Evo Roll bar

Local Evo/STI Tuning expert Shaun Dickson brought us his personal evo for a roll bar to go racing this summer!

started with some nice plinth mounts!

 

and a nice wrap around plate for the rear.

 

mainhoop mock up and seat installed

fully TIG welded

 

rear tubes tacked in. First roll bar with 1.75″ tubing.

seat brace installed, cleaned and painted.

the glass sunroof was ditched and to protect the drivers head from sharp objects this aluminum panel was whipped up and installed.

Initially I wanted to make a plug type sunroof filler panel but after we realized the problems with sealing this from the elements we changed our design.

so we wheeled to fit..

sealed it up, buttoned it down, and water tested it!

Our customer out enjoying his car at VIR.

Plastic Surgery

the before… the OEM with the lip attached.

decided to change the side vents to make the car look more agressive.

the backside of the graft before welding. so smooth.

grafting the lip onto the bumper

a test fit to see how we like it.

the bumper in primer. The customer was speachless.

the finished bumper, All Plastic, great fit to car, but with the extra touch.

m3 scca roll bar

before…. snow day in the south!

roll bar bracket for the fire extinguisher.

base plates. this is what keeps the roll bar from going through the floor in a roll over!

the customer came and gave a hand for me bending the main hoop.

seat brackets fabbed and test fit.

seat belt bolt plates. easier to weld before you cut them off the main plate.

fully tig welded!

fire extinguisher bracket

welding in the rear stays.

after untaping from the paint

seat brackets painted

installing the interior!

finished product! sporting a company sticker too!

Jeep Grand Wagoneer

this truck showed up with badly applied vinyl woodgrain and painted over rust on the roof and about 500 other problems.

the hood on the truck was full of fillers and had a horribly applied jelly undercoating on the bottom. with a better hood we repaired the damage with lead

working out all the problems

also added aluminum to a tj jeep gas door to make it fit the body.

great fit!

we also built a defroster vent overlay out of aluminum.

now you see why….

working more on it.

finished… added a full rubber trim around the part to account for the expanding and contracting of the dash pad.

going to be painting some wood grain.

more woodgraining..

finished side panels

the trim installed. lots of holes to fill. I plan this year to build some tooling to fabricate this trim out of aluminum or steel so i could be cut and welded to fit and then held on like typical tri five chevrolet trim. the options could become endless! As it is the trim is a TPO type of plastic and is a pain to deal with.

the trim painted

I liked doing this. fun and tiring.

the roof and hood painted. the bottom of the hood looks just as crisp!

we also refinished the wheels. before… and then blasted..

the backside of the wheels refinished

and the finished wheel

restored the tail lights with candy paint to bring back the red!

the old dash woodgrain

the finished dash woodgrain

lots of detail work on this dash.

redyed the seat belt housings to match the interior and had new webbing stitched in.

built a spare tire rack for under the truck. keep dirty tires away from the white leather.

The finished product.

Aluminum wheel arches

I am working more and more with aluminum. this lighter metal is excellent for bolt on applications and in cases where you do not want to have to paint.

still working on them.

bolted on. the truck still needs to come back for polishing them or brushing.

yellow tinted lights.

Offering an alternative to line-x. with a painted on tint the lights allow more light through and no fraying edges.

For that euro look.

Woodgraining dash parts

the smoothed and ready parts.

very dark woodgrain.

when the light hits it you see the burled wood effect.

Stepping up on our wheel refinishing and repair

The old bent curbed up wheel as it was brought to us.

repairing curb damage..

filed, turned and sandblasted

polishing the lip

painting the wheels

all finished. you can also see the center caps that we filled in the emblem in the middle since these wheels are going on a corvair.

New toys

We bought a new compressor. I get to wire it up in the morning and experience 10hp 3 phase 2 stage air powering the shop!

this is our new Hako 850. I bought it off another car enthusiast who is into electronics. The tool was meant to do computer board work… I have taught myself to quickly weld plastic with it. expanding our range of plastics and learning more and more. Plastics are prominent on todays cars and we want to combine old world methods and modern materials to offer more then what other shops can.

here is a glove box from an early 70s dodge truck. we repaired the crack plastic melted the seam and smoothed the area over with the hako.

and the texture repair… ready for dye in the morning when this is dry!

454SS

before

the bed box removed, blocked and ready for primer.

the rear bumper slicked up, shaved, and frenched.

same with the tail gate

bedliner was sprayed after the truck bed was painted. after this it went to be stored while the front half of the truck was restored.

these bodylines have to go.

tig welding has saved my life….. 😀 such heat control

shelly blocking the old paint

days of block sanding…

more metal work

the bottoms of panels get the same attention

restored the emblems too!

the grill received the same attention to detail.

all the lights were sanded smooth (no letters on them or nibs) and clear coated.

more paintwork on the tailgate

the interior was fully gutted for dying all of the original plastic.

the truck sitting and curing in the sun for a week.

meanwhile we worked on the interior parts.

then the truck was painted

the bed came back from storage

hush mat was installed for a quiet ride

then the interior went back in. with many new things like carpet and headliner

more attention to detail

then the cutting and buffing started on the cab.

along with general assembly

during a trip home to visit my parents my mother helped me with the seats and did the logos on the door inserts I made.

such a nice interior

the customer was very happy with the 3 months of work!

the truck went to a show that weekend and won “best Chevrolet” 😀

and the wife made me pose for a picture!

and a closing shot… such a nice reflection!