Body Work: Bancroft Motorsport, Costa Mesa

People who know him say that Bryan Warmack is an artist with sheet metal. He started in the motor sports business 23 years ago when an Anaheim-based race car driver, Hugh Bancroft, started doing paint and body work for other racers. Bancroft later started building custom sports cars and moved his headquarters to Germany in 1988, leaving Warmack in Costa Mesa to fabricate the grille, convertible top frame and various brass and ornamental metal pieces, which he’d pack into a suitcase and fly to Germany on demand.

Bancroft ended his car-making business last year and allowed Warmack to sublease the Costa Mesa building and continue using the company name.

Since then, the 44-year-old Tustin resident has been doing custom fabrication work for whoever will hire him. His first independent job, he said, was to build a floor exhaust grille system for a paint spray booth.

His MCM work--obtained on referral from a Newport Beach designer the motorcycle company hired--involved hand-shaping, welding, smoothing and painting the body panels that cover the dirt bike’s frame and give it its muscular appearance. He uses special hammers and handmade forms to shape the metal.

Warmack said he was given just under three weeks to do the job and worked 19 consecutive days, often 12 hours a day, to get it done on time. The money he received--”a little less than $10,000”--had to pay for material, two part-time helpers and Warmack’s time and overhead.

But Warmack, who said that he would be happy to gross $80,000 this year, isn’t complaining. He figures he is first in line to build the body panel molds for the street version of the bike that MCM would like to launch.