How it all began...
Here, in his own words, Brian Cowdery tells the story of how he began creating small metal vehicles:
"I’ve been interested in art since I was a kid, and as the last child in the family with the next sibling six years older, I had to teach myself how to do whatever I was interested in learning to do. One of my most memorable efforts was learning the hard way how to silkscreen just to make a special batch of T shirts designed to be an aggravation to our new high school principal. As a junior, I designed the school ring (pictured on my Biography page) my high school used for about three decades until they eventually changed their name from the Indians to something politically correct. I took art classes in high school, but they were not too successful because of my attitude. (Years later I apologized profusely to my High School art teacher). After my junior and senior years in high school I attended summer sessions at the University of Minnesota where I was exposed to many other facets of art. In 1968 I was on the verge of being drafted, so I enlisted in the Marine Corps where I began doing some custom paint work on cars. After I was discharged in 1971, I began doing quite a bit of custom paint on cars and motorcycles in addition to my day job. Finally in 1974, I quit my job at an antique car restoration shop and began a lifetime of self employment.
During the early 1970s I bought some old pressed steel toys at a rummage sale because I found them really interesting and sculptural. Eventually, I discovered the existence of antique toy collectors and toy shows. From that moment I was hooked. I really liked the pressed steel toys from the 1920s and because of my automotive experience I began to restore the ones I found in poor condition. Not many people were restoring pressed steel back then and I was able to get great buys on toys needing work. During the 1920s, a toy company called Buddy L made seven different little toy cars and trucks about a foot long, representing Model T Fords. They called the diminutive Model Ts their flivver line. By about 1980, I had accumulated examples of most of them and began to wonder what other body styles they might have produced if the depression hadn’t brought sales of their great toys to a halt. I thought some kind of sedan might have been next, so I took a really ratty flivver roadster pickup and removed the top and the bed. I sawed the lower body in two and moved the rear portion to the back end of the frame, filling the gap between the front and rear halves with 20 gauge sheet steel which I butt welded in place with an acetylene welder. I ground the inside and outside of the welds so the entire body looked like it was made from a single piece of steel. I fabricated an overlay representing the doors and windows in a similar way to how the Buddy L flivver coupe windows and doors were made, and spot welded it onto the lower body. I made a closed car windshield and a top, put it all together, primed and painted it. I had created a Centerdoor Sedan.
I took that first creation to a man I knew who had quite a bit of experience manufacturing small items. He gave me lots of encouragement but his guesstimate of the amount of money needed to tool up for a project like I had in mind was way off - only about 1/6 of the actual cost of doing it. By the time I realized just how wrong he was, I was in way too deep to quit. I persevered, borrowed all the money I could, and finally by 1982 I had acquired the tooling and all the parts needed to build 250 Centerdoor Sedans. I borrowed an original Buddy L flivver chipboard box from a friend and had a manufacturer in Minneapolis make custom boxes of exactly the same style as the 1920s toy boxes. I began assembling the cars and printed a flyer to be inserted in Antique Toy World magazine. One of their regular contributing writers took an interest in the project and wrote a single page story which was published in the September 1982 issue of Antique Toy World. When the publisher saw the photo of my five year old daughter holding the Flivver sedan on my brochure, he loved it and decided to feature it on the cover of that issue. Overnight, every serious antique toy collector in the nation became aware of the project, and orders began coming in. My first customers would be antique toy collectors. I was actively restoring toys as an occupation at that time, so it took three years of part time work to complete the 250 Centerdoor Sedans. Fortunately they all sold and I managed to recoup the money I had invested in the project. I was fortunate to break even on the cost, donating the labor necessary to build, paint, pack, and ship all 250 pieces. It was a great trade for the opportunity to meet all the wonderful people across the USA who became customers and good friends.
In the early 1980s, I had 5,000 spoked aluminum wheels cast by two different foundries. Since then I have built over 1,000 miniature vehicles using those wheels. Every wheel was hand painted using a brush loaded with One Shot sign paint. At this writing, I have 24 wheels left. When they are used up I will not have any more cast, but will work on creating some other types of vehicles as well as several new and different projects. Most of the thousand plus flivver type vehicles had their wheels secured with a little tight fitting washer, then the end of the axle was peened to hold the washer in place. I literally wore the surface of that little hammer head into a concave shape from years of peening axles. I now thread my axles and secure the wheels with a small brass nut.
I have never reproduced any vintage pressed steel toy because of the detrimental effect reproductions have on the value of vintage pieces. Everything I have ever made is original, designed and built by me. They were built with the intention of fitting in well with antique toys.
In the late ‘90s I designed and built about 50 Spirit of St. Louis airplanes, made to look as though they were produced as pressed steel toys after Charles Lindbergh's successful solo transatlantic flight in 1927. The largest piece I ever built was a four foot long articulated aerial ladder fire truck that looked like it had been made by the 1920s pressed steel toy company Kelmet. I’ve made a huge version of the well known little Wyandotte racer with working electric lights. I’ve built some Twin Coach Helms Bakery trucks. Several of the cars and trucks I’ve created over the years were built in multiples, but not in larger quantities than a couple dozen or so of any design, and mostly a lot less pieces than that. Today, everything I do is one of a kind. I’m currently working on a two foot long version of Art Arfons' 1960s land speed record car the Green Monster. I’m fascinated by the thought of doing some miniature buildings in sheet steel or aluminum. At age 75, the most fun thing about what I do every day is trying new things and never really knowing what might be next.
It pleases me that I'm not the only one to recognize the sculptural quality of the pieces I create. Over the years I have had several exhibits in art museums, sculpture shows, and an art gallery show. Many of my current clients buy what I create because of their appreciation of metal fabrication as an art form."
