February 2012

Posted on February 19, 2012 by ralph

Hi everyone,

It’s been a couple of months since my last update. Hope you all are having a great start to 2012. It has been a very bust start for us at the shop.

The 73 challenger is now painted underneath and off the rotisserie. We have now fitted all the sheet metal for that final fit and gap test before prepping the body shell for paint.After the shell is painted it’s off to Competition Engine to get the whole drivetrain installed. We are hoping that will happen mid March. The 55 Porsche Spyder came to us to remove and replace the rear hood. Well it has turned into a bit of a project. We are now repainting the whole car, with a few modifications. I’ve now learnt there is always extras when it comes to restoring or “simple” projects. The 69 Chevelle is now delivered, pictures should be up soon on our website. The 67 Impala we have all the parts repaired and in their first prime. We are waiting on a few under carriage sheet metal items. The 58 Pontiac is going a bit slower then anticipated, we have the car stripped down and the hood and trunk lid in primer. The fenders are a lot of work, we can’t repair and re-chrome the rear bumper, so now we are trying to look for one??? hmmmm. Our scheduling is a bit out of whack ( nothing new) because of some of the hiccups we are experiencing. Sometimes you have to step back and take a deep breathe…….it will get done!

Here’s what’s coming up for us this year. A 33 Ford Vicky, 1973 Satellite, 1974 Road Runner, 1967 Mustang convertible, a 1962 Cadillac ( just trim work) and just pencilled in last Friday, a 1972 Monte Carlo. We also looking at getting into the Rodarama show again this year. That is at the end of April 2012, hosted by the Manitoba Street Rod Association. I know the World of Wheels hits the Peg’ in March, but we are not sure yet if we are attending.

Well that’s about all for now, remember if you have questions about your project or you want to get a estimate, give us a call or email and we would be glad to help you out.

Cheers!

Ralph (owner)

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December 2011

Posted on December 20, 2011 by ralph

Hi all!

We are coming to the end of another productive year here at Auto Resurrection. It has been a whirlwind of a year. Lots of sheet metal replaced,lots of colours applied. It’s all in a days work. Since my last blog, we delivered the 71 Hemi Cuda and the 70 Amx. The 73 Challenger has been primed once and is now on the rotisserie ready for another block and prime. A little more work on the under carriage and then we seal the underneath, no it’s not going body colour!..the factory chassis paint is being applied. Yes, Mopars were done that way. The 69 Chevelle is now all painted, ready for final assembly. The interior is at the upholstery shop getting re-done. The car should be ready 2nd week of January 2012.

Last week we just got a 58 Pontiac for a full resto. Pretty cool car…huge!! it comes with a 348 c.i.d. that needs a rebuild. Punch it out to a 409? Looks like another busy year ahead of us in 2012. In the schedule book so far a 67 Impala, 69 Camaro, 55 Porsche Spyder, 33 Ford and a 73 Satellite. So as you can see we are pretty booked up, thanks! It’s never to late to give us a call and have us estimate your project and get in our shop.

Thanks to all my past customers for a great year and to my present and future customers we also appreciate you working with us on your prized rides. Thanks again everyone!

I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Stay safe every buddy!!!

Cheers,

Ralph ( owner)

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November 2011

Posted on November 1, 2011 by ralph

Hi all!

Fall is here, getting a little chillier, but no snow!….yet. So my last blog was a little bit of a downer for some and to political. Sorry. I just write what’s on my mind that day.

We are still busting it at the shop. The 68 Nova is done, pictures will be up soon. We resprayed a 69 El Camino for a customer who a bit of a issue with another shop. The 73 Challenger is coming along great!..both door skins are done, fenders are ready for primer and so is the hood. We have a windshield pillar to replace and a roof patch to repair, then the body should be ready for primer. Our 71 Hemi Cuda clone is almost….almost done! anyone who’s been by the shop for the last 3 years know’s of the car. We are all waiting for the day it rolls out the door. The Hemi is in and the 4-speed, a few touch ups, glass install and polish and she should be good to go.

We just got a 69 Chevelle from out West. Just starting to do the tear down, car is really solid..for a change! We painted the body shell of the 1970 AMX last week, “bittersweet orange”…cool colour!…with flat black accents. It should be completed by the end of November.

