Rat Fink Reunion 2010

Check this out guys and gals.  I told you to keep an eye on Andy’s Pinstriping blog didn’t I?  Here’s his latest work, getting ready for the Rat Fink Reunion 2010.

 “As is tradition every year at the Rat Fink Reunion, The artist’s give out an “Artist’s Choice” award to their favorite vehicle at the show.  This years “trophy” from me is a metal panel that features my man Fink doing some ca-razy stripe and letter work…and to finish it off I also distressed the panel so it looks like it was hanging in Ed’s shop in Maywood California back in the early sixties. I hope whoever receives this enjoys it as it was a labor of love to make!”  Andy

 

Click on the image to blow it up real big.  Looks even cooler!

Rat Fink Reunion 2010, Manti, Utah June 3-5, be there or be square!  I hope to attend this year’s event.  How often is there an event of this caliber in Utah right?

Hechtspeed

 

Cool Hot Rod Pinstriping From 2009 Part #1

Here’s a look at some of the coolest pinstriping found on MyRideisMe.com during 2009.  I think you’ll agree, pinstriping is alive and well.  So many hours go into practicing and painting, it takes a dedicated person on top of the skill required to lay a great line.  Enough words, these pictures will tell a 1000 of them on their own.  Enjoy!

Please check out the full Pinstriping Gallery to see even more works of art!

Click the pictures to see them Enlarged.

And a few of the stripers who we give much respect to, Charlie, Joel and Andy.

So, there were so many pictures I wanted to share that one post is not enough.  Keep your eyes peeled for more!

Hechtspeed

Best Pinstriping Pictures from Goodguys Southwest

As always, MyRideisMe.com is on the lookout for pinstriping at races or car shows so you can see what’s out there and decide what to do on your own ride.  Here’s a few from the Goodguys Southwest Nationals in Scottsdale, AZ.

All Photos by my man and Director of Photography at MyRideisMe.com, Swanee…

To see all of Swanee’s pinstriping pictures from Goodguys, please go to the Pinstriping Picture Gallery

This Arizona Pinstriper Joel from 1320designs.com doing his thing on MyRideisMe.com member Mr. Freeze’s slammed Suburban he recently picked up. Joel’s rates are very reasonable for striping and he’s also an up-and-coming designer as well. Make sure to check out his website and let him know MyRideisMe.com sent you!

What do you think? If this is YOUR pinstriping work (or your car!), please let us know and we’ll say so next to the picture.

Leave your comments below and don’t forget to see all the pinstriping pics in the:

Pinstriping Picture Gallery

Pinstriping Animal Style with the One Arm Bandit

I met pinstriper and all around cool cat Charlie Decker online, probably at Myspace, before I met him in person at the Grand National Roadster Show. I hit him up for some samples of his pinstriping and a quick bio so you’d know his style a little more.  For you west-side cruisers, you better make an appointment! Charlie lives in Connecticut, so if you see him, grab him and his striping kit to lay down some crazy flowing lines.

I’ve included some of my favorite pinstriping from the, “One Arm Bandit” as he’s known. These animal creations and artistic forms he’s blended with sweeping stripes blow me away. I’m not sure I could draw that in a hundred tries and he throws it down freehand in paint right from his mind to the brush.  I don’t know if we’ll see this kind of work on hot rods, but if that’s what you want…

Here’s more about Charlie:

I started striping about 14 years ago around the age of 16. I was influenced by the 50’s style hot rod era and the traditionally styled hot rods I first pinstriped after a few years of practice. A lot of people say my striping has an old style feel with a bit of a twist.

In 1999 I started striping and lettering as a part time job and after about 5 or 6 years I was able to do pinstriping full time and I’ve now been doing so now for almost 4 years.

I’ve been playing around with other types of designs with my striping other than just regular old designs. I’ve been striping animal designs like you see here. A guy asked me to stripe a design of a rabbit about 2 years ago and that sparked my imagination. The picture of the tiger within my portfolio here was one of the first animal designs I did. That lead to some interest from other people, so I’ve been dabbling with other designs like that as well.

I enjoy doing stuff like the animals, because its different. I’ve striped everything, all types of things from antique cars to zippo lighters and everything in between. My favorite jobs are the ones that allow me to really put my all into them. This is when the budget for the work doesn’t matter and I can take as long as I’d like. I think it’s always fun to sit down in front of a huge open canvas, like a big decklid thats been de-emblemized and just go nuts on it. 90% of the time my customers leave it all up to me, so I’d have to say I really enjoy what I do.

