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Life’s A Safari

By
DaveT
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0

Here in Ontario we’re just about to hit peak winter. Peak winter is basically when the temperature is the lowest and the ‘winter blahs’ have taken hold.

Typically it spans Feb to mid March or so, with a final parting shot later March. This time of year is great for outdoor games of puck and the odd hill bomb on some sort of slippery conveyance but little else.

Really, about as far away from a Safari as possible.

So of course now is the perfect time to post a bright orange bagged Impala wagon with Safari and Tiki undertones throughout.

I’m not always a big surf wagon style vehicle fan, considering we’re pretty far away from real surf out here*, but… this wagon was really impressive.

The height obviously drew me in, but all of the details kept me there. Again, usually stuff like beer tap turn signals I’d consider over the top, but it worked as part of an overall radical package.

I found the car so enthralling that I studied it twice in the same weekend.

While I was unable to find the owner, I did later find out he did most of the work to the car himself. Including the body work and paint.

In his garage no less. Top marks sir, top marks.

*Yes I know some people DO surf in Ontario. Yes I DO think they are crazy.

Humble Beginings With LS Fabrication

By
DaveT
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0

Since the company’s inception in 2018 LS Fabrication has quickly become a trusted source for premiere classic Chevrolet truck parts. The root of their success comes from the fact that the founders, Chris Lange and Kris Hauser are classic truck enthusiasts at their core.

The Stance Is Everything/LS Fabrication partnership dates back to about two weeks after the company started. Project Why Wait proudly features firewall fillers that are within the first 20 to come off the LS Fab bead roller.

After watching LS Fab continue to push toward the top of the classic truck parts market, through a rocky 2020, I had to steal a few digital minutes from Kris and Chris to discuss the past, present and future of LS Fabrication.

The Alberta based pair have been friends for nearing two decades. Like any solid friendship theirs started via a pair of truck’s s10s to be exact.

Yep that’s right, like so many other successful fabrication companies the roots of LS Fabrication are squarely planted in minitruckin’. The LS Fabrication journey started when Kris decided to switch gears and build ‘Kalinda’ a 1951 Advanced Design Era Chevy 1300.

Kalinda is an honest driver, built almost entirely in Kris’ own garage. Chris, the owner of Lange’s Shop a custom auto body shop located just outside of Calgary Alberta, assisted with the fabrication work.

A man, building a truck in his garage with the help of a friend or two, sounds familiar no? I was shocked to hear just how much Kris’ project mirrored my own.

When it came time to shave the firewall of Kalinda Kris hit the same hurdle I did. Unlike C10s, prior to LS Fabrication‘s inception there were virtually no ready to install options on the market.

Three choices were available; fill every previously used hole one by one, use the sole unsightly option that did exist, or go the custom route. Kris obviously went with door number three. Kris’ only guidance for experience metal working Chris was, and I quote, “I want something cool”.

‘Something cool’ became the original firewall design now known as “Kalinda“. Once Chris put a few photos of his finished firewall online interest exploded. Twelve were sold within the first week.

Tracy, DeeDee, and Holly designs soon followed and sales showed no signs of slowing down. Two one time minitruckers had found their market niche and LS –an abbreviated version of Lange’s Shop– Fabrication was born.

Today their firewall fillers can be found on 100s, if not 1000s of trucks. As Kalinda (the truck) progressed any hurdle faced was met with a rather simple question. “Can LS Fabrication do this better?”

The quest to create ‘better’ has lead to an extensive list of LS Fabrication product offerings.

Currently LS makes wheel tubs, transmission tunnels, glove box doors kick panels, and cup holders to name a few items from their catalog.

In 2018 they also stepped into the billet arena offering door handles and custom dash panels. Including a set of dash panels I spotted at SEMA in 2018 in Brad Mckinnon’s 1948 Chevy Suburban.

Today LS now has products available for GM products from 47-98 with Ford products on the horizon.

Being a Canadian Company, competing in a predominantly US market, innovation has been a key part of their success.

“Most of our parts come from necessity”. Chris explains with Kris adding “We’re not here to step on any toes, we just want to make quality custom parts for these trucks”.

A fleet of test cabs helps keep their production tolerances high. Having tossed a few competitors panels into the trash, in favor of making my own, I can appreciate a company that uses their own molds and tooling. They always fit better than a copy of another company’s copy.

But as keen as they are to expand the market LS Fab is not interested in reinventing the wheel.

Now thoroughly embedded in the community they’ve noticed that there are a lot of great products on the market produced by others with their similar mind set.

Many however are quite hard to find. You can find links to obscure e-commerce stores buried within forums. But if that post disappears you’re out of luck. To help bridge the gap from creator to consumer LS Fabrication has also expanded into the distribution arena.

