F1 Shanghai

Formula 1 round 3 in Shanghai this weekend!  Will Brawn GP and Jenson Button win again??  After practice #2 he has the fastest lap... We'll seeee

Not quite as fast, The 5&A DIME / F.I.S.M/Curb Crushers Evo 10...  Also on the same F1 track in Shanghai.  Still can't believe we drove on that track. Thank you Gumball 3000!

Davida

Good helmets and Good ads

Widdling wood

Since i can remember, both of my parents have been amazing at building things.  House extensions, furniture, etc... Whatever it was, they had it covered.  Luckily as a kid, they got me Legos  to possibly carry on some technique.  

In the 8th grade i had Wood shop/Industrial arts.  It was the first time using industrial size machines.  I loved it.  Our main project was to build Co2 cartridge race cars.  They were made of wood with a hole in the back for the cartridge.  Probably the best school projects ever... Especially since we raced them at the end of the year.  

Using the skills learned from life, here is the buck/template for the seat/tail section I'm building.  It'll probably be made of .063" and .090"  3003 Aluminum.

Closer...

The gas tank is getting closer to being done... A LOT more finishing work needed.  

Almost time to start the seat!

Bugs Bunny

Moto GP round 1 this weekend!  Team LCR Honda make things interesting with their title sponsor being Playboy Italy.  

... Just as rad.  Kamen rider! 

Die another day

With race season beginning we've been super busy... Hence the lack of updates.  Although work has been insane,  I got a chance to run my car at Willow Springs Raceway (Thanks to the Sakiokas!).  The trusty  S14  made it through another grueling day at the track.  Didn't get to shoot any "on track" pictures since I was on the track.  Alan, Jeremy and I had a long awaited jam session we've been talking about forever. Hopefully more to come!

On another note we got 2nd with the Cwest/BC racing/Designcraft S2000 in the unlimited class at the redline time attack.

Vee Dub saturday

Went for a cruz with the guys again. Typical late start, broken down vw's and beer. Good Times!
Crazy Bliiy's 59 single cab.
Buda "2 wheel" Deluxe and Kawikas "Freeway Racer"rag top.
Sammy's Vert
Stovers camaro, baby blue, vert, and Tre dogs panel.
Magic Isle sunset.
Time for beers.
Aloha........

Class Act

Good friends over at Lovewright launched a new season once again.   Check out the website www.lovewrightco.com.  you'll be blown away... Some of the best stuff out there.  

Where is Murder City?

... Got to see one of my favorite bands, the Murder City Devils this week. On Monday(2/26) at the glasshouse in Pomona and Wednesday(2/18) at the Fonda in Hollywood.  It was an amazing reunion show and I hope they tour again.  Heres a video... Not sure if its one of the night I was there...  Spencer Moody wore that sweater all 3 So-cal shows.  

Spaced Out...

So to get the 19" rim to fit in the back wasn't as easy as i thought it was gonna be. I had to make some bolt whole spacers/washers and also a hub spacer to push the sprocket away from the rim to get the correct alignment for the chain. It was kind of a headache but came out pretty cool.
This is the chunk of aluminum after a while of turning. That blue can kept me going.
Finally finished, The bolt hole spacer/washers and the sprocket spacer. The spacer is centered to the hub of the rim and on the other side to the sprocket, Some grade 8 bolts and we should be good to go.

bars.

3 styles later i ended up with these. i am not sure it fits the look of the bike but its what im gonna use. the pieces that fit over the fork tubes were took for ever to machine, i think its time for new cutting bits. the bars are made out of 1" 120 wall dom.

Pictures of a thousand words

A few weeks ago I was introduced as a fabricator to a tattoo artist /hot rod guy.  As I dont look like the typical California metal fabricator... He tried to test me.  He said he built all these rad  1920's-1930s cars. Then he asked where, what and who I worked with. Since he was super "hot rod"  I Just told him I had worked at Metalcrafters last year while doing projects with Chip Foose and Mike Alexander of the Alexander bros.  Well, since he wouldn't know or care if i told him about the drift or time attack cars I've built. Of course he thought I was pulling his leg.  I laughed and said I got nothing to prove to him nor anyone.  Maybe next time I wont forget the Layrite pomade or whatever "hotrodders" use. I didn't build any of the cars to follow... However I did have the honor to work with them on other projects.

Line up of legends. Foose P-32 Lincoln, Mike Alexander jr's Camaro and the Alexander Bros. Barracuda.  Two of which are in the Hot Rod Hall of Fame.

