Lumber St. shop | customsbyflash

The Lumber Street garage

The first shop I rented on my own. From 1991 until 1998 it was a fun place to be, and we turned out a lot of very nice cars. I couldn't have done without the help of many friends, the first and foremost was Rusty Damm. He was a strict taskmaster, and kept things going ahead all the time. He passed away in 2002 and I still miss him.

Other friends who helped build projects were Hector Fajaro, Nick Rivera, Tony Losito, Jimmy Damm, and Lefty Rappetti. We all had some beautiful cars and traveled to car shows together often.

Nick Rivera's Mustang Nick was a fine mechanic at Exxon Research, who did all the upgrades and mechanicals on his Mustang. It had an HO 5.0 liter, 5 speed, and a centrifugal supercharger. To upgrade the looks, Nick chose a dark version of Candy Burgundy, which I mixed a custom base for.	Joe's 1969 Camaro Joe came form a recommendation of another customer, and I restored the body and painted his 69 with a modern dark green base/clear, to which I added a bit of gold pearl to.	Jim Morgan 1957 Chevy Jim's car wasn't' in very bad shape, but still needed a lot of attention. Did the bodywork and paint, and also painted and detailed the dash and engine compartment. I made several pieces there, such as an underhood support, battery cover, and radiator cover, all of which were then chrome plated.
1966 Chevy Impala Pete Prachthauser was a customer ofJohn P's when I got to know him. John had built him a 39 Chevy sedan custom. Later, Pete had John begin to fix up this convertible, but it never was finished. When I opened shop, Pete brought it to me for final bodywork, and a Tri Coat Red paint job, similar to a Candy Apple paint. Lots of modification went into fitting those Mercury skirts to fit the Chevy body!	Harley custom paint Did this for a customer in Candy Tangerine and Candy Red.	1966 Olds 442 convertible Restored this 442 for Randy Hurley using all stock pieces, and even did it in lacquer paint.
Trans Am hood John Donato's Trans am was done in Candy Apple Red, and originally, he wanted the vinyl sticker put on the hood. I resisted, but came up with the suggestion that we use the sticker as a template, and mask and paint the "flaming chicken" in 3 different shades of flip flop pearl. It took 40 hours of masking and painting to do it, but it came out magnificent!	John Donato Trans Am Here is my team masking off the hood graphic. I made a pounce pattern of the vinyl sticker, then transfered it to the hood with powdered chalk. I would then mask off the edges, and the rest of the guys would finish the masking and papering. Here's Lefty, Nick, John Donato, and Hector doing just that, while I was off mixing my pearls.	1953 Indian Chief This one belonged to Stan Orear's brother, Rob. I matched the original Indian colors to modern paints.
Tie die guitar! This is Tony G's guitar that I painted to match his favorite T shirt. I enjoy doing fun and different things like this!	1959 Chevy Justin wanted flames on his 59 Chevy, and we accommodated him. Shades of blue candy and pearl to match the blue interior.	Rusty's 55 engine Well detailed engine compartment, with smoothed firewall and color matched to the car.
1953 Packard Les Miller's car done over. He had it Pro-Steeted by now. This time he had us weld up the rear doors, and move the roof forward to give a business coupe look to the car. I chopped it, and changed the rear window to a smaller Dodge one. He wanted the bumpers painted, and the paint itself was a fade from a very pale yellow pearl roof, down to an orange-y deeper yellow pearl on the bottom. Then came Candy Magenta flames, with a second set of pinstriped flames interweaving through the first set.	1966 Lemans Tony Losito had us completely redo the body on his Pontiac, and shoot it in a beautiful shade of Black Rose, though it doesn't show well in pictures.	1955 Chevy Rusty Damm's Chevy, the first body off, rotisserie restoration we did. Russ chose the best of everything for his project, AC, PS, PDB, tilt and tele wheel, and a 400+ HP 327 he built himself, with Doug Nash 5 speed. Painted Lexus burgundy pearl, with 2 sets of ghost flames.
Matt Hermann 67 Camaro Full bodywork, detailed engine and compartment, and bright red paint set Matt's car apart from the rest. He and his dad built the hot big block Chevy engine.	1969 Camaro Owned by my supervisor at Exxon, Warren Eckert, he did all the mechanical work and modifications, including a tuned port engine. We replaced quarter panels, repaired rust, and painted it bright red. Warren move to Houston, and I believe for 2 years, won "Editor's Choice" at the Super Chevy show there.	1969 Camaro Bob Scutro owned this beauty. A full body off, rotisserie resto, with tons of modifications, and detailing. Bright white, with glass sign beads, to sparkle in the sun, but not look like dirt in the paint. The typical 90's graphics on it for show. I later redid the car, to even higher detailing and show car standards.
1969 GTO Dave Terry had brought this to me after another shop did such a bad resto on it, he was embarrassed to drive it! We had to do full floors, to replace the other shop's fiberglass cover-up, quarters, and lots of rust repair. Then painted in the stock colors. IIRC, the front Enduro bumper was a real bear to repair!	1965 T Bird Pete Prachthauser was so happy with the 66 Impala, he bought this 65 T Bird for his wife, Tillie. It was in almost pristine condition, but needed new black paint to look like brand new.	1976 Sportster Did this Sporty for Herb Barry. Candy Teal with ghost flames.

