Check Out My Other Blog On Holton Secret Lab

06 Nov 2011 Leave a comment

by Hot Rod Cowgirl in Holton Secret Lab, Hot Rods, Photography, www.holtonsecretlab.com Tags: , , ,

Check out my other blog on our website Holton Secret Lab. If you like Hot Rod Cowgirl…you need to go check out what put the Hot Rod in the Cowgirl:)

Our newly revamped website is up and running. I still have lots to update on the website but that will take time yet. I think I have about two years worth of updates with events, restorations, awards, articles etc. Part of the problem was having to pay a web tech to upload my pictures and news…with our new website I can upload news and new pictures due to Word Press. Thank you Word Press!!!

Type this address http://www.holtonsecretlab.com/  into your browser and go to Holton Secret Lab.

If you go to the web site…check out all the links and see some awesome work and cars…then head over to the Blog link and you can read about the “Secret Lab”.

This is the header for the Blog…Hint Hint…Cool Cars!

Like this one! Incredible 3 D flames huh? My husband is a creative artist.

Amazing 1972 Bronco…built and restored with custom fabrication and details from the ground up…this Bronco is jaw dropping…it won the very first show it went to at the Portland Roadster Show…winning Best Of Class!

Our current “Wild Bill” build in progress “Jagged”. A 1928 Dodge Coupe with a V-12 Jag motor in it and yes it runs really well! Look close at all the custom fabricated work on this car. “Wild Bill” had to make the headers, manifold and the intake. “Jagged” has nitrous injection with a dual four tunnel ram. “Jagged” is going to the Grand National Roadster Show.

Another cool shot of the 1972 Bronco…incredibly customized and truly one of a kind! It needs to be in a magazine…it is beautiful.

We have owned “Bella Bel-Air” now for 6 years. We restored her to stock and that includes the paint. It is fun to drive her as truly you feel like you are back to the 50’s or 60’s.

“Mr. Blu2” at our restored gas pumps that we use for photo ops with the cars we restore and paint…it is fun for me to take the pictures and then roll back the time.

Cruzin Magazine interview at the “Lab”. All customer cars that you see HSL built and restored…we had about 20 customer vehicles lined up in front of the shop that day.

“Wild Bill” got a louver machine a few years ago and of course he went nuts…he has 936 Louvers on “Jagged”!

Close up of “Jagged’s” heart…why you ask…because we can. V-12 Dual Four Barrel, Tunnel Rammed, Nitrous Injected Jaguar Motor…in our 1928 Dodge Coupe with a 5″ Chopped Roof and lengthened 10″ to fit the Jag motor on a custom frame…all built by “Wild Bill” and Holton Secret Lab. If you go to You Tube I have a video of the beginning of the build on Jagged. Go to YouTube and search for Holton Secret Lab…I have 15 videos of various frame off restorations that we have done.

I know I know…you came to my blog to see horses and ranch life and cowboys and cowgirls…the wild west!

Yes I am still a 100% cowgirl here…this cowboy scene that you see, is happening about 150′ from Holton Secret Lab…on the other side of the 103 year old barn.

I could not leave out Fanny Annie…she is a sweet girl:)  Ok “Wild Bill” I am getting back to Hot Rods!

This gray “1936 Ford Five Window Coupe” is on You Tube too…the video is incredible as the restoration was intense….lots of fabrication of parts as we could not locate a few of them…quite a bit of rust repair etc. The “Gray Ghost” as I call this “36 Ford” came out beautiful!

This “1970 GTO” was also intense with lots of rust repair etc. and for those that do not know…black paint shows every flaw…so if it is “Black and Beautiful”…it is Beautiful!!!  This GTO is a crowd pleaser as you do not see these rare cars very often anymore. Go take a look at the YouTube video of this “1970 GTO”…it is impressive. “HSL strives to do every car good enough to be painted Black.”

