The Poo Heap & 303 Special

So I was at another junk yard over the weekend with my boss/friend Jason Rock to pick up a donor car for a big project we are doing for our friend Greaser Mike. We needed so many parts to save his 51' Chevy hard top from falling apart, we decided to get a good solid donor body to start with, and seeing as how it just happened to be sitting on top of a 51' Chevy convertible frame with an extra heavy "X" member in it, we took that also. We'll set up the frame with a small block V-8 with an automatic trans, and mustang 2 front suspension etc. etc. you know the drill, all modern but looking like it could have been a factory build. I'll keep you guy's updated as things get along.





Something I spied stuck in the trees a few months earlier, in the same junk yard, that I thought was cool, was the old "303 Special" a Stude stock car! Who knows when it was on the track last! I get off on finds like this, and wish I could take them all home and make yard art or a garage guys garden around them. I love the old hand painted lettering and numbers, the plumbing pipe push bars, all reminiscent of a time in America when tracks were still around and the average guy could bang out a car to have fun on the summer weekends.








So what have you guy's been up to?
Get back out in the garage and build something!
Fritz

New DVD! Chop a Model "A" Top at Home.

It's here! The third in the series now. After cutting my arm I am back in the garage with my camera, sharing tips and tricks so all of you can do this crazy stuff at home too. The most popular custom trick of all time has to be the "Top Chop" And the most popular car to Chop has to be the Model "A" Ford. Work alongside me in my garage as I Chop a 1930 Ford coupe 2 1/4 inches, fill the roof opening with an old Chevy station wagon donor panel, and show you every step of the way how I did it, all at home, with basic tools. Window garnish moldings, the windshield frame, nothing is left out, every step is covered in this 2 DVD set! Over 4 hours long it is $25.

Get your copy here

Climbing Out of the Rabbit Hole

OK Gang this is our last installment of Alex in Wonderland. I like unusual art in unusual places, cool stuff with cool stuff painted on it. The big stuff Alex has in his back yard and outside on the walls of his garage is just that. His car is an art project in itself a 1967 Chevy station wagon painted in flying tiger colors with a P-51 Mustang on the roof, and yes, he really does drive it around, knowing full well that he is being gawked at, and that the prop is spinning at max RPM on the mustang. His tool shed is also packed to the rafters with things that fly, yup, that also includes a life size superman figure. The actual aircraft along the fence is a Republic Vietnam era shooting star, or falling star, I don't remember. The yellow wing hanging off the garage wall is hand painted with the airplane that the wing is actually from. Driving by on the street you'd never know that this wonderland of aviation history and counter culture gasoline burners was even there! Remember, this all didn't just happen over night, this is a lifetime of appreciation for a time when America wasn't all PC and made in China.
Like I always say, "You cant buy cool, You earn it!"
Now, get out in the garage and build something.
Fritz

As promised, more on "Alex in wonderland"!

Now every crack and crevice has something cool in it, but the big spaces have "AWESOME" in them! The radical Panhead chopper along the wall Alex built back in the late 60's for himself still sports the very same handmade parts and metal flake paint it did the day he finished it. It's a time capsule, It is so cool it's frozen! The other bike is a bone stock 1952 Panhead, Alex did nothing to it, it's all factory stock except the red paint job. The American Picker guys would bust a mental nut in the "Wonderland". My personal fav. is the 1957 Chevy convertible, 283 4 barrel V-8, automatic trans, and factory continental kit. Now sit down so you don't fall over, true story here gang, Alex bought this out of the local swap & trade paper back in 1969 from a guy that collected Edsels for $250.00 bucks and drove it home! It is stone factory stock & unrestored. The only non factory thing on this car is the Earl Schielb paint job! Alex has a plank of plywood across the trunk and uses it as a work bench to build model airplanes!!!! I know it kills me also, LOL. Sitting inside the Chevy is a mannequin with a full flight suite too, its just so crazy it all seems normal.
"Get out in the garage and build something"
(just not on the trunk of a vintage American car)
Fritz

I Return to the city of my Birth, ..... Or a Day with Alex in Wonderland!

