Folded into this small nowhere area in Oregon is a homestead, a century old ranch—that's my part. What looks like an old-fashioned gas station with bat and board siding, antique pumps and glass bottle coke machines next door is the front for Bill's lifetime passion—cars. Together we are living the dream on the family ranch, homesteaded in the early 1900's by my grandfather, where you can ride your horse at a gallop through fenceless fields and see coyotes looking for a meal is dream enough for any westerner. To combine this with a favorite hobby gone profession is about as good as it gets. No killer commutes, fractious bosses, or time clocks. "Wild Bill" escapes all that by retreating into his 7000' shop the "Secret Lab". Magic transformations occur inside, like a mad scientist creating a new contraption that has all the bells and whistles with promise to deliver exactly what was ordered. The before and after photos are incredible in the eye of the beholder. What goes in and what comes out 500 work hours later is truly astonishing. It takes vision, patience and faith. My husband is an artist, a one of a kind creative genius who can do things that still amaze me after almost 35 years.
My name is Marcy and I am married to Bill also known as "Wild Bill". We own and operate Holton Secret Lab, look us up at http://holtonsecretlab.com/ . This is the day to day story of our life between earth shaking thundering horsepower that comes out of the "Lab" and life as I know it here with horsepower of my own, the four footed kind, where on any given moment "Wild Bill" will pull out a custom, chopped, built, outrageous hot rod and see how the engine is running.....conveniently we live on a flat stretch of black top....perfect for fine tuning the horsepower and doing a few burn outs. Neighbors that live a half mile away usually call me to ask with a laugh "Is Bill out playing today?"
I will keep you updated with news of the car shows we travel to as well as the daily adventures that go on in the "Lab" with our life here. With the many customer projects, the builds we are doing and "Wild Bill's" own current build a 1928 Dodge Coupe with a V-12 Jag motor in it.....stay tuned.....put on your seat belt and hang on!
Your blog is excellent, a great start!
ReplyDeleteThe "secret" is out.
John
Hello Bill and Marcy,
ReplyDeleteI thought I'd give a little different perspective on the Secret Lab (the mild side). We met in the fall of 2005, when I talked with Bill I asked, would he be interested in doing a frame-off restoration. He said, sure, so on one of his trips to town he stopped by to look at a 54 Kaiser that I had. He was intrigued by the cars uniqueness and we agreed to start the project. Well, after some fits and starts the project was begun. We ended up using two cars to make one but Bill, Carl, and Troy did a marvelous job. The car is now completely rebuilt and ready to give many years of faithful service it has won best of class in every show it has been in! Thanks guys and Marcy you are great artist and good friends. JohnP
John,
ReplyDeleteI love your Kaiser and followed the process through all phases, through all the "rusty surprises!" I am particularly interested because my father owned several Kaisers and Frasers. One in particular was a green on gold '54 he called "the experimental car": the Corvette engine dropped jaws.
JohnV