Up and coming projects include a 1958 Pontiac, 67 Impala and a 69 Camaro. We are currently booking for March 2012, but we may have a spot open earlier in the new year. If you have a project in mind and were thinking about getting it done, give us a call, we’re more than happy to come and give you a free estimate.

Until next time! Cheers!

Ralph (owner)

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September 2011

Posted on September 13, 2011 by ralph

Hi all!

Fall is coming around the corner, but wow what a summer! So far 2011 has been a very interesting year. We had huge floods in the province and then a dry hot summer. Great summer for cruisin and car shows. This year also marked the 10th anniversary of 9/11. I wasn’t personally effected by that day, but boy did it ever change how we all live now a days. Security, passports to go to the USA (Grand forks? really?)body scanners at airports. All the stuff in the middle East, you can barely watch the news now a days without some suicide bomber blowing up some building or a local public market. Wow. That’s heavy, sorry. I’m just glad where I live. Also on a personal level, I lost a good friend this year and just found out that someone close to me has been diagnosed with cancer. Man, you really have to live each day to the fullest, cause you just never know?

This year so far at the shop has also had it’s ups and downs. We had some bumps in the road this past spring with one project. Just like on the TV car shows, a build goes wrong, there’s always some drama but they get it fixed in a hour. Well in real life we do get the odd drama at the shop, but in our case it took almost 3 months to fix the project. In the end it all worked out and the customer thanked us for a great job and patience. This summer brought in a surprising amount of projects into the shop. Summer is usually the time people are planning on their build for the fall or winter time. But, busy is good! Good for business. We at Auto Resurrection have always took pride in delivering a great job on time. There was a article written in our local paper about a customer we had and how wonderful his car turned out and on budget and time. The article also mentioned what this customer went through before the car came to us. A real body shop horror story. I get calls, emails all the time about guys pulling their project out of shops because of one thing or another and are now looking to get it finished somewhere. This year there has been a lot of those requests??..and it blows me away. For us right now, yes,we are busy and fully booked till Feb 2012 ( Thank you!!) We currently have 4 projects on the go. Our customers understand that some days,weeks,we are not working on your vehicle, just depends on where we are on other projects. That’s how a restoration shop works. So if your thinking of restoring a project, make sure you have lots of patience! At times for us it can be stressful trying to keep that schedule on track. Like I mentioned before, there is always some sort of drama that happens on a car build. So to all of my current customers, be patient! your car will get done. to my future customers, be patient! I’ll get you in.  Don’t get me wrong I’m not complaining, I’m very appreciative of all the business we get from our community and other provinces. There’s just a bit of a misconception of what goes on in TV land compared to what really happens in resto shops.

Ok enough of that shit, hears what’s happening right now in the shop. The 67 Mustang is done and heading back to HPI customs. The 70 AMX is in primer and getting blocked for the first time to find imperfections. The 71 hemi Cuda is painted, just a few more front end parts to paint. The 68 Nova has just come in, trim is stripped, hail is fixed and panels are ready for primer. The back end of the 73 Challenger is finally welded, I’m now ready for rockers and a couple more small metal repairs before the shell is ready for primer.

If you like what you see or hear and are looking into a restoration, give us a call. I would love to hear what you got.

Until next time. Thanks!

Ralph (owner)

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August 2011

Posted on August 18, 2011 by ralph

Hey there everyone!

Wow…what a hot summer so far eh? Beautiful cruisin weather. I haven’t been able to see a lot of car shows so far, I’ve been out on one Sunday night. Now that our baseball season is over I should be able to get out more. I’m heading out to Gimli this weekend to see what’s racing out on the track?

Not much new to update. We are currently shut down for holidays, coming back at the end of August. The 67 Mustang is painted except the fiber glass hood, so I’m hoping to finish that the first week back and send it back to HPI customs. The 71 Hemi Cuda’s shell is ready for paint! yeah! Anyone that knows us well, will know that getting that Cuda this far is huge!! The 70 Amx shell is also ready to prime, so that one is moving along pretty good.

When I get back I promised our customer with the 73 Challenger that I would get back on the project. I want to finish welding up the ass end and start the rockers and the remaining small patch work. Get it in primer and get it on the rotisserie. There’s lots to do when I get back, that’s why I need a bodyman!! We are currently looking for a qualified person to do that job. If anyone knows someone, send them my way! We have posted a job description on our site. I’m still looking into making some short videos to put on our site or YouTube to showcase what we are building. Stay tuned!

