chancey77

I was the only one who tried, and I am swamped with work...oh well.... I guess we go back to letting twin oaks pic the challenge topic...guess i should have chosen a sheridan flower or a deer head something more boring to me....oh well...whatever, I thought is was an awesome challenge, it is as hard and challenging as the design that you pick, could be real easy or super complicated. I thought it would get more beginners to chip in, ...it could be very challenging and there are millions of different designs... Oh well......

I know! I am having trouble keeping in all my excitement! And it is going to be a fine line between over doing it and just the right amount. F' Brian Setzer...I am making it something I would drive...hahahahha Just kidding I love the Stray Cats! But here is one of my vids so you know where I am coming from...Sixgun Republic That is my band if you haven't guessed!...hahaha And here is one from the Harley Davidson Super Rally- YYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAA! There are a lot more on youtube if you want to watch them....

ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE! AHAHAHA I am sure there is some gold leaf coming it was on his last paint job, that was right after he rebuilt the bike for the 3rd time in 8 years:)

PM SENT-

It is ok to make just a show cover, but think about this if you can find some leather to match the blue. And make the seats 2 toned as well. The Tops white and the sides Blue, that way there is a contrast from the tank and the seat, it is opposite and may make it POP. I don't think elastic will work well, it might not stretch it tight enough not to look cheesy, but maybe just some small eyelets and put some lace through the eyes so you can make it tight...maybe the same blue in lace you could just hand cut that from the blue leftovers leave them long and put some white beads on the endds, and that could add a little more drama..... Don't worry about the studs, I don't think that will be a factor. Or you could always line the inside,sides with a 8-9 oz veg tan to give a ridged side structure so the studs for sure won't stick out. Just use contact cement to glue them in to the inside sides. That is my 2 cents....

I gave a rough quote and put a price on the panels. Anything over 2,000 I allow Monthly payments for the next year:) I am keeping a real good log "as always" on the time spent so I will know the hours, I will let y'all know how long it took:) He has been one of my best clients, getting me a lot of work, he is also a pinstriper, so we are haggling a little trade work , but it is only an hour for hour trade, and he might save about 15 hrs....I have a Gretsch Guitar that needs some striping:) We are great friends, he has brought me about A LOT of work and he is getting a friend hook up, but I still don't give away time:) We are both happy:) He has already bought all the materials and will be put to work helping me lace these monsters with a triple loop stitch...hahahaha we already have another leather order in for the Bench Seat as well, I will be busy for a while but only putting in about 100hrs per month and doing other projects on my list between his hours. I have a 2 month wait list as it is already and people are bitting at the bit for their jobs as well. Plus motorcycle season is coming and that is when it really gets crazy! I have a Telecastor job coming as soon as the guy makes up his mind to either have us build him a dream tele or just cover his Fender Custom Shop Tele....my hands hurt even thinking about all that lace:)

Creaser, shrinker and english wheel:)

Ya the polymer thing works ok on small stuff, but the impressions won't last, no reason for any more mocking up, i have started with the knife work already.. I have done quite a bit of pyrography, usually on shoes or small bags that are not real leather, and the problem with the wood burner is consistency, without owning a 500€ temp control unit it is pretty hard to keep the burn consistent. I do use the wood burner quite a lot for various projects but not for these door panels.Plus even when you are done you still have to brush in black dye; so really in the end the old school methods of stylus, knife and bevel,and backgrounders really do work the best. No worries about temps here the hottest it gets is 93 f and that is rare...Summers here are normally around 85 tops.. not to rub it in but it is for sure one of the top reasons I like living here. But with that, we also here brutal winters that last till March. So riding season is short, but driving in the snow is great fun as well:) There is a lot of motorcycle guys here that when winter comes they bust out the 2" ice spike tires and go racing to kill some time, I haven't done it yet, but it looks like a blast!

OMG ! That is looking sweet! You are surely walking a little faster now with the right tool!!!!!!!!!!!!! One little tip for you is always work toward yourself and try to get the pressure to be more on the corner that is away from you and make sure you are right on the swivel cut...I still cross the line from time to time, but it is ok:) When you brush dye it that little mistake will go away:) For the tight spots I just tilt the tool and use the corner, pushing away the corner closest to me, pulling the tool in tight spots i use the corner that is away from me...putting one on the belt sander and trimming it narrower would probably work for sure! But I have always gotten away with just the one i have...there have been a couple times I did wish it was skinnier....I also just posted some progress on todays work...the 51'FORD PROJECT! CHECK IT OUT! HERE IS THE BRUSH BREAK DOWN AS WELL:) PAGE 5 IN THE NEW BOOK....CONVERSATIONS WITH A CYBERTHRASHER...HAHAHA

Ok Hey Ho Lets Go! So we are getting some general progress made on design starting today, we had hundreds of pictures to go through for the images, and still a lot more to do to the passenger door panel, I will be filling in some gaps with some more original artwork . The Ford logs we have 3 different pinstriped Ford logos and pieces I liked from all 3 so I will be mixing them as I actually get started...At first we where going to make a 1 cm extra skin for lace and fold it over the back before lace, but now we decided to cut them flush and after making the slits/holes for the lace that I would drill out the wood and lace directly to the plywood backing. More to come:)........I am just getting started finally, so here we go! I am thinking to move this post and project to the Motorcycle Part of the Forum...

That is a great calculator! Thanks it is now in my favorites!

The client has a 2500€ Fender Custom Shop guitar...so gluing is not going to happen to that guitar, I think what we have decided is to actually build him the guitar of his dreams, and possibly sell the Fender Custom shop to bank roll it...I work very closely with a Luthier and he will be doing the guitar build and I will be doing the leather. And then I will feel very comfortable gluing it to the raw body instead of a 800 dollar custom shop body and ruining the factory finish...so we will go with a ground up build....it will be a couple months before I start on this project do to my other jobs list, but we are currently planning the build. Custom built Tele 1500 Leather 1700 That will be the budget now. Thanks for all of your replies and help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It isn't very often I ask for any:)

Well don't feel that bad...you work with reptiles...I work with leather everyday...so ya it had actually been 2 days for the leather,,,,now that I think about it more...no it was 3 days the seat pan had to be made by hand!!!!!!!....

I didn't really want to write a tutorial on this seat...after all a picture says a thousand words:) So here is 3 days to conjure carve and mount this seat for my friend and client on his home built 57 Panhead! He made a lot of the custom metal parts for the bike. Like the Brass Crown gas cap which is amazing! Beginning with my seat pan, and some thin neoprene, because it is a springer it didn't need much padding. All the way through the end of 3 days when we mounted it and he kick started his bike and left my shop:) I know some folks wanted to see some Brush techniques and here is a decent example....there is a few more of my secrets buried in these phots, so if you study them you can get some easy time savers...I tried to show the tools I used during the process...except for ya i din't paint the dye on with a hammer...hahaha Anyway ENJOY! You can't as much as Kaj does but hey, you gotta build your own bike for that! Chancey

SO HERE IS A BRUSH PICTURE AND EXPLANATION FOR YALL:) PAGE 5 IN MY NEW BOOK...HAHAHA.

Up to my eye balls in work, but I will hopefully be able to finally get around to starting that patina video this weekend. I already had an old seat pan bottom that was cut out so I put the death before dishonor logo on it, now it is just ready to get whacked beaten,dragged played with by the kids and general bad luck for the greater good:) hahahah INSERT EVIL LAUGH HERE!!!!!