Hello, searching for info on my grandfathers business CMS. I was raised in the shop from about 1955 to 1966. anybody know or need to know the history of California Metal Shaping???? Chad Schultz, Ken Hausman, Red Tweit, Bill Ketcham. Leo Berger, Stanley Taylor, Bill Honda and others
welcome aboard I new Bill Honda we use to go buy sheet metal and aluminum there it was a neat shop he offered me a job last time I went there but it was too far away from van nuys and I didn`t have anything that would make it that far? would have been a great place to learn allot when I was a kid
Yeh now that I think about it I remember that they kept the shop doors closed during the Watts riots in 64?? my dad thalked about a sniper in the big building across the street shooting at people and the national guard pulled up in a gunner jeep and shot out all the windows from top floor down, sniper came out the front doors and surrenderd!!!!!!
I rembered being told that a goverment contract was shipped a couple days early, during WW2 and the shop was burnt to the ground, grandpa kept all on to clean-up and rebuild, we still have an oxygen bottle that was destroyed by the fire marshal, grandpa rebuilt it, and back in the 80's my step dad sent it in for hydo proofing and it passed, those early bottles had at least 3/4" walls.
was this the shop that was near Downtown LA almost under the freeway ? I went by there years ago but it always looked closed, but it was a scary area and I can understand keeping it closed up Beaulieu
Yeh you can see the freeway about 100 yds north, to the south was L.A. Pie company, grandpa would spoil me and buy a complete pie for me to eat in front of the crew, and couldn't share with anybody, even my Dad. I stopped in there in the early 70's and talked to Red, about 1978 I believe, hadn't changed since I was a kid.
Welcome from Indy. Good to have you here,you just never know who or what will pop up on the HAMB. Thats whats so cool about this place.
Great story about the past,my grand dad made a big difference in my life as well. Thanks for sharing with us and welcome to the Hamb.
New Metal Kustomz, a hot rod shop in Cotati, CA recently purchased some of the bucks that came from California Metal Shaping Co. They have some Deusenberg, Auburn, Cord, and Kurtis Kraft bucks, amongst others.
Hi to everyone ,this is my first time posting , and just wanted to comment that myself and a friend did the final clean up of the CMS building, its finally up for sale... All the good stuff was taken we kept a few things.... Amazing history there ..
from what i know cal metal was the place to get stuff made in the 50's and 60's . the list of metal shapers reads like a hall of fame , so does the project list . last time i was there , don severt was working on his own in the shop , i guess he finally retired too . red had a shop until @2006 i think , don't know if he's still around . iv'e seen a lot of metalwork in 40 years , but red was in a class of his own , i complimented him once on some porsche spyder parts he had made , and he told me " you should have seen me when i was good " . those guys were the best there was .
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