That about all for this update, we are now starting to book for Nov 2011 and beyond, give us a call if you questions about your project.

Cheers!

Ralph (owner)

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July 2011

Posted on July 3, 2011 by ralph

Hi all,

It’s been awhile since my last blog. Sorry, updating the website is usually last on my list of things to do. A lot has gone on since I’ve updated you last. We did get the Monte S/S back from the mechanic shop. It’s all painted and put together. Front end alignment on Monday or Tuesday and then ready for customer delivery on Thursday in Brandon. Our 71 Hemi Cuda project is moving along….slowly. We are real close to start painting the body..can’t wait! In the last couple of weeks we received a 67 Mustang from the people at HPI Customs. This machine is going to been nice..wow. Some nice little body modifications and a custom suspension. We are going with a pearl white on this one. We should be priming the body on Monday. We also received a 1970 AMX rolling shell. It’s a 390 4-speed car. We just had it sand blasted and I started replacing the lower quarter panels. This AMC is a very clean car, which is awesome for a change, not much for rust but hail damage. The 73 Challenger we have is on hold till August, our scheduling got a bit screwy because of the hold up with the Monte.

We have coming up a 71 Cuda for paint, a 68 Barracuda for a complete, a 53 GMC pick up for patch work and a 68 Nova for paint and hail damage. As you can tell our shop is getting a bit full, it’s all good..there are some stressful times while working on all these projects, but in the end they do get done and everyone is happy!. We are starting to take bookings for late Fall early Winter 2011.

I want to pass along a huge thanks to Willy’s Garage from the Winnipeg Free Press and one of our customers,Chris Payne. For putting together a great article on Chris’s Challenger. Chris went through some tough times building this Challenger and it turned out to be a beautiful car. We at Auto Resurrection were more than happy to help out Chris and make his project turn out right. You’ll find the article on Willy’s blog, June30/2011. Also we are looking into doing some video updates for You-Tube. I’ll keep you posted on that.

Until next update, take care all, happy cruzin’!

Cheers,

Ralph (owner)

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May 2011

Posted on May 10, 2011 by ralph

Hi there everyone!

It’s been back to normal at the shop. I have now completed about 70% of the sheet metal replacement on the 73′ Challenger. I was having a bit of trouble replacing the trunk extensions, but we got her done. The Hemi Cuda we are now waiting for the customer to drop off his suspension and rear end pieces. Once we have those installed we can take the car off the rotisserie. The 86′ Monte S/S is suppose to be coming back from the mechanic shop this Thursday!!??. God I hope so! This build has taken a lot of time to complete. Once we get it back to my shop, I have one quarter panel to weld on and passenger floor pan to replace. All the other parts are ready for prep and paint.

Last weekend was the Rondex Rodorama. We had a small booth set up there. Great show,busy weekend. Lots of people came through the show. I met a lot of people and talked to a lot as well. Hopefully I was able to help all the people that stopped by and had questions. I also met some local guys that are in the biz as well. The boys from HPI Customs and Otto from Otto’s Custom Upholstery. Great guys! I hope we all can do something for each other in the future. As far as I know there is no “one stop” shop in Manitoba? I don’t see anything wrong with guys in the biz helping each other out to help out there customers. The show was awesome, great cars. The volunteers from MSRA did a great job in running and keeping the show organized.

What’s up next at Auto Resurrection? We have a 70′ AMX coming in June and a 69′ Chevelle coming towards the end of June. So if there is that project you’ve been putting off, we are looking to start booking for later July 2011. Give us a call or stop by the shop to discuss your build!

Cheers!!

Ralph (owner)

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April 2011

Posted on April 25, 2011 by admin

Hi everyone,
The snow is gone, the rivers are high and the sun is shinning! Spring is here! We’ve been busy as well at Auto Resurrection. The 73 Challenger is getting a sheet metal make over. Quarters and tubs and rockers are next.We are using all AMD’s sheet metal on the Challenger, nice stuff, but you still have to trim to fit.
Our 71 Cuda clone has had it’s second prime on the body and the under carriage is now all painted,so we are making some headway there. The 86′ Monte SS should be back at our shop this week or early next week. Gilles at Nicar automotive has promised me that. Hopefully he pulls through with the promise. I just finished doing the lower door skins on the Monte and have primed them. I will be blocking them with 150 grit and giving them a second prime this week.
We are also getting ready to set up a display booth at Rondex’sRodorama in Transconia this weekend,at the East end arena,April 29th to May 1st. We’ve never set up a booth before ,but come by check out the show and stop by our booth and check it out. If you have any questions when it comes to restoring,now’s your chance to bend my ear.
We are still booked solid till July 2011, if you’ve been thinking about a late summer early fall start on a project, come by the show, check things out and give us a call for a free estimate!
Thanks!
Ralph (owner)

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Sunny Days!