Every year I try to head back to the east cost at least once to remind myself why I moved out to Kustom City Missouri. It's great to catch up with my folks and friends, Al "The Chines kid" - "Pepe" - Gary "The Local Brush" - "Poncho Bill" - "Greaser Mike" and Alex "In Wonderland"
Yeah yeah, New York City was Great. The traffic sucks, the Pizza was great, the traffic sucks, you get the idea.



I wanted to pick out Alex cause he has such a crazy collection of stuff. For this post I am gonna stick with the aircraft stuff. Which is why I call him the "crazy airplane guy". This isn't some little batch of stuff that cropped up over night. Alex has got to be in his 60's now and he has been collecting aviation memorabilia and airplane parts since he was a kid. The pics you see are from his one car garage, I'll get the the wacky stuff in his yard in another post. The model ships, planes, engines are too many to list and too many to even see the walls or the ceiling! ITS JUST CRAZY MAN! WW 1 - WW 2 - Korea - Vietnam - and private aircraft are all represented here, even a small Gemini NASA space cap still with parachutes hangs from the rafters. It's really just an amazing little winged wonderland indeed. This is just a teaser, the over the top stuff will follow
"Get out in the garage and build something."
Fritz

Viewer Mail

Does this stuff really come from outer space? Nah it comes from small garages across America and garages in other countries also. Its great when I get an e-mail from you guys and I love that I can share it on this blog. I really dig your ideas, suggestions, and seeing the crazy stuff you have going on. Mark here has Taken a VW Karmann Ghia and trans formed it into whats going to be a hip little space aged show car!





"Hey Fritz, I got your DVD (Build a Fiberglass body at home) while I was gone and watched it today on my day off! I just wanted to let you know that you solved so many problems for me with your help! THANK YOU! You also gave me the confidence to continue with my own project. Unfortunately I have already started my Dub-N-Aire in metal, but have ideas for the next couple projects! The only thing I am curious about is when lifting the ring, how did you figure out the geometry? Also, how much of a “throw” did the screw jack have on the "Rosewell Rod"? Did you do the same with the "Baja Bandeeto"?
Anyway – hope your hand/arm gets better soon!
If I was closer, I’d be over to help ya!"
Mark Gosson
Medford, OR

To Answer Mark's question. I bought an electric screw motor from "Autoloc" they list the length that the screw shaft travels. I first made carboard templets from old beer & pizza boxes to figure the shape of the hinge & area I wanted to be in. then moved on to a 1/4 inch plywood template that I bolted up to a makeshift hinge & screw shaft assembly on the car and touched the wires from the screw motor to a car battery to see how everything would travel. a hit or miss operation but it works. the further away from the pivot point you mount the screw motor shaft on the hinge the less travel you will get. Geezz I hope that all sounds right and makes sense to you guys!?!?!?!
Thanks for asking Mark, My arm is healing up but i'll have a wicked nasty looking scar.
but just ask Capt. Kirk, hot green alien chicks dig scars!

Bee's gotta buzz, birds gotta fly, I gotta sand!

I can't take it anymore! Life with my forearm in a splint just don't get it. After 6 weeks I have been sneaking out to the garage to work on whatever i can get the few moving fingers I have on! The big project on the table is the infamous "Johnny Sparkle" Model T - Ford sedan. I popped my splint off and started doing the body work on his home made dash. Its a lucky thing I am right handed or this really would be a tough job to accomplish. Most of the work is done on the sedan except the finish work on the 2 doors, and the rough in work on the dash, then it should be just a sand and paint deal!

Other little projects I have been plugging away on were a bunch of bowling pins I painted 3 weeks into my life in a splint.
The "Wingteam" pin is for a fellow high school mate Adam.

Carrol & I have finished the editing on the "How to Chop a Model A at home" DVD so it should not be too long before we can offer it up on my web site store! Sorry that the blog posts have been in low gear gang. I'm doing my best and hope to at least kick it up into second as soon as I build up the RPM'S
Keep them wrenches clanking guys!
FRITZ

Can't keep a good Man down.