If you’ve got a car you need striped or an inner animal you need painted on a panel, Charlie can come to you or you can send him stuff via mail to work his magic on.

e mail – onearmbanditstripes @ hotmail.com (remove the spaces) or call: 973-670-5238 or
Also, friend him at: myspace.com/onearmbanditpinstriping

Thanks for the info and great pinstiping pics Charlie. See all of his work in the pinstriping picture gallery at MyRideisMe.com

Custom Pinstriped Christmas Ornaments

If you haven’t seen my buddy Andy’s Pinstriping blog yet, you need to check it out.  He has something in store for you for this Holiday season.  Check out these Christmas ornaments he has pinstriped.  Very creative and especially cool for us car guys!  I’ve got a set coming my way.  He can even do custom stuff like your initials or think outside the Christmas Box, he could stripe your hot rod car club name.    Tell ‘em Hechtspeed sent ya!

Happy Hot Rod Days!

Hechtspeed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5 Steps for painting Vintage Hot Rod Door Art by Andy’s Pinstriping

Andy from Andy’s Pinstriping gives us 5 Steps for painting Vintage Door Art on Shop Trucks

1. The first thing I like to do is use some wax and grease remover and clean the panel to be painted. This simple step is honestly one of the most critical and most often overlooked steps in any paint project.

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2. I like to make a stencil to help draw out the design. There are several methods I use to achieve the stenciled on pattern. One of the easiest ways is to use a pounce wheel & chalk, but on this particular truck I had no colored chalk, and obviously white wouldn’t do, so I went old school on it and cut the pattern out of poster board with an exact-o knife….five blades and several blisters later ta-da, a handmade stencil.

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3. Finally to the fun part, let’s thrown on some paint! I start by tracing the pattern (after centering it on the door) with a stabilo pencil. After that it’s pretty self explanatory…just fill in the spaces with the one shot color of choice.

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4. The almost finished product. When painting large areas its extremely critical to take your time! Make your brush strokes even (so the paint will flow out smooth) & don’t get the paint too thick…it has a tendency to crinkle up when its too thick. Its better to put on two or three thin coats to achieve full coverage. If you notice in the pictures there is a color difference between the passenger and driver side. This is because the passenger side three coats of paint and the driver side only has one.

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5. Finish work often involves the tedious stuff to include; any cleanup work to make sure your lines are clean & tight, outlining things or in the case of Ryan Hadden’s Truck ‘Plain Lorraine’, some pinstripe work on the hood.

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As for any tips I can think of that would help out, the first one would be to not soley rely on stencils. They are great to speed up the process but be sure to use plenty of freehand work as well. You want your art to look good and appeal to the eye. What you don’t want is to have it look so uniform that it looks like vinyl stickers. Hand painted is always worth more and in most cases is much more respected than cookie cutter stickers.That’s not to say that vinyl doesn’t have it’s place; it’s great for many things, but if you are trying to build a period correct hot rod, it has no place there.

And last but not least…practice, practice, practice. It’s the only way to get better.

Thanks for reading this little tutorial & if you have any questions don’t be afraid to ask.

Andy

Thanks to Andy for providing this “how-to” article.  To see more of Andy’s work, check out his blog “Andy’s Pinstriping”

Internet “Barn Find” #7: Andy’s Pinstriping

During one of my daily classifieds searches, I happened upon a really cool vintage toolbox for sale that was pinstriped.  In the ad was a pinstripers blog, Andy’s Pinstriping.  Of course I had to check it out (and so should you) and that’s when I knew we had to feature Andy’s work at MyRideisMe.com and add his work to our Pinstriping Gallery.

So take a look at Andy’s work and read below a little background info on how he got started.  Believe it or not, Andy’s relatively new to pinstriping, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at his lines.  Go ahead and see what Andy has to say about pinstriping and get ready to be inspired. 

MyRideisMe: How did you get into pinstriping?

Andy: I grew up around hot rods and custom cars, and have always had an artistic streak inside me; I got into painting cars while I was in high school, and I took a 2 year college course in Auto Body & Paint. I have never had any formal training in pinstriping, but I have always respected it as a nearly lost art form, and I just decided to start giving it a go. It’s been a lot of trial and error, but it’s been a lot of fun. Basically, just really enjoying the stripes I would see at the shows inspired me to want to give it a try, and here I am.

MyRideisMe: How long have you been striping?

Andy: I guess that is kind of debatable. I’ve had a few pinstriping brushes and limited colors of oneshot lying around for about 10 years, using it sparingly in custom paint jobs, but It wasn’t actually until last year that I got into pinstriping as a full blown hobby. The kit has grown a lot, I have a lot more brushes and just about every color of oneshot paint. So, for a little over a year I have been doing the old skool stripes that people seem to enjoy.

