An 8,000-pound metal dragon under construction in Chilliwack was forced out of its home Thursday (April 29) after its creator parted ways with the owner of the shop where it was being built.
Kevin Stone, an artist who builds large-scale sculptures out of metal, found out on Monday (April 26) that he had to be out of Stone’s Speed Shop by the following Monday.
For months Stone has been constructing a huge dragon named Drogon – from the TV drama series Game of Thrones – inside the automotive shop on Rowat Avenue.
Stone has been at the location since 2013 when he started up the business which specializes in building custom hotrods. A year ago, he partnered with Lee Bouthillier who has been “instrumental” in opening and running the expansion of the new shop, Stone said.
Just a few weeks ago, Stone sold the business to Bouthillier and later had to move his 8,000-pound, unfinished steel dragon out of Stone’s Speed Shop.
The evening of April 26, Stone made some phone calls and put out an urgent call on social media in search of a workshop. In less than two days, he found a 4,000-square-foot location in Yarrow, 20 kilometres away, and secured a crane and a flatbed truck to help with the move.
“Everybody came through. I had tons of people helping me and contacting me,” Stone said. “Friends came through, they helped us find a place.”
On Thursday morning the massive dragon could be seen poking its head out of the giant bay door as crews from Langley’s Sea to Sky Transfer moved it out of Stone’s Speed Shop and hooked it up to a crane. The beast was then hoisted onto a flatbed truck from International Machine Transport Inc. (IMT), the same Abbotsford-based company that has transported some of Stone’s other sculptures over the years.
Drogon, partially finished and with his tail detached and on a different truck, then had a view of Chilliwack as he rode west on Highway 1 to his temporary new home in Yarrow.
“Honestly, it worked out for the best,” Stone said after he and Bouthillier parted ways.
Space was very tight inside the automotive shop with the dragon and other staff working on vehicles at the same time. The new shop in Yarrow is big enough to build two dragons of this size at the same time.
Stone is hoping to complete the dragon by June or July and it will then be transported again – that time to its permanent home in California.
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