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Feature ______ _______ L
WEdNEsdAy, FEbRUARy 20, 2002
CI ac I camas P r I nt
Auto body artists bring metal magic to Clackamas
ALISON GERFIN
Copy Editor
• "An Evening with
Ron Covell and Gene
Winfield" comes with eye
bending hot rods and
considerable talent for a
one-right-stand
Ron Covell, aka “Professor
Hammer” of Street Rodder
magazine, revealed a few se
crets on how to form metal into
any shape one can imagine for
a car body. On Monday night,
Feb. 18. Gene Winfield, a leg
end who has imagined and
fabricated lots full of dream
vehicles, let the audience
scratch at the surface of his
knowledge about customizing.
The body shop in Barlow
was cleaned out of various
student works-in-progress,
pressure washed and filled
with hot rodders and their rigs.
Red carpet should have been
laid down for all.
Fred Davis, a CCC auto body
instructor, brought a beautiful
and subtly blue-flamed ’57
Chevy and screaming red ’32
Ford from his collection.
Along with the ’63 split-win
dow Corvette and ’23 Ford T-
bucket racers on display, there
was a rare car worth more than
the rest combined an original
1966 Ford AC Cobra owned by
Casey Powell, former head of
Sequent Computer. It is made
from aluminum so light and
thin that a handprint can dent
it. Its appraised value is
$480,000.
Covell’s appearance at
Clackamas this year, the third
in a row, is beginning to look
like a tradition, started by
Wayne Austen, CCC instruc
tor and owner of Austen’s
Body Shop in Canby. Covell
regularly gives metalworking
workshops across the coun
try and sells his own line of
tools and equipment.
Using a nifty piece of metal
working equipment called an
English wheel, Covell im
pressed a piece of aluminum
with hot-rodding flames (per
fect for a 3-D paint job on a
front fender). He demon
strated stretching, shrinking
and annealing of aluminum for
a quick show of how to make
what you need and want for a
unique car. (The flat disks of
metal soon looked like nice pie
tins, but hey, there wasn’t
enough time for him to make
the teardrop-shaped motor
cycle gas tank.)
Now if you have an extra
$30,000 or so, you can get
Winfield to create your dream
for you. He has been custom
izing cars for 58 years and still
builds cars for himself and
customers out of Mojave, Ca
lif.
Winfield went through the
real basics of chopping, chan
neling and sectioning. One
thing was clear: These are not
quickie weekend projects for your
Gene Winfield gives an
example of how to section
off the body of a car. Gene
is famous for designing a
light weight DeLorean that
was used as a prop in the
movie series "Back to the
Future " and created the Bat
mobile for the T.V. series.
MIKE POLLOCK/ CLACKAMAS PRINT
Rare 1966 Ford AC Cobra was one of many cars featured at
Monday night's metalworking seminar. The cobra sits at
an appraised value of $480,000.
daily driver. But the audience
plied him with enough questions
so that some could attempt it on
their own projects.
In addition to building cars for
the rich and daring (including
Evel Knievel), Winfield has cre
ated vehicles for over 20 movies,
including “Robocop” and “The
Last Star Fighter.” He made 25
vehicles, using VWs, for “Blade
Runner.” His fantasy rigs have
also appeared in many television
commercials and shows, such as
“Batman,” “Mission Impossible”
and the original “Star Trek.”
Winfield uses more than metal
to fabricate his fantasies. Alumi-
num, steel, wood, fiberglass and
Plexiglas can go into the mix for
making the perfect effect.
One of the qualities that makes
both these guys masters is that
the end result looks effortless -
smooth and sweet auto candy.
The cars look so “natural,” the
sweat and work invisible, until a
night like this when you see all
the sculpturing and engineering
that goes into each process and
into the overall thought behind
each machine.
Over 200 students and serious
car fans sat attentively on those
hard school chairs after a cafete
ria-catered buffet for a seriously
entertaining night. And long past
when it should have been over for
the early-morning working type,
Steve Van Gordon of Team Van
Gordon in Barlow rallied the audi
ence for a surprise auction: flam
ing mailboxes, CCC auto body
and paint classes, the demo
sketches of Winfield and seem
ingly anything that wasn’t nailed
down and could be autographed
by the guests was sold off.
Clackamas President “Joe”
Johnson admired the cars and,
in acknowledgement of all the
talent on hand, said that “the
people whq can really do skilled
work are the ones that get the
job done...that’s what it’s all
about.”
Covell should be back next
year to continue the tradition,
joined by an up-and-coming car
customizer, John D’Agostind.