The parts the sold and distributed at LS-Fab.com are designed to save both the garage builder, and full blown fabrication shop time and money. They’re not going to sell you cannons to shoot ants. Instead they’ll set you up with just what you need to have a more enjoyable truck.

A perfect example of this mindset is their recently released Advanced Design era hood strut kit. This tidy strut and mount set up replaces the cumbersome factory springs. The cost of this option is less then half of the other options currently in market.

If it wasn’t already obvious, I’m super excited to be continuing my partnership with LS Fabrication into 2021 and beyond. The opportunity to work with a Canadian company in this game is rare and these are two of the most authentic business owners I’ve ever met.

I’ve already got a few parts on order so look for them real soon. In the meantime if you need any parts for your truck head over to LS-Fab.com.

Theme Tuesdays: Motors Of Motorama 2020

By
DaveT
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0

What’s this a new Theme Tuesday? Yes! Well kind of. Right before everything hit the fan last year I was able to attend Motorama here in Toronto. It was actually the only indoor show I went to that year.

My coverage was originally slated for another outlet, but it got wrapped up in the initial COVID-19 chaos and ultimately forgotten. I’ve been trying to figure out exactly what to do with this coverage and true to my recent ethos, I am just going to let it fly.

This car was actually built years ago by Stony at Oddball Customs. It has a 354 Hemi with Weiand blower
Keit’s Oldsmobile Rocket remains one of my favorite motors to take pictures of
If any car is really pushing me towards painting Project Why Wait’s engine bay white it is this one
The 1.8t in this Golf makes 500 horsepower, damn.
Twin Turbo SV7 07 Cobra
Usually the turbos would be hidden, but this is a show after all so bumpers be gone
More info on this turbo b mini can be found on swapsareeverything.com (updates for that coming soon as well!)
Brian’s H22 Turbo Civic is another car that you should all be well and truly familiar with at this point, for a show bay this one is hard to beat
Nitro MFG hopped the border to bring this Ford to the show, which seems crazy now that air travel is restricted
Jeff Wybrow no longer has this motor in his truck, opting to switch to twin turbo LS for 2021
Click here to check out the mini feature of Adam Lewis’ Ranger if you have not already
I was lucky enough to write and shoot a feature on this LS powered Chevy Nova for Canadian Hot Rod magazine, great build by the Chassis Stop
And finally, another vehicle that’s featured on Swaps Are Everything

Monster Truck Monday?

By
DaveT
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2

I’m pretty sure I’ve expressed my love for Monster Trucks here before. But if not let it be known; I love Monster Trucks. I have since I was just a wee lad watching The Nashville Network on a woodgrain Mitsubishi TV.

There’s no denying that current Monster trucks are incredible feats of engineering. The stuff they do is simply mind blowing. But, rad era Monster trucks are, well, rad.

With everything Rad Era increasing in popularity it only makes sense that some of these Steel Titans (that game sucks by the way) have started to reemerge fully restored.

Showtime, and Big Bad & Bouncy II are legit monsters from the same era. Showtime is a 79 F-350, and Big, Bad & Bouncy II is a 1980 Chevrolet C10.

One was built in Michigan, the other Ontario. This pair make the perfect Chevy vs Ford Canada vs America Battle.

Funny enough I spotted each of these at shows ending in ‘rama. Showtime at Autorama and Big Bad at Motorama.

Ask me which is better? Eh I can’t call it but I would love to see them both crush cars today. It might not be as spectacular a show as the current models, but there’s no doubt it would bring a smile to my face!

Street Royalty

By
DaveT
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0

Continuing my new trend of releasing photos of awesome cars that hide within my quiver I present a fairly well known Buick Regal.

This car is a popular one among Toronto spotters groups as the owner drivers it very often in nearly any weather, turbos through the hood be dammed.

I spotted the car at Oshawa Ontario’s Autofest in 2019. That coverage was originally slated for another publication before something happened and it got shelved.

Unfortunately I don’t have specs on the car, but from what I’m told (and what my eyes tell me) it’s a pretty quick runner.

Overall the car looks like a very honest street car and if you look close you can see a cage in it so I have no doubts it is a formidable foe, street or track.

I wonder how many times he’s had to let the laundry out on the street just to let someone know who they were messing with…

Riding A Chevelle Back To The Basics

By
DaveT
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0

I’ve been thinking, on and off, over the last year or so what exactly to do with this website. As I’ve traversed the various levels of this automotive media game (and let’s face it life) the time I’ve been able to devote here has fluctuated.