The Lumber Street garage

Nick Rivera's Mustang

Nick was a fine mechanic at Exxon Research, who did all the upgrades and mechanicals on his Mustang. It had an HO 5.0 liter, 5 speed, and a centrifugal supercharger. To upgrade the looks, Nick chose a dark version of Candy Burgundy, which I mixed a custom base for.

Joe's 1969 Camaro

Joe came form a recommendation of another customer, and I restored the body and painted his 69 with a modern dark green base/clear, to which I added a bit of gold pearl to.

Jim Morgan 1957 Chevy

Jim's car wasn't' in very bad shape, but still needed a lot of attention. Did the bodywork and paint, and also painted and detailed the dash and engine compartment. I made several pieces there, such as an underhood support, battery cover, and radiator cover, all of which were then chrome plated.

1966 Chevy Impala

Harley custom paint

Did this for a customer in Candy Tangerine and Candy Red.

1966 Olds 442 convertible

Restored this 442 for Randy Hurley using all stock pieces, and even did it in lacquer paint.

Trans Am hood

John Donato Trans Am

1953 Indian Chief

This one belonged to Stan Orear's brother, Rob. I matched the original Indian colors to modern paints.

Tie die guitar!

This is Tony G's guitar that I painted to match his favorite T shirt. I enjoy doing fun and different things like this!

1959 Chevy

Justin wanted flames on his 59 Chevy, and we accommodated him. Shades of blue candy and pearl to match the blue interior.

Rusty's 55 engine

Well detailed engine compartment, with smoothed firewall and color matched to the car.

1953 Packard

1966 Lemans

Tony Losito had us completely redo the body on his Pontiac, and shoot it in a beautiful shade of Black Rose, though it doesn't show well in pictures.

1955 Chevy

Rusty Damm's Chevy, the first body off, rotisserie restoration we did. Russ chose the best of everything for his project, AC, PS, PDB, tilt and tele wheel, and a 400+ HP 327 he built himself, with Doug Nash 5 speed. Painted Lexus burgundy pearl, with 2 sets of ghost flames.

Matt Hermann 67 Camaro

Full bodywork, detailed engine and compartment, and bright red paint set Matt's car apart from the rest. He and his dad built the hot big block Chevy engine.

1969 Camaro

1969 Camaro

1969 GTO

1965 T Bird

Pete Prachthauser was so happy with the 66 Impala, he bought this 65 T Bird for his wife, Tillie. It was in almost pristine condition, but needed new black paint to look like brand new.

1976 Sportster

Did this Sporty for Herb Barry. Candy Teal with ghost flames.