American VI "Aint no grave"

Go out and pick up the last Johnny Cash with Rick Rubin album today. American VI "Aint no grave " is being realised today, on what is Johnny Cash's 78th birthday. I have heard a few of the songs on the satellite radio, and they sound quite good, haunting, and reflective. I'm going out and getting myself a present for Johnny's birthday...

Machine goodies...

Got a pleasant surprise today in the mail box. Matt from Machine sent me a couple of his new shirts. Very nice, thanks Matt! If you haven't checked in on his site before, you owe it to yourself. Matt builds some very nice bikes, and fabs some great parts in Australia. Plus he is a great guy. Take a look....

Big 3...

If your in or around San Diego this weekend (Fri, Sat & Sun) go check out the 44th annual Big 3 auto swap meet at the Qualcomm Stadium. This is a huge, great antique auto swap. I'm so bummed that I can't get down there and sell, the best that I could do was send a box of goodies down in a friends truck. So if you can make it out... have fun. I'm jealous!

I've always loved a twenty nine Ford! Their just so shapely, as this picture clearly illustrates...

What to do with that aging Lexus...

Ok, so I stopped by In-N-Out Burger on the way home tonight. As I pulled into the drive-thru I spotted this totally ridicules Lexus just in front of me in line. I fully expected to see some 18 year old want-to-be gangsters, but to my surprise, the driver was a mid fifty's, pink cardigan wearing, glasses, bun in the hair, housewife looking lady. I was shocked, and now very interested. Now at In-N-Out Burger, when there is a long line in the drive thru, a worker with a key-pad walks up to your car and takes your order. As this lady pulled up, the young man taking orders stared in disbelief, I killed the radio in my truck and stuck my head out of the window, just in time to hear the lady say "do you like my donk"? Yeah it's nice, he said in a completely confused way. ???Now this situation provokes so many questions??? Is this her kids car? Did her husband buy his wife a Lexus at a government run drug car auction? Are they just trying to be youthful and hip? Unfortunately, I don't have any of the answers, but boy-o-boy did I want to ask.

Leather jacket...

Well I guess it's official, I'm now a Rocker Jacket painter. I have never painted a leather jacket before, and I didn't know if the One Shot paint would work, but it does, and quite well. I met these young twin brothers a while back, who have this little shop down in San Luis Obispo, Ca. building cars. The one brother Peter, is always wearing this leather jacket, and wanted me to paint it for him. So here it is, I just finished it. Sort of fun to do, but also a pain at the same time (old leather is not the smoothest surface).

57' Sporty...

This guy that I know in town is taking this 57' first year Sporty down to Long Beach this weekend for the motorcycle swap. It's been in storage for many years, and he is taking it to sell for the owner. It has the look of a true biker special from the 70's-80's. Personally I'm not a huge fan of this bike, but there are some great pieces on it, that I would love to have. The tank is very cool, it needs to be narrowed a bit, but the shape and the way it sits on the frame, look very cool to me. The other very neat part is the ignition (key) magneto, I belive this to be a very rare mag. Don't get me wrong, this is the coolest of the ironheads. But for my money (and the owner wants quite a bit) I prefer this model totaly stock, and dressed out, like the famous Elvis picture bike.

Office pic...

Here's a great picture that I have hanging in my office. I got it at some sucky antiques street fair years ago. It just captures a casual moment in a great time of history. Sometimes, when I've had enough drawing, and sit back to take a break. I look at this random photo, and try to figure it out. It must be in L.A. in the early to mid 50's. The girl in trousers (quite racy) looks like a good time. The 35' Ford looks like a good time. The signs are great! I will never know the real story, and I'm sure these folks are long gone, but this photo remains, and captures my imagination from time to time.

By the way... this guy takes care of whitewalls about as well as I do.

Days gone bye, bye...

While going through a huge stack of old family pictures recently, I found a pic of me (much younger) and my old 67' sometime around 1993 or 94 . Man I rode the crap out of that thing, it was my college commuter (splitting lanes in stopped Bay Area traffic)! It was such a great bike, everything had been gone through, and worked bitchin'. Lately, I have been wishing that I still had this bike, partly from reading the posts from Troy @ chicomoto and the fun he's having with his new 67. I think it's time to pin down another generator shovel, although I would go a bit different direction today, but not by much...

Official Poster...

Now we're talkin'

Dodge Brothers...