The longer time passes, the more guilty I feel about the time that has passed since I’ve posted, and the cycle continues.

It’s a bit of a terrible cycle, but I think I’ve figured out a fix, and that is taking it back to the basics.

This site started with the idea of posting cool cars, so, at least for the near term I am going to focus on just doing that. As that starts to come naturally again I’m sure the rest will follow.

And if it doesn’t at least I’ve started posting again.

So, to that end the Chevelle wrapped around these words is just a cool car I saw at a show I cruised through with my son Ash. The entire event coverage never made it on the site, because of the cycle I described above.

I have literally 100s of photos like this, loosies we’ll call them, that deserve to see the light of day.

If you own this car hats of to you it’s beautiful.

Project Why Wait: Cabin Fever

By
DaveT
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3

Much like social distancing, curbside pickup, and pull your mask up ‘2020 was supposed to be my year’ is a string of words that’s lost all meaning.

Unfortunately, we’ll be hearing the first three expressions for some time coming, but with 2020 now officially the past it’s pretty clear it wasn’t supposed to be anyone’s year.

I’m not sure who threw what black cat into which mirror, while two stepping on every crack in the sidewalk, but I’ll be damned if we didn’t all get tripped up in immense levels of tomfoolery last year.

Thankfully as of today that year is finally behind us, not that what the calendar says is likely to make much of a difference…but I digress.

Actually, scratch that I don’t entirely digress. Forgive me (or don’t, my site my rules) if this update is more an update on my 2020 than it is what, and how, I’ve been working on my 1951 GMC pickup.

Near the tail end of 2019 I made an extremely exciting life decision to move away from my previous vocation and step into the General Manager position of Canada’s largest Indoor Bike Park, Joyride 150.

The opportunity to work at Joyride wasn’t something I could pass up, it allowed life long passions to become both my day job and side hustle. A reality I am very thankful and fortunate to still enjoy.

Taking such a risk was an uncharacteristically bold move on my part.

Fortune of course favors the bold and I made both mental and physical lists of all the things I’d have to learn in my new role. That list essentially quadrupled when COVID-19 hit. Suddenly nothing made sense, to anyone.

Kids were out of school, facilities were shut down, and worst of all family and friends were mandated to exist at a distance.

Even the best Dyson couldn’t handle the amount of shit that suddenly rained from the heavens. I learned an incredible amount in 2020, and while I welcome my new found perspective it came at a relentless pace.

My garage has always been an escape of sorts and in the past 365 days it was practically invaluable.

Anything that happened in the real world could be temporarily escaped within a modest structure of uninsulated concrete.

Inside those four walls there were no government talking heads to watch, non-sensical public health regulations to decipher, doubts to consider or spiky annoying virus to worry about.

The garage was as normal as it had ever been.

So I found myself in there a lot, perhaps too much at times crossing items off my famous windshield list.

More of my interior was coated, my inner and outer cab corners were repaired, door hinges rebuilt, and patina matched.

Almost nightly challenged myself to accomplish as much as I could with the skills and tools I had available. An approach I used toward whatever challenges would await the next morning in the real world.

However, one thing I couldn’t really bring myself to do was document much of the progress. By the time I hit the garage I just needed to go. Flick on the lights, turn up the music and let everything else fade out.

Luckily, you didn’t miss much that hasn’t already been covered before. Weld, grind, sand (sand again) and paint.

The cab now is just about (hint: even more wet sanding to reveal patina) ready to be sent to a body shop where the firewall will be finished the roof white flaked.

This truck has been many things in the five years I’ve had it; a goal to aspire to, an upside-down money storage device, point of frustration, and most recently an extremely welcome distraction.

If I’m to be honest, I’m still going to need as many garage nights in 2021 as I did in 2020 but I think I’m in a space now where I can at least do a better job of documentation.

The world has changed, and for better or worse we’ll all need to change with it. Happy New year, all the best to you and yours and here’s to coming out the other side of 2021.

Project Why Wait: Hot Rods Are For Kids

By
DaveT
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5

I’ve been working on my 1951 GMC project for five years now. That’s quite a long time in hindsight. If you’ve been following along then you know, at times, those five years have felt like a real grind.

Recently however it feels like I’ve rounded a bend. Rust repair is finally complete and lately the truck has spent more time together than apart.

This is going to change shortly, because I do need to take it apart once more, but this time I will be doing so with intent.

That intent will be final preparations for paint. I’ll be touching up the door jambs and panels I replaced myself, but the firewall, roof and dash will be done professionally.

For all it’s trouble COVID-19 has produced several productive garage sessions simply because there wasn’t much outside my garage that was acceptable or safe given the circumstances. Garage nights provided a secluded escape from a world that was spinning itself off axis.

