Ziero

A while back,

a couple special packages 

came from Chihuahua,

Mexico.

In my head this is what the place looks like.

I'm sure it's a choked metropolis,

but ya never know.

I found this guy Ziero on Instagram,

peddling his self-made patch designs.

The ideas and colors are crazy.

Luckily they are made in batches of 100,

which limited the available choices.

And for $6 a pop shipped,

it's the perfect price to support a guy

huffing it in the Mexican desert.

They're kinda big about 4" across.

He even threw in a couple cool posters.

Cutnpaste this to check out his goods!

http://www.ziero.bigcartel.com

TP

Regramming

I put these on Instagram,

but they should look better on a big screen.

If not it's cause I used their filters.

This is the spot where that guy and his car flew into the ocean.

It's a good drop!

For some reason OB was empty this day.

Jake needed some grip tape for his board.

Why would a traveller want to leave this hostel?!

TP

subject matter

 I've often wondered how an artist chooses subject matter,
and after a jaunt through an estate sale,
that thought came up again.

angry indian painting

For instance,
this painter has a fondness for angry American Indian chicks.
Was there a model or was this his imagination?

paris

Typically you see stuff like this.
Paris scenes...

strait

...or this ocean scene.
This one was cool as it was really small and detailed.
I like the color of the water too.

ship

Then there's your tall ships.
This family had a bunch of tall ship paintings around the house.

point loma estate sale

That's when I started wondering not about the artists,
but more about the conservators of their art.
How do they choose what to put on the wall,
and where to put it?

naked chick

For instance,
this charcoal of a naked chick,
was set up in the living room,
right next to the dining room.
A bold statement at dinner parties!

Cheers to this older couple that knew what they liked.
Hope these paintings will forever hang on equally cherished walls.

TP

blue tarps

I'm a newbie on instagram,
but it hasn't taken long to learn how to play the game.
Last week there was a hot rod photo contest to win some shwag,
and it got me to thinking like a photographer instead of a picture taker.

chief and the blue tarps

Only a couple days ago I had posted up here one of my top 10 pictures of the pickup.
There was no way to take credit for someone else's shot,
so I figured no problem,
I'll roll down there early and snap a couple quick cellphone pics.
How hard could it be -  I've got an Iphone now!?

1929 ford roadster pickup -
photo by Steve Sexton - 2013

Here's the shot I was trying to get.
Crisp and bright,
the hot rod absorbs the perfect color out of the surroundings.
I love it.

1929 ford roadster pickup
photo by ummm...me...

And this is the shot I got.
Granted it was 7:30 on a saturday,
and there was a chance of rain,
but holey chit it's like that 80 year old lady that smears lipstick all over her face,
thinking she's still in the game.
Effing ridiculous.
For all you serious photographers thinking instagram is gonna put you out of business,
don't worry about it.
This washed out photo looked decent on the miniature phone screen,
even with all the blue tarps.
Maybe formatting pictures the same shape as a polaroid was a bit of a hint...

TP

swirl prediction

The green 40 project took a back seat this weekend,
as the wife and kids returned back from their trip to Camarillo early.
I had considered driving Chief up there,
and then busting butt on the 40 to try and drive it too.
A great idea but not very realistic,
which made it a great idea!

custom 1940 ford dash

Instead I buttoned up a couple other responsibilities,
and hung out in front of the TV for a little bit.
What can I say we are in the netflix trap.
This got me to thinking about that dash insert for the rusty 40.

spiral layout

A couple layouts were sharpied on to the aluminum plate,
and each one wiped off.
Either not symmetrical or too trendy.
I'm not a great line drawer,
especially if distracted by craziness on this True Blood show we were watching.

hammer time

Finally a spiral idea was roughed out,
and it was something simple enough to draw,
without needing to get into too much detail for the amount of area.

Little did I know that this swirl pattern would predict the future.
The next day our toilet had multiple flushing problems.
Good times...

engraving chisel

I'm not experienced at hand stamping or engraving,
and this was probably not the best thing to start on.
A couple test lines and swirls were hammered out,
using a custom ground pointy chisel punch.
There was no going back after the first couple smacks.

macey watching progress

This was one of the harder things I've done in a while.
The chisel line was about 1/8" wide,
and you can imagine how many taps this took to complete.
Each side took about an hour and 15 minutes.
I went in waves where I'd get the hang of it,
then I'd go a little numb and go a little off-line.
It reminded me of those polynesian tattoo artists.
tap...tap...tap...tap...tap...tap...tap...tap...tap...tap...tap...tap...tap...

engraved swirls

With a little time left in the day,
I started doing this shading thing with this pointy punch.
Not realizing that each line would now need to have a million little dots.

engraving

Once I did a couple lines,
the the whole thing needed the same shading.
The next morning I finished up the last bit.

holey chit

Here you can see this is not schooled work.
It's a hand drawn sketch using simple custom shop tools,
by a guy in a junk filled backyard.
Total respect now for professionals that do this.

TP's day at the office

My Mom dropped by that morning,
and she took a look at what was going on.
Of course she had to ask "are you smoking grass?"
Hey all I need is a big ole mug of home-brewed cranberry iced tea!
Really!
This stuff will make your teeth brown.

go-go juice

Finally time for a quick pass with 600 grit sandpaper,
and a go under the buffing wheel.
I've found that WD-40 is good for removing the rubbing compound or rouge,
also pushing the dark evenly into the newly made cracks.

hand rubbed

We were taking a lunch break,
and the kids noticed the cool reflection the aluminum gave.
Hey that was really just iced tea!

shiny

I told the kids I'd give them a dollar if they counted each line and dot.
They said maybe if this was the 80's when a candy bar cost 25 cents.
Little punks!

