Choppers don't have to cost thirty thousand dollars. In fact, a chopper built at home can be had for as little as five thousand dollars. The key is the use of a donor bike for most of the components. How to Build a Cheap Chopper documents the construction of four inexpensive choppers with complete start-to-finish photo sequences. Least expensive is the metric chopper, based on a 1970s vintage Japanese four-cylinder engine and transmission installed in a hardtail frame. Don't look for billet accessories or a fancy candy paint job on this one. Next up, price wise, are two bikes built using Buell/Sportster drivetrains. The fact is, a complete used Buell or Sportster can be had for five thou or less. Now you've got more than an engine you have wheels and tires, brakes, hardware, lights, harness, and some sheet metal. Bolt all that stuff to a simple hardtail frame to create an almost-instant chopper. Most lavish, but still cheap by comparison with many of the bikes built today, is a big twin chopper built from carefully chosen aftermarket parts. A RevTech engine and five-speed tranny set in a Rolling Thunder frame. Accessorize from the swap meet and add a simple one-color paint job to create a bike no one needs to be ashamed of.

Airbrush Bible offers something for anyone interested in the art of airbrushing. Whether your goal is reality flames on a motorcycle tank, or a three-dimensional eagle in mid-pounce, this new book from Wolfgang Publications offers how-to sequences done with some of the best names in airbrushing. To teach skulls, there's Vince Goodeve. For Pin-ups, Tom Nguyen walks the reader through a 20 page start-to-finish sequence. For reality flames with extra punch, Steve Wizard takes the stage, explaining both the colors and the sequencing. Airbrush Bible also offers help spraying on various substrate with different media. T-Shirt artists will find advice on the best paint to use, and how to give the image longevity. Anyone working with hot rods and motorcycles needs to know how much to over-reduce urethane-based paints. Hobby painters need to understand acrylic paints, as well as the new water-borne colors. Each chapter is a one-on-one seminar that takes the reader from the first sketch to the finished product. Leah Gall explains all the basic strokes needed to create nearly any image, and Susan Heidi demonstrates how multiple, thin layers of transparent paint create believable skin tones and a life-like effect. In total, Airbrush Bible provides the reader with fourteen chapters, each one offering a complete painting sequence and an interview with the artist. Learn first hand why one artist uses watercolors while another prefers acrylic paints. Or why some artists never use the color black, and instead prefer a dark purple or violet. This new book from Wolfgang Publications is a compendium of subjects, paints and techniques; Airbrush Bible is the one how-to book any airbrush artist needs on his or her shelf.

Among the classic English motorcycles, the Triumph twins stand at the top. Many enthusiasts consider the Triumphs to be the fastest, the best looking, and the most popular then and now. Triumph Motorcycle Restoration Pre-Unit, takes a thorough look at what is required to restore a Triumph 650cc Twin built before 1963. The book includes two-start to finish restorations: one done on a 1959 and the other a 1962. The book provides additional information on the restoration of a 1948 Triumph. Hands-on sequences make up the heart of this book. Abundant color photographs show the complete assembly of both bikes, from installation of the swingarm and chassis parts to the attachment of the fenders and gas tank. Author and experienced Triumph mechanic, Garry Chitwood, explains the right and wrong way to assemble these bikes, and the little things that separate an amateur restoration from a proper and award winning Triumph restoration. More than just a motorcycle assembly manual, Triumph Motorcycle Restoration Pre-Unit, includes the overhaul and assembly of a 650cc twin engine, and the four-speed transmission. Both operations are explained in detail complete with photos and torque specifications. Rather than try and explain the minute differences that separate different models and years, the new Triumph Motorcycle Restoration Pre-Unit book offers a series of color plates in the middle of the book that provide left and right side view of most of the significant models sold in the 1950s and early 1960s. Triumph Motorcycle Restoration: Pre-Unit offers the Triumph motorcycle enthusiast 144 pages and over 450 photos explaining how to buy, build and restore a Triumph 650cc twin manufactured before 1963.

Every hot rod starts with a good chassis, be it a traditional Ford Model T track roadster, a Pro/Street fat-fendered Chevy, or something in between. In this book, the professional builders at SO-CAL bring more than sixty years of experience into play, and show how to build a chassis that will last and do the job.

This is the complete how-to book, showing both beginning and experienced artists how to airbrush, pinstripe, and goldleaf. Meant for automotive and motorcycle applications, the projects seen in this new book are done primarily with automotive paints because of their durability and super bright pigments.The projects themselves range from simple airbrush and pinstripe art, to more complex graphics and flame jobs that require the use of all three art forms.12 start-to-finish how-to sequences make up the bulk of this book. Each is documented from the first sketch to the multiple steps that lead to finished art. Nothing is left out, the photo record of each project is thorough and captures each part of the process. Captions are written by the artists, making each chapter more like a one-on-one teaching session than a simple how-to lesson.Each of these sequences is done by a well known artist, men and women like Leah Gall, Lenni Schwartz, Vince Goodeve, and East Coast Artie. And each artist takes time out from painting for a Q&A session. Learn why Leah Gall uses an Iwata airbrush, why Lenni Schwartz prefers a double-zero brush from Mack and which brand of gold leaf Keith Hanson prefers.Though there are other books that discuss pinstriping or airbrush art, there are very few books that cover all three means of embellishing and personalizing cars, trucks and motorcycles. With 144 pages and over 500 color photos, How-To: Airbrush, Pinstripe and Goldleaf belongs on the book shelf of any aspiring or established artist.