DEUCE OF SPADES HOTROD FILM UPDATES - photos from the Saugus and dry lake shoots

Cant wait to see it already....

 

You like that eh?

that's off of Johnny's leather jacket. It reads: "CALLAWAY SPEEDSHOP 1955"



Ok now that I am done with this avatar, got to go dig gene's photo

 

Ah RATS you guys, I'm sorry, that photo is on my home PC harddrive. I'll post it tomorrow...

Meanwhile, guess what I got in the mail today? A little ebay find, wardrobe for the film:

An original WWII new old stock B3 bomber pair of pants. Still has the price tag on it (which read: $4.99)

WOW!

Nobody was bidding on it so I snatched it. Dirt Cheap, too! Leather is a bit dry but not bad, and the 3 metal zipper still work, I think they might need a little WD40 . They are a size SMALL, but since they only made them for dudes, the pants are pretty BIG on me, but that's OK. They are going to keep me warm this winter as I drive the deuce for the third winter without a roadster top [notice how I immediately added the word "roadster" to the word 'top' so none of you pervs would start to crack topless jokes on me hehehehe].

PLUS this year I don't even have a windshield...

BRRRRRRRRRR...

but yeah, I know, this is southern California so how bad can it really get you say?

Take my word for it: Pretty bad when you are driving without a windshield late at night.

 

I don't know Faith. I heard So. Cali had snow today.

 

Hell yeah, I like it!

The DVDs should be printed with that on 'em... or the soundtrack, anyway.

~Jason

 

You mean, A3 pants?



~Jason

 

No, mine are B-3 pants. I have a B-3 jacket.

Well I got to tell ya the weather here took a big crap on us LOL. I LOVE IT cause now I don't have to feel so bad that my deuce is down ... It was windy, cold and gloomy here today.

I had an interesting day yesterday when i got rear ended by a distracted driver on the 101 freeway. We were almost at a stop, yet, the hitch of my Tundra truck redesigned his jaguar. Now his ex stock car is a HOTROD - Chopped, lowered and customized .

I did a good job on it. Gene would have been proud of me! hehehehe...

Feeling pretty sore today, but I'll live. All I kept thinking was: "Boy am I glad I wasn't driving the roadster"

 

OK, now it's time for me to keep my promise, so I dug up gene's photo. Here it is!

 

CLICK ON PHOTO TO SEE FULL SIZE !!

 

Holy shit!

You didn't mention that wreck! I hope you're okay...

Is your computer working again?

~Jason

 

Yeah yeah I am sore, but fine, and just to quote Johnny Callaway himself

"I'LL BE JUST FINE!"

What's important is that He (shown below) is fine:




This beautiful shot was taken by Garth Rattlif just moments after we finished filming Gene's scene. This photo was not doctored in photoshop by the way , this is really what the sky looked like at dusk and how the deuce looks like, simply sitting there on El Mirage dry lake.

An almost religious experience...

 

Oops sorry Jason, just now noticed your question: No, the computer is still doing the same thing. trying to work in between shut downs. Cole said he'd come and look at it Sunday, he thinks it is the motherboard...

 

I'm still voting "processor", but we'll see.

I only wish I was closer to be a little more hands-on. This is one of those deals I spend 16 hours on non-stop until it's fixed... and it wouldn't be the first time.

We'll see what Cole says. Hopefully, your motherboard is still under warranty, and you can take it back to the store and exchange it.

~Jason

 

NEW TEASERS ON THE HORIZON!!!!!!!!

I have been filming a series of interviews with the main cast all week and started editing them. They are real cool because you not only get the perspective of the actors, talking about the film and the characters they portay, but also you get to see new snipit of the film, and never seen before behind the scene footage.

Kool kool.

I am almost done with the first one, and it came out so good I think I am going to release it ahead of the film... Great teaser! Some real awesome film shots in there, not to be missed... So stay tuned!

(I'm such a tease! HAHA!)

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Looks like I will be spending Christmas eve working on the deuce

Yeah baby...

Yesterday Mark and Jimmy came to work on the wiring and I assisted mark and learned how to do wiring the "perfect" way. No crimping, no plastic colored sleeves etc... It looks NEAT. I had a blast.

Click on any photo below to see larger version:




meanwhile, Jerry and I tackled the Powergene bracket fitting. Here is the Allan Grove prototype bracket that Greg donated to the film:




We found the lower bracket fit good after slight adjustments of spacers and a bit of grinding...



The top braket however did not work out because of not being long enough and I could not get good belt tention. For now we bolted my old one to the new one and extended it that way. We await to get a new top bracket from Greg.




Here is the powergen right now and the new engine compartment look: We are starting to look like a hotrod now .





I likey!!!



Notice I also changed the secondary wires from 10mm red to 7 mm black unmarked.

Next we have to tackle fuel lines. I got my firewall mounted gravity bowl (tres cool) from UK. And can't wait to bolt it onto the firewall . I can even put a skull, or 8 ball inside the bowl if I want to... Fun stuff!

The Holley fuel pump has been bolted under the frame. Still need to install regulator and hard lines. we also have to make the hard line to tri-power, and may go for a 3 on 1 line to eliminate the need for a seperate fuel log.

Boy we better get going because I need to start filming ASAP and we are running out of time...

MERRY CHRSTMAS EVERYONE!!

 

Ditto!

And hey - nice hat!

Wait a minute... that one's not you! LOL!

~Jason

 

HERE IT IS !! HERE IT IS !!

YES!!!

The first interview, which features some never seen before snipits of my film, is now up on vimeo: This is the first of many interviews coming up.
Vimeo is a High Def video website, so after the clip downloads (it will take a few moments) you will be able to watch it FULL SCREEN and it will look pretty darn crispy .. Oh yeah baby !

