KICKER Install Team-the truth

This has been a very busy few weeks. We recovered from CES, got home, unburied ourselves from the ten tons of laundry at home and work piled on our desks at work so we could find some spot of normalcy to begin the process all over again.

Beginning a new year always seems so exciting…from the December side of the fence, but regardless of how many things you want to start in the new year, that first month always seems to slip away from you and it is February before you catch up and can begin.

It is basically February and we have yet to even pull the 2012 big mack-daddy project into the shop. We are going to refer to the big 2012 project as EagleEye… it will have many names between now and the time we actually give it a real name..some of them with four letters and *&% in place of some of those letters…

EagleEye is going to be a ground up resto-sort of..because these guys can’t leave well enough alone… we are going to do some big promotions around the build…Exciting stuff that KICKER has never done surrounding a build. No pressure, guys..no pressure!

John Jackson with NotStock Photography(for those of you who have been under a rock, check his work out at www.notstockphotography.com ) has been visiting us this week. Aside from encouraging us to eat fatty foods and drink lots of sodas and consume mass quantities of desserts, he has been shooting every vehicle we have in the barn. He even shot the Econoline (gasp!).

I will be posting some of his work here over the next few days…but let me tell you (if you have been under a rock) John is an amazing visionary. he can make the most awkward setting turn into a kick ass photo shoot! I can’t wait to see what he has done…and I will share!

On another note… our friends at Divine One Customs have been busy little bees doing custom installs on a couple of Guy Fieri’s Camaros. JEALOUS! Misha and Amber have both been sending me pictures of them ON THE SET OF DDD…really??? Sooo jealous!

I don’t get starstruck. Famous people are just that-PEOPLE- and having been exposed to some of the craziest(translation-Douchie) ones over the years has humbled my opinion of being famous… But let me tell you…if I was going to be starstruck and stammer like a drooling fool, it would happen in the presence of Guy Fieri. I am a HUGE fan…not in a creepy “I want to have your children” way..I just want to cook with him. I think he is awesome! But, alas…I will have to settle for touching Misha’s hand that Guy shook when they first met…kidding…maybe…kidding…not really! *Sigh…

~Maven

It is that time of year again when we all gather with our loved ones.

Around my office, it is also the time of year to get FAT!!! There are so many boxes of cookies and chocolatey candies/nuts/cherries… JEEZZUUUSSSS!!!

Megan just dropped off a box of so much crap that it would put an elephant into diabetic coma!

My poor boys… no one sends them candy and cookies.. all they get for Christmas this year is a golf cart to work on that is being used as a “sales tool”, so it is being built to spec, but no sweets.

Did I mention that no one sends them candy and cookies? I think we should all get together and send them some sweet goodies! They are (almost) all minitruckers, so they NEED TO BE FED!!!!

We are closed Friday, but go ahead and mail them some goodies… chocolate is preferred, but they aren’t picky. Do it now!

you can send it all to

KICKER attn: marketing install

3100 N Husband

Stillwater, OK 74075

*Kidding… I will take them some leftovers from my office…and probably bake them some yummies, too…

Anyway!!! Happy Holidays to all of you..you are all my besties! :-)

~Maven

What does this have to do with KICKER, you ask… well… not a whole lot, except that we LOVE Misha and Amber and the folks at Divine One….and we were right there along side them until 6 am several mornings in a row to help with last-minute tweaks to get this thing rolling. Sean made no fewer than 5 center consoles for it… Amber and I kept the boys fed (and amped on energy drinks)…Smith almost had a heart attack when he ate a HALF POUND FAT BURGER WITH DOUBLE CHEESE AND FRIED EGGS ON TOP…

It was an amazing few days with some of the best people in the world! The Divine One folks are FIRST CLASS… not at all like some of the D-BAG builders out there who walk through your SEMA booth with their noses in the air (I hope it rains).

Enjoy the read below… it is not my work, but I love it…poetic license and all.

Oh,and that pretty bird on the hood… I put that on! The headlight Bezels..well, I tried those, but had to have help from Smith.

~Maven

From the January, 2012 issue of Super Chevy

The flames licked at the back of his neck as he barreled through the crackling countryside with his ‘56 Chevy Bel Air in tow and an inferno in hot pursuit. It was the summer of 2009 and the wildfires in SoCal burned hotter than the Dragon Red that Misha Munoz planned to eventually paint the ‘56 two-door … if he survived this blistering blaze through Hell’s Kitchen.

The reason that Munoz risked his hide in the wildfires was to get to the CARS Inc. warehouse in Southern California. This company has a reputation for providing parts that turn Swiss cheese into solid gold, and the two-door you see before you that had originally seemed like such a solid score when purchased was in fact just the opposite—full of holes.

Munoz originally found the car in an Iowa cornfield. After some careful scrutiny of the pictures (apparently the ones posted on the Internet) he purchased the car and took delivery of it August 9, 2009, at the headquarters of his shop, Divine One Customs, which is based in Las Vegas.

“We soon realized that this car had an unfair amount of rust,” said Munoz. “Every time we removed, moved, or sectioned a panel, rust, dirt, and even a rock or two fell to the ground. The entire floor, braces, quarter-panels, roof sections, and frame were completely cancered.”

Before the near fatal analysis of the body damage, the plan had been to have the car ready for SEMA in less than three months. Once they saw the body though, the plan to debut the car at SEMA seemed that much more daunting.

