Recently, I was fortunate enough to be able to go up to the Pomona Fairplex for the annual Grand National Roadster Show.  It was amazing!  Masses of people were milling about (I heard there were 40,000 folks there, grand total), and there were, of course, loads of cool cars, roadsters, trucks, and motorcycles to look at.

The main focus of the competition is, of course, the roadster, and there were so many awesome projects that caught my eye, but I just wanted to share a few of the highlights of my trip with you.

This was, hands down, my favorite roadster – actually, it’s a truck-roadster combination, but it had that “track look” that I love. . . Check out the craftsmanship on this car — the attention to detail was impeccable!

The place was like motorcycle heaven – it made me want to get back on my bike right then and there… or maybe one of theirs – much shinier and way more tricked out than my current ride. I loved this Triumph 650 Bonneville named “Brown Sugar” It took me back to one of my racing mentors Gary Scott who rode his Triumph TT and flat track bike @ Ascot Park in Gardena CA. I can still hear that bike screamin down the track!

I saw this blown HEMI and immediately thought that this would be the perfect engine to install in my Toyota Prius! Talk about uncontrolled acceleration — most folks on the road have no clue what real horse power is. I might wanna get the brakes checked out before I install that bullet though…

And, if I got such a bitchin’ engine, I would probably be tempted to speed like a maniac on my way to the shop, so while we’re installing that engine, I think I might have to go find one of the pinstripers that were there at the show to paint this on my car for me.

And who could forget the food?  As if the automotive eye candy wasn’t awesome enough, there was Pink’s Hot Dogs!  It’s a genuine Hollywood institution, so I had to break down and get one of their hotdogs – the server recommended the “Martha Stewart” – I said what’s in it — she said it’s a kosher hotdog, strip of bacon, sauerkraut, sour cream, relish in a kaiser bun.

Something tells me the bacon might just cancel out the “kosherness” of the hotdog, but hey, it’s a Martha Stewart — so it’s a good thing, right? I loved it! So next time you’re rolling down Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood, stop in and get a Pinks hot dog, or better yet plan on coming to next years GNRS– see you there!

At Cal State Fullerton, engineering students are getting ready to race, but first, they’ll need get their welding engines fired up!

CSUF students build a race car chassis
By DAMON LOWNEY
Daily Titan Online Editor
Published: February 08, 2010

One inch steel tubes were welded together over winter break to form a race car chassis as Cal State Fullerton engineering students toil to build a race car to compete in the annual Formula Society of Automotive Engineers (FSAE) competition.

By May, the Yamaha R6 powered senior project, built to FSAE’s race car specifications, will be ready to race.

The steel tubular space-frame chassis was finished on Jan. 26, according to CSUF FSAE team director Fred Hogarth.

“During break I saw footage of other teams chassis completed … They finished by mid-January. We finished by late January.” He said he believes CSUF’s car is about even in the build phase with cars from other university FSAE teams.

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Contribute to the economy — buy more motorcycles!!!

Harley Sees Loss, Sales Slump
Kelsey Swanekamp, 01.22.10, 10:30 AM EST

The motorcycle giant was hit hard by the economy, but expects to bounce back by cutting costs.

Difficult roads lie ahead for Harley-Davidson, which reported a wider than expected loss for the fourth quarter on Friday.

Falling motorcycle sales and restructuring costs brought the company to a $147.2 million loss for the quarter. Including discontinued operations, Harley-Davidson ( HOG – news – people ) lost $218.7 million. As the difficult economy kept wallets closed and credit short, sales in the U.S. dropped by 27.9%.

The company recently announced that it would introduce a dozen of its motorcycles to the Indian market. International sales dropped by only 10.3% during the fourth quarter, far less than sales in the U.S.

The motorcycle giant plans to reorganize its York, Pa. manufacturing plant to focus on motorcycle assembly, metal fabrication and paint, having reached a seven-year labor agreement in December. It also consolidated three vehicle test facilities into a single site in Arizona. The company expects that the restructuring will streamline operations and provide essential cost savings on the manufacturing end of the business.

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Eight Caledonia Area High School students are revving up their welding engines to compete in a national motorcycle building contest — the 2010 Donnie Smith Chopper Class Challenge, taking place at the end of this month!

Project puts Caledonia students in the limelight
By Charlie Warner
Argus News Editor

While it’s not quite Orange County Choppers or the hit TV reality show American Chopper starring Paul Teutul, Sr. and his two sons Paul, Jr. and Mike, a group of motorcycle builders from Caledonia are basking in the limelight just the same.

Eight students of Caledonia Area High School industrial education instructor Scott Martin hit the big time last week when it was announced the Caledonia Chopper Club has been selected as one of just five school groups in the United States to compete in a national motorcycle building contest.

