Who was your inspiration in metal shaping or welding?

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Charles Tunnel
Don Ross
Tim Young

 

Same here. Spent just enough time with him to know I liked cars and motorcycles, but not enough to learn anything from him. Learned how to change shocks and do a brake job in school. When the engine in my car dumped it's oil and got a nasty knock I figured I could put a new engine in, and if I'm gonna do that, I might as well put something better in, so I did. That snowballed and I put a few engines together and did some more swaps (Hondas). Then I got a Jeep and didn't want to pay $500 for a bumper, so I split a $300 welder with some friends. Never did build a bumper... built a few cages and suspensions and everything else. I watched American Chopper (when they used to show some actual fabrication) and the Strokers Dallas show, and the one from the guys in Millwaukee I think it was, any show with any kind of fab in it, and especially Monster Garage, and learned a lot from those shows. That show where people got a month to build a bike and if they did it they kept it, I was real close to being on it, and I knew I'd be able to do it even though I'd never ridden a bike at that point. I never thought I couldn't do anything, I'd just go out and dick around until it worked, and do what I saw on tv. If I needed to shape some metal I got a pillowcase and filled it with beans to pound into. I saw what a MIG bead ought to look like, and figured out how to make mine look the same, or close. Wanted to build a roll cage so I went to a neighbors house and he showed me where the switch was and I started bending. As I go I get some nicer tools that make things easier and the finished product a little better. I like Jesse. His last Motorcycle Mania gave me a lot of respect for him. You have to always be willing to learn and look in different places for the knowledge and never worry about trying something. Strive to improve your skills. Hokey to some, but like I said, I learned a lot from watching the shows when I was first starting out. I don't know wtf I'm doing putting my sedan together, and people don't seem to give much of a shit in my build thread, but it's getting along and it's quality work.

 

First was my JaaGee ( Grandpa )

Then Uncle Ted

Then Mr Twohill & Mr Grobe ( Main West High ) DesPlaines Il

Then my Dad ( Not in fabrication - but in Mechanics - physics AND letting me trash his One Car Garage.

Don Garlits.

Lil John.

The Loggie Stamping Co. chassis works

A crew of old school German Tool makers.

Andy Granatelli & Co. with The Indy Turbine

Then Tom ( The Bomber ) Baum - ( he tought me how NOT to do it ).

Lee Austin.

Al Swindal

Ron Fourneer & The first book he did with his wife.

Ron Covell & his Vids & Tech Articals.

Terry Cowin

That Lil 150 inch wheel base front motor BBC dragster ( still hanging around )

All of the above wound me up and it's been full steam ahead ever since.

Hope I'm still dinkin around with this stuff when im 85.

 

Sellers

 

The guy who showed me how to use a budwiser can and a hand rivet gun to patch holes in panels.

I figured there had to be a better way.

 

My late high School metal shop teacher in the 70's, Frank Marsh.
He was an old Hot Rodder who in the 70's as a teacher (still) wore levi's a white T shirt and greased back hair in a duck tail.
He could lay down beads with an arc welder that looked like Tig welds!!!
Many of his students ended up working as welders at Jackman wheels here in San Diego.
Frank used to tell terrific Hot Rod war stories. Years after High School, I was looking through an early 50's Hot Rod magazine and sure enough, there's a photo of a 32 Vicky speeding down a dry lake and it's captioned Frank Marsh's Vicky.

I love watching anything on TV, magazine, HAMB featuring fabrication and welding.

 

Ron Forneir...

 

A tudor with lots of holes was my inspiration to learn.

 

Floyd, the crabby old welder at work, he taught me a lot by yelling and cussing at me.

 

No inspiration really. I got into the trades(Chrysler) as an apprentice, and it was one of the things I had to learn. Right off the bat I was in love, and put all my effort into it. I guess it was a little late, I was already in my mid 20s, but better late than never!

Too many people to name lent me their wisdom and experience after that. I'm done at Chrysler, and the big thing I'll miss is those guys, both in the plant and at the tech center.

People seem almost embarrassed to say Jesse James..don't be! The guy does it the right way, he's not just a tv star. Great welder and metal worker.

 

Tony Inman, He worked at Johnsons hot rod shop. He is one of the best I have ever been around.

 

Whoever made this!

But seriously folks, there is an abundance of talent here on the HAMB which is a big influence on me but I first witnessed great body shaping from the Kimmons Brothers who had a shop in Torrance, CA in the 80's. Master craftsmen from New Zealand.

 

Not pluggin anyone but im gonna hafta say that 51Gringo is who got me to actually take a little pride in what I weld/fab. The guy really is one of the best. He came over and taught me how to heat shrink the cowl on the dodge. I didnt even know you could do that!

 

my dad told me if i broke i fixed it and being a teenage boy it did not take long to learn how to fix everything i broke

 

My Great Grandpa, my Grandpa, and my Father. A bit from all three. My Great Grandpa was a mechanic for Grey Hound and built the first Grey Hound tow truck on the west coast, part C-cab truck part IH diesel and lots of great fabrication. His son My Grandpa was an outstanding body guy, worked at many different Bay Area custom body shops in the 40's and 50's before the steady paycheck was needed and he too went to work for Grey Hound as a bodyman. He was in the first Heli-arc class in SF after the Government declassified the procedure (Grey Hound busses were all aluminum skined so TIG welding was highly needed). My father is the Engineer of the family and the first to go to college and he is where I get my drive to learn more and design/engineer/build parts and tools instead of buying them. And all throughout my life I have tried to make friends with and learn from all the old timers that I can. This country needs hands on people now more then ever and it is the like minded people like us here on the HAMB that will get the job done. I hope that one day I will make this list as someone's mentor or inspiration and get to pass on what I learned from those before me.