MyRideisMe: What are your favorite objects to stripe?
Andy: I love to stripe hotrods and motorcycles, but I will stripe Anything! I’ve striped a lot of toolboxes, vases, art panels, purses, peddle bikes, leather jackets…basically, if someone wants some stripes, I’m their man.
MyRideisMe: Who has inspired you as far as pinstriping goes?

Andy: Pretty much any striper I meet inspires me in some way. The striping community seems to be pretty close knit, everyone is friendly and inviting, and I have really enjoyed getting to be a part of that. My biggest inspiration has probably got to be Ed ‘Big Daddy’ Roth, the man was a genius, full of talent and imagination. It’s always fun when someone say’s ‘who’s that’, or points at the fink on my shirt with a grimace on their face and asks what it’s supposed to be. Being able to open people up to Ed is always fun, and I’ve yet to come across someone who wasn’t oddly intrigued by everything the man did. Other artists who have inspired me to pick up the brush include; Kenneth Howard/Von Dutch, Craig Frazier, Wizard, Scratch, Bo Bo, Mike Witt, and the list is always growing. My wife does computer graphics, and has been a tremendous inspiration to me as well. You can find some of her work HERE

MyRideisMe: Any tips for beginners?
Andy: I would recommend people find pictures of stripes that they like. Take pictures at the shows, and just try to recreate the stripes you like. You’ll never want to ‘copy’ anyone per se, but in the beginning when you are just getting started, it’s good to have an idea, something to look at. Also, ask questions. If there is a striper out there that you particularly like, get some input from them on how you can get started. I’m not a wealth of knowledge, but I would be more than willing to help anyone out when it comes to getting started in striping, and I am willing to bet that a lot of other stripers out their would as well.

‘Wizard’ has a few killer instructional videos that can help, and probably more so, watching the stripers at the car shows will give you a lot of insight on the process and tricks of the trade. Biggest advice would be to not give up or get frustrated! Be patient, and expect it to take some time. I started out using stabilo pencils so I could easily modify my stripes if I didn’t like them, I don’t have to do that now, and I owe it all to lots and lots of practice. I look at some of the stuff I did last year and I cringe, but it’s also nice to see the improvements that I have made.

MyRideisMe: What is the best way to get started?
Andy: It’s pretty simple…just do it. Go to your local auto body supply store or cruise the net and get yourself a dagger and a can of one shot, it doesn’t take much to get started. Ask tons of questions, be unique, have lots of fun and just go to town; everything looks better with stripes. I truly believe that if you love this artform, you can excel at it. Strive to get better and push yourself further. Pretty much the motto for everything in life, I suppose.

 

MyRideisMe: Anything else you would like people to know about you or pinstriping?
Andy: I believe pinstriping is a somewhat diminished artform, and I am grateful for the opportunity to talk a bit about it. If I can inspire someone to get out there and give striping a try, that’s pretty exciting, because striping really is a blast. If anyone ever has a question I want them to know they can always ask. Leave me a message on my blog or come hit me up at one of the shows, I’d be happy to help. Thanks again for the opportunity to share, and Stripe on!

So, what are you waiting for?  Get striping guys and gals!  If you know of other pinstripers in your area, send me an email at hechtspeed@myrideisme.com .  Let’s get their work in our Pinstriping Gallery.  I don’t know about you, but  I’m inspired to bust out my old hobby brushes and start playing around.

 

Hechtspeed

Pullin Lines #2: LA Roadster Show Pinstriping

When you find cool hot rods like at Pomona, California’s LA Roadster Show, there’s bound to be great example’s of hot rodding’s art form: Pinstriping.  My man Swanee went nuts at the Roadster show and at the preceding So-cal Open House car show.

Here’s just one example of the slick pinstriping and great photos that we hope we can all learn from:

• What’s out there in pinstriping?
• What colors might work on my car? (let the striper pick, you’ll be glad you did)
• How much is enough pinstriping and what’s too much? (tastes vary!)

So hurry over to the pinstriping picture gallery and also, check out Pullin Lines #1: From Viva Las Vegas pinstriping gallery.

MyRideisMe.com is looking for pinstriping artist to feature in a story and in our gallery.  Links to your website provided.  Let’s see what you’ve got! And if this is your work, please tell us…

Pullin Lines #1: New Pinstriping Picture Gallery

You can’t shake a stick at a hot rod or custom car show or here in the custom garages at MyRideisMe.com without seeing some pinstriping. We added a “Hot Rods and Pinups” gallery cause everyone likes the sexy vintage styled girls… The same kind of thinking made me add a Pinstriping Gallery. It’s just a good fit.