While talking to a rancher buddy of mine last week, he mentioned a Model T car sitting in a wash on a rural ranch, that he leases to run cattle on. Now as I have said before, Cowboys for the most part, don't know cars. So this morning, following his directions, I made the trek out. I fully expected to find a rusty Maverick or Pinto station wagon. To my surprise, it was a late teens Dodge Brothers Phaeton. Not a Model T, but not far off. This car is buried in the sand from many years of run-off. But you can see that it is mostly there (body wise) and there are hints of other cars underneath the sand (there looks to be a sedan rear corner sticking out next to a rear door from the car)? I'm sure they are wasted, but I'm still interested is pulling them out. Perhaps the dirt saved the metal? Most probably not, but I've seen weirder. Now I need to get permission from the 80-something year old ranch owner (it's better than getting shot at). I will let you know...

Hewitt Hardware...

Here are a couple of pictures of the finished signs that I lettered for Hewitt Hardware. This was a fun job, replicating the original 1923 font and colors. I'm very pleased with the way the storefront came out.

Happy day for Mr. Owl...

We have all sorts of wildlife on the ranch, from an eagle pair to hawk's to coyote, it goes on and on. Among all of these animals, we have this owl, that hangs out around the house. The funny thing about an owl is, they are very quiet. Most of the day he can be in the tree above your head, or on a barn rafter, and you don't know he's there. But at night it's a different story. An owl can scare the crap out of you. Walking through the yard in the dark, and he will let out a scream, man it's enough to make your heart stop! Well this last week, we noticed that the owl was sitting on the side of our driveway. I got out and took a look at him, he didn't move, and he looked super bummed. I made some calls to Fish and Game and other wildlife rescue shelters, and they all told me to let him alone, and let nature take it's course. Now I'm Ok with that, but to give him a fighting chance, I nudged him off of the road and into the weeds. He sat there for two solid days, not moving, but turning his head all the way around to look at us each time. Until the third day, no owl, he was gone. I thought for sure that the coyote's had a feast, but there were no feathers? That night we got home at about 10, as we drove down the driveway we could see something flying along the pass. side of the truck. I slowed down to see the owl land in the tree just in front of us. He just sat there and looked at us. Trippy! I'm sure that some would think that there is a spiritual interaction that occurred here, and perhaps there was, I'm not sure. But we were just happy to see that Mr. Owl was Ok...

Choices....

Which one to look at, the pretty girl or the pretty motor?

Vintage toolbox...

Striped this toolbox today. It is a cool old toolbox, I wish it was mine to keep, I could use it...

Danny's new wheels...

Danny got some new kidney bean wheels, wrapped them in Hurst slicks on the rear, and skinny fronts. Lookin' good Danny...

Ghosts of Chinatown...

Downtown Ducati's...

Today....

Lettered & striped this 56' Chevy truck today for Mike. The Lone Star logo tied everything together...

Daily inspiration...

Famous Dirt-Tracker...

Today I was called out to the Woodland race car wing at the Estrella War Birds Museum, to do some lettering. The car that I lettered (re-lettered) was a July 1966 Hot Rod magazine cover car. I was asked to re-letter the numbers and lettering, and freshen up the car. This car is quite famous not only as a Hot Rod cover car, but it is the buck that these body's were mass produced off of, for the racing market. This body style is still available today for purchase, and this car is the original. The first race car that I have lettered, that was a cover car before I lettered it (in fact before I was born by 3 years). Very cool, and weird...

V8-60...

Here is the other great motor of the day, as I mentioned in my last post. A full-race Offy/ Eddy Meyer equipped V8-60 powered racer. A true thing of beauty...

1961 championship Indy Car Roadster...

Every time that I get called in to work on a car at the Woodland collection (Estrella Auto Museum), they have something new, and super bitchin'. Today's new car (to them) was a 1961 A.J. Foyt Indy car. The car is insane enough on it's own, with the history, and style. But the motor is over the top. It's running a genuine Offenhauser 255 cubic inch in-line 4, dual overhead cam, fuel injected, methanol burning engine. This is like the Holy Grail of racing motors, or at least one of them (I will post another one next).

Revisited...

I took a ton of pictures of this little Pre Unit at the Roadster show, they all came out blurred so I didn't post them ( it's crazy, because these are the only blurry photo's from the entire day, this bike, the one I wanted pics of the most). It is such a cool bike, perhaps I liked it so much that I rushed to shoot it. The colors are great, the build is timeless. So sorry, but here are some blurry pics of a great bike. That's all I know about it, I don't even know who owns it or who built it. But I know that I like it...