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DavePropst.com

Welcome...

This website describes services we provide, takes a look at equipment and methods developed in house, and presents detailed technical content on many subjects.

A large array of car-building equipment, as well as technique used in conjunction with it, has been refined over a period of many years. This equipment or system encompasses all areas of car construction from engine, drivetrain, suspension and frame to body and interior. The express purpose of this shop equipment is the design and construction of specialty cars to high levels of either appearance or performance (or both) by making use of 3D methods.

As a key part of their effort to provide products and services the consumer can afford to purchase, both the auto manufacturing and auto collision repair industries have, for decades, considered 3D coordinate equipment and methods as being standard, everyday practice. We merely apply it to specialty car building and restoring. The underlying concept is to avoid the inefficiency and lack of 3D coordinate capability of equipment commonly used in building one-off hand-fabricated cars; i.e. jack stands or chassis jigs supplemented with C-clamps, tape measures, centerlines of string or piano wire, various carpentry tools such as squares, plumb lines, 3-4-5 strings, and, at times, collision repair industry measuring devices and racks. Certainly it is possible to build a quality car using just such systems but many man-hours are consumed by the inefficiency inherent in using tools and equipment for purposes for which they were not specifically designed. This may well be acceptable or even entirely appropriate for a home-shop do-it-yourself operation. However, such systems can mean a very great deal of unnecessary expense and frustration for a paying customer at a pro shop (or any shop that charges for services). Instead of this traditional equipment of specialty car construction, our system uses purpose-built equipment such as tables, lifts, laser-based 3D measuring, and --most importantly of all-- true 3D clamping and jigging fixtures. While the measuring system is indeed a necessary tool, it is but one small part of the bigger picture. The table and 3D fixtures are what really allow the system to accomplish the things it can. This equipment is used in combination with digital photography, computers, wheel scales, etc. to achieve increases in capability, efficiency and speed. Substantial labor savings can be achieved during design and fabrication stages thereby reducing project cost. Supplementing this central system are other services relative to custom building cars, namely, structural fabrication, body fabrication, engine building, extreme high-end paint, interior work, etc. Additional to that are performance oriented services such as suspension performance development and induction/camshaft/exhaust performance development via software analysis, data-logging, flow testing, engine testing, and so on.

Subsequent pages of this website provide thorough explanation of what this car building system is. Initially however, it is helpful to explain what the system does. For a brief preview of its capabilities refer to the description and pictures at System Preview. Follow that with Shop Overview, which explains how all of the equipment and technique is interrelated. Also, video coverage of some equipment is available in the Ron Covell Shop Tour Volume II video.

Detailed, technically oriented information is found in the 'Technical' section of the menu at left. (Even though this site is by design easy to navigate, the Site Help page is recommended prior to reading the 'Technical' section of the website.)