Rich Evans (35)
Rich Evans is the owner of Huntington Beach Bodyworks and an award winning painter and fabricator. He offers workshops in repair and customization at his facility to share his unique talents. He also appears on a new show on Speed Channel, Car Warriors. See his Twitter (left) and Facebook (right) feeds for more on Rich's active projects.
For contacts and design samples visit www.huntingtonbeachbodyworks.com
Barrett-Jackson DIY Event Draws Fans and Future Body Techs
Written by Rich EvansI was out at Barrett-Jackson in Phoenix last month with a good buddy of mine, Alan Taylor, from Entertainment Radio. I wrote about Alan in last month’s column (autobodynews.com/columnists/rich-evans.html in case you missed it) but that was about SEMA 2011. In Phoenix at the Barrett-Jackson auctions Alan put together something called A World of DIY (as in ‘Do it Yourself’).
To view a PDF of this article please click HERE.
Alan reached out to me and asked me to come there and show off some tools and demonstrate building a car. I said ‘yes’ without hesitation, “I’ll pack up some tools and drive out there and see what you guys have put together.” He told me “we’ve got a 12,000 square-foot DIY pavilion” inside a tent and we’re going to have a project car there. It doesn’t matter to me what car I’m working on because regardless I’m going to try to do something cool with it. When I found out it was an 1972 El Camino I suggested a toned-down concept. Something clean, more modern. You know, simplify the car and give it that old school look, a couple of rally stripes and choose a great color, add some rims, and we’ve got a car that brings back that 70s feel and some muscle.
I put a concept together, sent it off to Alan, and he’s got feedback right away. “Dude, can you put this blue color on?”, including a paint photo. We collaborated on a concept and a design. I like working this way because when I get there everybody’s not going to ask me what I’m building (because they’ll already have seen the concept.) I don’t like having to sound like a broken record answering the same question over and over and over.
Doing a Charity Build for Patriot Outreach on a Donated Mustang
Written by Rich EvansAlan Taylor from Motor Trend Radio called me last fall to say he had partnered up with eBay Motors to ‘personalize’ a 2012 5.0L Mustang donated by Galpin Ford, and auction it during SEMA 2011. He wanted to put a team together to take the car from “stock to extreme,” but still street legal. I was in.
To view a PDF of this article please click HERE.
They also wanted to do a video-for-the-web program about personalizing the car from start to finish. The program is called modJOBS, and you can go to eBay Motors and watch our 6–8 minute episodes at cc.ebay.com/ mod-jobs. It’s narrated by Alan and Dennis Pittsenbarger from Hot Rod Magazine Live. (I come in on episode #3, Sweet and Low.) So modJOBS makes it fun, everybody gets to team up and you get to follow along by watching the episodes of how to build a vehicle and how to add accessories and what’s available out there for these new vehicles.
Alan said the car would be auctioned on Ebay and the proceeds would go to a charity called Patriot Outreach (www.patriotoutreach.org) to contribute to treating PTSD. The ultimate team would include Vick Edelbrock, Jr. (supercharged engine); Revo Reeves (interior), Ryan ‘Ryno’ Templeton (paint), and me (modified design and fabrication).
I love building cars and was happy to put time and effort to benefit the people that have served our country and are the real heroes. They go over and risk or sacrifice their lives to make better lives for us. Here was a chance to give something back.
So we started off with Galpin’s 2012 5.0L Mustang with the goal of putting some more personality behind it to represent the men and women that serve our country and provide some benefits when they get back from serving.
Solution Finish’s Brings Black Back™ is a Breakthrough Product
Written by Rich EvansI’ve missed you guys the last couple of months because I’ve been really slammed with great projects and getting ready for SEMA, but I’m back with a lot of great news and some great projects.
To view a PDF of this article please click HERE.
