The “Secret” of Holton Secret Lab

Photos & Story by Annette Barton & Sandie McCollum

Helix, Oregon – the colorful towns of Athena and Helix in eastern Oregon are just a bonus on the drive into Juniper Canyon to the Holton Secret Lab. Coming over the last little hill I was starting to wonder what such a complex would look like, where some of the nicest rides I have seen in recent years were created. I had in mind big concrete buildings with massive exhaust stacks for the body work, cars parked outside in all stages of completion. The Secret Lab fooled me!

There, tucked in a sheltered canyon with wheat fields, a rustic airstrip and horses, sat a beautiful turn of the century farmhouse, a couple of barns and a long beige wood-sided building, all looking like they just “belonged” there. I knew I was in the right place when I saw the antique gravity feed gas pumps outside…and a few very long tire marks down the highway.

Marcy and Bill Holton own Holton Secret Lab just north of Pendleton, Oregon and, with help from Troy “Flame” Morgan, turn out first rate rides. I had been seeing their ads in CruZin’ (hope you had too) and when I saw a sampling of their work at Lewiston’s Hot August Nights I wanted to get a closer look at the operation and at Bill’s louvered Dodge coupe. My first trip over in September gave me an idea of what they could do, the second trip a few weeks later brought out what they had done.

The Holton’s have been married for 34 years and live and work on Marcy’s 100 year-old family ranch. When they first met they both owned Corvette coupes so you know this “cool car” thing has been in their blood for awhile now. Bill’s father owned the Vale Auto Body Shop in Vale, Oregon and the walls are lined with tools from that shop. Bill still uses his dad’s spray gun for special projects; he painted his first car in 1968 and has always painted old-school style flames.

Bill and Marcy started doing vehicle customizing full time 10 years ago after raising their family. When business is hot they have up to 4 full time employees. Currently, Troy is their head bodyman and I am not kidding when I say this guy is good! Bill saw a natural talent in Troy and sent him to PPG school to build on it. Troy had previously attended Wyo-Tech and remarked that he had wanted to paint cars since he was little and leans towards the real fire flames and air brush customizing tricks. He and Bill make a remarkable team, ready for what their customers want in dead-on stock or full-blown trick.

Customers will find that their vehicles will be done exactly how they want and yes, it will take more than a few weeks to be done right. Holton prefers to do frame-off work since a frame-off will show up any unforeseen problems that can come back to haunt the customer later; in other words, he does it right. Once the vehicle is stripped down on the rotisserie, all parts for that vehicle are carefully cataloged, photographed and stored in a room earmarked only for that vehicle and as new parts arrive they too are cataloged and placed in the room. Typically they will have 4-5 cars actively being worked on and customer input throughout the process is highly encouraged.

At each end of the building there are custom enclosed paint booths; one is for primer and paint and the other is the factory booth for final top coat. Between booths is a large open 4 bay work area for the body work. The work area is huge and they have use of several rolling rotisseries to move the project from one room to the next. The shop specialty tools, including the 30’s and 40’s vintage from the old Vale Auto Body Shop, are hanging from pegboards throughout the work area. Each tool has a specific place and specific use. There are MIG, TIG and Arc welders and a plasma cutter. There are also rollers, flangers, cutters, benders and an English wheel sits near the new louver machine. If a replacement part can’t be found chances are Bill can build one!

Out of the way of the bodywork area a 70 hp diesel air compressor sits ready to run the Holton’s plastic media blaster, another segment of the Lab. It is a 20’ by 40’ tin lined room used to blast all the metal parts clean. They use it on all their projects and offer the service to other shops and hobbyists as well. Another room is the paint area where PPG paint is mixed and blended and paint guns are stored. Just because old style paint guns are hanging on the wall doesn’t mean that the entire operation is old-school – they utilize Troy’s talents with airbrush designs and they use the SATA Jet Digital spray gun and HVLP gravity guns. The entire facility is showcased with art work in the guise of cabinets, refrigerators, motorcycle fuel tanks, all masterfully painted in hot rod flames, real fire flames, aircraft rivets and bullet holes, not to mention metallics, metalflakes, pearls and candies.

Holton’s own stock includes a 1928 Oakland, a rare beast, as well as the “farm truck”, a 1946 Willys. Inside one bay sits Bill’s project – a 1928 Dodge Coupe with a V-12 Jaguar engine stuffed inside. He works on it when he is not working on customer cars - which is pretty rare. This is the louvered Dodge that you have seen in the ads – Bill describes it in how it will look, not the state of construction that it is in now. Without a doubt he is a visionary and has the elusive talent to make his hands do the work that his head sees.

Our second trip to the Lab was a drizzly day in Eastern Oregon and to show how much Holton’s customers care about Bill, Marcy and Troy, several of them came out and put their cars on display outside in the weather, each one of them a show winner or prospective winner. And I’m talking Portland Roadster Show quality winners. The only cars that weren’t top trophy winners were the few that don’t show their cars.

Give HSL a ring at 1-866-352-6348 or check out the web site at holtonsecretlab.com. This is the place we would trust with our Mopar!