Randomness

Porsche by Design - Race on Sunday

October is right around the corner for those interested in going to North Carolina Museum of Art to see their Porsche by Design, Seducing Speed display.

Latest video released with some great info about the 550 and 904...

Race on Sunday from The North Carolina Museum of Art on Vimeo.

T5 to Early Ford Closed Drive Line Conversion

Have you ever wondered how you could run an early Ford closed drive shaft from that early banjo rear with a later overdrive transmission?  Well, there is one guy that has made this possible with a nice little adapter.  Keep that period looking rear axle assembly and Flathead, or whatever power plant suits your fancy, and run a GM T5 transmission with his adapter and you can have your cake and eat it too.

Dan Bridges of Orange, California, has put together a cast aluminum and machined adapter along with the other components you will need to use your junkyard S-10 4x4 T5 overdrive transmission and your stock type closed driven rear end.  The adapter and components are a simple solution to a complicated adaptation.  Absolutely genius.  The adapter is engineered and machined to high-tolerances and will withstand about anything you throw at it.  Dan drives his everywhere behind a highly modified Ford B-banger.  Rather he's hauling down the highway (I've experienced this first hand) or pulling low numbers at the drag strip, it will handle the abuse.

For more information on Dan's drive line adapter, you can contact him at crazydaddyo@socal.rr.com.  I think you will find the price to be very reasonable for the amount of effort it takes to produce this conversion.

Hot Rod Dashes and Cast Parts - Grace and Company

A teaser for everyone!  You're going to want one of these!  Or MORE than one of these.

My buddy Chris Hedrick is making some seriously cool dash inserts and some more cast accessories to follow.  These are some of the coolest dashes I've seen yet and they're made right here in the good old US of A, and thought up by a hot rodder with good taste and an eye for detail!

There are a couple varieties to choose from and all will be available in as-cast or polished finish.  They are approximately 6" tall by 17" long and will fit 3-3/8" and 2-1/16" standard size gauges.  They will also be available without holes for your custom applications.

These dashes will be sold through Sugar City Speed Shop and you may contact Chris by email at graceandco@yahoo.com for any questions regarding the dashes.  He also has future plans for some other goodies you're going to want!  Some great depression era hot rod parts!

Grace and Co. products will also be featured in the next issue of the Rodder's Journal quarterly magazine.  They feature only the best of the best hot rod parts.

A photo shoot to follow with more details and pictures of these little master pieces!

Road Trip - Take one! The roads are still there...

My wife and I have driven across this amazing country of ours a few times.  We love road trips.  Admittedly we find ourselves in hotels and not camping on the side of the road, but we do love a drive and all the scenery and adventures to be had while driving.  It's a great way to just catch up on all our thoughts, talk about stuff that we've not had time to tell each other, or simply just shut up and open our eyes to all that's around us.  We even have a future "Road Trip Car."  A 1953 Pontiac Chieftain 2-door Sedan that will pilot us on many wonderful adventures, and maybe even pull a neat little vintage trailer behind it and hit some cool camp grounds for a relaxing night beside a camp fire with S'mores and more stories.  The point is to get out and see the world in the flesh, instead of watching it on the internet, my stupid blog, or on the television.

A buddy of mine at work, Jeff, an obvious car enthusiast, often sends me cool links and movies, and today he sent me a real doozy of a link!  If you're reading my blog, chances are you "GET IT" and will read this story posted at "Stance Works", despite what is being driven.  The story just reminded me of so many good times in old cars and so many times I've driven these great American roads of ours, either with family or even all by my lonesome...

Enjoy this story in this link --> The True Driving Experience Only Comes from Driving A Classic

Banger Speedsters

Modified madness... inspiration for a future build.  Several of these are Ford Model A and Model T based.  Some are not...

Friday Films - Supercharged Grand Prix

This is a fantastic (almost feature length) film. Incredible video about early Grand Prix cars.

Friday Films - Nurburgring - Hermann Lang

Great vintage film about the Nurburgring and Hermann Lang behind the wheel of a W125 GP

Friday Films - Vintage Indy

Still some of my favorites and worthy of re-posting.  Turn it up!

Hemi Nutter - Setting up a 6x2 on an early Hemi

I ran across this link on the HAMB today.  I had to share this.

6 Holley 94's on a 354

There is some great info on setting up a 6x2 (6 Holley 94's) progressively linked on a 354 Hemi.  For those of us who thought it was somehow a good idea to RUN this setup, you will understand how much anyone's accounts of setting one up helps.

Have a look at HEMI NUTTER's website for his 1932 Ford Pickup...

Friday Films - Metal Shaping

Some inspiration for the weekend.  Get crackin' and make something!



Love me some reverse curves...

1932 Plymouth Roadster - A Hemi Hot Rod Story

Okay...  everyone knows I'm a sucker for an early Hemi.  Especially when that early Hemi is in a REALLY nice hot rod build.  Even MORE so when it's actually put in a Mopar hot rod done RIGHT!

Here's a great story and build website of Bob Mead's '32 Plymouth Roadster with a nice little Red Ram in it!  I love this thing!  Have a look and follow along!

Bob Mead's '32 Roadster

Thanks for telling me about your build, Bob!

Thursday-Friday Film - Old Fashioned Story

This is NOT another Porsche film...  This is about car people and their success in building a company doing what they love.  Building race cars and driving them!  VERY inspirational!!!  LOVED this!