The gallery is LOADED with pictures. Well, not really, there’s only the pictures from the Viva Las Vegas car show, put there’s alot from that show. VLV’s the kind of show where I’d say 80-90% of the cars have custom pinstripes.

Here’s just a few of the pictures in the gallery:

To make the pinstriping gallery happen, we’ll be shooting detailed photos of pinstripes at the shows and races we cover in the Event gallery and more importantly featuring pinstripe artist that are making their living pulling lines all over the country. Look for a story on Von Hot Rod and also my buddy Charlie the “One Arm Bandit”. Charlie’s also got a great community similar to us at Hot Rod Revival. Check it out!

With the pinstripes on hoods, trunks and dashes, I’m also looking for: custom lettering, flames and murals or characatures that you see on race cars and theme cars at shows. Basically, if it’s painted by a pinstripe artist or pinstriping art, I’ll grab it and bring it to you in a blog and in the gallery.

So if you’re a pinstripe artist and you wander over to MyRideisMe.com and this story, drop us a line: pinstripers@myrideisme.com to let us know we can run your short bio and pics of your work in a blog that links to a big’ole gallery. I’ll link to your homepage or let folks know what show’s you’ll be at to return the favor. Sound good? Let us know! Is this the kind of thing you want to see?? “Pikesan, you’re freak’n crazy!” Whatever, let us know…

One-of-a-kind Interior defines this 65 Buick Riviera

House O Speed’s 1965 Buick Riviera.

“THE DEVIL’S DOLLHOUSE”

The are basically two types of rides in this world. The ones you proudly bring home to mother, and then, of course, there’s the other kind — the type you stealthily roll to the curb in with the engine killed and leave tucked in the shadows when you pick up your date.

The HouseOspeed-built 1965 Riviera falls squarely into the second camp. Once you’ve ridden in it, you’ll understand why.

Simply put, interior is swimmin’ in women. Vintage pin-up girls, to precise, the work of a man named Peter Drieben, whose sexy illustrations graced the covers of fifties stag magazines with titles like Whisper, Titter and Eyeful.

The stock headliner has given way to black angel hair, and gray glitter vinyl and orange piping on the seats to match the interior motif. The stitching is the handiwork of Fat Lucky’s Sean Johnstun, now the head upholstery guru at the Austin Speed Shop.

But lest you think that the pin-up girl interior is the entire story, let’s take a moment to touch on a few of the car’s other mods. The 401 nailhead was rebuilt to original specs, and fitted with period-correct Offenhauser accessories, Jet Hot coated stock exhaust manifolds and a throaty dual aluminized exhaust set-up with custom tips. Before returning to its rightful place bettween the front fenders, the Riviera’s rebuilt nailhead was color-matched to car’s colors and the spaghetti of factory wiring was cleaned up and tied down.

To keep tabs on the mechanicals, Mooneyes gauges were brought into the upper center console where the FM radio originally resided. Meanwhile, an upgraded sound system was buried beneath the seats and speakers strategically stashed throughout the interior. A joystick now operates the entire system remotely.

To help the little ladies keep their cool, a Vintage Air AC system was installed, and the car’s suspension was put closer to purgatory by way of an Air Ride suspension, originally installed by Gary Howard several years ago and since been thoroughly updated by John Henson of DB Rodz and Miniz.

The car’s gunmetal gray metallic paint was laid on by Horace Joseph while a mixture of flames, scallops and freestyle pinstriping were laid down by the Frank Palmer (who else?).

Originally purchased in California, the Riviera surrendered the its original black and yellow California plates after the Day family’s relocation to Texas. Shortly after arriving in Texas, I stumbled upon a pair of vintage 65 Texas plates that were too good to pass up. The three numbers on the plate that caught my attention? “666”. It was these plates, in fact, that inspired the car’s nickname.

Today, the Devil’s Dollhouse can be found slinking around the streets of Austin, Texas when not rolling into car shows to help promote Cameron’s hot-rod related businesses, HouseOspeed.com and Hotrodshiftknob.com.
One can’t help but wonder if Cameron’s teenage sons will be borrowing his Riviera for their prom dates. If they do, one thing will be made infinitely clear. They had better remember to park it in the shadows.

The Day’s know how to build a sweet ride. Check out their garage’s custom cars. Then, make sure to check out the the story MyRideisMe.com did about the Day’s other ride: 1965 Tiki Suburban and if you’re a Buick fan, check out Ed’s 1956 Buick Special.

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