East Oregonian : E.O., October 25, 2017, Page Page 6C, Image 24

Page 6C
East Oregonian/Hermiston Herald
Fall Home Improvement & Car Care
Wednesday, October 25, 2017
STAFF PHOTOS BY E.J. HARRIS
Above: Mechanic John Riddle, of Hermiston, works on installing a fuel line on a 1973 Plymouth Duster recently at Holton Secret Lab outside of Helix. Top right: A nearly finished 1956 Chevy Bel
Air hotrod sits in the shop. Bottom right: Pat Murphy of Pendleton sands off body filler on a 1967 Chevy Nova SS while working in a paint booth.
SECRET LAB
continued from Page C1
They do a lot of general maintenance
work and often find themselves making
repairs due to improper storage.
“People will have a custom car that’s
put away and not serviced right. Modern
gas, ethanol, that really wreaks havoc. We
get cars that sit for several years, and we
have to pull the gas tanks, rebuild fuel lines,
carburetors,” Bill said.
A 1970 GTO the couple worked on had
sat in an irrigated pasture for 20 years.
“The amount of rust on it — by the time
we stripped it, there wasn’t a lot of car left,”
Marcy recalled.
The team also completely rebuilds cars.
“Somebody brings us something in
pieces,” said Marcy. “We had a 1930s black
Tudor. When we picked it up, it wasn’t even
a car — it was on pallets. Now you look at it,
and it’s absolutely beautiful.”
Many of the jobs they do are “Resto
Mods,” or restoring the body of a car to its
original form, but replacing the engine and
functions of the car with those of a newer,
faster vehicle.
“We like driving old cars, but who wants
to drive to the coast with a car that has no air
conditioning?” Bill said. “We’ve got a ’56
pickup that’s basically a 2005 Corvette with
a pickup body.”
If they can’t buy a part, Bill has the tools
to make it.
There is a Louver press, which can make
the vents that adorn Bill’s 1928 Dodge
Coupe; an English wheel, which can curve
a piece of metal into a bow; a bead roller,
which can emboss metal; and several types
of welders and saws.
The work is not quick, nor is it cheap.
“If we do a complete frame restoration,
I tell them a year,” said Bill. “And usually I
can beat it.”
A full-body restoration costs around
$100,000, much of which goes into mate-
rials. Paint is particularly expensive, costing
hundreds of dollars a can.
Once the interior work of the car is
finished, they’ll get to work buffing and
sanding, or “blocking,” the body.
Holton employee Pat Murphy is working
on a 1967 Chevy Nova SS, smoothing out
a quarter panel on the passenger side of
the car. The car will eventually be painted
Malibu blue, and restored with its original
engine.
“This one’s a stock car,” Bill said. “It’s
going to drive off looking like the day it
came off the lot.”
Bill Holton, owner of Holton Secret Labs,
holds a paint gun head that was first used in
a shop opened by his father in 1945.
Above: Tools
hang on a wall
above a tool
bench at Holton
Secret Lab.
outside of Helix
Left: Clay
Huffman of
Pendleton works
on rehanging a
door on a 19 69
Chevy pickup
recently inside
the Holton Secret
Lab.
Murphy estimated he puts about 50 hours
of work into blocking each quarter panel on
the Nova.
Before they paint any car, they will put
the entire thing back together, and make sure
everything is in the right place. Then, they’ll
take it apart again and paint.
Bill has a computer program that can tell
him the formula to mix any paint color for a
car from the 1930s to now.
“Black is the most difficult color to paint,
because you can see all the imperfections,”
Marcy said.
She recalled a 1933 Roadster that they
worked on, which was painted Candy Apple
red. They used one gallon of paint, which
cost $4,000.
“We had to put about 25 coats on it to get
it to the color we wanted,” she said.
Bill has several different paint guns for
various levels of detailing, including one
with some family history.
“This gun here, my dad bought it and
used it in 1945 to start his body shop. I still
use it today.”
The team usually has anywhere from 10
to 12 cars in various states of repair at the
shop.
Though he tries to buy American, many
car parts end up coming from far away.
“A lot of ‘Made in Taiwan’ stickers show
up,” Bill said. “That’s just where the parts
come from.”
Many of his customers, too, are from
outside the state of Oregon. He’s currently
working on cars from owners in Washington,
California, New Mexico and Arizona.
The business’ name, originally “Holton
Restoration,” has been a positive.
“As far as the ‘secret,’ you take your
worst attribute and make it your best,” Bill
said. “When Marcy suggested we change it,
I said, ‘Are you crazy?’ I’ve had to eat my
words on that one a few times.”
They’re no secret anymore, but the
couple feel their remote location, where
they’ve been since they got married 42 years
ago, adds to their appeal.
“I inherited the ranch from my parents,”
Marcy said. “We thought of moving to the
big city. But we’re kind of central to Port-
land, Boise, Seattle, Spokane. Convincing
people that we’re worth the drive — and
people love the historical aspect. We stayed
here because of history.”
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