This is the link to the YouTube Channel. http://www.youtube.com/

We go to the Portland Roadster Show every year with several of the customer car builds that we have done. It is a fun week for us and for our customers that go with us. Lots of people and it is fun to get out and meet new potential customers. Of course we always hope we will win several awards each year for our customers and for HSL!

Typical view at HSL…incredbile cars! This “1970 Chevelle” is on You Tube too…..and this little Chevelle has won lots of awards! Check out the ghost flames on the hood!

I think that “Wild Bill” spent too long in the sun that car show day…hmmm…stay tuned.

“Have A Happy Sunday!”

“Over and Out from Hot Rod Cowgirl…Hobby and I getting ready to cut a cow, which was so much fun, the next second of this sequence we were cutting. OK Wild Bill…I know it is time for me to go make dinner:)”

Thank you Kristen of  http://nine2fivecreative.com/

If you need a new web site…get hold of http://nine2fivecreative.com/

Hot Rod Cowgirl Heads To Holton Secret Lab’s…Hot Rod Shop For The Day!

13 Oct 2011 Leave a comment

by Hot Rod Cowgirl in Holton Secret Lab, Hot Rods, Ranch Life, www.holtonsecretlab.com Tags: , ,

Hot Rod Cowgirl heads to Holton Secret Lab’s Hot Rod Shop for the day as we had our house fumigated a few weeks ago…we do this every couple of years to get rid of spiders and various country bugs…and we have to vacate the house for a few hours…that means Ms. Minnie Mouse who is the Queenie of my house and myself move out for the day to the Burb and the Lab.

Minnie is 16 and a half years old….but acts like she is 7 years old…she is the sweetest girl!

Sadie Sue becomes our hang out place for a while….Minnie even has her own cat TV video that I can play for her in the Burb.

Ok well Ms. Minnie is not happy…do not blame her…but…we have to get those darn Juniper Canyon bugs out of our house. I promise we will watch your video Minnie:)

Off we go to the “Lab”…which is not that far from the house.

“Hey Leonard…what’ cha doing?”

This is a typical “Lab” picture…here we have two vehicle bodies on the rotisserie…a 1935 Dodge on this end and a 1954 Willy’s on the other end.

“Well…what do we have here?”

“Hmmmm….son Greg and Troy in the trunk…almost sounds like a game?”

Wild Bill says “Ok so what are you guys doing?”

“Hey It Is The Troy In The Trunk Game.”

” Troy” now realizes that “Hot Rod Cowgirl” “is taking pictures”..he is stuck and can not get out fast enough!

Serious panic time…”Does my butt look big???”

“No Flame…only when you ride a horse:)”

One of the cool things on the wall at Holton Secret Lab…with a cowboy flavor.

Typical “Lab” decor.

Can we all say together “Zoom Zoom.”

Always different various jobs going on at HSL.

Side shot of “Jagged” and son Greg working on the frame for the 1948 Ford that you see above.

This is the Media Blast Room…which we call the holodeck room…we grew up with Star Trek soooo…we often media blast the cars that we work on to take the old paint and body work off so that we can find the rust and places we need to repair and re-build…this is a rare 1969 Mustang on the rotisserie….stripped to bare metal. We use plastic media which is better than sand as it does not pit the metal or cause it to rust.

“The Lab” from a different view and angle….coming out of the paint mixing room.

Father and Son…”See this is what I mean.”

“Uh…wait I need to think…this takes intense thinking Greg”.

“Ok I think you have it.”

I love sneaking around the shop and catching everyone from different views.

Troy sees me and I am sure he is going to duck or hide:)

This is the custom fabrication part of the “1935 Dodge” dash.

More custom design by HSL on the “35” Dodge.

“Wild Bill and Leonard talking and thinking on customizing something on the Dodge”…what you see is wisdom, talent and experience.

“Wild Bill” messing with “Jagged” and Greg working on the “48 frame”.

Our fabrication area is a bit full…but that is good:)

“So Dad is Mom still sneaking around taking pictures?”

“Ah…yep she is…look busy son and maybe she will go bug Leonard or Troy.”