Posted on March 27, 2011 by admin

Hey there everyone,
The snow and ice are melting, the days are getting longer and we are getting closer to good cruzin weather. I attended the World of Wheels today. Not a bad show, lots of nice local vehicles! People in Manitoba sure do take pride of their rides,some really nice vehicles. Also hats off to our competition, some great workmanship out there. I noticed a large crowd of young people,to me that’s good news. The younger generation are getting into the car hobby, It ain’t dead yet!. We’ve all been hit by the recession one way or another, but it was nice to see a lot of shinny metal and a packed convention center.
Ran into the guys from Pipedream welding ( I have a link to their site) The had a booth set up showing off AMD sheet metal. The guys at Pipedream are the local distributers of the sheetmetal parts. We are currently working on a 1973 Challenger, using AMD sheetmetal. Everything is being replaced on this Mopar. Inner fenders, rockers, rear floor pans, trunk floor ,quarters, tubs, etc!! It’s nice metal to work with…good gauge and all comes with the proper E-coat on the panels. Some peices you still have to make “fit”, but with aftermarket parts it’s typical. I’ve seen worse!!..believe me,this sheet metal is nice stuff to work with, just make sure you test fit and measure things first before you go out and start cutting your car apart.
Not to much else to update, the Cuda is coming along. Prepping it for primer. The 58 Apache is done! pictures are now posted. The 86 Monte sounds like I’m getting it back in a week or so. Ni-car is moving into a new shop so he needs us to take it back for a bit until he sets up the new place.
We are currently booking for mid summer 2011 ( June/July) Give us a shout when your ready to take on that project!
Cheers!
Ralph (owner)

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Spring??

Posted on March 6, 2011 by admin

Hi all!
The ground hog said we were in for a early spring. Last week it was feeling like -30c! What spring? Anyway, I’m getting a lot of flack for not updating my blog. Sorry, we’ve been really busy lately. The 67 Nova was finished in mid February.We had two issues with that build. Two windshields that didn’t fit. First one was the supplier gave us the wrong windshield,sedan instead of a hardtop. There is at least two inch difference. The second windshield was for a hardtop,but was to small? The rubber seal that goes around the glass was even loose on it. If your replacing your glass with aftermarket glass, don’t throw away your original until your happy with the install of the new glass. We were able to supply my customer with a proper PPG glass from Hometown Auto Glass and it fit perfect! it also cost twice as much as the aftermarket glass. cheaper isn’t always good.
The second issue with the Nova build were the front fenders. Wow…they both looked different, one was longer than the other and I’m not about to get into what we had to do to make them fit…better. Believe me I’m not to happy about the out come but we made them work. I’ve heard a few stories about the Nova/Chevy2/Acadian after market fenders.I know they don’t fit perfect, but man these were ugly!. Try and look for used ones if you can!
Our 1958 Chev Apache is almost complete. The cab and box are painted. We have all the bed wood and chrome strips,so it looks like another couple of weeks of assembly.
Our forever going on 71 Hemi Cuda clone is back on track. I’m pushing to complete the body and paint by June 2011.Maybe we’ll see it on the road next year?
Our 86 monte S/S is out getting a new crate motor dropped in and a go over of all mechanical at Ni car Automotive.
Gilles has informed us that with the World of Wheels coming in a couple of weeks we probably won’t get the car back until after the show. We still have about a month to go on that project.
Finally we are getting a 1973 Challenger in mid March for a complete sheet metal rebuild. We’ll be using all AMD’s sheet metal on that project. They claim to have all new tooling and the sheet metal is suppose to fit like factory. I’ll keep you posted. There is a new Manitoba distributer for Auto Metal Direct (AMD) for those of you who are interested, Pipe dream welding. I’ll be adding their link.
Until my next blog/update take care and stay warm!!!
Cheers,
Ralph (owner)

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