The eight students include Ricky Pitts, Rebecca Sabo, Ben Schoh, Bill Ranzenberger, Elliot Breeser, Brandon and Lyndon Becker and Albert Kilger.

The contest is called the 2010 Donnie Smith Chopper Class Challenge. Judging for the motorcycle-building challenge will take place March 27 and 28 at the St. Paul River Centre, St. Paul, Minn.

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My first motorcycle was a 1963 Yamaha 80cc 80YG 2 Cycle 7.7 hp that I got from a grade school friend of mine for free after her dad backed over it with his car.

My dad and I straightened the frame, hand cut and bobbed the rear fender, took the emblems off, painted it orange, and went racing.

I will never forget that Tuesday night.  We went to Trojan Speedway in South Gate, CA — a sticky little clay oval next to the LA river, behind the rock quarry, east of downtown LA.

My Dad stopped off at Kmart to get a cool looking orange metal flake Grant helmet that cost a mere $14.35.

I remember thinking, “Is that all my head’s worth?”, but my dad checked the specs, and it turned out that it was Snell approved and everything.

Then it was off to the races!  I was so excited to be there that lining up for the first heat race, I actually dropped the clutch early and jumped the start! I ended up going from my row two starting spot clear past row one and the starter! That was hard to explain to my sixth grade school teacher Mrs. Jackie Jacobson and a bunch of my class mates from Vista Del Lavalle grade school in Claremont CA. . .

That first race was an eye opener — the other bikes were faster and highly modified, so my dad and I went out and bought Floyd Clymer’s book “How to Tune a Two Stroke Engine”.

I learned early on that researching what others have done is your quickest way to the top.

We went to work on the engine — a rotary valve design that was easy to hop up. We installed a new rotary valve, over-bored cylinder, which we seven ported, installed a single-ring piston with a super short cut-skirt, machined radial high-compression head, and a topped it off with a total loss ignition system.

We finished the engine modifications off with a tuned exhaust made by Dick Haycock from Chino CA. Dick custom fabricated it by beautifully rolling and forming the expansion chamber and artfully oxy acetylene welding it together. He then finished off with a 7” long x 1/2” diameter stinger tip – that thing screamed!

Today is the start of the Grand National Roadster Show in Pomona, California.  This weekend, Jim Watson, aka Joe Welder, will be joining more than 40,000 other hot rod aficionados for a weekend of cars, cars, and a few motorcycles!

But Jim has a bit more on his mind — he just learned that one Glen Dennee has bought his Uncle Ben’s old racing car and is working on restoring it!
He’ll get a chance to meet up with Glen during the show and discuss how best to go about restoring Farmer Ben’s V8 60  Midget!

The Grand National Roadster Show
January 29 – 31, 2010

GNRS Supports Haiti Relief

Come to the 2010 Kragen O’Reilly Grand National Roadster Show this weekend and support the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund! We are donating proceeds from the sales of GNRS programs to this fund, and as this year’s theme is “Mardi Gras,” we’ll be having a good time handing out Mardi Gras beads to showgoers in exchange for small donations. Make a difference – come on out and join 40,000 other hot rodders for Haiti!

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It was a blissful (and action-packed) week for me and my family as we vacationed on the beautiful island of Maui.

Even though it was a vacation, I couldn’t resist taking some time to get to know some of the people in the welding industry who live and work right here on this island!

The first stop on our tour was the South Maui Choppers.  They had some cool Arlen Ness choppers available for rent, but they were a bit too bright and shiny for my taste.

After that we cruised on over to Cycle City to look at some of the new Harley-Davidsons.  My wife decided that I should get the new Deluxe Model -  scarlet red and black with silver trim.

The next day I decided to go check out the Maui Motor Speedway.  They had MX races on Saturday night and practice on Wednesday.

I was hoping someone would have a rental available for some track time (I have been eying the new 2010 YZ25), but unfortunately, they didn’t have one available.

Our last stop of the week was at South Maui Bicycles.  I wanted to get the low-down on the new Gary Fisher Rumblefish 29er mountain bike.

I was surprised to learn from the owners that there is not much mountain biking on Maui – it seems that the majority of the land is private property! They do rent out the bikes, but you have to ride them on the road.

You can’t really call that “mountain” biking, now can you?

To top it off, this is the unbelievable view that we got to wake up to every morning – the sun setting over the Pacific Ocean, with, if you can believe it –  the world famous Molokini crater right there in the background.

And although we all had a fantastic time soakin’ up the sun and the aloha spirit,  it was just as awesome to get back into the swing of things and see how smooth things are running here at Arc-Zone!

Lots to be thankful for as we start the holiday season.