Another shot of the frontage of Holton Secret Lab from above…kind of cool.

Since I am in the barn..had to get a shot of something horse related.

Back to Holton Secret Lab….this is what we do here…incredible restorations and builds…perfection with attention to detail.

This F-100 will be incredible…it is going to “The Portland Roadster Show in 2012.”

Another cool shot of the frontage of “The Lab.”

Hey we are back in our house and all is well here in Juniper Canyon!

It is a late fall night here in Juniper…yeah the colors are incredible.

And amazing Ms. Kiah…we love her lots and lots.

And with that said…Good Night from Holton Secret Lab and the Juniper T.

The Secret Lab Of Hot Rods

31 Aug 2011 2 Comments

by Hot Rod Cowgirl in Holton Secret Lab, Hot Rods, Photography, www.holtonsecretlab.com Tags: ,

The Secret Lab Of Holton Hot Rods is the topic today because it is a cooler windy day and kind of blah…I thought you needed some eye candy to brighten your view…or maybe I need it for my view?

One thing about owning a restoration shop…there are always lots of cool cars around…I never know from day-to-day what I will see or hear.

Our trailer moves down the road regularly to car shows all over the Northwest. This Chevelle is a beauty and I love how the picture turned out with the trailer. Being the ad person for our business I look for pictures to be taken in a way that I can use for my ads…this one is perfect…shows the nose of a very cool car with all our advertising on the trailer complete with web page info.

Holton Secret Lab delivers some of the most outrageous; yet incredibly classic Hot Rods and Street Rods…American Muscle and Customs…Classics and Vintage Cars in the Pacific Northwest.

Frame off rotisserie restorations…ground up restorations…all in house…custom paint and design…fabrication…we build what you want.

Notice how meticulously clean our shop is?

HSL strives for perfection with attention to detail…an orderly shop helps you know where things are at and helps keep the jobs focused…both Wild Bill and I are clean freaks:)

V-12 Jag in a 1928 Dodge Coupe…I will be blogging more about “Jagged” as we continue to build and finish this car…since it is ours Wild Bill is going all out with his creativity…it already looks wild and bad to the bone!

These are all customer cars that HSL built and restored…this was a magazine photo shoot.

Best of Class…Portland Roadster Show

For those who are not familiar with the Portland Roadster Show it is a large regional car show in Portland, Oregon. Usually runs well over 400 cars and draws over 20,000 people per day of the three-day show. It is an honor to be accepted to show your car in the show and when you win it is over the top as far as winning goes…I will do a post of the first Roadster Show Wild Bill and I attended with three cars that HSL built….all three won best of class out of 400 cars…we were thrilled!!!!

Wild Bill has painted flames for over 40 years…this picture shows depth in the intricate flames…almost 3D looking…WB you are an artist!

Amazingly cool car…all the comforts for today and it goes down the road with good old horsepower…where is the “Oh Sh*t Handle?”

“Mr. Blu2″ Portland Roadster Show Best of Class Winner Many Times Over.”

Love this car…the design of the body, fenders and grille…the belt line…the smooth classic lines.

It is interesting that the light effects how the color looks…inside car show lights verses outside car shows in direct sun.

Outrageous Super Bee Clone.

At the Portland Roadster Show…has won many times.

This shade of red is a crowd pleaser…lots of depth and shine…very classic and fits the car…when you see it pull in at the car show everyone takes notice due to the throaty sound and the stand out red.

A very rare Kaiser Manhattan…full frame off resto…look at all the amazing chrome…it sparkles!

Incredible lines and unusual design make this Kaiser a crowd pleaser…Portland Roadster Show winner and has won all over the nation as the owner takes it to national shows.

I will be adding this car to our website soon…www.holtonsecretlab.com

Also go to You Tube as I have the Kaiser Restoration on video….as well as several other vehicles…forgive the music as I had to go with You Tube music…just search for Holton Secret Lab and you will go to our video page…here is the link too http://www.youtube.com/my_videos?feature=mhee

Car Shows

2007 Portland Roadster Show. We entered 10 customer vehicles that HSL restored and brought home 12 trophies.

Very rare 1969 428 Cobra Jet Grande.

