Almost Ready!

Almost ready for paint! Suspension parts will get gloss black and the frame will get epoxy primer and sealer until all the bugs are worked out of the car. Body will also get this treatment when it comes time.

Just a little more elbow grease and it'll be ready!

Thanks to Stuart Torkington!

A buddy of mine, Stuart Torkington, is just an awesome graphics guy! One day out of the blue he just sent me some stuff he was working on and said, "Hey! Check this out and let me know what you think." Jaw on the floor, I saw some "rough" stuff he just "threw together".

I don't know about you guys, but I think the designs rule! Thanks man!

If you guys need an awesome graphics artist, drop him a line. He's got one hell of a portfolio and I intend on doing a full write up on him and some of the work he has done. So look for it this year!

stuart@torkdesign.com.au





I finally got a new header together with Stuart's help. I combined his graphics expertise with a picture I shot of one of my Hemis with the valve cover. Nice to have something new to look at. I was sick of my old header and I'm sure you guys were also. HA!

Springs need love too!

The last month or so, I've been prepping parts for paint. The parts I've been dreading the most are the springs because they're just a mess. The front isn't so bad because it's new from Posies, but the rear is a stock Model A spring with a few extra leaves and the main leaf eyes reversed. I had tons of grease and old paint and even a little bit of CHROME left on it from who knows when! But it all had to come off if paint is going to stick to it.

Also, since the spring is more than 70 years old it really needed to have the bottom surfaces and ends worked on so the springs would slide and not gouge the adjoining leaves. LOTS of work! Should slide REAL nice now!

The front spring before...



The spring leaves AFTER some clean up.



I really hated how the extra support leaves looked (it's a "heavy duty" spring), so I shaped them to resemble the leaves of a stock Model A front spring.





The rear spring leaves after hours of degreasing. Ready for paint strip and surface prep.



Spring leaves a few hours later. Paint and old chrome stripped. LOTS of pitting on the bottom sides, but I guess that will just give the grease a place to sit when put back together, right?? HA!!



Remember the front spring clamping plate that I had cut because the other one was kind of whimpy? (http://scootermcrad.blogspot.com/2010/01/whatchaworks-does-cad-and-cutting.html)



Here's how it looks after hand filing and smoothing.

Trains, Planes, and Automobiles...

Eddie Miller Lakester

This is the coolest thing I've seen in a while! I saw the Eddie Miller Lakester this weekend for the first time. This thing is INCREDIBLE! In fact, it's pretty inspirational from the metal shaping point of view. Been thinking I would like to do a project similar to this one day and I'm thinking this is the key inspirational element right here! AMAZING!

Grand National Roadster Show... just some of the details

A person could spend a month just taking pictures of details on cars at this show and still feel unfulfilled. I only had a day, but I'll take what I can get.

Here's a few for you...

Grand National Roadster Show... just some of the cars

One of if not THE biggest show of the year, in Southern California, is the Grand National Roadster Show. I love this show! It's my all means my favorite. There's a diverse selection of cars to see, something for everyone, and LOTS for myself! Everything from the back yard builder up the the more ridiculous over-built billet-barges you've seen in your life. I appreciate it all, even if it's not all to my liking. Well... okay... some I didn't appreciate, but no need to post it here.

Too many to post, so here's just a random selection of what I saw.