9 results for tag: nostalgic

Personalized, Custom Painted Tribute Helmet

This personalized, custom painted helmet is a gift for an employee retiring from a local law firm. His coworkers wanted to give him something special to remember them and the company by. Since he is a big motorcycle rider, they decided on a personalized motorcycle helmet. A helmet to remember We printed vinyl decals of the company's logo to put on the sides of the custom painted helmet. For the back, we made one that read, "In Recognition of Service to..." These two elements alone make the helmet personalized and one-of-a-kind. We love it when customers bring us their ideas for cool paint jobs on their motorcycles. Sometimes we'll ...

‘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. ...

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 ...

1951 Chevy Truck Restoration

Look what we've got back in the shop! The beautiful 1951 Chevy truck we restored and painted in pieces a few years ago. This restoration was done a little differently than most because the owner wanted to put the truck back together himself. He would bring us a set of parts and as we completed them, he'd bring us another, until we finished every part down to the cab. Here is how we last saw the '51 Chevy truck... This truck is very sentimental for the owner. His late father bought the truck brand NEW back in 1951. In 2013, he brought the truck to us to restore and paint, but wanted to put the truck back together himself. He enjoys ...

Completed Restoration: 1967 F-100

The 1967 Ford F-100 full restoration is now complete! This classic truck restoration has been an extensive restoration project for a few months now. Many restorations don't involve a complete disassembly where we take the cab and bed off the chassis, like we did here. For this one, we took the entire truck apart to repair every part and panel, and assembled it all back together. The truck originally belonged to the owner's grandfather. So, for sentimental reasons, he wanted to keep the cab of the truck. We definitely understand this way of thinking. We feel the same way about our cars, especially those that we remember driving 'back in ...

Back to Factory Original Paint Colors

Factory original paint colors tend to bring back a sense of nostalgia for the good old days. Many older vehicles or specific motorcycles are easily recognizable because of their distinct paint job. We tend to see factory original paint be of importance to those driving old trucks, as well as motorcycles. Many older farm trucks have the two-toned design, and are very recognizable with their specific colors. Owners like the appeal of driving a truck that looks just as it did back in the day, but is also new enough that the color shines and the body lines of the truck are perfect. Many of these older trucks that come in for restorations and new ...

Our customers keep in touch!

We got a nice visit from a wonderful customer of ours the other day. We've done a restoration on one of Pete's cars before; an Oldsmobile Cutlass 442. It was a complete ground up restoration, and one of the first that we did in this building. He's a great guy and a loyal customer, who's brought us a couple other cars and referred us to his friends and family. And every once in a while, he stops by just to say hi! He has a lot of cool cars, and likes to drive them all. This time, he brought the '29 Chevy. He remembered that we do a calendar every year with all the coolest cars we get in the shop, and requested we include the car in this year's ...

Throwback to that day the shop had a squirrel

It's not every day you see a squirrel wander into an auto body shop! Thanks to the TimeHop app, I was recently reminded of our little squirrel buddy who showed up at the shop about a year ago. So in honor of #throwbackthursday (we're not much for the #hashtags, but we're trying), I thought I'd post about our lil friend. An employee at the time, Darryl, was sweeping up the shop, when all of a sudden I hear him yelling about something and telling me to come look. I ran out of the office and saw that a squirrel had run up his leg and was clinging to his jeans. I snapped a quick picture, thinking the squirrel would for sure run off. Ins...

Custom Paint Job: Antique Corn Grinder

It's not every day that we get a huge old-fashioned corn grinder in the shop for a custom paint job! Also known as a hammer mill, the customer got the 80-year old corn grinder from his grandfather, and brought it to us to strip down and put some brand new paint on. The classic decals are next, giving it just the right look as the customer remembers it. We love doing custom paint jobs like this. It's not your average job, and it's just fun to work on something so out of the ordinary. Plus, Tim is always in when there is a level of nostalgia to the project. We put a picture on Facebook and asked our followers if they knew what it was (I sure ...