I’ve been fascinated with a product from a company that I came across about six months ago called Solution Finish. They have a product called Brings Black BackTM that is in a class by itself. Just like I do with everything, I put it to the 6 month test. I’m so excited about this product that I’m putting my name to it (see ad). I’m not just endorsing this product, I’m part owner of the company and I’m glad to be a part of Solution Finish. This is going to go viral and be used to fix millions of cars from here on out.
If you’ve worked on cars for a while you’ve noticed that the black plastic or the black finish on your windshield wipers fade over time. This problem is due to the carbon in the plastic and carbon is what makes the color whether it’s black, brown, grey. There’s never really been a product that could really fix these problems. A lot of us just came to accept that there is nothing that can repair the problem. Eventually the sun and the wear and tear, the carbon is eventually going to fade. Now I know that there are silicones that you can wipe on to make the surface shiny and slimy, but it wipes off on your towel or rubs off on your clothes. It attracts dirt, and after one or two washes it comes off anyway. You can also slip if you get it on your running boards; it’s just a real temporary fix.
This Year’s Entry for the SEMA Pinewood Derby 2011
Written by Rich EvansSome readers will remember that last year I built a Pinewood Derby model car, raced it at SEMA, and took second place. I told myself last year that this year I was going to really stay within the traditional Pinewood Derby build using a single block of wood. A ‘Celebrity Pinewood Derby’ build is what they were calling it. It’s all about having fun and auctioning off the cars to benefit Childhelp and Victory Junction Gang Camp. I’m all about charities and fundraising and whatever I can do to give back.
To view a PDF of this article please click HERE.
This year I decided to get creative and came up with a pretty cool design. There are rules in Pinewood Derby racing and building and so “maximum weight limit of this car cannot exceed 24 ounces, overall length shall not exceed 8˝ , overall width of the car shall not exceed 2.75˝ including wheels. The car must have approximately 3/8˝ clearance underneath the body of the car, the car must have 4 wheels, all cars must display at least one HRIA decal on the car.”
The organizers provide a basic pinewood car kit including a block of wood, 4 wheels, and two axles. “The only required component is a piece of the wood block which must be visible on the car. You are not required to use any wheels or axles provided. Any materials may be used for the body of your car.” So that’s cool, but for me, for a Pinewood derby build, I want to stay traditional and use a hand tool to carve it out. To me that’s the fun of building a pinewood derby car.
This month I’m working on a project that I call re-do, nobody likes to do re-dos. About 6 to 8 months ago I did a ‘57 Thunderbird and I repaired the front end. I wrote a story for Autobody News (April 2010, Working On a ‘57 Thunderbird With Old School Tools & Techniques, which you can easily find in my column section at autobodynews.com) about it, but what I want to talk about this month is making choices and taking the extra time to take it all the way back. What I mean is why I made decisions to do it one way and not another and why they came back to bite me: 1) costing me my labor and 2) material, and 3) an inconvenience for the customer. All of the above are red flags for future repairs.
To view the full text of this article with photos please click HERE.
Going back to this ‘57 Thunderbird, I took the hood, we stripped it down around the edges just so I could get the gapping right. I made a decision not to take the paint all the way off because 1) I didn’t want to find more body work and 2) I didn’t want to warp the hood and cause a need for more body work.
What I did was grind and remove about 12 inches of paint on the front where I did the repair and then I took about 3 inches all the way around the hood just to get the build up of the paint. I thought I would come in, Bondo™ around it, true it up right up to the paint where I’m not really causing myself any more work and I’m just blending the Bondo™ into the paint thickness, which wasn’t too bad. So, as I got the Bondo™ to meet up to the paint, the additional paint that I left on the hood—which is a laquer—was kind of gummy. That was another reason why I didn’t want to strip it down.
I was planning to come in with some PCL Primer, which I did, and loaded it up because that pretty much hardens itself and it’s been pretty much bullet-proof since I’ve been using it. Taking it to that point, we blocked the hood, got it painted, put it on the car and sent the car off.
