Hi Guys. Been following the H.A.M.B off and on for a few years now, finally took the leap and signed up so thought I'd better introduce myself. My name is Ivan and I'm from New Zealand. I guess you'd say I'm a bit of a self proclaimed renaissance man (Good old kiwi-can do attitude ) I have worked for the last 5 years as a mechanic and at the beginning of this year started a panel beating apprenticeship at a classic car restoration business in pursuit of the goal I've had since I was 12 years old to one day open up my own Hot Rod & Muscle car shop. So I'm currently building up my skill set in traditional metal finishing and am excited to keep alive the increasingly lost art of old such as Engilsh wheeling, Hammer & dolly work/filing and leading etc. I enjoy hot rodding photography, collecting hot rodding literature, attending as many local hot rod shows, swap meets, drags etc as possible (usually with a camera in hand). Currently have a couple non H.A.M.B friendly v8 projects on the go, but a chopped Model A coupe is #2 on my hit list (hopefully in the not too distant future). Apologies for the novel. Cheers Ivan
Hi. Not many choose to learn the skills you are now doing. Seems like todays "restoration or custom" is just a bucket full of Bondo filler. even watching the shows on TV concerning restoration there is no beating out dents, leading, ect. Just smoothing everything will filler. The only old skill they exhibit is replacing body panels due to rust and smoothing with body filler. Back in the mid 50's in high school I was getting deeply rooted in Hot Rod & Custom Car culture of that time I during my Junior & Senior I took Vocational ED and went a half day to a local State sponsored Trade School & took pain & body repair. We did not have an English wheel and just beat everything out by hand and leaded seams. I think Bondo was coming on the scene near the end of my second year and out instructor showed up one day with a few cans to just show us what it was & how it worked. He even stressed that this junk was for those who chose to not learn body skills. Now with so many new cars with plastic bodies all you can do is replace parts I assume. Just like going to a car dealer for repairs - not a mechanic in the shop and nobody can work on anything without a computer to tell them what to do. Great to hear of you learning these skills. I no longer have my tools but wish I did. Will likely replace a few soon as I plan to get a larger air compressor and do a repaint on my 46 coupe. Good luck with your classes. Jimmie
Welcome Ivan. Good to see another Kiwi here, there's also a kiwi social group here, called KIWI.HAMB It's not real busy though.
Welcome Ivan. Nice intro. Keep honing those valuable skills and use your other cars as a stepping stone to a model A.
Cheers guys. Here's a few pictures of a couple things I've been working on recently, First image was a pair of sill panels that I media blasted, welded then hammer & file finished. Next is a good example of what Jimmie was talking about... Photos don't quite do the car justice just how bad a shape this really is...everywhere that hasn't all ready rusted out has been deliberately dinged and filled with a bucket full of body filler and smoothed over! BUT hey it makes awesome learning for me (Photo #3).
Ive been here for over 25 years. So yeah Im used to it now. Sent from my SM-G903W using The H.A.M.B. mobile app