Favorite fabricator of all time

My mom and dad,,,, they created ME.

 

In no particular order
Lujie Lesovsky
Frank Kurtis
Don Edmunds
Don Brown
HARRY MILLER
Jackie Howerton
Jerry Weeks
Myron Stevens
Pop Dreyer
Jr. Dreyer
A.J. Watson

 

God

 

Archie Tague.

 

AMEN to that !!!!Damn the PAIR didnt show UP!!

 

For me it's definitely Jesse James, he's the reason I built my car. I also have to say that he has got one hell of an eye for things. Everything he builds just looks right.

As for him being a "glorified welder"...I'm not buying that line any more.

 

For the older talent, Some of you know him as the Sweed or One eye my father Ken Erickson then Billy hines, And he still builds almost every day like Hines. Sam Barris, Dean Jeferies. Sorry but George is not on my list but he is a great man of the custom ind.

 

i have a Lil John's custom water pump for a sbc...ran it on the tunnel ram i had in my 72 vega wagon...slick looking unit...all 4 peices of it unbolted and are serviceable, and as is the impeller...it's a high flow corvette impeler....also had the custom frontal engine cover/combined motor mount that went with it...encompassed the timing cover and the water pump area..and also had the motor mount cast to it as a front mount..and came with trans/rear of the block mid mounts too......the pump i have also came with spacers so as to be able to run it as a long or short style pump......also came with custom cut matching water pump pulley and crank pulley with spacers to run with either or style long or short on the w/pump..even has caps that the allen bolts for the crank pulley
go thru to make them look good!!!!!!

 

Bill Hines, Vern Tardel, Cole Foster

 

Frank Kurtis. Maybe unknown to most of you on this board, but look up "Indy 500 during the fifties" for a history lesson that will blow your mind.

 

indian larry ?????? kennedy brothers the rolling bones

 

Chip Foose
Jimmy Shine
Terry Hill known on here as Metalman

 

an awful large group of very talented people doing amazing things in our diverse industry/hobbyall over the country every day. It is hard as hell for one person to know enough about all of them to rate who is best, but we all have favorites, mine are Pat and Cole Foster, Jim Hume ,John Buttera , Wayne Ewing ,Steve Davis,Craig Naff, Dan Webb,Brian Bass, Bob Bleed ,and too many more to name them all. The really good craftsmen don't really need to be publicized a hell of a lot because they know what they are capable of and are comfortable doing what they do to their own standards. If a guy has to tell you how good he is, he probably isn't good enough!
waldo

 

gotta stay local on this vote guys.........that being said my vote goes out to

"LittleMan"

"coldwar"

"Brock Kavanough" [ Obsolete engineering ]

I also like Myself because the price is right ! ! Ha Ha ha

 

Amen.. but I'm reasonably sure there are a few others like John out there, who also worked in a variety of venues and did amazing work at what ever they tried. There must be at least one more Miller or Yunick out there, eh?

How about we hear more on some of the "unknowns" out there for a change? I'm just kinda tired of reading about the same old, hi-vis, in-print all over the map till we puke guys like the Boyd-Foose-Alloway-ish folks. Gary

 

Phil Remington.

 

I'd have to say Hines, just because every time I see a picture of him he's smoking a stogie while doing something crazy, like spraying lacquer (!) or layin' down lead. and he's still kickin' at over 80 years! A miracle he's even here yet, but his work is amazing.

 

I never got a chance to be around Phil Remington's work, but he is legendary among the fabricators I know; They say he could do it all .At Carrol Shelby's in the days of the Cobra project, he was the guy who would take on the stuff no one else wanted to deal with, from what I've been told, and there were an unbelievably talented group of fabricators on that project. Paul Sutherland is another name you don't hear everyday, but Pat Foster always said Paul was the best 'natural' fabricator he ever saw[figure out what was needed and make a beautiful piece quickly,that worked without a lot of reworking] . I'm sure there are many more people out there who are the kind who do something and you can only say' oh my god, why didn't I think of that',those are the guys we need to hear more about. There can't be any one 'best fabricator guy' there are too many good ones out there we just don't get the chance to see work from all of them.
waldo

 

Right now.....Paul Bragg.

 

Connie Swingle......

 

Roy Delaney - RIP

 

I didn't see Howard "Dutch" Darrin of Packard-Darrin one of the first "customizers" on the list. tt

 

As they say "The apple don't fall far from the tree", so I'll have to go with Sam Foose, Chips Dad!

Wolfie

 

Dont you mean Graham Kidd, who worked at Graham Berry's??

 

Thanks Mate, you forget where you work or something???? And how good you are, better than some you listed in my opinion.

 

Patty Faster was, and still is my fab hero.
George Wheplow (sp?) and Greg Flury also get a nod

 

Awe Thats nice Boss.
Maybe you could give me a bigger work area, And some ear plugs so I don't get driven mad by whistlers mother.