Air Condition Hot Rod

The Fed Ex truck pulled up on Friday and dropped off two cartons. One is marked: How To A/C Your Hot Rod, and the other bears the label: Guitar Building Basics.

Both of these titles experienced a long gestation period. The Air Conditioning book actually started four years ago. We pushed it back on the schedule more times than I can count, but I knew that Jack Chisenhall, owner of Vintage Air, would eventually get it done. And that once finished, it would be a book that any motor-head could use to better understand and install air conditioning in their street rod, hot rod, classic American ride or pick up truck.

The new How To Air Condition Your Hot Rod book contains so much good technical information and so many photos we had to add 16 pages just to fit it all in.

The second book, our Guitar Building Basics book, carried a Fall of 2009 publication date. As they say however, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. The fall season came and went, with no completed Guitar book. Finally, with a little help from my friends, we finished up all the chapters and sent the whole shebang to the printer.

In typical Wolfgang and ArtKulture fashion, the Guitar book contains a wealth of assembly sequences, and a number of interviews with the individuals who make and assemble the guitars and guitar kits. While at first it might seem that only experienced musicians would have an interest in a project like this, Jerry from Musicmaker’s Kits in Stillwater, Minnesota, explains that a lot of the buyers and builders are woodworkers first and musicians second. “A guy will buy one of our guitar kits,” explains Jerry, “because he’s looking for that next woodworking project. Many are not musicians, but will hand the finished guitar on to a daughter or grandson, who plays music. The instrument then becomes a family heirloom.”

Dreams come in all shapes and sizes. If yours has six strings instead of four wheels, we have just the book you need.

Building Dreams
I like to think that what we do best at Wolfgang and ArtKulture is more than just to help people build cars, or motorcycles – or learn a new skill necessary to build that project. What we really do in a larger sense is help people build their dreams. And dreams are dreams. Some roll on four wheels, some on two, and some don’t have no wheels at all – but they’re someone’s dream just the same.

So keep dreamin’ and we’ll keep making those dreams obtainable.

A few weeks ago I was explaining that one of our goals was to get the next two books: Guitar Building Basics, and How to Air Condition Your Hot Rod, to the printer. Well, we are STILL trying to get those two books finished and off to the printer. I just emailed my contact at the printer, located on the other side of this ever-shrinking planet, and explained that with luck we would ship the files to her on Thursday of this week.

Our first musical instruments book, Guitar Building Basics, is finally off to the printer.

Web Site Improvements

I’m also trying to update the web site for our little sister company/imprint, ArtKulture. Steve, our web guru, did equip the site with its own shopping cart. And customers can now order books from that site without any formal registration process. All that’s necessary is to provide a name, address and current credit card number. The site itself, www.artkulture.com, looks pretty much the same on the surface, but we plan to update the home page in the next couple of weeks - if I can just get those damned books to the printer.

Our new imprint, ArtKulture, is experiencing a much improved web site.

First Ride

The temperatures in Minnesota are finally above freezing. Which means the St. Croix River is at flood stage and the old lift bridge between Stillwater, Minnesota and the shore of Wisconsin, is scheduled to be closed due to high water. If the melting snow brings too much water, it also brings warm weather and roads suited to motorcycle travel. The mornings and evenings are still pretty cool, so rides are a little on the short side, but at least there are motorcycles on the road and the sound of V-twins in the air.

I kept my own first ride pretty short. Just up the highway a few miles with a stop at the local tavern to show off the fact that I was finally riding. Of course no one was there when I stopped so I might just as well have kept riding.

Anyone who remembers the Ice Road story from a few weeks ago will appreciate this photo of the gravel road leading down to the point where the true Ice Road begins (began).

Donnie Smith Show

This weekend is the Donnie Smith show in St. Paul, another sign of spring. I talked our part time helper, Dab Shade, and our super salesman, Rick Thompson, into helping me run the Wolfgang booth all weekend. The booth is a lot of work, but it’s also a nice chance to stand there and talk with old motorcycle friends from both near and far. So if you live anywhere near St. Paul, stop by and say hi. And be sure to check out the assorted Harleys, custom bikes, choppers, and vintage motorcycles.

The Pro Class bikes are positioned in the center of the show hall, the quality of these bikes is simply off the scale.

The Donnie Smith show pretty well fills the main hall at the St. Paul River Center.

This morning finds me crammed into one of those big aluminum tubes with a hundred or more fellow travelers, all trying to escape the Minnesota cold. For me, the trip ends in Mt. Dora, a nice little Florida city roughly half way between Orlando and Daytona. The allure of Mt. Dora is a certain collector of old Triumphs, a number of which I hope to photograph for the 2011 Classic Triumph Calendar. And just up the street so to speak, is the slightly larger city of Deland, home to the J. Wood & Company’s Vintage Bike Auction, held from March 5 to 7.

In addition to the bike shoots, there are a couple of motorcycle people I need to see while I’m here, and of course there are all those biker bars on Main Street. Thoughts of Main Street remind me of the first time I attended Bike Week more years ago than I care to admit. Suffice to say I recall taking arty pics of the rowdy bikers at night with a Nikon camera equipped with Tri-X film (makes me wonder where those prints are?).

Would I rather be on a motorcycle? Yes, but on the other hand, I’d rather attend Bike Week on 4-wheels than not at all.

Who’s Workin?
It seems business owners large and small spend a fair amount of time complaining about their employees. Not me. No, because while I wander the world, Krista is busy processing all those orders that come in off the web site – and probably sipping a chocolate martini at lunch. Hey, as long as the books go out I don’t care.

Our first musical instrument book demonstrates the fact that you can build a very nice acoustic guitar at home.

And Jacki is thrashing away trying to finish two more of our spring books. Book number one is Guitar Assembly Basics, originally intended to be a fall of 2009 book, we finally have the book nearly ready for the printer. Book number two is another long-delayed title, How to Air Condition Your Hot Rod. I’m pleased to say both will be in stock (advance copies) by mid-April.

So order early and order often. Somebody’s got to pay my tab at Lollypops. Not to mention the Vodka bill from the local liquor store.

If you’d rather be cool in your hot rod, than cool on stage with a guitar, we bring you this new how to book.