Who was your inspiration in metal shaping or welding?

Jim Jacobs when he was chopping his 34 coupe in R&C mag back in the early 70's.

 

General fabrication and welding: Bruce Webb, great fabricator, I'd help him build roundy round cars at night just to learn from him. He taught me that function is most important but also form will set your work apart. Just a little more time and a simple bracket could look so much better.

Metal finishing and lead work: Gene Scarboro, a retired body man and shop teacher. I would help him in this little shop behind his house where he did "side" jobs. He was old school for sure, learned his trade in the 30's.

Metal shaping: Ron Fournier's book. We didn't have any metal shapers around that I knew so with inspiration from his book and a lot of trial & error pretty much self taught myself to build panels from scratch.

 

My Dad.

 

Some good stories on here

 

.....but there has got to be more.

 

Tom Hanna

 

here in dallas when it comes to traditional cars i look to don ross fab for insight when bending tin he has influenced my own work . if i want inspiration from outside the box i like to rummage around in kenny vaughns shop . c

 

Don Borth. Don was the greatest "tin man" I have ever seen. He could make anything out of metal. Don started in the aircraft business back in WW2 and progressed from there. He worked for Frank Kurtis for a number of years building midgets and Indy cars, he did the body on Mickey's Challenger and also the hard parts, nose and tail section on the Golden Rod, did the aluminum body on Watson's asymetrical car. Never used an English wheel, he as several Yoder hammers in his shop with lots of special made tooling and he could make anything. When he gas welded aluminum it was like art work, perfect flat beads, both sides of the weld looked the same, and he would be holding a conversation with you as he did it! A true master.

Great guy, good friend, passed away in the mid 90s, miss him.

Rex

 

Cool Story Rex - You were really blessed to see a Guy Like Don work his crafts.

 

I was rased on a farm. So my Dad and Grandfather both worked with metal. It was a part of everyday life. Now I am trying my hand at the Tig. Slow go for now.

 

I think anyone who grew up on a farm has skills! Hard work!

 

My grandfather who I never met but heard tons of stories about. He was a welder at Bethlehem Brooklyn 56th Street Shipyard in Brooklyn, NY.

Helped repair the MV Stockholm after it collided with the SS Andrea Doria in 1956.

I am now a welder...its my job everyday. I don't work on cars and hot rods, but I weld and thats all I care about.

 

my grandfather, i learned everything i know from him.

 

George Barris.

Just kidding.

It was actually Jesse James. I remember watching him make a sickle tank on TV when I was almost fourteen (That was almost a decade ago...Jesse James is old ) and I thought he was badass as hell.

 

Me too! I seen that episode too! I took metal shop in High school and remember how much I enjoyed it so . So this past winter I took a adult Basic welding class at the local Tech and loved it. I'm going back in the Fall for the advanced class. I just need to get a better welder now. I got the lincoln Weld Pak 100 . It's ok for now.

 

HMMMMM.. I GREW UP IN A HOUSEHOLD OF FEMALES. MOTHER, SISTERS AND AN AUNT.. NO HOT RODDERS IN THAT BATCH..

I HAD AN UNCLE THAT HAD A MIMEOGRAPH MACHINE REPAIR BUSINESS.. ABOUT ONCE A MONTH I WOULD GO THERE. MY UNCLE WOULD BRING ME INTO HIS SHOP AND HAVE ME HELP WORK ON STUFF..
HE PUT THE FIRST TOOL IN MY HAND.. SOMETHING IN MY HEAD SNAPPED AND I HAD TO BE WRENCHING ON SOMETHING, ANYTHING EVERY CHANCE I GOT FROM THAT MOMENT ON.. I WENT FROM RADIO FLYER REPAIR TO BICYCLE REPAIR ONTO MOTOR CYCLES.. THE NEXT STEP WAS NATURAL.. MY COUSIN BROUGHT HIS 52 FORD TO MY HOUSE WHEN I WAS ABOUT 8. THE CLUTCH WENT OUT. "CUZ" WAS NO MORE A GEARHEAD THAN MY MOTHER.. BUT.. AFTER WALKING DOWN THE STREET TO THE "MECHANIC GUY" BORROWING TOOLS AND INFORMATION.. "CUZ" AND I GOT THE CLUTCH OUT OF THAT BAD BOY..
I THINK THE GUY DOWN THE STREET GOT A LITTLE TIRED OF ALL THE QUESTIONS AND CAME UP AND HELPED GET IT BACK TOGETHER.. Most likely the only way it would have gotten put back together..
I HAD CARS BURNED INTO MY HEAD. I BOUGHT TOOLS WITH BLUE CHIP STAMPS.. IMAGINE THE QUALITY.. I COLLECTED EVERYTHING I COULD TO HAVE A TOOLBOX..
ALL OF THIS WAS FOCUSED ON THE MECHANICAL SIDE.. I WOULD GO SIT IN "KONG" Jacksons shop for hours WATCHING AND LEARNING.
IT WASN'T UNTIL I MET Gene Winfield in the 70's that I started working with sheet metal. A few years later I met Jay Johnston.. Some of you may remember him from the glory days of hotrods and kustoms.. "Stylekraft Kustoms" in Bellflower, Ca.. He had a kid named Larry Watson that used to hang around his shop..
Working with those two gentlemen fuled the addiction further.. now i just cant seem to leave stuff looking like it did when it was made..

