Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Remodeling Of The Shop

In my last blog post, you could see how we worked around the clock on friday. Well this week, we did the same thing! Friday morning, Bill Hines called us and asked if we could help him in the shop. Nobody can say no to legendary Bill, so we went over and lent him a hand.

His Lil' Bat was sitting in his entrance to the shop. This car was so awesome to see in real life!! It is built upon a 1980's chassis, so Bill feels comfortable using it as a daily transportation. 

He is 92 years old, and handling heavy gauge steel plates is no walk in the park for him no more.

Here's Bill helpers.


After we helped Bill, we went to Montebello to pick up a U-joint to Brad's T. On the way home, we stopped by the old Ayala shop, at 4074 East Olympic Boulevard in East LA. The same building was still there, not longer as a car shop, but a travel agency of some sort.


When we returned to the shop, we decided to get rid of all the modern shit, and make a "uniform" inventory, instead of hummer & canary, using what ever you find. 

Bench Building in progress!

Much better, looks like a blast from the past now!

Organized and nice!

Old tin snips from a steel manufacturer in Compton.


Next up was the paint department.


Friday night turned into saturday morning, and we decided to check out the Dean Jeffries Shop auction in North Hollywood at 8am.

We took "Norman" the van just in case.

This is Dean Jeffries shop in North Hollywood. His son Kevin sold the building for 3.5 million dollars, so all the inventory had to go. There were a lot of stuff that was already sold, and the most interesting stuff had been preserved by the family.

There were about 40-50 persons in the beginning. Once the fence opened, they ran in and grabbed all the kool stuff they could find in a hurry!

I was quite sad while being there. A sentimental feeling was in the air.



After the auction, me, Brad and Trace from the Long Beach Renegades went to eat lunch at Dean's favorite cafeteria, "The Old Neighbor". Trace used to take Dean to lunch here each saturday.

We stopped by George at Barris Kustoms, but he was not there.

Working all night really have consequences.. Mr. Sandman strikes at dinner time, there's nothing else you can do beside sleep a little moment.



After a good rest, we continued expanding the work benches! Here's a little time lapse i put together with the Go Pro Camera. Click the play button to see what the Milk Rebels did!

It's so much better to work in a 1940's environment. It's important to keep your workplace nice and comfortable, plus it'll look better in pictures! Doing old time custom work in a genuine 1940/50's shop just feels so more right. Notice the lights, they are from Dean Jeffries.

That old time feeling..

Important to keep the details right. The pinstripe paint is also from Dean Jeffries Collection.



After a good day of work, we went back to Newport Beach to make BBQ. California is so nice at this time of year, perfect temperature, sunshine, cars, ladies, you name it!

We strolled the beachside while waiting for Sonja. 

Nighttime at the village. Life is beautiful!

Sunday, September 8, 2013

Rock Around The Clock!

If you are from Norway and live in Lynwood, which will never happened, you would soon find out that the temperature is not like you are used to. I don't mind it, however working in it is hell. These past few days have been so hot, that we have reached temperatures like 45 celsius in the shop! Believe me, grinding, cutting and welding is not much cozy in such temperature! So me and Brad figured out that we could flip the work schedule upside down! So on friday morning when we came to work, we figured out to stay at the pool all day and relax, so we could work in the nighttime instead.


We brought a shit load of hubcaps that we cleaned and hung up in Sonja's garage!


We organized this place and made it nicer, tried to make it look like an actual garage!


We came back to the shop after a couple of hours sleep. By then, the temperature in the shop was way better! The plan was to replace the rear spring bushings on the T-Bucket! Custom cars/Hot Rods sometimes needs Custom tools!


Them old bushings were hell to replace!


12:46 am, the T-Bucket was done, and we celebrated with cold Monster beverages!


The atmosphere during the nighttime is so peaceful and calm, no cars passing by, people are asleep, and Doris Day on the radio!


And we just had to take it for a test spin! We went down the freeway to the harbor. A really old place, with lots of dirt-roads, old truck, trains and palm trees. It's almost like traveling in a time capsule!


Suddenly, a strange rattle noise appeared! Turned out, the U-joint was totally worn out!


The scenery at the harbor during nighttime was quite kool!


when we returned, we began to installing a set of 1946 Ford front fenders on Dave Chavez' 1947 Mercury


The hood had to be adjusted, important that the gaps are right!


6:40 am. The fenders are mounted!


Around 7am, we hopped in the truck to buy some tools at the Torrance swap meet!


There were tons of tool, everywhere!!


We found some neat old tools, great deal!


Then the heat struck again, and we jumped in the pool, and got a couple of hours sleep.


We woke up fresh and ready to arrange everything for the BBQ! We made the shop shine, cleaned and sweeped! 


A nice bunch of american citizens, having a nice time on a saturday night!


Later on we headed to Viva Mexico to listen to the Richmond Sluts!


The place was jumping!


Even the locals liked it!


Met a bunch of kool people!


The night ended with a boom, literally!


So Gus ended up with a black eye..