I met Johnny Chop when he was working at Chica’s shop in Huntington Beach. I pulled up in my old Ford Police Interceptor on air bags with straight pipes, laid it down hard and back-rapped the pipes. It made one Hell of a loud thud when it’s frame rails slammed the cement slab. Johnny looked up with a smile and after introductions, we talked about our love for old cars that ride real low. He told me of his old flat black Chrysler Imperial he’d slammed hard. It was good to meet someone else who liked to cut up anything he could get his hands on.
A fellow Mopar freak, I told Johnny about “Jesus Chrysler” my ’64 Chrysler 300K lead sled David Mann had designed the graphics for in one of his Easyriders centerfold paintings. From there we walked into Chica’s shop and Johnny showed me some of the projects he was working on. It was amazing to see what Johnny could do with a chunk of steel or a piece of aluminum. Soon afterwards Johnny and I talked about painting motorcycles; It was neat to learn at one point we had both spent some time custom painting bikes.
For Sturgis ’04, “Clean” Dean, Beatnik and I rode up together. We spent Tuesday at Michael Lichter’s show at the Journey Museum in Rapid City. Towards the end of the day the three of us decided we’d return to Sturgis when we ran into Johnny and Chica. The five of us were standing outside in the parking lot talking when the crew from OCC rode up on their “choppers.” I guess the spectacle of these famous TV guys rolling up in front of us was just too surreal. Beatnik was the first one to scatter, Johnny and Chica hauled ass for the sanctity of the museum’s front doors… Dean and I didn’t waste any time getting to our bikes either.
Almost four weeks ago to the day before Johnny checked in to the hospital, we were behind his shop laughing about how the five of us had reacted to seeing the OCC guys. I shot these photos of Johnny with the Hard Rock bike on February 26, 2006.
Johnny hand formed the Hard Rock’s aluminum gas tank. He constructed it from several pieces he broke (bent) in the middle and then TIG welded together. Afterwards he ground the welds then sent it out for polishing. I forget how long he told me he had to build the bike, but I know he had hardly any time to assemble it. This tank has a few places where the polisher blew through the welds. There was no time left so Johnny had to send the bike off to the Seminole Hard Rock Roadhouse Tour as is. The day of the shoot, he said he was going to patch it up in the near future.
The primary was another area the Hard Rock had to leave for the Roadhouse Tour incomplete. Johnny said he had just a few things to dial in on it before it was finished. Forget the usual hype about “old school” this and “new-age” that… Just enjoy Johnny Chop’s super clean style.
Johnny’s puppy is named Louie. The little guy is smart as a whip and he minded Johnny real well. He ran everywhere in the shop right behind Johnny, it was cute as Hell.
The last time I saw Johnny was at Top Shelf Customs in Huntington Beach (Feb 28—Johnny passed March 28, 2006). It was on the Tuesday right after the Sunday I shot his two bikes. He told me he had delivered the roller he was working on to his customer in San Diego on Monday. Barry was out of the shop so Johnny and I hung out with Al and shot the shit while we were checking out some project bikes. Johnny made a comment about how the rear brake setups were handled.
His remarks illustrated how good his eye for detail was and his impressive knowledge of how things work. After a while and no Barry, Johnny and I headed back out into the rain to our trucks. Half way there we stopped and talked about “Clean” Dean assigning me to write the feature on “Kill Yourself” his roommate Gabe’s bike. The subject moved on to his bike being shot for Easyriders at the same time. We started talking about how it would be neat if I could write the feature for Easyriders on his bike. We’d planned on getting right next to the bike and going over what he’d done to it part-by-part.
As I pulled out of Top Shelf Customs parking lot I called Dave Nichols, ER Editor, at home and asked him if I could write Johnny’s bike feature, Dave said he thought it was fine idea.
It shouldn’t be too long before Johnny’s tech sheet arrives in the mail. It’s a shame things turned out this way. I didn’t really know Johnny all that well, but every time our paths crossed my appreciation for him grew.
I spoke with Barry LaCour at Top Shelf Customs today (3/29/06) he’s known Johnny a lot longer than I have and I think he hit it right on the head when he said Johnny Chop was a genuine person.
— John Gilbert