Yeah, Lincoln Flathead V12

This car was originally built in 1966 as a Demo car for Plymouth/Chrysler.  It was recently restored at Metalcrafters.

Like i said, legends.  

WRC Spec

Here is one of the Time attack/Superlap Battle cars we're building at Designcraft.  This car (2009 STi)  will be competing in the street and limited classes.  The client ordered a Pro Drive dry carbon WRC spoiler.  Since this is meant for a race car,  the mount for it goes through the rear glass... Or poly carbonate. This car will be competing in street class so the use of polycarbonate windows is illegal... And we couldn't drill the tempered glass  Heres how we did the mounts.  Hand shaped .063" aluminum.  

Some pictures of the rollcage. Again Street class, thus the full interior.

tanked

now that the frame is done i guess next is to work on the tank. gas tanks are not my favorite things to be cutting and welding after my incident a few years ago. i will try to post that later.









cant believe i actually got the bottom cut out in one piece.
bottom cut out and sliced down the middle.
temporarily tacked, not sure i like the look.
looks like it needs to sit lower on the frame to match the lines. i need to find a cool cap for this thing*hint*hint* or maybe i can find a cool buddy to fab me an aluminum tank.

aloha..................................

Archives.... '06??

Still working on the gas tank but in the back of my head, I'm thinking about what comes next... The seat pan/tail section.  Back in '06 Our friend Eddie had a grand opening party/show at his store.  Alyasha and I decided to do a joint project for the show.  We agreed to do a 60's GP bike/Cafe race tail section to our liking.  I did the metal work and Aly did the upholstery and paint.  

Made from flat sheets of .063 3003, One shot paint, 100 mph tape(Mil-spec duct tape) and a Fiberops bag.

Its a good thing Aly did the painting. It hid a lot of the rough metal working... Although we did want the raw unfinished look.

This is the shirt that started it all!  Million thanks goes out to Aly and Fiberops!

Off subject...

Ok ok, This has nothing to do with cars nor motorcycles.  Usually I'll post things that i've made or in the process of making.  Here is another project I'm doing.  Since I love tinkering with things, my girl suggest that I get an old turntable. I thought it would be pefrect to restore and play records on.  As part of my christmas gift, she bought me this Garrard turntable.  Right now I'm in the midst of finding/buying other components. Also, I'm in the works of building a new box/plinth for it.  Like everything else, I'll post pictures as it progresses.  

Full Bore

As I was working on the gas tank, I began to think about what filler cap to use.  When I was doing R&D for a company I used to work for, I came across Full Bore racing.  At first, I actually was interested in their 1/4 turn hex head fasteners.  After going through their site, I found out they sold gas/filler caps and other cool stuff.  So last weekend I went over to pick up a fill cap.  Clean shop with a lot of cool stuff to look at.  I was nice of them to give me a racer discount even though I haven't raced in years.  Possibly going to use one of these on the gas tank... Still keeping an eye out for others though.  

The owner Roy, is a racer himself as he is in the 200mph club. 

More of '08

More projects done in '08.  This one is a drag race Evo IX.  1.625" dia. Chrome-moly drag roll cage with an aluminum I/P.  Tried to get all the radius from the stock door panels to match the dash.  The I/P was fitted with Defi gauges... Tacho, fuel pressure, oil pressure, water temp., exhaust temp.  We did all of the work at Designcraft Fabrication. 

RC171 fuel tank...

Sort of.  Not exactly.  Building an aluminum gas tank for an on going personal project.  A 1961 CB77 superhawk to be exact.  Trying to replicate (with some updates) 1960's Grand Prix motocycles.  Hope to get this project going so I can race in the AHRMA vintage race in April.

Should have made a wooden buck for consistency... But oh well. I think it should be ok.

Forgot to take pictures of building these parts. Wheeled, shrunk, stretched,  radius rolled and welded aluminum. Bottom tunnel- 5052 .090".  Sides- 3003 .063".  I'll try to take more pictures as I go.

-Tanks

UNIV x Pepsi x VaporStudio

A lot of people ask what I (we) do.  Although the main focus is automotive fabrication...  Sometimes I get fun projects such as this bicycle.  Eneri over at VaporStudio (Industrial design firm) contracted me to fabricate 3 of these bicycles.  Thanks to VaporStudio, Pepsi and UNIV for making this happen.  I guess this should be catogorized with the 2008 recap.  

Building off of a 1:1 scale blueprint.