1,000,000 taps

Let's see how it looks on the dashboard.
Nope.
Let's grind every bolt head first.
I've been waiting to use these aluminum 1/4-20 fasteners forever.

button-head fasteners

The custom button-heads were way too big and shiny,
so a mini-swirl was hammered on the aluminum ones.
A bit OCD you could say.

engraving -  hot rod or hippy style?

Each hole had to be tapped,
and now that there was no screwdriver slot,
the bolts were rotated from the back side.
Nothing's easy around here.

screwed

I had to see what this was going to look like,
and some random gauges were put in place.
I've got to figure out what 7 gauges I'll be using,
even Jakob noticed there were dual ammeters.

custom 1940 ford dashboard insert

Speaking of Jakob.
He was drawn to all the tapping commotion.
Was it the fun in making noise or the outcome or both?
Bee to the flower or moth to the flame!?

Jakob Perich - engraver - 2013

He whipped out this cool keychain or zipper fob in no time.
Another skill under his belt...

Jakob's flying eyeball

Meanwhile I finished off the installation with a couple switches.
The first thought was to have a hidden switch panel,
but this is a dashboard insert not a crown jewel.

custom 1940 ford dashboard and insert

There's a good excuse for all this hammering.
It's a great way to hide any polishing blemishes!
I could have spent 3 hours sanding and buffing out all the scratch marks,
then worry about scuffing it forever.
Instead this took about 5 hours and it'll camouflage all the hack marks!

Jaxon called me out on what had happened.

He said now the rest of the car needs to be this crazy.

TP

whole lotta nothin' about nothin'

There is not a more polarizing word in the world of hot rodders than patina.
Ok what am I saying that is not true.
The majority of hot rodders will pain themselves on endless minutiae.
The wrong tires and rim combo,
the incorrect choice of which antiquated suspension to use,
the acceptance of a 60 year old engine style vs an 80 year old engine style...
You name it there is always something.
It's great fun as long as you're on the right side,
which doesn't mean squat as whose to say but the loudest or the last.

1939 1940 ford chop top

So where were we.
Last week I had gooped up a heavy concoction of epoxy roller primer.
trying to coat the spots that were burnt from the windshield welding.
You may have guessed this was applied quickly right before sundown.
In addition to my batch being a little on the cold side,
the paint took its own sweet time to cure.
Continuing on with my lack of patience,
a coat of that epoxy fairing compound was slapped on,
resembling frosting on a kids birthday cake.

hot rod patina

There was no way to rush any sanding as the paper would immediately clog.
Typical payback to sloppy work.
No way to rush fixing it this time.
The consolation is the coating will be rock solid,
as slow curing epoxy is usually the strongest.

quarter window

After a long weekend baking in the sun,
a breezy evening caught me off guard,
always the best time to sand.
I had a couple hours before the kids swimming lessons.
Let's do this.

amercoat 235 layers

About an hour later and most of the top was smooth like never before.
If you've been keeping track,
there's 3 to 4 coats of primer covering up that oxidized sheetmetal.
It reminded me of my varnishing days way back when,
brushing - sanding - brushing - sanding - brushing to get the shiny coat.
Yeah for a while that wood finishing was my thing.

layered

Now that it's freshly slicked up,
this is the time to get that color coat on it.
Dang it if I'm soft for that fake patina look.
But is this fake patina or is it really unfinished bodywork?
Whatever the label I really like the texture and depth.

smoothy dash

Here's a quick shot of the dash.
I had to cheat with the filler in a couple spots.
This will for sure get some paint on it.

aged patina

All this whining and complaining is kinda funny in a sense.
The middle section of the car looks like this.
To some it's patina and to others it's rust!

or is it just rust?

Thanks for hanging in for the read.
Again a whole lotta nothin' about nothin'...

TP

pencil masterpiece - sloppy's knuckle

You know there's a problem when the wifes Iphone
is more powerful then the 6+ year old home computer.
My 3 year old droid clone is on the dullest edge.
I've been in this position before,
and know now is the time to start scraping any photos and info together.
Before these become Lost Files I'll be throwing some not to recent things on here...

Sophorn "Sloppy" Sin's Knucklehead pencil masterpiece

One of my favorite barely visible photos is Sloppy's penciled knucklehead.
This thing is awesome in detail.
How many people take the time to actually draw with a paper and pencil,
when it is so easy to do a rendering with photoshop.
I know to him it's almost more of a curse to be able to do it this way!

Sophorn "Sloppy" Sin's Knucklehead lead masterpiece

The cellphone camera definitely does not give any justice or flattery.
It was 4am and we were lucky to have 2 34 watt light bulbs,
rather than the one that I am used to!

hidden treasures

He's got some cool chit stashed in here.

mad man sophorn "sloppy" sin

Well hopefully he doesn't get chapped that I posted up these top secret pics,
and continue to call him Sloppy!
Figuring the 36 people that sometimes read this can't be too bad.
More good times of his here...
1941robote
If you're bored roust him and tell him to post (and draw) more!

TP