Did I say flames?

These are only a few of the cars that Holton Secret Lab has built or restored for their customers….I will post more of our vehicles in the future…stay tuned.

I will update this blog 1-2 times per week so be sure and bookmark it…check back…pass it on to your friends and family too…it will be interesting…look us up on the web  www.holtonsecretlab.com…I am in the process of rebuilding the web site with http://www.nine2fivecreative.com. We are still working on it and it will be updated with all the vehicles that are not on it yet. My web designer is using a program that will allow me to update it daily if I need to.

“The Secret Lab” delivers…we are unique in what we do here…your dream can be on the road in a few months…dreams that become realities…in “The Secret Lab Of Hot Rods.”

Horses and Hot Rods

05 Aug 2011 Leave a comment

by Hot Rod Cowgirl in Holton Secret Lab, Horses, Hot Rods, Photography, Ranch Life Tags: , , , ,

Horses…Hot Rods and Howdy from Juniper Canyon…..where Juniper T Ranch and Holton Secret Lab are located.

How many Street Rod Shops are located in the middle of a wheat field on a century old family ranch?

Remember the movie Field of Dreams?

Build it and they will come…and our customers have.

Two Graduates From “The Lab”

A beautiful Chevelle With “Wild Bill” ghost flames….”Wild Bill” or WB is my husband and he is a wild artist and inventer…and a cowboy too in his heart but these days he is riding the shop and herding all those pretty cars around and building outrageous customs and doing complete frame off restorations.

This is our Hot Rod, “Jagged” that Wild Bill is building. It is a 1928 Dodge Coupe with a V-12 Jag motor in it….WB had to invent the intake manifold…then he had to reconfigure the carb to work with an American Edelbrock Carb…he made the headers and fabricated the vehicle to fit the engine…totally “Wild Bill”

More HSL Graduates

Moving on to cowgirl stuff….do you know what “Hooking On” is with a horse? I am going to show you a sequence with my horse Hobby and I in the round corral.

As you see I am in the middle of the round corral and I am sending Hobby to go the direction that I chose.

Here I have asked Hobby to reverse directions…you want your horse to reverse direction by turning  towards you. If they turn away from you then send them on and do not let them reverse until they stop and turn in towards you. This is a matter of respect as you want them to look at you.

I asked Hobby to stop and she did….she turned towards me and is standing still waiting to see what I will ask next.

Hobby is hooked on…which begins the foundation of trust…she wants to stay close to me  as she feels safe  with me as her leader.

No matter what direction I turn and go…Hobby is with me…this is what you want to see…she has no halter or lead rope and she is choosing to stay with me.

Smile Hobby…I love Ya!

We are both getting loves! Since these pictures were taken we have added sand to the round corral, which helps with the (cough cough) dust!

Fanny Annie is enjoying the cool evening after a hot summer day…what a view we have here….it is truly incredible to watch the colors change throughout the day and into the night.

You never know where I will be taking pictures…..see you on down the dusty trail and remember to smile!

Hello World…MJ Here!

04 Aug 2011 2 Comments

by Hot Rod Cowgirl in Cattle Ranch, Heritage, Horses, Hot Rods, Juniper T Ranch, Ranch History, Ranch Life Tags: , , , ,

Hello world…MJ here…my name is MJ for the most part….although my husband calls me Lucy and my actual name is Marcy….I live where my Norwegian Grandfather homesteaded back in the late 1890’s. The house we live in today was built by my Grandpa Gunder in 1920 for his mother, my Great Grandmother Anne-Marie , my Dad remembered hauling lumber for the house with his Dad when he was 10 years old by horse and wagon from the small town of Helix 8 miles from the house.