Wishing you and yours a wonderful thanksgiving…

October 24th was the perfect SoCal Fall night at the Pomona Fairplex for the 2009 finale of the AMA Pro and Gen Romero’s West Coast Flat Track Series.

I was excited to be back at the races again watching the bikes line up on the front straight-away for the rider introductions in front of an overflow crowd.

The pits were jammed with bikes in a variety of classes from the AMA Grand National Pro, including 2009 Champion Jared Mees on the #21 XR 750 Harley-Davidson,  West Coast Experts, Amateurs, and Vintage.

I walked the pits and visited with some old friends and met some new ones too.

I love flat track racing because the bikes are custom built for one thing — speed, whereas in motocross racing, you buy a factory-built bike and  slightly modify the engine and suspension before you are ready to ride.

Flat track bikes are purpose-built from the ground up with hand-made TIG welded chromoly frames, custom-built exhaust pipes, CNC machined wheels, and hand-laid fiberglass tanks and rear fenders.

Each bike is made with the rider’s personal wants and needs in mind,  from the handle bars down to the tires.  A perfect example is Jimmy Wood’s #37 BMW powered machine.

This is a beautiful motorcycle and it looks even better in person!  Made me think about breaking out my old skid shoe!

One of the coolest bikes I saw there was a Grand National Replica street bike.  I had a similar flat track styled bike that I put together — it was based on a Harley-Davidson 883 Sportster, but I ended up selling it to one of our reps…

Take a look and let me know what you think!

– Jim Watson, aka Joe Welder –

Lincoln Electric to Feature TV Personality Chip Foose and New Fuller “Fueller” Bike at SEMA Booth

Star of TLC’s Overhaulin’ Chip Foose to Sign Autographs at Lincoln Booth #23613

What : Renowned auto designer, Chip Foose will sign autographs at Lincoln Electric’s 2009SEMA booth #23616. Lincoln’s booth will also feature the new Fuller “Fueller” Bike from Bryan Fuller.

Foose stars in TLC hit shows Overhaulin’ and Rides. He also designs cars and wheels for several automotive companies and other clients, including NASCAR racing great Jeff Gordon. Bryan Fuller is an avid welder, fabricator and the host of Two Guys Garage.

When: Friday, November 6, 2009

Time: 10 a.m. – noon

Where: SEMA, Lincoln Electric’s 2009 Booth # 23613 in Las Vegas, Nevada

The Lincoln Electric Company, headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, is the world leader in the design, development and manufacture of arc welding products, robotic arc welding systems, fume extraction equipment and plasma and oxyfuel cutting equipment. The company holds a leading global position in the brazing and soldering alloys market. For more information, visit www.lincolnelectric.com.

The SEMA Show is the premier automotive specialty products trade event in the world (PLEASE NOTE: THE SEMA SHOW IS NOT OPEN TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC). It draws the industry’s brightest minds and hottest products to one place, the Las Vegas Convention Center. As part of the AAIW, the SEMA Show attracts more than 100,000 industry leaders from over 100 countries for unlimited profit opportunities in the automotive, truck and SUV, and RV markets. SEMA Show 2008 drew over 50,000 domestic and international buyers through two million square feet of exhibits. The displays are segmented into 12 sections, and a New Products Showcase featured nearly 2,000 newly introduced parts, tools and components. In addition, the SEMA Show provides attendees with educational seminars, product demonstrations, special events, networking opportunities and more…

SEMA Show Exhibit Hours
Tuesday, November 3, 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Wednesday, November 4, 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Thursday, November 5, 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Friday, November 6, 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

I’m not talking about the monster but rather the truck. Big Foot is regarded as the first monster truck ever made and still remains the most popular monster truck today. Big Foot is proof of how some of the most successful ideas emerge from the ability to see opportunities early and run with them.

During a trip to the West Coast, Bob Chandler, the builder of the original Big Foot, noticed a 4×4 frenzy which he predicted would head Midwest towards his hometown, Missouri. Based on this insight, he started his own business which would eventually lead to the development of the monster truck.

The anatomy of a monster truck

By Eric Lundin, Editor, TPJ-The Tube & Pipe Journal®

It drives right over nearly every obstacle in its path and splits nearly every eardrum in its vicinity. It’s supercharged, oversized, and extraordinary. It stands more than 10 feet tall, develops more than 1,500 horsepower, and can leap over a 727 jet airliner in a single bound.

It can be only one thing: a BIGFOOT® monster truck. And it contains an unbelievable amount of tube.

Just a Hobby

It all started innocently. Bob Chandler was a construction contractor by day, a 4×4 enthusiast by night, and a lead-foot all the time. His notoriously heavy foot led to a nickname-Bigfoot -and a continuous need for repairs on his truck.

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