There have been many others that I have had the privilege to work beside.. I sucked up as much info as I could.. the only thing I am lacking is the talent..
So.. the answer to the question would have to be.. My uncle Jack, Gene Winfield and Jay Johnston

SORRY ABOUT THE UPPER CASE.. ITS THAT TIME OF THE MONTH FOR MY KEYBOARD I GUESS..

 

As a kid i saw the hot rod article where lil john was sitting infront of his bench drinking a cup of coffee and under his bench was a slew of clamps.
They wrote about his brown t and i thought somday ill be able to do cool stuff like that.
I try every day,somdays i feel i am and somedays not.
Being raised by a single mom and no real influance around a neighbor,one Steven Deldonno told me i had enough skills to do anything that any man has done if i tried.
Somehow i believed him and still do,anyone who knows me knows i shy from nothing that involves a skill.If i dont get it right i keep trying untill i do,
A bit of a curse at times but well worth it to me.When you really care about what you do it shows in your work.

 

When I was a kid, my Dad would draw me pictures of 'Ed Roth' type cars, (complete with monsters and shifters sticking out of the roofs of cars) and encourage me to draw/copy them. I think I was into big rigs at the time, so I would draw my interpretations of Kenworths or something similar...Smokey & the Bandit type stuff...BJ & The Bear...blah blah...But Dad took me to car shows when I could appreciate cars and not ask to go pee every 5 minutes. He was more of an artist than a mechanical-type. There was always a heavy emphasis on "Kustoms" from the 50's & 60's though, he likes that style. He'd always point out THOSE cars at shows when we were walking along.

As I remember it - from what he told me, as he was growing up in Detroit, my Dad lived down the street from the Alexander Brothers shop, and told me stories about peeking over their fence or wandering into their lot for a look at the wild cars they were turning out, after finishing his paper route and spending his extra money on 'Kustom car mags' and some Vernors pop (soda) at the local corner store...

I read and subscribed to every car magazine I could from age 12. When I graduated from building wild sculpted model car kits at around age 16 or so, I was ready for the real thing. I took a couple years of auto-body in high school, while working at a rental shop (the type where you have to fix rototillers, fill propane, and rent tents.) Eventually I worked at a real body shop, and I've never looked back since...

Influences were my Pop, Ed Roth, the Alexander Brothers, Bill Hines, and the Barris Brothers, + many others over the years...in that order...

Happy Father's day, Dad!

 

My uncle, Jesse James and arlen ness. All three built cool motorcycles and did custom fabricating, and I want to be like them.

 

Good thread, keep er' going

 

myself . I am the only one who showed me the way.

 

My Grandfather ...... Still welds circles around me ...

 

Initially my inspiration was all the car books I read in school when I should have been reading text books. I was also one who did not have any relatives to teach me as I was growing up. I got my basic welding skills from the community college. As far as metal shaping it grew out of a desire to have a nice hotrod but lacked the funds to pay someone to build it. I have been greatly helped along by Jim Bailie and Ron Fournier and a great desire to learn! I also must give credit to the entire online metalshaping community. The unselfishness and willingness to share is like the current breed of stripers. Passing on the knowledge so the art won't die!

 

That would have to be my twin brother. He has worked at a power plant for the last 14 years or so and he showed me how to weld and work with metal. Of course I showed him how to listen to Heavy Metal, but that's a different story!!

 

Yeah M.G. got me going as well, whether they got it right or got it trashed, I couldn't get enough of watching them cutting and fabricating.

In fact, I got blown away by the 54 chevy build before I realised I liked traditional cars!

 

Don Scott, the local trasde school body shop instructor & R Rowe the welding instructor there. Some of the best!

 

Good thread, keep er' going!

 

My dad and his buddy, Big Jack Byers from outside of OKC. I'll never be able to thank them enough.

 

I am yet to attempt metal fabrication and I am only a learner welder but I guess for me my biggest inspiration even though im only 21 would probably be Pat Foster I am not one to put people on a pedestal but I came across his memorial page online a while back and instantly became a big big fan . My motivation to want to learn these kind of skills is that I see all these masters at work on the tv and in magazines and I think these guys didnt just wake up oneday and were able to be experts straight away they learnt it they probably had to mess things up a million times before they really got good and I think if these guys can learn it then theres no reall reason why I cant learn the same skills with time and practice . For me my biggest asset even though I havent really learnt the skills yet is I believe that its not that someone said I can do it its that nobody has said I cant . I a fully intending to build myself an english wheel and a power hammer and get some basic metal shapping tools and a decent welder and just practice , not necesarilly make anything but just practice how to form different shapes and just get good at welding .