44 results for tag: cool stuff


‘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 ...

2008 Toyota Camry Makeover

It's amazing how a new body kit and a custom paint job will transform your once-average car! I was extra, extra excited to get this job in the shop because, as some of you may know, it is MY car! This 2008 Toyota Camry started out with a stock light green paint color. Let's just say it did not represent how cool I really am... Just kidding, but it did need an updated look. Here is what the ol' lady looked like before... There was some body work to start with. I may have dinged up a few areas on the car over the years (hey, it happens!), which we still needed to fix. With the new body kit, we replaced both the front and back ...

TD Customs Featured in Bold Life Magazine

TD Customs was featured in the March edition of Bold Life Magazine. We are excited to share our story with the Hendersonville and Asheville communities. The article covers Tim's start in the industry and his passion for restoring cars. It discussed the collision repair and classic restoration work we do here at the shop, as well as some other interesting projects. In the article, we talked about Tim's grandma's infamous 1939 Chrysler (Ruthy) that we are currently working on, and how important the restoration is to the family. There was, of course, talk of our light up paint, Lumilor, that you can see on our motorcycle. TD Customs is the ...

Sure, we’ll refinish a shotgun

There are a lot of auto body repair shops in and around Asheville that like to stick to just the basics. Replacing parts, pulling out dents, etc. At TD Customs, we love custom paint jobs that are slightly outside the box. It's a chance to do something different and creative, which is always fun. So, why not include gun restoration on the list? It's not your average auto body shop job, but we are happy to offer custom paint services on a number of unique items. Here is what the gun refinishing job looked like Before & After... In the Before picture, you can see the gun is in relatively good condition. It did have some chips and ...

VW Wesfalia Camper Van Refinish & Paint

This VW camper van was a cool project, just because it's a little different than your average car or truck paint job. We were itching to get a peace sign on there, but this one was done classic, all the way. This camper van was being refinished back to original condition and original colors. The top color is an off-white, and the bottom is their VW classic brown color. Here is what it looked like before... When the camper van came in, it needed some body work and rust repairs. We got started on the body of the camper right away. We sand the body down until it is smooth, and all the little waves are now straight. It also needed ...

Spoiler Alert! Custom molded spoiler

While we do all kinds of auto body repair work, TD Customs is all about the custom modifications that make a car totally unique. It's what we love to see and what we love to do. It's always fun to see what personal touches people want on their vehicle. This 2006 Nissan 350z came in needing a spoiler custom molded to the body of the car. As you can see from the picture, the black aftermarket spoiler was initially just attached to the back. It doesn't look bad, but it sure does make a world of difference to see a spoiler molded to the car itself and painted to match rather than the black spoiler simply attached to the back. Here is the ...

TD Customs’ 2017 Calendar

The TD Customs 2017 calendar is out! There are so many beautiful paint jobs and classic restorations that leave our shop. The calendar is a way they can live on and we can still see them! This is the 3rd calendar we've done, and we'll likely make it a tradition. Each year, we go through all of our restorations and big paint jobs and select the best 12 to go in the calendar for the upcoming year. It's a great way to show off our work all year round, and we tend to miss seeing some of the really cool cars we've done anyway. 2017 TD Customs Calendar We start January off with the 1968 LeMans we restored and painted this year, back to the factor...

Car mods: New body kit on the G35

The Infiniti G35 has gotten a little face lift with an Outcast Garage body kit, an OG Kuruma Z, to be exact. Here is what it looked like when it rolled in... Asheville Auto Body Kit Installation Our first order of business is disassembling all the old parts. These parts were stock, factory parts and are being replaced with a new custom Outcast Garage body kit, which includes a new front and rear bumper and side skirts. We then work on the new body kit parts, and paint them to match the existing paint. In this case, it got a fresh coat of gloss black paint. Typically, new body kit parts will fit perfectly on the car it is ...

Cars are not just cars; they’re memories

For many of us, cars are not just cars. They hold special memories that take us back and remind us of where we were and who we were with. Right now we're working on a family restoration for Tim's grandmother. This car will take her back to being 16 years old in upstate New York, when she first learned to drive. It'll take her back to memories of when she first met and dated her husband of over 60 years now. We've already heard how she named the car Ruthy after buying it from a nice, older lady with the same name. This is a family project, and whenever family is in town, we get together to work on whatever we can. Tim's aunt owns an upholstery ...