Update... Boss 302 up and running

I can't tell you how awesome it was to see this car with wheels on and all together like it should be. It has taken Paul and his friend Vic over a year to get it all put back together with the numerous modifications that had to be made. They were also being very careful and meticulous I might ad!. Man does it show. This car quite frankly, is the quintessential definition of Bad Ass in relation to muscle cars of those awesome days. Right off the bat, a Naturally Aspirated 400+ horse power 302, 8 point roll cage, 4 speed gear box from the day, classic Ford bullet proof 9 inch rear end plus a ton of goodies to numerous to list here. He had a decent placing for his first time out with the car at Sandia Raceway on the road course pulling up over 5 cars. He's a seasoned Road Course, Vintage and SCCA race car driver. Simply put, Paul has been a gear head and enthusiast since day one and an obvious Ford man. In fact Paul has over 10 books to his credit related to Ford published by larger auto book publishers. This was a dream car for him and so realized.
I was also happy to hear the many compliments about the paint and body work. There were lots of modifications and welding that can be seen in much earlier posts in the blog site. Now seeing it in bright ass sunlight was also a sigh of relief. Proof the paint laid down even as hell. No streaks, blotching, puddles of color, etc....but then again, I don't do that! Still, nice for the validation. It really is a great popping color! This also being a street legal car, puts even more of the "fun" factor on the table and even better for the showing and or showing off! Bryan, my son, who also put numerous hours in to this guy, got the thrill of getting a ride in it. With the cam profile in that engine, was glorious music to his ears. Something about ultra stereo phonic sound of exhausting gasses pumping out the sides of the car, under your ass that you just cant beat. With no carpeting or crap to deaden an otherwise glorious sound, well, you get to hear all the mechanical workings of a tight, smooth working drive train. Did I forget to mention how well this machine handles, it is designed for the track you know! We welded extra support for the shock towers in the front and widened the fender wells to fit the meats now harboring underneath. Professional designed suspension components and installation are the muscle keeping it from ever twisting. The tires showed serious track day wear that Paul could be quite proud of! Nothing like bringing back to life one more classic and keeping it out of the crusher. (As always you can click on the pictures for larger viewing pleasure. Also the mouse icon will have a magnifying glass so that you can click again for even larger viewing)

1976 Honda F-750 Four

Since I don't do much of this any more this was more of a specialty job. Mostly I did this for a friend of mine. This bike is on its way to South Portland Main to Kim (Kimmy to me) Chesterfield. This was a pretty cool gift from her pops Butch. He's our local Coffee shop owner whom without him and his wife's awesome java in the mornings, we'd basically suck for the rest of the day! So we're pretty sure she'll dig this old school classic. It was her choice actually. We found this classic just up the hill from where we all live from someone who was very cool and took good care of it. He parted with it for a very fair price. Hats off to straight shootin no bs people like him. My buddy Bill Kelly put the coon toon (ZZ Top reference) to this Honda and got it running great! He was quite helpful running parts and helping assemble this little dude. Here's a link to learn more about the F model 750 Four http://www.motorcyclespecs.co.za/model/Honda/honda_cb750f_76.htm I was quite pleased with how well it handled actually. Great slight cafe racer look and good breaking with discs on both wheels. Real decent riding position, for me anyway and it flat boogies on down the road! The paint is my usual House of Colors line and the clear is Chroma Clear DuPont. I use the Meteron Grey Metallic for the base with Apple Red Intensifier over that for a more Burgundy red look. The blue scallop is Cobalt blue over Sun Gold Metallic. All under Chroma Clear. The seat was covered by Al Sena whom I've used on most all my motorcycle jobs So far. He's done a great job for a lot less than some others around here. Kim will have plenty of riding time even though this Honda's headed to a much colder climate for the winter. I chose a heavy oil base black for the frame for some extra protection as it also doesn't chip as easily and has more flexibility. Takes a while to cure with better adhesion in some cases.
As usual you may click on the pictures to see them larger. Also to see more paint work and resto's, click on "previous posts" or in the "archive" starting in 06 for many more vehicles located to the right of this post.

Magenta on Radian

This little guy is a Yamaha Radian 600 from 1986. This would be my wife's new ride since selling off her little Suzuki 250, which was a little scary to ride on the freeway. This has a bit more horse power than the 250. Of course we had to make it look decent. This is a House of Kolors Magenta over Saturn Gold Metalic. The Blue tribles are Colbolt Blue also HOK. I buried the tribles in clear to sand out all the ridges with a finish cut and buff. Now we need a little warmer weather. We actually are not fair weather riders!

356 update..

Well this one took a long time to get to this point. Lots of unseen work has gone on as described in the prior posting. This paint was a mix of our own utilizing a BBC Midnight Pearl, with a Dupont Chroma Light Blue, and Black. The layers of clear are the final batch of Duponts 7900S. So it's vibrant without being to bright but soft. The panels came out pretty straight which was nice! The top is back on for the long haul as are the rest of the exterior necessities. Next is to get-er back running with a 12 volt system instead of 6. Electronic ignition instead of points and a single carb for more low end torque. Then off to get the rest of the leather upholstery done. Final pictures will be posted when it gets back from Albert the upholstery guru. As usual, you can click on the pictures to see them large!

356 coming along...

Here's an update to the 356. Finally coming on down the home stretch to a real car again. Here are some pictures of the new top ordered from Street Beat Customs in Arizona. It was an easy install and just required some accurate measuring. The final mounting will come after the paint has been applied. Which should be fairly soon. We will be finishing up some details on the body, a bit more undercarriage work and it should be ready for the dark blue original color. However the paint will be getting a layer of pearl that will help give a little dimension and depth. We have some external engine modifications to get done as it will be going to a single carb, external oil filter, cooler and now with modified distributor for electronic ignition. Next set of pictures should be of it with blue! Smoothing out the body panels and getting rid of some east coast rust has been a majority of the work on this car. New weather stripping all around will also be in order along with new undercoating to help ward of any New Mexico moisture. Which ain't much!