Bumpers, doors, and hoods were put on and removed several times over in the name of test fitting.

This means the truck, has looked like a truck for longer than it ever has in my ownership.

A rather pleasant result of Project Why Wait looking like a truck is that my son Ash has started to express a real interest in it.

I mean it’s been around for the majority of his life, but it’s always been just an idea. An abstract thought yet to be proven.

As a conceptual pile collection of parts Ash never formed much of a connection with the it.

When the front end, doors and steering wheel came into play however he really started to come around and realize what I was doing in the garage, besides making a mess.

A few weekends ago he suggested we go in the garage and take a few pictures. The last time his work appeared on this site was two years ago, so I was all for it.

Seeing the project through his eyes was really quite interesting. Things I stress over every time I shoot the truck (like dust) he paid no mind.

Components I take for granted he found intriguing. Take my water pump. There’s nothing inherently special about it, but Ash took several photos of it.

He wasn’t able to really express why he liked the water pump, just that he did. Water pumps are pretty important so who am I to tell him they’re not particularly interesting?

In general he spent a lot of time poking his camera around under hood. But, again, not having any of the preconceived notions we have about what’s ‘cool’ within an engine bay, he took photos of anything that caught his eye.

To him the Hooker cast manifolds looked like spider legs, so there you go, a photo of the manifold. Glad I got new hardware.

He also took a photo under the (just above the transmission tunnel) because “I can’t see it too well”.

The photo above was staring back at him in the view finder and his curiosity seemed satisfied, at least for now.

Bolting up the steering wheel had the largest impact on how he interacted with the truck. He’ll now happily spend a few minutes pretending to drive while I tinker away at a minor tasks.

Ash’s new found interest in the project really cements in my mind that this project was the right project for my family.

With school around the corner he asked if, when finished, I could take him to school in the truck like I occasionally do in my “regular” car.

When I said yes his face instantly lit up.

If that’s not motivation I don’t know what is.

Here’s to being able to live up to my son’s goals for 2021. 2020 certainly isn’t making it easy but I’ll try my gosh darn best.

Boy, some year eh?

By
DaveT
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0

Well then. I don’t think there’s a single person among us that would say that 2020 is going to plan.

The proverbial shit has hit the fan these last few months, and the Thomas household has been fairly deep in it.

Don’t worry, Ash Lyndsey and myself are all, thankfully, still healthy and Covid free. But both my wife and I being professions that depend on people interaction, things have been a little stressful around the dinner table.

Couple that with a now six year who’s been out of school –seemingly forever– and time is as scarce as money.

But how’s the old saying go? When the going gets tough the tough get going?

That’s what I’ve been doing; going, full speed.

Freelance, and my day job, have been the name of the game the past few months just to make sure the buffer that keeps us afloat remains.

Doing this has not left much in the tank for anything else. However, things are beginning to normalize, at least in Ontario. So, hopefully I’ll be able to (re)direct some of that foot on the gas intensity here very soon.

I know, I know ‘soon’ has been my rhetoric for months, but don’t worry I’ve got some plans to make good on a few things while this shapes up to be a borderline event free season.

In the meantime watch out for this extremely nice LS3 powered Chevy Nova in the next issue of Canadian Hot Rod Magazine, and check out a few of my most recent pens over at speedhunters.com.

Also check out my IGTV series on Project Why Wait, don’t consider it a replacement for the section here, just an added plus.

I hope you’re all still healthy and safe. We’ll figure a way to put all this nonsense in the rear view soon enough.

Hopefully.

LS1 Swapped Honda S2000

By
DaveT
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0

The Honda S2000 is highly regarded as one of the best Honda chassis ever built. More accessible than the NSX it’s the perfect option for a Honda fan that wants a nimble rear wheel drive chassis.

However the one caveat to an S2000 is that it was only available as a four cylinder. The high revving F series motor is great for some but not for others. Some people want Honda looks and handling with GM power.

Felix Wapo is some people.

I spotted Felix’s S2000 at SEMA in 2018, but it’s existed in a few iterations prior to that. Most notably the red version above and below.

For SEMA he reworked the car from top to bottom, painting it black and installing beautiful Work VS-XX wheels under an M&M Honda Racing wide body kit .

The now right hand drive car also features air suspension provided to Air Lift Performance, and a huge wing via Street Faction.

Brakes come via title sponsor R1 Concepts.

I was unable to find power specs on the car but the video a few paragraphs above this one suggests it does pretty well.

View this post on Instagram

ESKIDDDIESSS??

A post shared by Wapo Felix (@droptopwaap) on

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