I'm heading down to the Big 3 Antique Auto Swap meet in San Diego, with my old pal Bob Hill. He built this '32 3 window coupe as a tribute to his late Pops, who founded the ACES car club back in 1952.
I'll being taking lots of pics for the blog so check back and have a great weekend.

Yeah, We Can Do That.

At CCHR, we can build an entire car from the ground up or help you build it yourself. Brent Nightingale  owns this '37 Ford Pickup Truck that he pretty much built himself. He was having a hell of a time adjusting the brakes and couldn't get it to stop right. So he brought it to us and we go it sorted out.

So if you've got something you need help with give us a call. We specialize in working on Hotrods, Kustoms, Classics and even Race cars.

Weekends are made for fun!

So everyone that knows me, knows that I work a lot! I usually work on Saturdays and sometimes I sneak down there on Sundays.  So last Saturday I woke up at 5 am,  Went and watched TV then fell back asleep until 9, I usually never do that!  I am normally out of the house by 6:30 getting breakfast at Kimmies, then at the shop working by 7-7:30. So after waking up at 9, my wife made me breakfast and I lounged around watching TV,  It was at this time that I decided I am not working today!  So I spent some time playing with my little man indoors, then after the rain stopped I decided that we needed to go have some outdoor fun.  We got in the car and drove to Santiago Oaks Regional Park, Unfortunately the park was closed.  I remembered there was a back entrance kind of by the cemetary,  so we were able to sneak in there and go do some exploring.  Little Jimmy and I had so much fun hiking back there,  It was really neat explaining to him that I used to go explore there when I was a kid.

Sunday was more of the same lounging and relaxing,  then we decided to go down to the Fun Zone in Newport and then take the ferry to Balboa Island.  We walked around Balboa and had lunch at Amelias, Amelias has been there for 50 years and has really good Italian food.  After lunch we walked around a bit more then headed back to the fun zone were Little Jimmy went on the bungie swing.  It was another fun filled,relaxing family day.  Its weird I was totally detached from my world that I am normally in, no cars,welding, stress.  I think its good to step back everyone once in awhile and enjoy life and your loved ones, I am going to make a point of doing this kind of stuff more often.


  

No Way Jose

My compadre Jose, from the ACES car club, just picked up this Belly tank:

Can't wait to see what he builds with it. Keep us posted Brother. BTW this Studebaker Pickup is his Daily driver.

LOWTECH Calendar

My friend Marc put together a calendar with some of his favorite pics. He even included a shot of the '33 in there. Thanks Marc. Check it out HERE...

A Man Never Has Enough...

On a recent trip to Big Bear Mountain we stopped off in Lake Arrowhead for a cup of Joe and discovered this...

I wasn't sure what to expect because all the Pendleton's I own are vintage. I knew they were still around but wasn't sure if they still made the old stuff

 Low and behold, they had a great selection of the same plaid shirts you used to find at Thrift Stores (not any more). They weren't thrift store prices but still good value at up to 75% off retail.

They had some good stuff for the girls too

We steered clear of the Dumb and Dumber section.

 The store sits right on Lake Arrowhead. I took this picture from a window inside the store.

I couldn't resist adding one more shirt to my collection because you know what they say...

Zero to Hero

About 4 years ago my friend Jeremy showed me an issue of Hot Bike Japan. The whole magazine was devoted to Zero Engineering .Their custom bikes (mostly Harleys) were like nothing I had ever seen. One builder in particular stuck out: Shinya Kimura, one of the founders of Zero Engineering. As you can see from the video every detail on his bikes is amazing. He's since moved on from Zero Engineering and started his own company here in California called Chabbot Engineering. Henrik Hansen did a great job capturing Shinya's passion. My favorite video from 2010.

Shinya Kimura from Adam Richards on Vimeo.

Long Beach Auto Swap

Last Sunday I hit the Long Beach Auto Swap. I saw some good stuff and walked away with few good finds.

This thing was about 10" long and is gas powered

I liked these scoops

This was for sale. I really liked the rear nerf bar

I was talking to the guy that built this and told him about my '33 Roadster. He knew the car and remembered seeing it at the Primer Nationals in 2009. He originally thought it was a fiberglass body but then he read the article in Rod and Custom he couldn't believe it was steel. I actually get that a lot.

He also makes these calendars. They have all the important dates on there like, every antique auto swap meet in the USA. Over 100 swap meets and they're printed on the back too.

Speaking of Antique Swap Meets, next weekend is The Big Three in San Diego. I know I'll be there.

Living The Dream

Wednesday Night/Squeak White

There is a tradition at Chrisman's shop on wednesday nights, all their friends stop by, hang out and throw back a few cold ones.  I was first introduced to Chrisman's shop in 1995 when I went to their Christmas party with Bob Brooks, my boss at the time, and Dale Armstrong.  I can remember walking into that shop in complete amazement at the cars they were building.  After I toured the Chrisman shop I can distinctly remember Dale Armstrong saying "If you like that, wait to you see what they have going on in this shop over here". We then went into the shop of Steve Davis and Squeak White, I am pretty sure that is when I first saw metal work of that caliber.  I couldnt understand it, and I was completely intrigued by it.  From that day forward Squeak became one of my heroes! Squeak is one of those guys that is about as humble as they come while doing some of the best work I have ever seen. Fast Forward alot of years and many Christmas parties, Squeak and I have become friends, and his shop has become a regular stop for me on Wednesday night.  I always look forward to seeing what he is working on and quizzing him about his fabrication methods. So last Wednesday night Jeff Neppl and I cruised over to shoot the shit with the guys and visit squeak.  While I was there I managed to snap some quick shots of his shop and some of the projects he has going on. Squeak picked up a 54 Chevy not to long ago,  and I cant wait to see the transformation from stocker to one of the best customs ever built!  I cant wait till he chops the top on that thing!!

Just another day at the Shop

It's been a little over six months since we moved to the new location. We've been pretty busy building cars with not much time to polish this place up. We want to host an open house soon but until then, here's a few shots from around the shop.