Gene Winfield workshop Recap!!!!!. Top Ten Hotrods and Customs.

I cannot remember such a great time I had in the last 4 days up in Canada with Gene Winfield and Top Ten ( Ken and Frank).
My start of my Great white north adventure started on Tuesday night where we got pulled over half way up doing 20 mph over the speed limit and Bloody Jack didn't have his insurance papers or his registration in the truck. The cop took his license and went to his car. In about 5 minutes he came back and said pay attention to your driving and stay in the slow lane and let us go!!!

This was the start of one great memorable week. We stayed at my Brothers house (thanks Mike) and then early headed off to Top Ten. Gene was impressive from the start. I don't know one person or have known one person with his energy. The first day we chopped Mikes car and had some personal training in the art of forming, straightening and welding metal which was very informative. We started at 8:00 AM and finished around 7:00 PM. This was Wednesday. Thursday we arrived a bit later at 8:30 and got some personal instructions how to gas weld aluminum and do some leading etc etc. Another informative day and lots of things to store in my memory bank.
Pete ( Bloody Jack) left after that and I stayed back in Canada to see the famous Gene Winfield custom painting seminar that was a free bonus and one of the most informative days/night/morning!!!! Remember Gene is 82 and so far is getting about 6 hours of sleep at the most per night and is non stop. Well we arrived Friday at the Sikens paint training facility at about 7:30 AM and got busy working on Johns incredible car and prep for paint. It took a bit longer than expected so Gene pre mixed up some paint and got prepared and was busy running around letting people what he needed done. Gene went in the paint booth at 12:57 PM and started painting and never stopped till 3:30 AM Saturday morning!!!!!!!!!! Did I tell you he's 82? So Gene, Ken and Frank drove back to Kens house and tried getting a couple hours of sleep.
I saw Gene and the guys at the Langley car show the next morning and Gene said he got 1 hour of sleep after the long marathon paint job and when he lay-ed down in his bed he came to the conclusion that he drank too much tea and his body was still painting!!!!!! I sat in a chair and asked if he wanted a seat and he said no thanks with a big smile and then said if he sits down, he'll fall asleep. So he then spent the next 10 hours standing on his feet signing autographs and treating every new face like a good friend!!! He is the funniest , nicest guy I have ever met and recommend this class to everyone just to meet this legend that just doesn't quit!!!
Top Ten then had an Open house after the show and theres Gen still on his feet, smiling and laughing and get this "DANCING!!!!!!!!! WTF keeps this guy going? I don't think he's human!!!!! I bet in 4 days he only got 12 hours sleep!!!!!! Did I mention that he's 82? Wholly crap!!!!!! I still cant believe what a fun time we had!!!
I feel privileged to have ever met Gene and to see his talents and his painting skills!!! There were about 8 of us that were the die hards that stayed with Gene till the end but we all sat down and he kept busting his balls the whole time in Canada!!! Thanks again to all the guys up there!!! I had a total blast and if you are ever in the Seattle area, stop on by!!!
Now for the pictures!!!!!!!!!

 

Well day two, I was in my brothers truck and somewhere along the line , my camera fell into his lunch box that was filled 3" high with melted ice. My camera was DOA so we used his camers and got a few telephone pics.
Day two.

 

Day Three!!! The painting marathon!!!! And a digital camera that my brother brought!! Thanks Mike!! My Camera is sitting in a bag of rice in a ziplock baggy ontop of my brothers oven. I'm hoping I can bring it back to life!!!!!!
























12:57 PM Friday afternoon

 

Having fun in the lobby of Sikens!!

 

WOW!!!!!! Thats all I can really say.

 

Well at about 1:00 AM Mike Jackson and I were getting a bit goofy and had a little fun. Dave if you see this I hope you don't get pissed but get a laugh about it!! Mike and I had tears in our eyes and my head hurt!! All in good fun and you are one hell of a talented painter and one nice guy!!!!! You have the right attitude for success!!











OK back to pictures of the car!!!!














This is Martin (Part of the original workshop guys) spraying with Gene!!! Can you imagine!!!!!

 

Now is Franks turn at Top Ten Hotrods with MR Gene Winfield!!!















The clock on the wall says 2:14 AM Saturday morning and Gene is wide awake and still going strong!!!! One more hour to go and still a drive back to the house!!!

 

Here's Gene at 3:00 AM and still smiling!!!and the next picture are the last of the die hards at 3:00 AM!!

 

OK, now its the Langley cruise in/Show!! Gene has had 1 hours sleep and is going to stand all day and then dance at the Top Tens Open House!! Oh and good news. After blowing out my camera after it was sitting in 3" of water for at least 20 minutes then leaving it out in the sun for a day and putting it in a bag of rice for 24 hours, its back working!!!! What luck!!!!Unfortunately the video seems not to work all the time. I had a great video of Top Tens 392 Hemi powered twin turbo'd hot rod taken and when I went to play it back , it was blank. I think the sound might have blown the mic which shorted the video? Man that car is loud!!!!!!!!!! Good times!!

 

Here's Gene after 1 hours sleep!!!!!!!

 

OK now after the show Ken at Top Ten Hotrods is having an Open House and here's Gene after 48 hours of being up with one hours sleep!!!!!!!

 

Gene Dancing the night away!!!

 

So its Sunday night at 11:40 PM and I am very tired so I'm going to bed now. Oh and the pictures of the show and the Open house at Kens house was taken with my camera that fell in the water.
I will leave for you to view these pictures that I will remember for the rest of my life!!
Thank you again Ken and Frank for your hospitality and your hard work to bring this incredible experience to all of us!!
And thank you MR Gene Winfield for sharing your life with all of us and hope to see you again. You are a gentleman and the damned hardest worker I have ever met or will ever meet!! 82 years old!!!!! Geeeeeeeeeze!!! You are amazing!!!!

Good night all!!!
And again those at the workshop are all welcome to come down and visit my wife and I anytime. The Monroe swap meet is coming up and I could probably put up a few people if you guys need accomodations. I'm about 10 minutes from the fairgrounds!!!!!!

 

good stuff there!!!...hey i see shortdogs old chevy in the room!!

 

Man thats cool, extremely jealous. One question with painting the chev though, did he use a few different greens and constantly tint them lighter/darker??? Ending up with about 30 different colours going into it...??

 

Thanks for the pics, looked like a great time.

 

Green, white and gold and black and pearls and metalics and and and...................... He must have sprayed 80 coats!!!!!!!
He used an intercoat clear and tinted it a million times.
House of Kolors paint.
I couldn't believe how he saved the paint a couple times when he got a bad mix when he added some Sikkens pearl to HOK. The paint looked like it pulled away from itself and Gene just mixed up a few more colors and spayed over it and it went away? How can he do that with candies?? Amazing!!! 14 hour paint job and pretty much non stop!!!! Did I mention Gene is 82!!!
After spraying for a couple hours, that quart cup gun would feel like a hundred lbs to me.

 

Is it the gold one? I love that car!!!!!

 

Thanks for going to the trouble of posting all of those pictures. That really is a once in a lifetime experience and it's nice to live vicariously sometimes.

 

Gene's a true artist.

 

And the hardest working man on the planet Bar none!!!!!

 

Sick pictures and write up,, The fade on the Chevy Rules!! anyone notice the shackle on the front of the 5 window top of the 1st page