Friday, January 30, 2009

Tech Illustrations

Tech illustrations of various mechanical assemblies remain to be art work in my eyes. I'm sure those of you with board drafting experience can agree and fully understand what it takes to do illustrations like these. Beautiful!

Of COURSE I have to start with the Chrysler FirePower









Thursday, January 29, 2009

It's about the "journey" right?

Some pictures taken more recently from along the way. The road has been smooth in some places and filled with pot holes in others...












Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Some Holley 94's...

I just finished for a friend of mine...


They got me super motivated to finish my 6x2 setup! So, I'm back to work!

Friday, January 23, 2009

Artist - Nate Forsberg

One day on the HAMB I got this message asking if I had any pictures of my Hemi with the 6x2 on it. The guy wanted to draw it for an art contest. I sent him a few pictures and VUALA! He penciled out this totally cool sketch!!

Nate Forsberg is his name and I'm very honored that he wanted to do this drawing! Beautiful job and I believe he won the contest as well. Drawing was auctioned off later and the money went to a good cause.

Thanks Nate!!


I like Holley 94's...

...so you guys are going to see alot about them here.








Thursday, January 22, 2009

British bike guys will like this...

Okay, I added a new website to my list of cool links... Atom Bomb Customs. Clay Rathburn is a super good guy and a RULER for sure! When you get a chance, check out his website and make sure you check out the quality of his work. Good stuff and great lookin' bikes! OH! He's a damn good car builder too!! He needs to put out a 4-wheeler soon! (rib, rib, hint, hint) Adding his link was waaaay overdue!

Click here ---> Atom Bomb Customs



Tuesday, January 20, 2009

How the year begins for the Model A build

So, this is an interesting start to the year for the Model A. Some new tools in the shop to help keep things moving thanks to the Brudnicki brothers, the car needs some headlight stands (already in process and LOOKIN' GOOOOD!), sub floor and body work is taking shape and a HUGE set back with the Hemi that will ultimately "force me" to build an early Hemi that's even BETTER! So all in all, good things are happening despite the setbacks.



















So I found out the "freshly rebuilt" Hemi I picked up had some irresponsible machining done to it. The person who RUINED this block should be hung up by his ears and publicly ridiculed by Hemi historians everywhere. The block was bored out +0.2275! Yes, you read the correctly! It started life as a 331. Read back to earlier posts about the engine and you'll see the wool that was pulled over my eyes.

This just reinforces why I always say "don't buy someone else's projects without expecting to go through them to check for their mistakes!" Perfect example!







How many things can you find wrong with THIS cylinder???!!







Onward and upwards... you guys are going to see a bitchin' early Chrysler Hemi born from this disaster. I'm glad it happened...

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Steve Sellers and Sellers Equipped

Okay, so I'm going to start the year out by giving a shout out to Steve Sellers. Get ready and make sure that you're comfortable, this might get lengthy.

So I've completely deleted and started this four (4) times now. This isn't the easiest topic to write on and stay verbally original. You've read about Steve Sellers in various magazines like "The Rodders Journal and Garage Magazine. So, instead of trying to type up something that will restate everything these magazines have , I'll talk about Steve from my own PERSONAL perspective and tell you a little bit about what he's making these days. I guess there are some people that read this who may not know who he is, so I guess I will give you the abbreviated version so that you actually know what it is I'm talking about.

(Pictures taken by Jay Watson of Jay Watson Photography)
















So who the hell is Steve Sellers, anyway? Some hot rod fabricating master mind? Just some dude with a lot of tattoos? Some alien life-form from the planet Xenon? Or maybe he's just human.... A human with a powerful mind and a steady fabrication hand? I'm leaning towards totally humanoid, actually. Seriously though; who is this guy? Doing a little paraphrasing as well as throwing my own observations in, let's talk about Steve Sellers.

Steve Sellers, was approached at the age of 14 with an opportunity for big and amazing things. Little did he know it would lead him to where he's at now; building hot rods and fabricating like a mad man. At the young age of 34, his hot rod building skills shine through, building everything from sexy custom exhaust systems to bottom up, top shelf hot rods and Kustoms. As mentioned already, his presence has been graced on the pages of several magazines including The Rodders Journal, Garage Magazine and Street Rodder (just to name a few).

Thankful for his journey into hot rodding, it's obvious he has that natural love and passion that comes out in his work. The details, the welds, the lines that flow for miles and tell stories with no ending, the "sure thing" construction of all of his vehicles. This is "the Art of Steve Sellers".

(Since I have not had the privlage of taking pictures of Steve's work, he let me steal some pictures from his collection to post here. )






























Steve has built quite an array of cars; hot rods, full bodied customs, and even some race ready vehicles. no matter what it is the work is right and the vehicles are beautiful.

























Check out Steve's web page here --> Sellers Equipped. Garage Magazine's website also has a fantastic article about Steve. It features more photography by Jay Watson, but also tells a bit about what Steve Sellers has been through to get to where he is at in life, right now. Read it here --> Sellers is Building a Place for Himself It's a great read!

In addition to building cars from the ground up, he has also been hard at work making some awesome cast aluminum parts that are sure to make your Hot Rod or Custom car unique from the other guy's/gal's around town. Everything from fuel blocks and intake manifolds to wheel and brake accessories. Here's some examples of what he's been up to.



































More product pictures are available on his site for you to check out. I will update you as new things come out and will be featuring his products here on my blog for you to check out.

Everyone must be tired of reading by now, but too bad! I'm not done yet! I still haven't even got to the point of what on earth I even started this feature for. I guess I'll get to it then...

As some of you know, I've been building a wacky looking Model A for about the past three years, pretty much continuously. It's required a ton of mental strength as well as making some serious sacrifices in my life. It becomes difficult to do when you don't do it for a living and people often don't understand what the sacrifice is all about. It's more than just building a car, it's about the fabrication of something from start to finish and doing a good job. It's about having a vision and seeing it through. Did you ever just feel like there was just "something you HAD to do"? Something that fate made sure you were going to do one way or another and the time is NOW? Not many people get it and that's okay. I think it's one of those "if you could see inside my head" kind of situations. I guess that pretty much comes with everything related to passionate goals.

So what does that have to do with Steve Sellers, you ask? A lot!

While building a car from the ground up a person tends to be influenced by various aspects and/or details of other builds and builders. I found a lot of what I was looking for in Steve's work. The lines, the quality, and especially the details. After getting to know Steve a little bit I started to realize that there's more to his parts and fabrication than just a "chunk" of metal that looks like the thing he wanted it to be. I think people tend to forget that there's more to just building a car and/or making parts than just a physical outcome for people to see. There literally is blood, sweat and tears. Often there is personal loss and internal conflicts on top of all that. It's like a small personal "war" that a person is/was going through during the fabrication process. The fight to keep the component real and true to what it needs to be in order to look right and work well. Steve's work has reminded me that the outcome of everything we do; rather it be fabricating parts and hot rods or just something like personal day to day goals and/or job; it should all be done to the best of our abilities and in the end it will reflect all that has been poured into it. Knowing this keeps me on track and diverts me from cutting corners. The funny thing is, it also shows me what I'm truly passionate about in life and what I should probably put down and walk away from.

So that's it. That's what I wanted to say to start the new year. Let's just say it's a big "Thank You" to Steve Sellers and all he does. Hopefully some of you can relate and be reminded that it's not just about a journey for the end product it's about the quality of everything we do in life.

Check out Sellers Equipped.

Thanks for reading!