Well if ya didn't notice i haven't been blogging as much as usual, i guess the pic says it all. i had a 5 inch graphite metal cutting disc explode and cut my forearm to the bone, severing 4 tendons and rendering my arm a bit useless for the next foreseeable 4 months. So, i bum around the garage making a list of things i can do with one hand. "Art" jumped to the top of the list, as I am right handed, and still have full use of the righty. So i painted up a few bowling pins in candy colors, and have been taking pre orders on them. If some one would like something special on one just shoot me an e-mail. Things haven't stopped they just slowed down a bit. I did finish filming my new dvd "Chop a model A ford top at home", so be on the look out for it at my online store in the next month or 2. Thats all I got for now, get out to your garage and build something. I'm out here with a bum arm! What's your excuses?

Back By Popular Demand!

The Spritz By Fritz Offical Shop Shirt. Five years ago these were the first shirts we printed. When they sold out we moved on to other designs and merchandise, it was supposed ot be a one time thing. After so many car shows, and so many people asking "You got any of those slobbering monster shirts?", we decided to make a limited run, and give the people what they wanted. So here they are, get 'em while they last. I don't know if I will be printing any more.

You know you want it. A slobbering monster dumping the clutch at 9 grand and his nitro breathing bubble top bomb. We made a limited run of these so when they are gone they are gone man. Available in Men's size S, M, L, XL, XXL, XXXL, Ladies S, and Youth S.

Viewer Mail

So, a while back I got an e-mail from Chris Morris,
He bought both my DVD's "How to Paint Your Motorcycle at Home" & "Build a Fiberglass Body at Home", along with his e-mail he sent some pics of the gas tank he painted for his Chopper! A great job I think! I'm gonna attach his e-mail just for giggles.
If any of you guys out there bought one of my DVD's and built or painted something I'd love to see it, maybe it will make it onto the blog (I only have so much space though)
FRITZ


"I now have both your videos. I have to say that they are both fantastic. Thanks so very much for putting them out there. Thanks also for the primer recommendation from a couple of months ago. I have been using U-Pol Reface with decent results. It's just a bear to get thru a gun as it needs a 2.5 tip. So, I may go shopping again. We'll see.
By any chance, do you have any painter type friends in the NYC/North NJ area that you could put me in touch with to help me out with striping and lettering? It's what I struggle with the most. Any help would be appreciated. Take a look at my site. Let me know what you think. I feel it's pretty obvious that I need help in the striping area. I am also attaching a pic of my latest tank. Let me know what you think.
Thanks in advance. Let me know when the next vid is coming out and what it will be."

- Christopher Morris

P.S. for Pin striping guys that I know of in the NY, NJ area look up these guys

Gary "The Local Brush" Merrick Long Island
Alex in wonderland Wantagh Long Island
Johnny Ace Suffolk Long Island
Joe Sullpy Northern NJ (around the GW bridge)
Allen Johnson NJ

Voo Doo Chili!!

Back in 1996 a few guys were working on choppers in the lower east side of New York City. A bunch of no names building choppers in an era of pink softails with billet parts galore. Paul Cox, Indian Larry, myself (Fritz Schenck) and Steg Von Heintz out of Psycho Cycles. Kind of a Chopper artists community if you will. One of the most famous bikes to come out of the shop was Indian Larry's "Voodoo Chili".
After a hard life in the streets of NYC Larry broke the bike down and built it up again into the "Grease Monkey". Ah but what became of the old tank & frame? No one knew. Well it was around, in hiding, out of the light, in good hands. I wasn't going to post or say a word about this bike, but with current events in the east coast chopper world, and my own life, I figured what the hell! Now if you are one of the few that know who owns what's left of "Voodoo Chili" keep yer trap shut, I promised not to tell, consider yourself one of the inner circle, and you should do the same. Let's just say its kinda "in the family". I gotta say its kind of odd to "restore" a paint job I did so many years ago, I don't know if it just makes me feel old, or like I have made it in the industry. It's also odd to restore a paint job that I did for a friend that has passed on. Another bike that resurfaced was my own ride a purple FLST called the "Skirt Chaser" still in the paint job I laid out years ago. it looks a little different then when I built it, but this fella e-mails me and wants me to "authenticate" that the bike was built by me and was in fact mine.

