About Vintage Hammer Garage (Fabian Valdez) My interest in cars started pretty early. My dad always had old cars, so I was working on them at an very young age. Dad taught me the “common sense” stuff that sticks with you till you die, and will always use.(At least try anyway). He also taught me the basics of paint and body, which I have been using and improving on ever since. I enjoy doing custom paint jobs, including Flames, scallops and pinstriping.In my twenties I had the opportunity to work for Robert Marianich. Robert is guy from Illinois who along with an extensive career in automobile design, built a Kustom as a teen, and went on to work for the “Alexander Bros.” in the sixties. The first year I worked for Robert in the evenings and weekends for free, in exchange for learning the art of metal work. My next big break was getting a job with a large prototype shop, “Metal Crafters”, in Fountain Valley, CA . Meanwhile still working in the evenings in the garage , doing mostly body and paint. “Metal Crafters” opened up a whole new world for me. I was working in a place where they were building complete cars, from near scratch, with metal workers from all over the world, and no limit to the budget! I learned any thing anyone would teach me. From there I went to restore a private collectors 1953 corvette. Then to another prototype shop, “C-TEK”, and couple of years later went to work for Steve Beckman restoring vintage sportscars. Hand built cars are beautifull and I also learned alot there. One of the best parts was that 90% of the stuff we worked on was aluminum with a ton of curves! Still, I couldn’t get away from ol’Henry’s iron. So I started at “Limeworks” speedshop in Whittier, CA. But being mostly a hot rod repair shop I really missed the metal shaping. So after a few years I bought a place with enough room to finally start my own shop Full time. And here We are!Specializing in what you need for your Hotrod or Kustom: •  Restorative & Kustom metal work •  Handmade Aluminum seats and track noses •  Chop, channel or a Kustom paint job •  Chassis set up •  Traditional Hot rods and Kustoms from the ground up