I decided to start building the chassis for a 1930 Model A Coupe project I’ve been gathering parts for. The vision for this project was to build a traditional hot rod using a strong chassis that gives the car a nice stance all while utilizing some old and original parts to give the build the “soul” of a car built back in the late 1940’s-early 1950’s. This means other than raw material used and the replacement maintenance type parts, we’ll be building it using old “stuff”.
Tag: HAMB
Custom Built Tailgate for Pile House
Possibly the biggest undertaking yet on this truck was making the new custom bed for Project Pilehouse. To quote Ron Covell in a metal shaping class at Eastwood headquarters; “I think those bedsides were the single largest pieces I’ve ever seen bead rolled in my life!”. The bed was definitely […]
Smoothing the Back End- Frenched Taillights on Pile House.
I will admit that I tend to over think things when I am building a custom car and sometimes I mock something up and I don’t like it or decide I need to tweak the original idea. A while back I decided on a set of ’62 Oldsmobile 88 taillights for the back of the truck. I liked the lens shape and chrome trim on them, but the bezel had peaked ends that made it tough to sink them into a relatively flat panel. For the sake of getting “something” in the rollpan I temporarily made brackets to slide them into the panel. At first I was “ok” with how they looked, but the further I got with building the tailgate on the backend I knew in the back of my head I needed to revisit how they were sitting.
How to Make your barn or garage find road-worthy- Part Three Restoring the Brake System
Once you have the vehicle running and moving under its own power you’ll surely want to drive it around your property to see what else it needs. The big thing that may kill the fun is the lack of brakes. In my particular case the front brakes were partially seized on and the brake pedal just went to the floor. I decided to completely disassemble the system and show how to go through the brakes on your classic car…..
How to Make your barn or garage find road-worthy- Part One Assessing the Vehicle
In the past 5-10 years the buzz words in the automotive hobby are “barn finds” or “garage finds” and “picking”. This is just a car guy or gals way of explaining automotive treasure hunting. The dream is to find an untouched car or parts that’s been stashed away and forgotten in a barn, garage, yard, etc. and you pull it out and put it back into use. There’s practically an entire subculture in the classic car world dedicated to this with shows like American Pickers, Chasing Classic Cars, Backroad Gold, etc making it look like an easy process. I’ve been doing this sort of thing for quite a while and it can be as easy as knocking on a door and handing over a stack of cash, but the process to make these cars and parts usable again IS NOT. Any car that’s been sitting for more than a few years is going to need a LOT of work to get it ready to cruise the streets again. Not only that, there are some key steps you should take to avoid causing damage to the vehicle when trying to get it going.
2014 Lonestar Roundup Coverage
What was once described to me as the “Best Little Show in Texas” has grown into one of the largest traditional hot rod and kustom car shows in the country. 2014 makes the 13th Annual Lonestar Roundup in Austin, TX. For the 4th time I made the 1300 mile round trip from my home in central Kansas straight down I-35 to the Roundup, for the 2nd time I took my own ride. The show has grown considerably since my first trip, it’s quickly finding the limits of the Travis County Expo Grounds.
The Race of Gentlemen 2013 Coverage
Lemmy from Motörhead once said “If you think you are too old to rock ‘n roll, then you are.” and the same goes for driving your classic cars and bikes. Too many people are afraid to drive their classics because they’re “too old”. The guys at the Oilers Car Club wanted to put on an event where Pre-War autos and motorcycles could be driven like they were back in their heyday. This is how the The Race of Gentlemen was born in 2012.
A Kustom Kaiser Catches Jay Leno’s Eye.
Each year when we hit SEMA we try and showcase our favorite vehicles at the show in our coverage here on the blog, YouTube, Facebook, and our other social media outlets. This year a Kustom Kaiser caught our attention on setup day and we were able to catch up with […]
Cincinnati Cavalcade of Customs- Live Winfield Chop Shop on a 1949 Ford Shoebox
This time the traveling Winfield Chop Shop stopped in Cincinnati for the 2013 Cavalcade of Customs. This time around the car under the knife was a stock 1949 Shoebox Ford with the original flathead V8 owned by Tim Jones. Tim has owned the car for 3 years and he’s been into cars since he was a kid.