Sheet Metal Fabrication

Saturday afternoon found me standing alongside a big tent where Jon Kosmoski, author of two Wolfgang paint books, did a totally kick ass demonstration on the basics of custom painting.

The occasion was the annual Wings and Wheels one-day car show and book sale in Osceola, Wisconsin (wings because there’s an air show as well) sponsored by Motorbooks, the company who published my first book twenty years ago. Despite the fact that Motorbooks is now part of a bigger company, and has moved out of their original building in Osceola, the party must go on.

Jon Kos as he’s known locally, doesn’t know the meaning of the word “retirement.” Instead of resting on his laurels after selling his company to Valspar some years ago, Jon just stepped it up a notch. Today he divides his time between doing seminars for Valspar and working seven days a week on his current project – a ’34 Ford in this case.

Jon Kosmoski, doing what he does best - share his passion for custom painting.

The best thing about Jon’s demonstration wasn’t the paint information or the diagrams on the big sheet of paper. The best thing about Jon, is his passion. His presentation was great because when he says “there’s nothing better than the satisfaction you get from taking something that’s ugly and making it beautiful” you absolutely know Jon believes that deep in his heart.

Jon is so good in front of a crowd I always think his second career choice could have been theater.

Sunday morning found me listening to another passionate man, another who could probably retire if he weren’t having a pretty good time doing what he does. Ron Covell travels the world teaching others how to take flat steel or aluminum and form a series of complex curves that just happen to match the fender lines on an old Ford or an early Indy racer.

Ron Covell, a man with two skills, fabrication and teaching.

Ron started out making bodies for race cars, today he spends most of his time teaching others how to do what he does so well. Watching Ron from the back of the room as he works to communicate with each student the principles of sheet metal fabrication, is to watch a man doing what he was meant to do. His approach is patient and carefully metered, but without any hesitation. Ron knows what the students need to take home with them, and he knows how best to convey those principles.

By Monday morning I was back at work, trying to make a dollar, and keep part of that dollar in the checkbook after everyone else is paid. It often seems that there will never be enough money in that account for that dream we all carry in our heads – retirement. After watching Jon and Ron at work though, that idea doesn’t seem so bad. In fact, I’m starting to believe that the key to not only a long life, but a happy life, is to find something you’re passionate about and do that – to the very, very best of your ability. I’ve been wrong all this time, it’s not about the money.

Ron demonstrating the finer points of hammer and dolly work.

Our customers often buy more than one book on a particular topic. Two paint books or two Chopper books or a bike-building book along with a motorcycle Wiring book. We’ve decided to make that selection easier by offering the two most recent sheet metal fabrication books at a discount. If you buy the new Rob Roehl book, Sheet Metal Fabrication Basics, with the earlier Advanced Sheet Metal Fabrication book, you can save ten bucks. The price for the two books combined is $39.95 instead of $49.90 if you bought them both at full price. Shipping remains $5.50 for the entire order. The two books are listed together on the Books part of our web site, so check it out. Even if you already have one of the books, the combination makes it easy to use the other book as a gift to a worthy friend.

New Books
In the new books department we offer you How to Paint Tractors & Trucks. 144 pages of shop set up, paint and gun selection, and three start to finish paint jobs. This is not a custom painting book and is instead aimed at the beginning painter. So whether your first paint job is going to be a tractor or a hot rod, this might be just the book you need.

Tractors and Trucks is aimed at the first-time painter.

The other new book is another old George Barris book: Kustom Techniques of the 50s - Grilles, Soops, Fins and Frenching. This is the second book in the four-book series we are reprinting. Like the first title, this is George at his best, describing both the how to sequences seen in the book, and the feature cars he photographed for magazines of the fifties. And like the first book, this one has some great side bars written by men who knew and worked with George and Sam. It’s a 1950s car-crazy narrative – pretty good stuff if I do say so myself. Grilles, Scoops, Fins and Frenching should be in our warehouse by the first of June.

A George Barris Classic

New Tech Article

I am sometimes guilty of not adding new tech articles to the web page on a regular basis. The newest tech article is an especially good one though – a top chop sequence done on a Model A and borrowed from our own Chop Tops book. You will find some good sheet metal fabrication sequences by Rob Roehl on the site as well.

We borrowed a Top Chopping sequence for this month’s tech article.

Will Summer Never Arrive
I would like to say it’s great to get back on the Bagger after a long winter, but the weather just has not cooperated. Instead of springtime temperatures in the 70 and even 80s, it’s been dipping into the 40s at night, and often only hits the 50s during the day. The rides have thus been short hops of a local nature. Our little parking lot is filled with cars each day, no Yamaha (Rick’s ride) and no Bagger with custom paint (Jacki’s Harley). Eventually it will warm up – it’s just gotta. I have been to a couple of my favorite haunts in Prescott, Wisconsin, but I’m ashamed to say Mary and I arrived there on four wheels, not two.

Summer Events
Summer in Minnesota includes not just warm weather, but a wealth of motorcycle and hot rod events. This year, in addition to attending the Antique Motorcycle meet, and Back to the 50s, both at the St. Paul fairgrounds, we will be attending out first tractor show to promote the new painting book. What the tractor shows lack in big block Chevys and custom Harley-Davidsons, they more than make up for with Genuine American Machinery, assembled by some very genuine American characters. They say change is good for the soul, if that’s true mine should be in good shape (except for those things I did with Sally back-in-the-day).

Jay Bird
Between the transmission and the rearend, on most hot rods, is the drive shaft. And I didn’t have one, at least not one that actually fit correctly between the old cast iron Torqueflite and the nine-inch Ford rearend. Thanks to Universal Driveline in White Bear Lake, Minnesota however, the tranny is now connected to the rearend. Next on the major projects list are those nasty voids in the floor where the new floor-pan was never finished. I have extracted a promise though from a certain friend and fabricator to help with the sheet metal work early this summer.

Timothy Remus

Wolfgang Publications, helping build dreams