The sustainability of any sport or industry is very much dependant on new blood, new talent and new trends. Byron Thiessen is one of those new bloods. When we came across a very nicely built Cuda at a local car show, a young man got out of his chair to talk to us. You could see the enthusiasm in his demeanor as he pointed out the very well done mods to the car. “Who built this car?” “I built it in my shop for a customer” he replied. “My shop, Creative Concepts.” “You built this?” Looking back that must have sounded really condescending.

A year passed and we met again. There he stood by two cars, obviously very “fabricated” pieces in bare metal, still not yet complete, but definitely cars that are something to look at in their perfectly welded state. “Let me guess, this is your work? We have to talk”

What you will see “In Print” will highlight these two builds in detail. We will follow them through to their completion. One is a customer car named “DS8” and the other is Byron’s own project, a highly modified and almost completely fabricated Camaro. Come back often as we display, in detail, what it takes to build cars like these which we hope will give you ideas for your own projects.

Byron started his career a few years ago when only 13 years old. His humble beginnings started at the end of a broom at a local body shop. The body filler and thinner fumes obviously got into his blood, and his desire to learn got him on to the tools very soon. He cut his teeth learning from Sean Ryan - see Wayne Halabura’s Grand National Top Ten contender and winner of Best Paint 2010. Sean schooled him well, but as life goes, seven years later, the young man, with entrepreneurial aspirations, mortgaged up and went into business for himself. Now 28 he is turning out this amazing level of work - an obvious natural. We hope you enjoy following these builds and his career.

After you check this out please check back here for our next issue where we start another journey with Byron’s scratch built “DS8”.

Let’s go straight to Byron’s Camaro.!

In 1934, there was no such thing as Mobile Audio, subs travelled under water, decks were for walking on and speakers stood behind podiums. Of course now there is hardly a vehicle around that doesn’t emit tunes of some kind.

This 34 Chev project car will carry with it an audio system that, for this type of car, will be a bit on the obnoxious side. I just happen to like my music a bit loud and with some kick!

But why now at this stage of the build? It’s a lot easier at this point when you have an empty box of an interior, to weld in a bracket or two, plan your wiring, your storage, battery location, deck location, all which may have a bearing on what body modifications may be required on the inside of the car.

A good start is at the back of the car. In our case we will have to establish the rear seat location. This Tudor has a ton of leg room so we have room for a cabinet that will house the rear speakers, a 10” sub, 2 amps, a battery and a little storage compartment. Our future back seat will fold forward so as to gain access a minivan rear seat frame may be the answer for this. It starts...