Repairing Quarter Panel, Bumper, and Molding: No Time, No Money
Written by Rich EvansChallenges—they seem like they’re always coming up. Since I did the Car Warriors TV show, where we were always fighting the clock with only 72 hours to build a complete car, it seems like everybody wants to hit me with a time challenge. My buddy, Diggity Dave, you might know him from the Pimp My Ride TV show, called me up to throw out a challenge.
To view the full text of this article with photos please click HERE.
Dave backed his 2002 Escalade into a brick wall and ripped about a three inch tear down the right quarter panel. He also hit the rear bumper and tore the right molding. Here’s the real problem: Dave’s got to have his SUV back the following day, which is exactly 24 hours, because he’s got a big meeting for a new movie he’s doing and he can’t show up with his ride damaged.
Now he’s asking to get this fixed in 24 hours (seemingly impossible, right?) so I’m thinking how to create a process that can make this happen in 24 hours. I’ve got to replace the quarter panel, the rear bumper and the molding. To top it off, he says, ‘I’ve got zero budget’ so this is a ‘bro deal.’ I’ve got to do what I’ve got to do and use what I have on the table.
Here are the steps and the processes that I used to beat the clock. You can judge if I was successful. The first thing I decide is ‘no parts,’ we’ve got to fix everything. I see that I need to cut a window—try to keep everything as small as possible—especially to cut and replace a piece with another piece of metal. The metal was actually 20 gauge, so I checked the gauge of metal to make sure I was replacing it exactly.
Remaking a 1941 Chevy Deluxe Back-End with an English Wheel
Written by Rich EvansThis month is a current project I’m working on which is a 1941 Chevrolet Deluxe STD two-door sedan. This is for some of you fabricators out there and other body men who know that sometimes you can’t just replace parts or parts aren’t available. This 1941 Chevy was rear-ended and the impact damaged the deck lid, the left quarter panel, the bumper filler and the floor. So I’m having to repair this deck lid because there aren’t any deck lids available, or at least any metal deck lids. Chevys of the ‘40s offer a fiber glass one but this customer wants metal. You know some customers are different, some will play off the fiber glass. Sometimes you can look for used deck lids and I put my feelers out there and I could not find any used deck lids for this ‘41 Chevy. The problem is the ‘41 Chevy is the only year that those deck lids would fit, especially for the sedans. From ‘42 to ‘48 they’re all interchangeable. So that narrows the options a lot .We’ve got a vehicle that doesn’t offer this deck lid as a match for any other year.
To view a PDF of this article please CLICK HERE.
The best way to start this process is to take the deck lid off and strip it all the way down to metal, so there’s maybe 65–70 years worth of body work, bondo, paint, etc. I strip all the metal off inside and outside. From that point we’re going to depick the skin from the frame and there’s special tools out there for that. You can find them through Eastwood and different speciality companies like VIMTools. These guys carry specialty equipment where you can go back and pull things apart without damaging them too badly. Next I drilled the spot welds out then depicked it with a depick tool to roll that edge back out. I take my time on this. I don’t try to get into it too hard because these panels are 70 years old and they’re going to be brittle and have rust in them. If you’re too rough you’re going to have to go back and repair them.
The Rich Evans Designs-Mopar Kit for Dodge’s Challenger, Part 2 Featured
Written by Rich EvansThis article is a continuation from Rich’s column last month. For an archive of Rich’s columns please visit www.autobodynews.com/columnists/Rich Evans.
To view a PDF of this article please CLICK HERE.
A lot of times when I’m taking parts off the car and putting them back on, from mock up position I’ll go into the doors and the hinges and drill two 1/8th inch holes. That way I can stick two 1/8th inch dowels through, tighten up the parts and then they’re right back to where I was before so I don’t have to take the time to re-line everything up. That way when I do my graphics, they’re going to line up. So I do the same with the hood, deck lid; I really don’t have to worry about the fenders—on some projects you do, but on this one I don’t.
So after getting the graphics layed out, it’s time to tear it back down again. Now I’m ready for my graphic color, True Blue Pearl part number PBC36AB.
