Blue Collar Garage and Cruise Culture Magazine have partnered to bring you a new series called Blue Collar Garage Culture Shop. We tour some of to coolest shops, garages, and locations that you might not even know about. From small businesses, to collectors, this is your source for car culture. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see the full video every two months and catch the summary here in the magazine in every issue.
In this episode we went back to Old Iron Kustoms’ to get a tour from Steve Ottens. Steve is a down to earth, old school hotrodder with his own upholstery shop and many years of experience behind him. We got take a look at some of the collectibles he has in his shop and on his mezzanine, as well as check out his some of his cars on the property and his good friend Ron’s ’28 Ford interior. A unique feature of this car was the fabric wrapped roof which had no seams and was done with an awning material instead of the typical vinyl.
One of the coolest pieces of equipment in Steve’s shop was his old school louver press, which he does work on for his customers and friends from time to time. Make sure you check out the video and give Steve a follow @Old Iron Kustoms on Facebook.
We also went to check out Harpell Auto Fab, a tenant of Blue Collar Garage, to check out how he utilizes his space to construct the products for his business. The space was well organized and clean with work stations set up for each step of the process to build his custom aluminum tig welded tanks, and dress up pieces.
Phil Harpell, owner of Harpell Auto Fab, started building tanks and parts for his own Mustang Cobra Terminator and soon realized that there was a market for it. Perfecting his skills over time he transitioned from welding pipe, to tig welding aluminum. Surprisingly, Phil even has extra room to grow in his bay with his eyes on a few pieces of equipment in the future. Phil was kind enough to take us for a thrilling ride in his Mustang and you will be able to see my reaction to it over on YouTube.
Make sure you give him a follow on his Instagram @cobrafill04 and check out his incredible products at harpellautofab.com
Article by Brian Holzli
Photos by Brian Holzli
Special thanks to Blue Collar Garage
