Fancy Fenders

Kingdom Metal Works is a small company located out in the country on a farm in Hampton Ky. After being contacted by the owners, I checked out their website to see just exactly what they are all about. The work is impressive and I loved their story so much, that I knew I had to share with our readers. From the words of the owners...

"We had no idea how we were going to get the word out that we were ready for business in January 2016. Little by little as word gets around in small towns, farmers, cattle owners and local townsfolk started showing up at the shop to see our machinery. If there was a need for minor repairs on their farm equipment, like a tractor or cattle catcher, the farmers and cattlemen came in for a good weld and some metal shaping. All this was done free of charge. By spring, we began to search the internet for local car shows and events where we could load up the English wheel, a shrinker stretcher and a bead roller in our little trailer to spread the word about the art of metal shaping and give some hands on demonstrations. We have had to work hard at earning the trust of our community. We joined the Chamber of Commerce, got acquainted with the local welding instructor at the technical college, traveled to the largest city which is about 45 minutes away and passed out business cards to every car restoration, crash repair shop, paint shop, hot rod and customs and dealerships to let them know we were here. When spring came and the car shows and events started being advertised in the local paper, on the small town grocery entry doors and gas stations windows, we loaded up the little trailer with our English wheel, shrinker stretcher and bead roller and went to the local car shows and set up our booth. When Kevin started banging the metal on his stump and smoothing it out on the English wheel, people were amazed. They had never seen anything like this being done. One event led to another and another. Before we knew it, we were getting calls from around Ky and neighboring states of young men who were looking to book our 3 day Private Metal Shaping/Welding Training class here at our shop. They drove in from New Mexico, Kansas, Louisville Ky and other towns in neighboring states.

The way our business got involved producing handmade teardrop trailer fenders is very interesting. In July 2016, we rented a space at the National Street Rod Association in Louisville Ky. We set up our tiny booth with a few pieces of metal, some pictures of past work, some posters and a table with business cards. A gentleman by the name of Norman Boulard, owner of Boulard Designs in Louisville, came by our booth and was intrigued by Kevin's knowledge of shaping aluminum. He discussed with Kevin that he was in the process of designing a classic tear drop trailer along with a comprehensive DIY manual. Norman was looking for someone who could not only fabricate the fenders, but many of the metal components that make up the trailer. These classic designed trailers would be marketed to a certain clientele looking for a reproduction of the original teardrops that were manufactured back in the day.

Once Norman fine tuned his design of the fenders with Kevin over the phone, discussing the process in fabrication and cost, Norman built the wooden buck and delivered the buck to our shop. Kevin completed a right and left fender made by hand out of aluminum and Norman picked them up ready to start marketing them at car shows and on his website https://classicteardroptrailer.com."