Chase your dreams, folks!!  

J&L Fabricating: An Old Fashioned Story from eGarage on Vimeo.

Thursday-Friday Films - Out of the Rubble comes a Genius Behind the Wheel

Latest videos from NC Museum of Art for "Porsche by Design".

Genius at the Wheel from The North Carolina Museum of Art on Vimeo.

Out of the Rubble from The North Carolina Museum of Art on Vimeo.

Learn to Fabricate - Places I Like!

Okay, so as most of you know, I'm into a lot of different types of stuff.  My background has always been traditional hot rods and the likes, but as some of you may have noticed I post a lot of different types of cars here.  Yes, I know.  "Too many Porsches" (I can view traffic sources).  I have an early 911, so I'm always digging early Porsche stuff.  OOPS!  Well, the point is being missed, I think.  I'm a car lover in general.  ALL TYPES!  I just love cars and their history.  But the REASON I like so many different types of cars is because of how a lot of them are BUILT!

This Blog/Website is really about celebrating automotive inspiration for the people who really appreciate and "GET" building things.  Specifically mechanical things related to cars.  So hopefully I'm opening a few doors for people to appreciate all things automotive, in this world.  And I especially appreciate the people that are building incredible cars in tiny little shops without a million dollars in special tools.  You folks are just heroes, in my eyes.

With all that being said, I want to know about your builds and if you know of builds, email me with them.  If you're building a super cool traditional hot rod, or a vintage race car, fabricating car parts from scratch using bucks, hammer forms, whatever, I WANT TO KNOW ABOUT IT!  Please share them with me!

scootermcrad AT yahoo.com

With all that being said, here's some websites I check out on a regular basis throughout the day related to fabrication, specifically.  Maybe it will inspire some of you, maybe some or none of it is your thing.  Either way, this blog is about sharing stuff to simply inspire people to BUILD CARS!

All Metal Shaping -
One of my favorites!  Easy to navigate, very little drama, fantastic projects and tips from people of all skill levels.
http://www.allmetalshaping.com/

Metal Meet -
Another great and educational website.  A huge website that's easy to follow and again, amazing projects, tips and tricks from many people doing many different things with metal.
http://www.metalmeet.com/forum/index.php

Metal Shapers Org
This site has been around for quite awhile and is MASSIVE!  You can spend days and days going through this website and barely scratch the surface.  Requires a little bit of patience to navigate, but overall pretty straight-forward and worth spending time at.  Learned some great things here!
http://metalshapers.org/roundtable/index.php

There are tons more, but these are the three I like to check out on a regular basis.  Check them out.  Maybe they will help one of you with a project, or maybe they will simply inspire you to START a project.

Sorry for the long read.  Hope you guys are digging the blog and hope I've inspired at least one person to build something cool.

Thanks for reading!
S

Go Build Something - Abarth Clone

Okay, I don't care if you're a hot rod guy, a vintage race car fan, whatever you may be, if you appreciate metal shaping at all, then you HAVE to check out this build done by Tin Element LLC.  This car is INCREDIBLE!!  Truly scratch built and the details are insane.  Such an amazing tribute to an amazing car...

Abarth Clone

Here's the original...

Back to work! Time to finish this thing!

Finally back to work on the Murray...

Friday Films - Depth of Speed

I always enjoy this video series... Depth of Speed and British Mania

Depth of Speed: Something From Nothing from Josh Clason on Vimeo.

HBTV: Depth of Speed - British Mania from Hypebeast on Vimeo.

Dan Bridges T Banger Roadster Pickup

Still one of my all time favorite T RPU's, and with a nasty hopped-up banger to-boot!  Dan's roadster just keeps getting better...  especially with that B-banger!

Thinking back to Antique Nationals from a couple years ago...

Dan Bridges is also responsible for a very successful T5 5-speed to closed drive-line adapter for early Ford rear ends.  Incredible adapter and very well made!  I'll update this with some more info, soon!

Here's the latest version of his nasty little B-banger!

Film Friday - Jeff Zwart Pikes Peak 2010

Whoa...

Pikes Peak 2010 - Jeff Zwart In Car from Will Roegge on Vimeo.

Film Friday - 6 Hours of Spa Porsche 904

A few minutes of seat time for you at Spa in a 904

Mercedes W194 - Scratch Build

I'm always on the lookout for amazing reproduction builds of amazing cars.  I stumbled on this fantastic recreation build blog of a Mercedes W194.  Hats off to Mark Passarelli and team!  Make sure to check out all the progress links on their side menu showing engine, body, etc..

http://www.w194.com/build-progress.html

Friday Films - 18th Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance

I may need to start a new series of Friday Films, while I rebuild my "Friday Cutaway" submissions...

Turn this one up...  as loud as you can stand.  And Magnus, if you're reading, you're mug is on here too.

Born of a Blue Sky from LetsMakeMedia on Vimeo.

1957 - Preview Lap of Lemans in D-type Jag

Mike Hawthorn(Lemans winner 1955) driving a preview lap on the Lemans track in a Jaguar.(1956!) from MotorsportMediaNL on Vimeo.

Queen City Fabrication - Charlotte, NC

Hey everyone! There's a shop in town that is doing some killer work. Check out Cassie's website, blogspot, and stop by to check the place out. She's gonna' show some people around here how to finish a car!

  Queen City Fabrication Blog
  QC Fab Home Page