Catch glimpses of Johnny's last race, of the Saugus dragstrip scene and a few more very tres cool shots from the film, including a small section of a scene, which features one shot I really love (the 35 ford truck zipping down the road in a cloud of dust).


Enjoy!

http://vimeo.com/2626116




.

 

Damn girl!! I have trouble getting people I pay to work on my hot rod, actually preform the work I payed them for, and you get people like Gene Winfield to do work on your hot rod for free!! How the hell do you do it? Maybe you'll have to teach me some of your tricks?

I need to learn how to shake my money maker better.

 

Hey Faith, are you going to be inviting, say maybe some of your local valley friends over for a prescreening of the finished film?

 

Bravo Zulu!

 

I promise you, no money maker shaking was involved in getting help for the deuce repairs. i think people are inspired to help because they see how much I have been giving of myself for this hotrod film, which is a tribute to the early 50's hotrod era and all those who were a part of it, especially our old timers.

So basically, if you do something GOOD, GOOD THINGS will come back ten fold.


UPDATES:

We have been working around the clock on the deuce in a very cold garage. BRRRRR... I've been wearing my ski clothes to survive. having Jimmy, Jerry and Mark all helping out, and working with them in the garage has been an incredible experience. I can't even begin to say how much I am enjoying the camaraderie that comes with a small team of hotrodders coming together to get a project done. I LOVE IT. Talking, joking, shooting the shit while working, the sharing of food, the learning, it has been awesome. I now understand why men like to hang out at each other's garages so much. It's way cool. I find myself looking forward to the company each day.

So far, we have finished wiring the rear, Jimmy fixed the Lockar shifter, which never worked right (but does now), Jerry showed me how to fix the front brakes: I got to change my wheel cylinders, bleed and adjust my non selfadjusting original 41 ford brakes. now I am working on the front: I rigged the headlight so to add a ground wire without having to drill an extra hole in my Guide lights, following Mark's instructions, which worked very well. Now I put the headlight assembly back and routing wires and affixing connectors. I got to be quite good at making terminals, they truly look gorgeous. Sodering is a blast.

Well, I got to head back inside the garage to finish my headlights wiring.

I'll post more photos soon.

 

Starting to see a bit of light at the end of our rewiring project tunnel . yesterday I got my cloth covered wires and looms and started wiring the engine compartment... They look bitchin'. It's giving the car more of an early fifties look, which is cool. I have become one mean, lean, soldering, connector making, machine.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 

Don't go near that leather with WD-40,get some "Connolly Hide Care"from California car cover. It will rejuvenate that leather without making it shiny.So glad to see,many more people helping out with the project.

 

I was going to use saddle soap for the leater and WD40 for the zipper (cause it's sticky)

Anywhoo, I got a few photos for you guys:

This is how my GM silenoid now looks like (it used to have no less than a half dozen wires going to it before! It looked like a porcepine! )

Now we have only one battery cable which I inserted inside a loom:




I then routed the cloth covered wire from my Ford remote silenoid to the "generator". Looks cool




This is the guide light loom, which ends with a plug. We put the headlights on a plug so I can easily remove them next time I go to El Mirage ... I did all the headlight wiring / connectors myself, after Mark and Jimmy showed me how to do it the "right way". It was fun.




Here is me trying to light myself on fire by soldering between my knees LOL... that's the other end of the generator wire by the way. the remote Ford silenoid has been bolted down under the dash, passenger side.



Yeah, I am wearing old ski clothes cause the garage is darn cold right now.

Here, pulling the loom into the headlights:






Slowly but surely we are making progress. Wednesday night we finally bolted the fuse box down. The boys had been trying to epoxy it to my firewall for 2 days now but it wasn't sitckin'. I had the brilliant idea to use the steering column mount, under the dash, to affix the fuse box face down, way up into the dashboard. This way, no drilling of firewall required and the big fuse box (30 some circuits!) disappears completely from sight. We bolted it onto a sattelite panel donated by Jerry, who used to work for NASA. It's light and SOLID

Now next time I do a burnout, I am going to lift up into orbit LOLOLOL...

(could be fun...)

 

UPDATE:

YEAH! SEE THE JALOPY/COP RACE IN NEAR FULL SCREEN AND HIGH RES NOW.

http://www.vimeo.com/2692622

Vimeo rocks!!!!!!!!

 

Way to go Fatih; good to see you having a go at getting her sorted out !!

Rat

 

where do you get the "recovery tank" ? ................. steve

 

Wow, nice headlights, lady! LOL!

That DOES look a LOT better! Nice job... and nice outfit!

You know, had you actually set yourself on fire, it probably would've been easier to see under the dash...

~Jason

 

Jason, you have one of the whickedest sense of humor, I love it!
Can you believe I have owned this ski coverall for over 20 years now? And STILL FIT IN IT ... It's actually mostly made of silk and was a very expensive Swiss ski suit back then in the days. Today we simply have nicknamed it "The marshmellow outfit" . It has kept me warm through all my night shoots in the desert . It got very bloody when we filmed the crash scene but the blood came out OK. The wheel bearing grease, however, well that's another story altogether ...

 

Yeah it's way cool because I am so intimately involved in the rewiring process I know all the wires, where they go and what they do now, so if (or when) I run into an electric mishap, I will be able to trouble shoot much easier. We are working without a "manual", so JImmy and Mark figured out how to wire things on their own, and that is NOT something I would be able to do ANYTIME SOON. but I am learning tons and starting to get the hang of it and as I said I became very good at making connectors of all shapes, size and forms. I really love it too. Mark is very anal, he never crimps anything because he said "it looks ugly under the shrink sleeve". He's right. So you learn to solder generously and solder solid. I must say all the terminals look GORGEOUS . Now, let's hope they work HAHA!