218 results for author: TD Customs

Working on the ’73 Corvette Restoration

A couple weeks ago, we rolled in the 1973 Corvette to get started on its restoration. This is going to be a full restoration, including refinishing and painting the body, as well as upgrading the motor and interior. New interior will be installed once the seats are reupholstered. Here is the Before... For this classic restoration, we are also helping with the motor and getting various upgrades done. The motor needed to be pulled out and taken to Mountain Machine and Performance shop for rebuilding. It's getting a complete overhaul and cam and valve train upgrade. After disassembling several parts and pieces, the first order of ...

‘A Family Classic’ ~ TD Customs featured in Hendersonville Times-News

  By Jason Gilmer Times-News Correspondent For years, Tim Donaghue had wanted to wrangle a car away from his grandparents’ storage shed to restore. The owner of TD Customs in Mills River finally got the chance two years ago, when his family in Caledonia, N.Y., told him he could work on a family heirloom. There was one car in particular he wanted to return to its former glory — his grandmother’s first car, a dark blue 1939 Chrysler Royal. It was the car his grandmother learned how to drive in. The restoration, started in 2015, became a major undertaking for Tim, his wife, Tara, and the others who’ve helped with the project. ...

Faux Burl Wood Grain Painting

Faux burl wood grain painting is a cool technique that lets us mimic the wood grain look on the interior panels of many classic cars. We recently recreated the wood grain look on the 1939 Chrysler Royal restoration, our family project. Tim's sister and nephew came to the shop to help with this project. It was fun to work on such an artistic project, and they were a big help! First, Tim painted the dash and all the trim pieces a lighter brown/ tan color for the base. Then, we used an assortment of brushes and gel wiping stain to get the desired wood effect. We painted dark brown dots in several areas to recreate the look of those darker knots ...

Classic 1940 Ford: Refinish & Paint

The 1940 Ford pickup truck is ready after body work and full paint. The truck came in with the same color scheme; light green with the dark green fenders and running boards. They are not the factory-original colors, but they look great and really compliment each other. All the parts come off the truck to be worked on and then painted. The fenders on these old classics are nice and rounded. When we do body work, we make sure the lines are nice and smooth, and that there are no blemishes. There is a lot of sanding and prep work that go into making sure each one of these pieces is perfect before paint. Once Tim is happy with how all the parts ...

Prepping #RuthysResto for Paint!

We have been busy working on our family restoration ~ a '39 Chrysler Royal named Ruthy. It is Tim's grandmother's first car, so when we have family in town, they are always eager to come in and help. Tim's mom, sister and step dad were a big help in getting the car wet-sanded and prepped for paint. There is a lot of prep work to do before we can paint a car. First, the body has to be perfectly smooth. Body work is done first. This entails applying bondo to the waves and indentations to the body of the car. The bondo allows us to sculpt the body back into its original shape and condition. Many of the parts on this car, like the fenders, are ...

Dustless Waterblasting

Dustless waterblasting is a way to strip a car of all the dust, paint and debris it has accumulated, and bring it down to bare metal again. Sandblasting isn't always the best option, as it can easily warp metal. However, dustless waterblasting is much gentler on these old classic cars. Here we have a 1970 Plymouth Barracuda that is getting a full body restoration. The body lines are wavy and will need a lot of body work to get them straight again. But first, we are stripping off old paint, some rust, and other debris. Once we get it down to bare metal, we can start doing the body work and metal work it needs. The car came to us on a ...

Ducati tank paint job

Sometimes all you need is a little change. That was the case with this Ducati tank paint job. The tank was in for a subtle paint and logo change. It started off a vivid white color with a bright red block letter 'Ducati' logo. The Ducati logo with block letters is their current logo, while the script was their older logo. Replacing the newer logo to the script version gives it more of a vintage vibe. Here is what the Ducati motorcycle tank looked like Before... The owner of the bike had a tiny decal of the Ducati logo he wanted. Many times, we can find logos and certain other images online for our printer to print out for us. This one ...

Dump Truck Paint Job

We've had a big job in the shop this past week - a dump truck paint job! This dump truck is a Ford F-700 that needed a fresh coat of paint. The cab and the hood of the dump truck were painted a bright white color. The bed was painted a simple grey. Large utility vehicles like this F-700 in for a dump truck paint job are not what we typically have in the shop. However, as you can see, we can easily accommodate for one. We pull out the scaffolding and are good to go. We sand down the entire body of the truck, and repair any damage we find. This particular dump truck paint job didn't have too much body damage, so we mainly just sanded out ...

Indian Motorcycle Paint Job

We have been doing a ton of motorcycle paint jobs lately. I guess we aren't the only ones getting excited about for riding season! The weather is getting nicer here in the WNC/ Asheville area, and we can't wait to take the bike out for a cruise. If you're thinking about a new paint job for your motorcycle, now is the time to bring it in! One of the latest bike paint jobs was for an Indian motorcycle. We needed to paint the tank, fenders, headlight housing and a couple other small pieces. The owner chose the colors from our paint catalogs, choosing a brownish red color with cream and gold for the accents. The 'Indian' name and pinstriping ...

Red marble motorcycle paint job

Look at that gorgeous marble red paint job! Marble effect in paint is such a cool way to add some depth into your paint job. It gives you a unique custom paint job that you won't see anywhere else. This custom silver and red marble paint job was done for a Harley Davidson Ultra Classic motorcycle. This one has quite a few parts to it. There was a tank, a fairing, saddlebags, a tail bag, and side covers. The paint booth was full the day we painted this bike! This marble paint job took a silver base with red on top. The owner primarily wanted to see the bright red with only a slight marble effect (rather than seeing a lot more of the ...