Bonneville Bike

This bike (an 81 Yamaha 550 Seca) I painted to be within the scope of all the rat ride scalloped paint jobs that were quite common. Short of using a flat primer black with red scallops, I opted for the Candy Red House Of Colors with Meteron Red base coat with gobs of clear. I didn't get to crazy with the clear actually. I air brushed shading on the black scallops to add some dimension to them. (sorry had to blotch out some of the system for the web)
This is our experimental bike which runs multi fuel like Diesel, bio fuels, and regular gasoline's. The process for the entire induction system is what were patenting. Our company, now a C-Corp, is a research and development organization for experimenting on different types of efficiency ideas and regenerative electrical energy. Next year we hope to be running this bike again with new modifications and automation. So is our goal anyway.
It was a learning experience trip for sure and was in awe of all the rides there. The mods to this bike are: extended fork rake, exhaust systems to accommodate turbo, steering stabilizer, V-rated tires, modified front fork travel and return, our induction system which has no typical carburetors, 30 tooth rear sprocket from 45, 18 tooth sprocket from 16. In-Tank extraction unit of my own design, boost gauges and other gauges and sending units to measure what the hells happening as you go along! You can read about the experience at www.energyextraction.blogspot.com
On any of the two sites you can click on the picture to view them better.

Old Honda in Blue

The ol' Yeller Honda 1974 750 Four was painted with House of Colors "True Blue". Now Bryans ride, he can be stylin with some of his handy work. Although the bags kind of take away from it a bit, the blue is amazingly bright. Bryan laid down a very heavy pearlized House Of Color favorite. Bikes are fun to paint simply because they're so much smaller than many of the 4x4 trucks we've painted and or even the cars. Not to mention the creative aspects available for bikes. Even though this is an old bike we wanted to keep the retro look with some modern paint appeal. I painted the Candy Tangerine stripe over Smooth Silver metallic and laid it on. I air brushed the top part with black to shade and painted in a solid black line underneath to give it more body.
Keeping the original badges helped to keep the retro look. We contemplated and still may add the Tangerine to the front and rear fenders. But for now we're happy having the new color and the feel it gives the bike. There still is some work to do like the head light cover and a little more wet sanding to knock out a little of the orange peel.

67 Stang...homeward bound

This was ultimately a fun project. There were lots of things we had to do for this car. The list following is not in any particular order, just as I remember some of the things we worked on with this car. Installed windshield, replaced batter box and shelf, repair rust with new metal in fender wells, fixed broken welds, painted engine bay, Fixing rusted rear fenders, replacing frnt lft fender. Zolitone for the trunk, installed new dash and instrument clusters and trim. The seats were reupholstered from Gotcha Covered in Albuquerque. We installed carpet, repainted inside doors, installed new weather stripping all around and for glass and windows, installed panels, repainted rear speaker shelf, installed new stereo and fixed some rust areas in floor pans. Most parts ordered from Dallas Mustangs and Route 66 Mustang in Albuquerque. We repainted and repaired the front grill, there were some slight mechanical issues with a leaky thermostat housing and having to install new rollers for the driver window and rear windows and made sure they all worked. All paint was Dupont BCC, wet sanded and buffed. Saddle brown for the painted stripes. We hope to see this little classic 67 at some of the summer car shows this year. A LOT of time was put into this car not to mention new parts. The owner was off to put new tires and drive it around awhile. Click on pictures for larger images.

The Boss left...

With an awesome day of warm weather we hadn't had in quite awhile, made for a great day to send home the Boss. Pablo, as I call him, now gets the pleasure of getting to install all the components in order to get it on the race track by June or July. All his parts and ducks are in order for complete assembly. Moving the beast on casters was a b*$%h. Hence it took five of us to get it to roll correctly on to the trailer. One thing for sure is the color really pops in the sunlight. When I first bought the paint and looked in the can I didn't have much hope for "pretty" in its future but after looking at it on the car and a few times on my hands, hmm, I was quite impressed. As were the many who popped up the proverbial thumbs up while in transit to it's assembly destination. I miss those days driving my muscle cars and passing many a "thumbs up" along the way. Paul will sure to have his share of the vertical apposing digit passed his direction from the delight of passer bys. This car will be street driven as well as taken to the road course tracks within the neighboring states for sure. I look forward to seeing it with wheels on! Click on photos to enlarge!

70 Boss in Aqua

This is a bit of an update it being the new year and all. The 70 Boss is just about to go home to its owner. The color is way cooler than I thought it would be. In the sun it really pops nicely. To the left, Bryan helps puts a polish on it. Some final pix will be posted here before it leaves. Next you will see it with the decals and without the windows covered. Some photos of the 67 will be up before long. It to will be leaving soon as well. It's in the process of getting a new interior installed and is also getting the final buff. As everyone knows Black is a tough color, but looks cool when done!
We now have a 63 Porsche project. This poor little guy came in with a bit of rust that we had to cut out. It will be getting a lot of new metal before long. The owner plans on it being a keeper and will be using it as a daily driver. It may also be getting a sun roof and of course new paint. We look forward to bringing that one back up to running and looking good. Just a reminder you can click on the photo to get a larger image to get a better look. More pix to come of the 67 as well. If the sun will stay out long enough will get some more of the Boss posted as well.