California Car Cover's Car Builder Poker Run

Our first ever California Car Cover Poker Run took place this passed Saturday and our group had a fantastic time seeing some incredible cars. Thank you to all of the great shops and customers that opened their doors to our group.  Participants collected playing cards at each stop for a chance to win prizes from our great sponsors and suppliers. Here are some highlights of the Poker Run.

After departing California Car Cover in Chatsworth at 8am, our first stop was out in Camarillo for a visit to Timeless Kustoms. Jason Pecikonis and his team build some amazing muscle cars and their shop is just as incredible. Our group was impressed by the amount of fabrication equipment that Timeless Kustoms uses, plus the number of cars sitting on racks waiting to be customized. Jason even took a few minutes to demonstrate some metal work to our group.

The Timeless Kustoms Vicious Stang has been touring the west coast this year. It's been blowing up the internet since its debut at SEMA 2016.

We had to make a last minute change to the Poker Run due to some unfortunate circumstances. Our founder, Jim DeFrank, offered to let our group visit his private garage out in the Ventura County area. His shop is home to the Jim DeFrank and Sons Racing team, plus a few classic Chevys. The group was able to see and hear a little about California Car Cover's history and it's involvement in NHRA drag racing.

Our third stop on the Poker Run was a visit to Backalley Restorations in Moorpark, Ca. Dave and Terri of Backalley graciously opened their doors to our group. The super clean shop had a number of hot rods and classic under construction. We were also giving a tour of their project "vault" where pending projects and shop cars are patiently waiting for restoration. 

Pure Vision Design in Simi Valley was our forth stop of the morning. Pure Vision has built a number of SEMA Award winning vehicles, plus has been featured in the California Car Cover catalog on a few occasions. Steve Strope discussed the history of Pure Vision and talked about a number of the current and finished builds the shop has worked on lately.  They have some great cars in the works for SEMA 2017 and beyond.

As a bonus stop, Sean Ramage of Empire Fabrication let us visit his facility in Simi Valley as well. Sean has been fabricated cars and trucks for years and we were glad for his offer. He discussed his current projects and the right way to chop a top.

Lastly, we returned to California Car Cover for a luncheon and prize drawing. Thank you to everyone that participated. We had a great time driving through Ventura County. We thought this would be an annual event, but everyone on the Poker Run asked about doing it again in 2017. If we can make another Poker Run happen in 2017, we will let you know. 

Pure Vision Black Ops Fairlane and BMX Bike Collection

Wasn't this vehicle featured on the California Car Cover catalog way back in May? Well, yes it was. We did not forget about the incredible Black Ops Ford Fairlane built by our friends at Pure Vision. During the photo shoot, Pure Vision owner, Steve Strope and I were discussing his affinity for vintage BMX bicycles. We had made a few custom bike covers for his BMX bicycles that were on display at the Grand National Roadster Show earlier this year. We decided that we should do a shop tour of his BMX collection and combine that in the blog post. Steve is a busy guy, so it took us a few weeks, or months:) longer than we planned to head out to his shop and check out the collection up close. We hope you enjoy the photos of the Ford Fairlane and the bicycles.

The May 2015 catalog cover.

This Fairlane is no different than any other muscle car to leave the Pure Vision shop in Simi Valley, Ca. Steve and his crew always build beautiful cars with subtle, yet impressive details.

The Fairlane features one-off EVOD wheels with period correct styling.

The low stance of the Fairlane is thanks to custom shocks and suspension components by JRI Shocks, Schroeder Racing Products and Fatman Fabrication.

Mick's paint applied the custom blue and gold paint job.

The Fairlane features custom interior by Eric Thorsen. The dash gauges are custom a collaboration between Pure Vision, Redline Gauge Works, Speed Hut and Reactor Watches.

The car has a 4-speed transmission

Under the hood is a SOHC aluminum engine built by Ed Pink.

This is an amazing car and thanks again to Steve and his crew for assisting us with a catalog cover shoot.

Aside from their love of muscle cars, the crew at Pure Vision are also BMX enthusiasts. When not building incredible street machines like the Black Ops Fairlane, the crew can be found tinkering on a variety of two-wheelers. Steve and the crew put as much detail into their bicycles as their cars, so you can see all of the craftsmanship here. They painstakingly restore, maintain and customize these bicycles.

1983 JMC Shadow

Araya 7X Wheels

Bullseye Hubs

1980 GT with Araya 7B wheels

Bullseye Hub

1981 Torker

Oakley 2 grips.

MKS pedals

Torker handlebars

Dia Comp MX 1000 brake caliper

2010 SE Quad 24"

SE Racing handlebars

TNT billet alloy hub 

Wellgo pedals

A group shot of the bicycles we featured.

Above are the custom California Car Cover bicycle covers we made for the Pure Vision display BMX bicycles. If you are interested in covers for your BMX bicycles, just give us a call.

Thank you to everyone at Pure Vision for letting us stop by the shop for a few hours to check out the BMX collection.