Funny how things turn out, and my body shop teacher said I'd never make it in the auto body field, LOL.


Larry burning the chili


Voo Doo Chili back in the day


Voo Doo Chili in my spare bedroom today.



Clearly visible are the war wounds of the lower east side of NYC



The name says it all



Ratfink hand painted by Andrea a friend of Larry's



seat post tube painted by Andrea


My old soft tail "Skirt Chaser" sporting a lot of billet I would never put on it.



It was featured in "Iron Horse" magazine if you have a copy you can see it with its original rear fender, headlight etc. etc.

How Cool is that?

Now I have only lived in the Kansas City area for the last 3 years, and I still don't know my way around, and I sure don't know a bunch about the history of the area. While out and about for my day job, I was sent to get some rear axle parts for a job in the shop, and the rear end shop I went to seems to be located on what was once the grounds of an old Ford motor company plant! I love old history, and I really dig when you can find it still hanging around in the forms of old signs, bill boards on the sides of buildings, and foot prints in cement type of things. These smoke stacks have the "FORD" laid out in them in brick, and can still be seen from the highway. How cool is that? The fella in the rear end shop told me that the plant was built in 1912, and he had no idea when it was shut down. Imagine how many of those old T's & A's that were built there are still around, or built into "Hot Rods"! Crazy huh?

Going to the Church of Rusted Souls

Up at 4:00 am and on the road by 5:00 am to go 4 1/2 hours (each way) to the Missouri / Arkansas border. Jack Walker, Jason Rock and myself hit a nice little junk yard, with 10,000 cars! Mostly late 60's & 70's stuff but a few cool 50's cars that we all like. I thought I'd post a few pics, as we all love a good rusting hulk with a tree growing out of the engine bay photo. Being July, the tics were out and the weeds and trees made it hard to get a good photo of the over all landscape but I snapped a few for your viewing pleasure. Most of the stuff is kinda picked over, but we all did manage to get a few things to make it a fun trip. Jack and I always say "Going to a junkyard is like going to church for a car guy". I am sure we'll make it back in the winter when it's not 106 degrees and you can see the junk past the trees. What did we get? Jack got what was left of a 59' Impala roof trim, I got an oil can for a 51 chevy 6 cyl for my friend Greaser Mike, and a 56' Olds dash with A/C vents for me, Jason got some back window trim for a customers car.
Enjoy the pics.
Fritz

Movin' on up like George and Weezy . . .

Well I parted ways with the body shop I was working at and its just fine by me. Doing body work with a drop light and having no torches to work with? What the Hell man? I've seen people care more about building a shit house! I moved on over to the best Restoration, Hot Rod & Custom shop in the area and was working full time in 45 minutes, I didn't even skip a beat! The work these guys put out is top notch, and no one in the area can touch them!

I was in full swing finishing a floor pan job in a 1969 Camaro and hanging a full quarter panel with wheel tubs. After getting just so far on the Camaro's time card I was moved on over to a 1941 Ford pick up truck that was an old show rod at some time in the 70's. I'll be putting in a lot of time on the passenger side door and moving steel around so I can get a nice door gap.

It's a breath of fresh air to work in this place, I have much respect for the guys running it, and hope that this old dog will pick up a few new tricks.

Stay tuned for some quality work & pics here in the future
Fritz

Driving the Roswell Rod

So ya wanna see the "Roswell Rod" run & drive !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yah, That's right, not bad for a kid from Long Island, Huh.

Model A Chop Top update and New at SBF!

I know I missed a week and wanted to keep you cats in the loop so I'll post a little somethin' somethin' for ya.
Been doing a lot of "not in the garage" work these days but I have gotten back into the model A and have been doing mud work on the roof. Not to much to tell other then ya put plastic on, and sand it off, then repeat! It's coming along.

Also check out my web site! Ol Greaser Mike has updated my online store with lots of new Spritz by Fritz stuff and a new much easier to use check out and shopping cart!





By popular demand we now put out the first Spritz By Fritz printed catalog full of all the groovy new stuff.
Send a $3 money order for your copy and get yer $3 back on your first order from the catalog.
Send to: Spritz By Fritz PO BOX 1306, Belton, MO 64012