The Rich Evans Designs-Mopar Kit for Dodge’s Challenger Featured
Written by Rich EvansWe unveiled our made over 2010 RT Challenger at the Mopar booth at SEMA in November, 2010 (see cover photo). This is one of the coolest and most interesting projects I have ever had the pleasure to work on. Collaborating with the Mopar team has been a blast. A hard part was going through Mopar catalogs and deciding which parts and accessories to use.
To view a pdf of this article please CLICK HERE.
This is a two-part article on how the project developed and to run through the steps and procedures required to build the car itself but also fabricating the parts supplied in the kit.
It started back in July when I teamed up with Mopar to develop a kit to turn the 2010 Challenger into a Mopar–Rich Evans build. A ‘more modern muscle car’ was the look we were going for and we wanted to able to install all my body parts within a two-hour period. I had about three months of work to do on this project to get the original car ready for SEMA 2010.
This column is part three of Rich Evans’ column continued from our September 2010 issue titled Building a numbered car exactly like the Red Mist in the movie “Kick-Ass.” To read this column with photos as a PDF CLICK HERE.
To read the previous parts to the column go to www.autobodynews.com > columns > Rich Evans.
As with last month’s (part two) article I’m going to go into some detail on the finishing of Woody’s Red Mist.
We left off with sanding with the Soft-Sanders™ blocks. I continue to use the same blocks, with my color sand system. I’m going to cut it down with 800, then cut with 1000 followed by 1200, then 1500, 2000, and finally 2500 sand paper. I come over it with the 6 inch DA on the areas I can reach with 3000. That just makes my buffing system a lot easier. So after 3000 (with the help of the 3M five step system that they call Perfect Finish. The 3000 grit sand paper is usually on a hook back, so I’m using a foam disk with the p3000, (PN02085, without the foam backing is PN02075).
Building A Numbered Car Exactly Like the Red Mist, Part Two
Written by Rich EvansThis column is part two of Rich Evans’ column from our July 2010 issue titled Building a numbered car exactly like the Red Mist in Kick Ass.
To read that column go to www.autobodynews.com > columns > Rich Evans.
To view a PDF of this article please CLICK HERE.
Back to the Red Mist project. The car is identical to the one in the movie Kick Ass and is on its way back to Woody Frees and his sons. Paying attention to detail and quality is what it’s all about. Never be in too much a hurry to do a project. Just make sure you get it done right.
Let’s review the steps and procedures that it took to get Woody’s car done and on the road back to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. When we we left off in July I had just widened the rear end 3 inches, installed my body kit, mocked it up, and we used the mar-glass fine hair (from Marson®) to bond the body kit to the 2008 GT Mustang. Now to shape the rear flares so it’s part of the body and also mold in the rockers to the fender and the rocker panel. I’m going to use the mar-glass to blend it because it’s stronger material than the Bondo™. I use the 3M® tape and I’ll align myself about 2 inches away from where I want to mold the two panels together. That way when I’m spreading the mar-glass I’ll be able to pull the tape and not have so much extra sanding work. You’re not really having a heavy build but you have enough build to seam that metal to the fiberglass and not have the seam break loose after primering and painting it. That’s why I chose the mar-glass. It’s a short-strand fiberglass reinforced auto body filler. I’ll apply Bondo™ on top of that. After 2 or 3 days getting these panels shaped up with 36 grit. I’m going to use the Soft-Sanders™ with this body kit. The Soft-Sander™ blocks are an everyday use of mine anyways, but these blocks really truly save me up to 75% of the time because of all the shapes that they come in. So I’m able to get in the grooves. I’m able to sand a continuous stroke and also shape better with the Soft-Sander™ blocks just because you’re able to form them to the radius of what you’re sanding. They come in different sizes: 4-inch, 8-inch and 12-inch. With my body kit it’s really got a lot of shape to it so these blocks are able to get me there quicker. If you go to www.softsanders.com you can get a whole list of their product. I’ve always said time is money and this product is a time and money saver. I wish I had run across it 15 years ago.
