Taking a fast rewind to the year 1978, Brian Hatano started his first ten-year stint working for Eddie Paul at E.P. Industries in El Segundo, CA, Eddie already a topgun in Hollywood thanks to his radical stuntwork as well as his SFX aka special effects inventiveness that eventually led to him being described as “Mad Max meets DaVinci.”
For five years Brian helped build the Eddie Paul specialty vehicles seen in dozens of movies and TV shows, then changed gears when hired by the car mags as a staffer/gearhead, eventually taking a post at CAR Craft magazine, sister publication to HOT ROD.
In 1997 he made full circle and returned to E.P. Industries where work was a bit more “challenging/stimulating,” since there’s never a dull day when Eddie Paul is involved. “It adds up to twenty years I’ve worked with Eddie, and no, I didn’t get a gold watch but I got the world’s biggest tool box,” laughs Brian.
While he had years of experiencing building stout four-wheelers as both project cars for the car mags and daily drivers for himself, he says, “I’ve always a thing for motorcycles and always wanted a Harley and after starting to work for Eddie with all his bikes around I decided to make it happen. I finally got my Harley.”
He works on the bike when not otherwise occupied with a wide spectrum of projects including everything from a life-size mechanical Great White Shark for the Cousteau people to Vin Diesel’s XXX GTO to a deuterium laser for the Department of Defense. “Recently the biggest challenge as well as one of our most recognized projects was the real life streetable versions of the cars seen in the animated Pixar film “Cars.”
Asked how it was working with Eddie, Brian says, “He’s the one that comes up with these crazy builds. The work comes here because of Eddie and it’s just great fun for me to be able to do the work with him.”
Another recent project was one for the new George Clooney film “Leathernecks” where the production company had wanted to feature an original 1917 Indian but found the real bike too expensive and too difficult to operate for the filming. “So they came to Eddie because they knew he was the only guy that could make it happen and in such a short time frame,” Brian said. “We ended up building three Indians with sidecars in two weeks and adapting electric motors so that they could run silent in the filming and not disturb the sound recordings plus be easier to ride and easy to maintain. Bottom line is Eddie needs a crew that’s capable of helping making these types of projects possible, and I just happen to be one of them.”
After 16 hour days of making the impossible possible, Brian gets his R&R aboard his ’97 Badboy Springer FXSTSB, one of 3000 made for the limited run. The 80 cubic Evo motor benefits from a jet kit, a Force Winder air cleaner and the trick new and hard to find Hooker 4-Bidden blacked out pipes. Ratcheting up the attitude factor of the Badboy’s blacked out springer treatment, and pushing the stealth theme, Brian added the Black Bike wheels (21 front/18 rear) and also black powdercoated the headlight, turn signal housings, horn and timing covers and forward controls. He also opted for the optional H-D speedo-tach combo gauge, H-D black anodized mirrors, and to get the bike down and dirty as in pipe-scraping low, he went for a White Brothers frontend drop kit matched to Progressive 422’s on the rear.
As far as the comfort factor, he bolted on a Mustang solo seat and a set of Chubby drag bars. There was a method to all the madness says Brian. “I bought the bike and did the mods because we’re planning a trip from L.A. up to Canada, and the boss is riding his Boss Hoss, so I wanted to be ready.”
If you’ve got something in mind that others say can’t be done, go to the solution, and that would E.P. Industries. You can reach Brian and Eddie at 310-643-8515 or log onto www.deadlinetv.net.
