

Damn. I worked on the panel all day, trying to get the exhaust manifold back on but after surfacing the thing, it refused to line up! I called Mason, resident genius and mechanic to lend a hand. After some drilling and banging, he grabbed the big pliers to twist out the stud and sadly, it snapped off way back in the head. Oh man. Not good. We took a few days to consult a psychic and were told to drill it out and run a tap so that's what we are gonna do. Until then, I have been painting and laying weather stripping into the door jams and getting ready to install the restored suburban seat, re-pop floor mat, and headliner. I'm hoping to have the dash and rear door jams painted this weekend. Last photo is of a favorite person at a favorite bar. Local Carpenter Extraordinaire and all around good guy Ross Morgan at the AvalonBar.

47-53 chevrolet suburban front bench seat

Ha! After a long wait and many dead leads, I have scored the seat I wanted for the panel truck. This suburban bench has a small seat on the passenger end that leans forward. I want it so I can roll the panhead in and edge it that much further forward for a perfect fit. Off to the sandblaster and then to Tran for a nice diamond tuck in pleather. I paid 350.00 for the set as seen here. I also scored a set of 16" black steel wheels for the panel. I bought a set from a guy right when we got there for 100.00 with chev script caps and told him I would be back for them in a bit. Offhandedly I said if he could sell them for 200.00 before I got back, we would split the difference. I get back a few hours later and the guy has packed up all his stuff for the night and split. I walked the aisles for two hours because I couldn't figure out which space was his! I finally figured it out and he had left me a note saying "sold your wheels for 140.00. Had to go but will have your 120.00 tomorrow." Seriously? We were not staying the night since it was pretty obvious it was going to pour that night so now what? I went back to our space and Joe had spotted another set of wheels with a couple of useable tires in the north 40 for 100.00 so we hoofed it over and I bought those. I left a note on the guy's note with my phone number. He got a hold of me the next day and promised to send me the money via snail mail. Whatever. The t-shirt on the other hand is the score of the day! It is for a long forgotten band out of Seattle, Washington. I bought 4 shirts. Chris got one, Jun got one, I got one and one is stashed away. All in all not a bad Big 3 this year.

gonz paint detail

church sign has been completed and delivered

Here are photos of the sign I designed for my church/cult. It turned out great but I may go with painted letters next time. I had a mount base made so it could sit in the living room while I wait on an adequate storefront. White neon on both sides with black gloss paint. Made of aluminum. 4' tall by 3 1/2' wide at the arms. 7" by 7" thick.

progress on the 47 chevrolet panel

Here's some photos of the panel. I had a nice sized exhaust leak so I pulled the manifold and found it was warped pretty badly. I had to take it over to Pilar's shop to have him call his machinist to surface the thing. I hit the Truck Shop in Orange for a gasket and 250.00 later, I was ready to re-install the manifold. No dice. The dang thing won't line up. I suspect the amount of material removed has caused the intake inserts to now be too wide. I can't say for sure but I'm going to try again Sunday when we return from the Big Three swap in San Diego. I'm almost ready to build the bed assembly and the guy with the 47 Chevrolet Suburban front two-piece bench seat is one call away from selling.

The 22nd Street Landing

if this is what pre-promotion is like then I can't wait till the real thing...

I have just about healed from my first of two ear surgeries and am starting some new projects and working harder on some old ones. The movie is pushing along slowly. I am hoping to have a 30 minute working edit done in the very near future. I am told it will help me secure a narrator. The first two trailers I put together had only three interviews out of the 20 or so that I have completed. A new edit will give a better overview of the footage compiled. Also, Ryan Bingham won the Golden Globe for best new song on a soundtrack with 'The Weary Kind' from the movie Crazy Heart with Jeff Bridges. I'll be using an early album of his as the soundtrack for my film. I knew he was destined for stardom when he released his first album. They are very talented guys and I look forward to showcasing an earlier album that was as good as anything he puts out now. I made some posters for the film for Sundance 2011 and went out for the weekend of the festival to pre-promote. (a bit premature maybe but I tend to be a bit overenthusiastic when deep into a project) The plan was to put up my posters during the day on Thursday and meet up with Denny back at the airport in the evening for a nice weekend of snowboarding and films. Unfortunately it didn't turn out that way. While I was putting up the last of my posters on the bulletin walls they erect along main street in Park City, a couple of guys came up and started putting up advertising for some computer company over my posters. Not one here and one there covering a corner or two but ten posters stapled up to completely cover all of my posters which I had just taped up. Now I'm cold as hell and have wet feet. It's snowing and I have already had a run in with some other kooks from another non-movie related advertising team so I'm not in the best of moods at this time. So I look over at these guys and they know they just completely covered my stuff and they are laughing to each other so I start tearing all of the posters they put up on my stuff and proceed to tear all of the posters they put up off of the wall, all the while calling them f-ing assholes and other colorful names. One of the guys tries to push me back from the wall and I give him a nice punch in the mouth and he falls back into the gutter snowbank full of filthy black slush. They have a crew close by putting up stuff so these guys start yelling for them, the cops, security and generally trying to get the crowd and passerby riled up against me. I'm about half way up Main Street and I need to get to the bottom and to the Marriott where the shuttle loads up to take people from Park City back to Salt Lake City airport. I grab my carry on roller and my backpack and start walking down. These guys have gone from two to about ten in thirty seconds and they're yelling at me that they're making a citizens arrest, that I need to stop and wait, someone call 911. Generally being total fags about it but since the street is jammed with people, other good citizens get involved and they start yelling and walking behind me. Nobody is touching me but I have about 15 people yelling for the cops ,the pope, and Robert Redford practically as I walk my cold ass three blocks down Main Street. That was a slow-assed three blocks, let me tell you. If they had torches and pitchforks, it would have been perfect. So I get to the Marriott shuttle turnaround and the van is there with some poor bewildered stoner guy holding the passenger door. There is also a lady inside already. Half the crowd is yelling at the van driver to wait for the police and the other half is milling around inside the Marriott trying to get the staff to hold the shuttle. Turns out the shuttle is not Marriott related but more like a cab so I put twenty bucks into the drivers hand and tell him to get us out of here. I can hear the freaking siren in the background and I know I will have no chance explaining myself with this crowd carrying on. I got the vibe that the driver had something to lose if the cops pulled up so he jumped in and literally drove thru some dipshits who were trying to hold the van back by pushing against the front fenders. We were pulling out and the last thing I heard was some lady screaming out "FUCK YOU" at the van as we drove off. I explained as best I could the situation on the ride back to the lady and the driver and then closed my eyes for the next 45 minutes. I wasn't sure if these dummies were going to make some stuff up and tell the cops I pulled a knife out or something so we hit the airport and I beelined it to the counter and switched my flight to 8:45. That's 1 hour away. I'm supposed to meet Denny there at Nine p.m. but I'm too freaked out so I hit the terminal and am on the plane taxiing out as Denny is taxiing up. I try to explain but what do you say? My trip to Sundance was twelve hours in all. Two arguements. One punch. An angry mob. A quick flight out. Great. Nothing ever goes smoothly.