Born with a wrench in his hand
Passion for customizing comes naturally to a kid who grew up watching ‘things being built’
You’ve heard the cliché about being born with a silver spoon in your mouth. Well, here’s a story about being born with a wrench in your hand.
Paul Miller was born in 1989. For the first four years of young Miller’s life, his dad, Jordy, was building a street rod.
“Dad’s been into hot rods his whole life,” Miller says, and adds, “I really had no choice. I come by the interest honestly.”
Some of Miller’s earliest memories include heading out with his dad to visit the Calgary garages of family friends. There, he’d witness “things being built,” from entire cars to pieces of them.
“I’d just hang around quietly in the background and watch the old boys build things,” he says with a laugh.
But at home, Miller would get busy and mess around customizing bicycles. He’d build a pedal-powered chopper by cutting the neck off of the frame and raking out the front end, welding it all back together with a flux-core MIG welder. When he was 14, he got a tool box for Christmas. There were no tools in it, but every birthday and Christmas following he got Sears Craftsman sockets and wrenches from his parents and aunts and uncles.
Six years ago, Miller bought his own house in Calgary. He was really shopping for a garage, the house was a bonus, he says. An unfinished shell when he moved in, the 24-foot-by-26-foot oversize double garage had a single 20-amp service with two electrical outlets and two naked overhead light bulbs.
“The first thing I did was dig a trench for gas and power that ran from the house out to the garage,” Miller says. “Now I have three 220-volt outlets and 21 110-volt plug-ins. I still need more. I insulated and hung drywall and a ton of fluorescent lights.
“Back then it looked big, but the walls are closing in on me now.”
His plan had been to start building a pre-war style hot rod in the garage, but things took a turn when Miller, who had raced motocross machines for years, watched the Springfield Mile flat track event on television.
“That night, I Googled what a good first flat track bike might be,” he explains. “Lots of people said the Yamaha TT500 made a good first bike, so I happened to find one on Kijiji. The next day, I was driving up to Stoney Plain to pick it up.”
Miller began to buy parts for it, but was disappointed with the items when they arrived. That’s when he started making his own, including a special frame.
What was supposed to be a first-time flat track bike became something much more exquisite. When he sent photos of the finished machine to BikeEXIF, an online shrine to the worldwide custom motorcycle scene, Miller had found his calling. Around a core engine, such as a Yamaha XS650 twin, he builds a complete motorcycle (from the frame to the gas tank and many other parts) under the name PanicRev Customs.
“I spend a fair bit of time out here,” he says. “I try to balance things out, but when I’m going hard on a build I’m at my day job from 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Then, I’m home, make some food, and I’m out there from 5:30 ‘til midnight or later, and it’s like that every single day. Really, half the time I’m just looking at stuff and not actually working.”
Here’s what we learned about Miller and his garage. Q What tools are in your collection and where did they come from? A I’ve got all the tools I was given for presents, and most of that’s Sears Craftsman stuff. I was an automotive apprentice, though, and the day I found out you could make payments I spent my pay cheques when the Snap-on guy would come to work. I spent some money and got a lathe from Modern Tool in Calgary, and then got a cheap milling machine that didn’t last. A friend found a Bridgeport mill on Kijiji, told me about it and I was off to get it. It’s a heavy, 2,000-pound milling machine that has had a cool life in a large machine shop. I’ve used both it and the lathe to make a reciprocating power hammer, as well as the planishing hammer that’s a clone of a Chicago Pneumatics tool. Q Which tool or tools do you use most often? A The lathe and the mill. They make all my tools and all my parts. I’d never be able to do anything that I do without those two machines. Oh, and the Lincoln TIG welder, I forget about it because I use it so often. Q How did you learn to use the tools? Did you go to school, did someone teach you, or do you watch YouTube videos? A By watching and asking lots of questions. Reading books and YouTube videos. I made it through three years of an automotive apprenticeship, working in a dealership wrenching, but then became a millwright apprentice. I learned some machining skills there, and at work I was taught more. I’m now a gas turbine technician with Trans Canada, and it’s all about working with my hands. Q What’s the most important project in the garage right now? A Right now, it’s a 2006 Buell XB12 that I literally just started touching yesterday. I’ve had that bike for about eight months, purchased as salvage because all I needed was the motor. I plan to build a turbo crotch-rocket style bike with all aluminum bodywork. I’ll make the frame, body work, and build the motor. Most recently I finished a gas tank for a friend’s Yamaha Virago; I just need to pressure test and paint it. Q Is there anyone else in the house or in your life interested in working in the garage? A My girlfriend Marina Godfrey, she’s extremely enthusiastic about it. She doesn’t come from a motoring background, but she understands and grasps the concepts very quickly. It’s nice to have another person out here. We got a Yamaha DT400 she’s going to build up, and we’ll have her on a street bike in 2019. If you have a workspace filled with tools, projects or memories and are willing to share, let me know; I’d be pleased to write it up. Email me at gregwilliams@shaw.ca