Of course Minnie thinks it is her house…and it is….the floors are old and original…pretty huh? We exposed them in 2006, the entire main floor was this beautiful red fir tongue and groove. It is funny that when my Mom moved into the house with Dad in 1939 she spent her time here making the old house modern…I grew up here and did not know that the floors were wood and beautiful…thank goodness Mom had them so well covered to protect them!

Because of the old red fir floors…when we remodeled the kitchen…we had a local cabinet-maker come give us a bid. The first thing he noticed was the old red fir floors…he said “Would you be interested in antique wood red fir cabinets for your kitchen? He told me he bid on a stack of old red fir wood about 30 years ago and it has just sat in his studio….I said YES YES YES…that will restore the kitchen to the original cupboards! I have refinished the pass through cabinet to the original dining room and also have refinished the bar in the middle of my kitchen…it used to be by the sink as I remember my Mom and I rolling cookie dough on the wood bread board that is still intact. That is the bar you see by Minnie!

Isn’t the kitchen incredible…it turned out beautiful! My neighbor painted and fired all my tile for the back splash. I had purchased the tile behind the range several years ago.

Juniper T Ranch Brand

I lost my Dad in 1997 and my Mom in 1998…they were married almost 60 years… they had me late in life…..it was very hard loosing them as I am an only child. I miss them everyday.

Bill and I looked at moving our shop to Portland or Seattle or Bend or Boise or Spokane or Bozeman or Billings but we finally saw that this is where we are to live….most Americans do not have the family history or heritage anymore due to the world we live in and that we have the heritage here and family is huge…so we decided in spite of great odds we would stay right here and market our shop as “The Secret Lab”. Notice that I am making a joke…we were being interviewed for TV.

I do all the marketing and ads for us as well as run our office and I am the Quick Book expert and do all our financial bookkeeping etc. I knew if we got out and showed who we are…that Wild BIll who is an artist and a one of a kind professional car restoration builder that the business would work here….and it has.

We still do get the deer in the headlight look when potential customers at shows ask us where we are located….as the marketing person I have had to fight that misconception about us….that yes we are located in an isolated area that means you will have to drive a few miles to get here BUT Holton Secret Lab is worth it as we are a destination that you want to reach….that is if you want quality and perfection with attention to detail….your call…just do it…you know you want it right? We are worth it…you will not be disappointed!!! We are a one stop shop as we do it all right here in our state of art 8000′ shop with three full-time employees.

I am a cowgirl by heart and spirit. My Dad ran over 800 head of Black Angus cows…each year at the end of school my parents and I moved to the Blue Mountains to take care of the cows for the summer…I was my dad’s right hand man so to speak…he had me riding a horse before I was 2 years old.

To this day I am still riding my horses…running cows and riding hard was my life before I meant and married Wild Bill…and some of his early life was that way too…he buckarooed out in the Owyhee Desert on several large ranches….his Dad had a body shop in Vale and Bill learned how to paint cars by the time he was 16…he worked on  old cars back in the 60’s and 70’s so he knows exactly how to restore them.

This blog will be more about my life as a cowgirl and as a hot rodders wild and crazy wife too…..I hope you will enjoy the memories and way of life I grew up in….I hope you will also enjoy my blogs about Holton Secret Lab too….we have fun out here in Juniper Canyon…so come on in and sit a spell! Welcome to our home and our life!

My parents and I…and our horses up at the cattle ranch in the mountains on Beaver Creek.

Wild Bill and I at the Wyoming Cattleman’s Ball In Pinedale, Wyoming

Riding With Friends Is The Best Medicine For The Soul…Thank You Lana!

Summer Nights Feels So Good…Love You Melody!

Cowboy Son with Hobby and Bo

Cowboy Son Rubbing On Buck…3 Years Old

Cowboy Son On Buck’s Back For The First Time!

Buck is coming to live with us in a month or so…we are very excited to have him come home…and our Cowboy Son will always know where he is at and can come ride anytime…Yep!

So Hey Ya All…Hang On Tight…We Will Travel to Wyoming and To Post Oregon…and To Beaver Creek And To The White House…And To Juniper T Ranch!

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