Thanx to all those that have gone before us.
Jaysin

 

I had a Floyd as well.......................

His name was Berry

 

Todd Doyle Utica PA him and his brother Terry tough me tons including how to weld some of the best guys i ever chould know. lived on a dirt road in middle of nowhere but man they are good. If it wasn't for them i'de probbally be drivin a honda working at mcdonalds. I owe them more than i chould ever repay. so i just try and pay it forward on the dum ass kids who hang around my shop.

 

my dad taught me how to weld. i'm not as good as him yet but i'm getting better! my grandfather was a blacksmith, and my dad learned from him, so metal working is in the family.

 

I didn't grow up around cars...the only thing my dad taught me was how to drive a straight drive and how to change the oil...might have gapped some spark plugs somewhere in there...my inspiration came in the form of cole foster. i was just into custom cars and had been reading custom rodder etc and finally saw something that really caught my eye: cole's shop truck..FINALLY had seen something done the way I would have wanted to do it. searched out other cars he had put his touch to and managed to become the guy I looked up to and aspired to be(to this day)...thanks to the hamb(YEARS ago), I got in touch with him and managed to become friends over a period of time. his work still blows me away.

 

FTW... Fay the Welder, aka Fay Butler

 

Having a dad or grandfather that was a blacksmith would have been cool.

 

Cool stories everyone. From the family members, to the teachers co-workers and then the tv shows, what great places for inspiration. I currently find inspiration from seeing projects that other people are working on, and driving around- I'm so car nutty, that I often see a brand new car or an older car, and think about how certian elements of that car would look so good grafted on a certain classic. Just got shapes on the brain I guess.


I've got inspiration from all over, ever since I was a kid I was obsessed with cars and anything that looked cool(old fridges, toasters etc). Somewhere along the line design was no longer used in the day to day objects. Seemed like function over form started to take over, from our autos, our appliances, heck even our tools.(for ex I've got some old craftsman drills that are just awesome, and old senco airtools that had style! )
So I'd been inspired by creative minds and designers of the past to be a form over function(as long as function, well - functioned) kind of guy.


But my actual inspiration for metalworking and welding etc is my longtime neighbor and friend, Cobert Collins. He ended up becoming a mentor to me in the world of metal. For ages, we'd go to him to see if he can fix a broken go-kart or bicycle as kids. He never did seem to take a liking to any of the neighborhood kids when we were young. After many years, he warmed up more and more, and I was working as a moldmaker for architectural detail. It was a great union, I could work with him to make and restore molds for lost wax bronze casting, and he began to tech me metalworking skills.
I learned how to form and model steel into the shape I wanted, and learned how to weld with acc/oxy, arc, mig and tig. He's a real old school guy, really only used a slip roller and a hammer to form the metal. When I brought over an Australian pine stump with a hollow carved out of the top, he thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread!!!

here's a pic of the man, sitting on one of the sculptures that I rode past every day for years and years.

His work is mostly SS, some SS and silicon bronze, some cast bronze, and a little reprosse.


Most of the work is monumental, only a few pieces are less than 6' or table-top sized.
Most is 16-14 Ga SS, sometime we'd use as thin as 18 Ga, and up to 1/4" plate(although rarely) Kind of funny, I learned how to weld on SS. To me it's normal! so yeah, I have great inspiration right next door, we always joke that we're into heavy metal. lol

 

Holy sculpture Batman!

 

^ and that's a mid sized one...

 

I was a mud slinging body man when I got hired on at Carrera Porsche in san Diego. this was in 1993. There was a guy there that could metal finish a car as fast as I could mud it up. His name was Chris Thompson. this guy was a god when it came to metal work. over the next 10years i learned what i could from Chris. He is still the man, and I look up to him to this day. By the way he is the guy that did the flat black ang gloss red 35 3w. that was on the cover of streetrodder a while back, he also did a lot of Jimi Bonitas model A roadster from last years roadster show. Chris Rules.

 

Easy - Art Ingels, for creating masterpieces for Frank Kurtis, & for building the first Go-kart, my Uncle Nigel for being the best welder I've ever seen (pressure welder for 40 years)& David Gardiner for being able to recreate the most amazing cars I've ever seen, thanks all for the inspiration

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGElSHzm0q8

 

Jeremy and Jessie Miller.

Learning something new everyday

 

My dad was my inspiration - he built and modified several cars and ran at El Mirage in a Bantam roadster with a souped up banger then switched to a Ford 60, this happened before I was born and he gave up the hot rods to settle down and become a family man. But he always built things around the house and helped us kids fix and modify our bikes and he built us a battery /starter motor operated go-kart in the early to mid 50's. Even though he didn't have a mig or tig unit, he taught me O/A when I was around 7 yrs. old and it took off from there - I've been a certified mig/tig welder for over 40 yrs. Building/fabricating and modifying motorcycle frames and cars for many of those years.

 

Ditto!