Ness-Stalgia was designed by Carl Brouhard in the mid 1990s. Believe it or not Carl began with a sketch on a pizza box that turned out to be a wild and extreme illustration.
Your eyes don't deceive you; it's purposely styled to look like a 1957 Chevy Bel Air. Iconic to bike fans, a lot has been written about this bike but it's origina story is a little hazy. Until now.
As one of the craftsmen who worked on this project, Jeff McCann knows and has spoken with each of the men responsible for the build. There is much misinformation both in print and on the internet about this bike, so he decided to attempt to set the record straight. Read his words below.
'Carl Brouhard is the originator of the concept of styling a motorcycle after a 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air.
Watching television one evening while eating pizza, an advertisement for a car show came on screen showing a 1957 Chevrolet tail-fin. This inspired Carl to see in his minds eye a motorcycle mimicking the styling of the car. Grabbing the pizza box and a pencil, he quickly did a rough sketch of his idea. The following day he sat down at his drawing table and began a rendering of the concept in ink and color markers. Some days later he approached Arlen and Cory Ness with the drawings to see if they were interested in purchasing these plus the concept in general.
They declined.
Next he approached Billy Gibbons of ZZ top with the concept and they expressed an interest. As negotiations were continuing with Gibbons, Arlen called and said he wanted to purchase the concept even though he didn't plan on building the bike immediately. Carl did several scale drawings using a real headlamp bezel from a '57 Chevy. This is the only actual Tri-Chevy part on the finished motorcycle.'
'Ron Covell is the master metal fabricator who built the body over an 8 month period. Once Arlen had purchased the drawings from Carl Brouhard he began showing them to friends. Everyone was enthusiastic about the concept and urged him to build the bike. He began searching for a fabricator who was not already busy building for him as Bob Munroe was working on the "Pepsi" bike for Mike Brown/Ness Inc. and several other projects at the same time. Ron had been fabricating hotrods for many years and had recently expanded his business to include seminars teaching his unique methods. Arlen approached him and negotiated a firm price for the project. Ness brought him a mono shock frame he had designed and had produced in a very limited quantity. In talking with Ron, he told me it took 400 to 450 hours to make the three pieces plus the trim. The rear bumper and tail lights are hand made scaled down replicas of actual Chevy parts. The only real 1957 Chevrolet piece on the motorcycle is the headlight bezel. The chrome grill on the front frame cover was produced to match Carl's concept scale drawings. The front fender is fiberglass and from the 1994 Ness catalog.'
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| L-R: Ron Covell, Arlen Ness, Carl Brouhard |
'Bryan Kinney, owner of KC Customs in Santa Rosa,CA did the prep and base painting on the 4 pieces Ron Covell had made. This included more than 80 hours of plastic filler/sanding prep before primer. Bryan was told by Arlen to paint it "Hamster Yellow" a two step basecoat. Transparent yellow is sprayed over a white base to make a truly brilliant pure yellow hue. Bryan nubed and polished the front fender and frame cover knowing they would not have any graphics added. Arlen brought me the two halves of the body, which by this time, his shop assistants had managed to dent and chip in several places. After Brian had painted the bike, Arlen's assistants (who shall remain nameless) decided to drill a hole for access to the oil tank filler. This chipped the paint back almost two inches from the edge. I repaired both halves, repainted the damage using yellow basecoat Arlen brought me.'
'These are the fixtures I made to paint the two piece body.'
'First down of all the graphics is the panel made to mimic the stainless insert. I sprayed a fine silver DBC basecoat tinted darker with a few drops of weak black toner. Next I used 1/4 inch 3M fine line tape spaced exactly 1/4 inch apart. This was painted with over thinned blending clear tinted with weak black using high pressure and with the gun held 30 inches from the part. This prevents the paint from building up an "edge" against the tape.'
All the "chrome" was sprayed with PPG DBC medium silver basecoat.
'First down of all the graphics is the panel made to mimic the stainless insert. I sprayed a fine silver DBC basecoat tinted darker with a few drops of weak black toner. Next I used 1/4 inch 3M fine line tape spaced exactly 1/4 inch apart. This was painted with over thinned blending clear tinted with weak black using high pressure and with the gun held 30 inches from the part. This prevents the paint from building up an "edge" against the tape.'
'Following Carl's drawings I hand scripted the name on AutoMask, positioned it parallel to the "stripes" and cut it with a #11 Eaxcto knife.'
'Bryan Kinney, owner of KC Customs in Santa Rosa,CA did the prep and base painting on the 4 pieces Ron Covell had made. This included more than 80 hours of plastic filler/sanding prep before primer. Bryan was told by Arlen to paint it "Hamster Yellow" a two step basecoat. Transparent yellow is sprayed over a white base to make a truly brilliant pure yellow hue. Bryan nubed and polished the front fender and frame cover knowing they would not have any graphics added. Arlen brought me the two halves of the body, which by this time, his shop assistants had managed to dent and chip in several places.'
'Originally, Arlen planned to have Carl Brouhard paint the Chevy Bike. However when the time came Carl was busy with the Pepsi bike for Mike Brown. Mike was a fellow "Hamster" who owned a business in Reno, Nevada making signage and collateral for Pepsico Inc. This was Arlen's first build for a corporation, long before the many television bikes to follow. In January 1995 Arlen was to be featured at the Oakland Roadster Show as "Builder of the Year". A major honor for a motorcycle builder at what was then the most prestigious car show in the US. Covell had finished the body in the fall of 1994 and Arlen was anxious to complete the project so it could be included in his display as Builder of the Year. After Carl declined to meet the deadline because of his workload, Arlen approached me. I also declined the job because I already had multiple jobs in progress and as a one man shop the prep meant stopping everything for 10 days to two weeks just to get the body ready. Arlen next asked if I would paint just the graphics and finish clear the project if he had someone else do the prep and paint. I agreed and that is how Brian Kinney came to do the yellow base color.'
'Bob Munroe's contribution to the project are these one off pipes. The bulge in the front exhaust is an anti-reversion device, the back pipe's is hidden in this view. Also, I had bolted the body halves together when I masked the faux chrome but you can see in this view, repeated disassemble has mis-aligned the artwork.'
As an aside, the reason why the colour looks so different? McCann explains for all you photography buffs: 'It's the white balance in all these different images taken with different cameras over a period of years, For instance this one is from Arlen's in house photographer and is a digital file they gave me on disc. It's way to "green". The graphics progress images were Fuji film in my old Canon SLR and scanned from prints. The first and third are Fuji film, digitized by Kodak processing service. Only the second image is from my Canon digital SLR. Just to lazy to post process them to all match in the yellow spectrum.'
Arlen holds the concept drawing by Carl Brouhard. I followed Carl's paint scheme exactly as he envisioned it.
Actual 1957 Chevrolet headlight bezel,the tailights and cut down rear bumper are handmade replicas scaled down to fit the design.. Arlen has ridden this bike in Sturgis and Daytona bike meets.
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