A 46 SCHWINN FOR CHRISTMAS!!

The 46 Schwinn Autocycle has been assembled and was delivered to the customer on Christmas Eve. it was great having this bike done for the Holidays. This was the owners dad's bike and most likley this was a Christmas gift for him so it was neat to see this bike come full circle after almost sixty years. We will be getting the bike back after the new year. It has to have it's carrier rack installed on the rear fender and I'am having an issue with the headlite that i need to get fixed. Shop will be closed from Dec 23-Jan 3, 2012. Then it's on to the next job so stay tuned.

54 Chevy Station Wagon Parts

Just finished machining a tailgate latch for a 54 Chevy station wagon. The originals are made from pot metal and normally pot metal will just turn to dust after 40-50 years and these where no exception. We duplicated what we had with some creative guess work to complete the shape. The new latch is machined from stainless steel and will be polished next.

32 Ford Firewall

We do a lot of joint projects for King Kustoms And Hot Rods. This one was quite a challenge. The job was to replicate the bead detail from a stock 32 Ford firewall into a new custom firewall being built from scratch. Real 32 Ford parts are worth a fortune today so when you get really nice parts it might be a good idea to not chop it up. We made up a set of dies for the bead roller. I started by pressing clay into the stock firewall bead. Then the shape was carefully measured and drawn in AutoCad. Then The shape was plotted every .010 then those numbers are put into a spreadsheet program to give me a chart of the coordinates i need to machine to. We don't have CNC machines here so we have to do complicated shapes this way and i have been thrilled with the results. We machined the dies from 4140 prehard tool steel as we wanted to avoid heat treating costs. you must have a hardened surface to bead roll a surface with four radiuses. 4140 is not easy to machine but we got through it. I just can't believe how good it turned out. check out the finished product in bare metal.

Back to Business

It's been a awhile since we made a post. It's been a busy summer in the shop. Work on the 46 Schwinn is coming to a close. Paint is done and the detail work is just about finished. The paint on these old bikes are very labor intensive to reproduce. The frame is wetsanded in the picture and we are now rubbing it out by hand. Soon we will be assembling.

KING KUSTOM CHOPPER

HERE IS THE CHOPPER THAT THE RISERS GO ON. THE EYE CANDY IS JUST A BONUS.

SPRINGER RISERS

JUST FINISHED THESE RISERS FOR KING KUSTOMS AND HOT RODS. THESE WILL GO ON A BADASS LITTLE CHOPPER FEATURING A SPRINGER FRONT END. SEEMS NO ONE DOES CUSTOM PARTS FOR THESE SPRINGERS SO I GOT THE JOB. THE IDEA WAS TO MAKE THESE LOOK LIKE CASTINGS. THEY ARE MACHINED FROM 7075 ALUMINUM ALL DONE THE OLD FASHIONED WAY(NO CNC) WITH FORM TOOLS AND RADIUS CUTTERS. USING A MILL AND A LATHE ALL THE METAL THAT DIDN'T NEED TO BE THERE WAS MACHINED OFF. ( I WILL HAVE A SERIES OF PROCESS PHOTO'S SOON) THE PIECES WHERE METAL FINISHED WITH A BELT SANDER, DREMEL TOOL AND A D.A SANDER. THEN INTO A VIBARTORY DEBURRING MACHINE. LAYMEN'S TERMS=BIG ROCK TUMBLER. THEN A TRIP TO THE POLISHER. THEY LOOKED GOOD OUT OF THE TUMBLER BUT THE POLISHER REALLY MADE THESE THINGS POP! THE LEG OVER AT KING KUSTOMS AND HOT RODS BUILT THE HANDLE BARS. I 'AM PLANNING ON MARKETING THESE IN RUNS OF 10 BUT THEY WILL BE EXPENSIVE(AROUND $250.00 FOR A SET.) BUT THEY REALLY ARE ONE OF A KIND AS I WON'T BE MAKING THOUSANDS OF THESE.

WORLD OF WHEELS SUCCESS!!

JUST GOT BACK FROM THE WORLD OF WHEELS. GOT A SECOND IN CLASS AND WON "OUTSTANDING IN CLASS" AWARD. I'AM REAL PROUD OF THAT. CHICAGO IS A TOUGH SHOW TO WIN SO IT'S A TESTAMENT TO THE GUY'S THAT WORK ON THIS CAR. THANKS TO ALL OF YOU!!

GOING TO WORLD OF WHEELS IN CHICAGO

MY STATION WAGON WILL BE PART OF A VIP DISPLAY AT WORLD OF WHEELS AT ROSEMONT CONVENTION CENTER ON MARCH 4-6 2011 IN ANTICIPATION OF THE BOOK " AMERICA'S COOLEST STATION WAGONS" BY SCOTT GROSSEN. MY CAR IS FEATURED IN THERE. A REALLY COOL HONOR. WHO EVER THOUGHT OLD STATION WAGONS WOULD BECOME COOL ENOUGH FOR SOMEONE TO PUT OUT A COFFEE TABLE BOOK ABOUT. BOOK SHOULD BE ON THE SHELVES SOMETIME IN THE NEXT FEW MONTHS I WAS TOLD.

BIKE RESTORATION 101

HAVE BEEN GOING FULL TILT ON THIS 46 SCHWINN IN MY SHOP. UNDERGOING FULL RESTORATION. JUST GOT DONE WITH THE HEAD BADGE. FRAME JUST CAME BACK FROM BLASTER. ALL DISASSEMBLED NOW. DONE WITH THE DIRTY WORK. THESE BIKES GET RESTORED LIKE CORVETTES OR MUSCLE CARS. EVERY PIECE NEEDS TO BE SAVED AND RESTORED TO LIKE NEW AND THERE IS A FINE LINE BETWEEN RIGHT AND OVERRESTORED. MORE TO COME