"I’ve been interested in art since I was a kid, and as the last child in the family with the next sibling six years older, I had to teach myself how to do whatever I was interested in learning to do. One of my most memorable efforts was learning the hard way how to silkscreen just to make a special batch of T shirts designed to be an aggravation to our new high school principal. As a junior, I designed the school ring (pictured on my Biography page) my high school used for about three decades until they eventually changed their name from the Indians to something politically correct. I took art classes in high school, but they were not too successful because of my attitude. (Years later I apologized profusely to my High School art teacher). After my junior and senior years in high school I attended summer sessions at the University of Minnesota where I was exposed to many other facets of art. In 1968 I was on the verge of being drafted, so I enlisted in the Marine Corps where I began doing some custom paint work on cars. After I was discharged in 1971, I began doing quite a bit of custom paint on cars and motorcycles in addition to my day job. Finally in 1974, I quit my job at an antique car restoration shop and began a lifetime of self employment.
During the early 1970s I bought some old pressed steel toys at a rummage sale because I found them really interesting and sculptural. Eventually, I discovered the existence of antique toy collectors and toy shows. From that moment I was hooked. I really liked the pressed steel toys from the 1920s and because of my automotive experience I began to restore the ones I found in poor condition. Not many people were restoring pressed steel back then and I was able to get great buys on toys needing work. During the 1920s, a toy company called Buddy L made seven different little toy cars and trucks about a foot long, representing Model T Fords. They called the diminutive Model Ts their flivver line. By about 1980, I had accumulated examples of most of them and began to wonder what other body styles they might have produced if the depression hadn’t brought sales of their great toys to a halt. I thought some kind of sedan might have been next, so I took a really ratty flivver roadster pickup and removed the top and the bed. I sawed the lower body in two and moved the rear portion to the back end of the frame, filling the gap between the front and rear halves with 20 gauge sheet steel which I butt welded in place with an acetylene welder. I ground the inside and outside of the welds so the entire body looked like it was made from a single piece of steel. I fabricated an overlay representing the doors and windows in a similar way to how the Buddy L flivver coupe windows and doors were made, and spot welded it onto the lower body. I made a closed car windshield and a top, put it all together, primed and painted it. I had created a Centerdoor Sedan.
I took that first creation to a man I knew who had quite a bit of experience manufacturing small items. He gave me lots of encouragement but his guesstimate of the amount of money needed to tool up for a project like I had in mind was way off - only about 1/6 of the actual cost of doing it. By the time I realized just how wrong he was, I was in way too deep to quit. I persevered, borrowed all the money I could, and finally by 1982 I had acquired the tooling and all the parts needed to build 250 Centerdoor Sedans. I borrowed an original Buddy L flivver chipboard box from a friend and had a manufacturer in Minneapolis make custom boxes of exactly the same style as the 1920s toy boxes. I began assembling the cars and printed a flyer to be inserted in Antique Toy World magazine. One of their regular contributing writers took an interest in the project and wrote a single page story which was published in the September 1982 issue of Antique Toy World. When the publisher saw the photo of my five year old daughter holding the Flivver sedan on my brochure, he loved it and decided to feature it on the cover of that issue. Overnight, every serious antique toy collector in the nation became aware of the project, and orders began coming in. My first customers would be antique toy collectors. I was actively restoring toys as an occupation at that time, so it took three years of part time work to complete the 250 Centerdoor Sedans. Fortunately they all sold and I managed to recoup the money I had invested in the project. I was fortunate to break even on the cost, donating the labor necessary to build, paint, pack, and ship all 250 pieces. It was a great trade for the opportunity to meet all the wonderful people across the USA who became customers and good friends.
In the early 1980s, I had 5,000 spoked aluminum wheels cast by two different foundries. Since then I have built over 1,000 miniature vehicles using those wheels. Every wheel was hand painted using a brush loaded with One Shot sign paint. At this writing, I have 24 wheels left. When they are used up I will not have any more cast, but will work on creating some other types of vehicles as well as several new and different projects. Most of the thousand plus flivver type vehicles had their wheels secured with a little tight fitting washer, then the end of the axle was peened to hold the washer in place. I literally wore the surface of that little hammer head into a concave shape from years of peening axles. I now thread my axles and secure the wheels with a small brass nut.
I have never reproduced any vintage pressed steel toy because of the detrimental effect reproductions have on the value of vintage pieces. Everything I have ever made is original, designed and built by me. They were built with the intention of fitting in well with antique toys.
In the late ‘90s I designed and built about 50 Spirit of St. Louis airplanes, made to look as though they were produced as pressed steel toys after Charles Lindbergh's successful solo transatlantic flight in 1927. The largest piece I ever built was a four foot long articulated aerial ladder fire truck that looked like it had been made by the 1920s pressed steel toy company Kelmet. I’ve made a huge version of the well known little Wyandotte racer with working electric lights. I’ve built some Twin Coach Helms Bakery trucks. Several of the cars and trucks I’ve created over the years were built in multiples, but not in larger quantities than a couple dozen or so of any design, and mostly a lot less pieces than that. Today, everything I do is one of a kind. I’m currently working on a two foot long version of Art Arfons' 1960s land speed record car the Green Monster. I’m fascinated by the thought of doing some miniature buildings in sheet steel or aluminum. At age 75, the most fun thing about what I do every day is trying new things and never really knowing what might be next.
It pleases me that I'm not the only one to recognize the sculptural quality of the pieces I create. Over the years I have had several exhibits in art museums, sculpture shows, and an art gallery show. Many of my current clients buy what I create because of their appreciation of metal fabrication as an art form."
