“My friend talked me into getting on Instagram and that’s where it just took off,” Rogers says. He still has his very first one in his office, which he made in November 2017. The next thing you know, I put the photos of it on Facebook and everybody started asking if I sold those.”ĭoug had found his side gig, although he admits, his early piston faces were fairly rudimentary. We found a junk piston around the shop and I carved somebody up one. I took it to work and showed my friends who thought it was really cool and they asked if I could make them one. “I drilled some holes for eyes and a nose. “When I was still working as a tech, I had a jet ski piston that I scratched a face on with a cordless Dremel,” he says. Part of accepting the automotive instructor position meant Doug had to take a sizable pay cut, and his brother-in-law, who is a teacher in California, suggested Doug find something he loved to do and make some money on the side. “That’s what I do now.” Dremels and drills are Doug’s primary tools. “At that time, I got an opportunity to go back to Chemeketa Community College and work as an automotive instructor,” he says. Fast forward to 2018 – he had been working 24 years straight with GM dealerships as a service technician doing drivability and electrical. I already had about $30,000 in tools – I’d been buying Snap-on since I was 18 – so I decided to go into the automotive program.”ĭoug graduated in 1994 and got a job working as a technician in a GM dealership. My parents lived up in Salem, OR, and there is a community college nearby called Chemeketa Community College, which had an automotive program. I was 25 or 26 and I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. “In 1992, I had worked at the gas station for eight years and that was kind of winding down and they were changing direction. Second Street was a big deal in El Cajon – it always made Hot Rod magazine’s top cruise spots. We used to illegal drag race and all that stuff. “I graduated high school in ‘84 and I got a job at a gas station. In the neighborhood there was always these fast cars and hot rods and stuff. As a kid, I had all these images of fast cars. “We had American Graffiti cruise nights in El Cajon, CA. “For me, it all started with the movie American Graffiti, I guess,” he says. He’s been around car culture his whole life and has spent his entire career in it. Now, I realize I can use that for something, so it’s made me a bit of a hoarder.” Doug’s first-ever piston carvingĭoug’s love for all things automotive didn’t simply start with his PistonFace artwork ( ). “Before, I would have scrapped things or threw things away. “What’s weird is I can’t walk past metal now and not see something,” Rogers says. Due to that passion and creativity, Doug can no longer walk passed a piece of metal without seeing something that could be done with it. It’s his passion for art and history that we want to shine a spotlight on. However, there are a number of people who have gotten creative with old engine components to turn them into something else, and Doug Rogers of PistonFace in Salem, OR, is a great example of how you can rescue little pieces of engine history one piston at a time. In the world of engine rebuilding, we’re inherently giving old engines new attitude and a second chance at life, but in more cases than not, many engines and parts become forgotten trash. He’s kind of mean-looking and that’s what I wanted to do, and it goes with my slogan – ‘giving old pistons new attitude.’” Doug Rogers and a Yamaha piston He always had half a cigar and was always biting down on it with a scowl. I was a big Clint Eastwood fan and I just remember the drifter character from the spaghetti westerns. “The first face I did had kind of a scowl, bite and chomping down on a cigar, which was basically due to Clint Eastwood. “I’ve developed a signature look,” Rogers says.
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