“Old beer cans had been used as body filler,” said Munoz. “We even kept some as proof.”

Whether or not CSI could determine the last rebuild with the composite of beer cans remains to be seen, but one thing was for sure: Divine One needed replacement body parts and they needed them yesterday, facilitating the aforementioned trip in person to wildfire-ravaged SoCal to pick up the amalgam of parts.

Despite the heat, Munoz forged on through the fires with a wet rag on his mouth to avoid smoke inhalation. He made it to and from CARS Inc. with the requisite parts in under 36 hours. Upon his return he fell from the cabin of his truck, covered in ash and hacking uncontrollably. His crew ran to his aid. “Get to work! Our reputation is at stake,” he cried as he passed out by his melting tires.

Speaking of tires, the ones that this Bel Air puts the power to the ground with are 255/30/20 Continentals fore and 295/30/20 aft. The rims these rubbers wrap are Colorado Customs Dallas models measuring 20x8.5 up front, while the rears are twinny-twin-twins by tenny-ten-tens.

The entire chassis is brought down upon this rolling stock courtesy of Ride Tech Air Ride suspension, while ABS drop spindles let the front end get down to business.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Before Munoz and crew put on the rollers they had to complete the body and chassis. They smoothed and painted the latter before fabbing engine and tranny mounts for the newer powerplant. Other preparations for the power that a stock ‘56 wasn’t made for included the addition of a crossmember. The story gets wilder.

While Munoz recovered from smoke inhalation in the local ICU, the rest of the team got cracking on the paint and body.

“With the future of the shop and its reputation on the line, and every penny we had invested, we plowed forward sandblasting, sectioning panels, and coating everything in direct to etching primer,” says Munoz. Every orifice of the car had to be cleaned up before it could be put on the world stage. The antenna, wiper cowl, license plate, and side mirrors all went under the Bic. After smoothing the rear bumper, they applied the two-tone GM Black and Dragon Fire Red with Starry Night Silver trim. As Wesley Snipes would say, “Always bet on black …” Or red.

With the body nearly sorted out, it had come time to install the new motor. “ The arrival of the LS1 TurnKey Engine and the 700-R4 tranny was just what the team needed for a little kick in the pants,” says Munoz. “Even after realizing we had taken on a lot more work than we had planned on, the team of five didn’t back off the challenge. Instead they gave up their weekends, evenings, lunches, dinners, and plenty of sleep all while fighting off colds and flu.”

While throughout most of the build Munoz had been awakening groggily in the ICU to give orders, with eight days to SEMA and paint and assembly still not quite complete, he disobeyed doctor’s orders and checked himself out of the hospital, assisting with the rest of the build from a wheelchair.

Super Chevy finally caught up with Munoz in early 2011. It seems that every time we have a shoot in Vegas we have to postpone it after waking up in the sweltering mid-day sun in front of Slots of Fun. The good thing is, at this point the interior had been finished. A Colorado Customs steering wheel is surrounded by heaps and heaps of black and gray leather and suede. This was done by Divine One and Master Custom upholstery. The signal processor, amps, subs, and speakers are all from Kicker, but the real Kicker is this: the head unit. It’s an iPad molded into the dash! Now if that’s not a show-stopper we don’t know what is.

Speaking of stopping. The duty of doing that to the car is done with ABS Performance master cylinder and 13.5-inch rotors front and rear. The duty of doing that to this story and some of the nonsense within is done with a summarizing graph.

Misha Munoz didn’t really suffer third-degree burns and end up in the ICU after California wildfires. He didn’t really pass out next to the melting tire of his truck. He didn’t really lug body panels around while in a full body cast from his wheelchair. What he and his shop did do is build one badass ‘56 two-door to bring him and his stepdad closer, as it has always been his favorite.

And those wildfires, well, they just might have singed the Bel Air a bit, cause it is one blistering hot Bow Tie.

Have you missed me?

I am finally recovered from SEMA..Just in time to begin getting my butt kicked preparing for CES…not that any of you care about CES. CES is the SEMA for techno-geeks, so off I go from a world of Dickies-wearing, flat-billed hat-sporting MEN to a world of…well, not Dickies-wearing….

The guys received a call last week from a friend (who shall remain nameless) who was crying about blowing his door speakers (LOOOVVEEEE YOUUUUU!!!). The guys were feeling a bit frisky and decided to wager a challenge…

The below list was their demands, “bring us this stuff and you get your speakers”

1) FRESH, HOT Krispy Kreme doughnuts (which is tricky because the closest one is an hour away)

2) a rebel flag (because an american one was too easy)

3) a thimble

4) an autographed picture of John Schneider

The next morning, said person showed up with the items below…I’d say he went above and beyond. *Disclaimer-this offer is not transferrable to anyone else, so don’t get any ideas.

~Maven

My FB  page has been filled with tons of trip updates and pictures of everyone’s SEMA trip out. Our trip was uneventful…we got on an airplane, children kicked the back of our seats for 3 hours, we landed…and we are here!

Our Cruze is BE-U-TIFUL!!! First place we went when we arrived was DIVINE ONE CUSTOMS. They gave our Cruze a sweet-ass paint job and some new center caps for our rims…Let me tell you, that was quite a job especailly since the trunk latch broke AFTER the enclosure was already on the car..let’s just say that a crowbar was used and things were not the same after.