WTF Friday: Front End Swapping Madness Continued

By

-

May 10, 2013

Earlier in the week Jalopnik posted a link to a Mercedes clipped Expedition that triggered memories of a post here on SIE from three years ago showcasing a collection of rather questionable front end swaps.

At the time I had intentions of making rather alarming front end swaps a semi reoccurring WTF Friday theme but since I am just revisiting it now it’s safe to say it slipped my mind.

Today I make “good” on those intentions.

My past self ought to be proud, present self a little horrified at the examples below.

wtf_front_end_1 — There is… a lot going on here and none of it too my tastes. The roof is ok I suppose.

wtf_front_end_3 — This reminds me of a blob fish

wtf_front_end_4 — Yeah… the did the back too

wtf_front_end_11 — Where the truck above reminded me of a Blob Fish this Camaro is reminiscent of an ant eater

wtf_front_end_7 — I actually took this photo myself a few years ago, I’ve seen it a few times since then

wtf_front_end_8 — The previously mentioned Mercedes clipped Expedition

wtf_front_end_10 — This almost, kind of works… almost

wtf_front_end_15 — Considering the two chassis uses the work here seems decent enough, the end result though…

wtf_front_end_5 — I don’t really even like Baur convertible e21s from the factory but I think they deserve better than this

wtf_front_end_6 — Anyone order a cow catcher?

wtf_front_end_12 — I’m not going to lie I am actually kind of OK with this…

wtf_front_end_13 — …This is a big reason why

I think I might do a Theme Tuesday on good looking front end swaps this week to make up for all the bad.

Site Updates

I’ve had a lot of requests lately for an event calender and I’ve been meaning to do one for a long time now so I think I’ll just hand crank one out this weekend while I look for an easier to maintain solution in the future.

Hopefully now that I have actually mentioned it I will feel some sort of pressure to actually get it done.

Flashback Friday

The legendary Butch King left a comment on the site recently saying that his time attack Blazer is officially dead. I absolutely loved this truck so let’s all take a minute to mourn it’s awesome.

I’ve asked Butch what his next project is… hopefully he responds.

Event Coverage: Tiremag/Ertefa BBQ 2013

By

DaveT

-

May 9, 2013

4

The weather was exceptionally great last weekend and my car was freshly ready for summer (thanks to Simply Tire and Automatrix) so I swung by Tiremag on Sunday for a BBQ they had organized along the people behind Ertefa.

I must admit I was pretty surprised at the turnout since it’s still somewhat early in the season and I know a few cars that are still in several pieces.

Nonetheless people were coming and going throughout the few hours I was there and the event was a good time out in the sun with fellow enthusiasts.

I went a little easy on the photos this time around as I’ve got a bit of a backlog going with upcoming features.

mazda_3_air_lift_suspension — Feels like it took forever but my car is finally presentable again

lexus_sk_performance — Sharad of SK Performance should have a new look to his car fairly soon…

vw_lineup — Really like the MKII Golf in the foreground

lexus_sic_ryde_fonixx — Sic brought a lot of cars out (including an incredibly loud civic) but his Lexus is still one of my favourites

civc_8thgen_volks — This car has gone through quite a few wheel colour changes in the past two years Tiffany Blue first, then black, now this mag blue

e30_ccw — Beautiful e30 on CCWs, really hope to see this car again

honda — Accord and Vossen wheels just seem to go together

honda_s2000s — I’ve never seen a set of those wheels on the yellow one anywhere else before, always forget the name when I get home…

infiniti_supercharged_mr_cleen — Lurking in the background of the shot above is this familiar Infiniti

infiniti_20hz_auto_mr_cleen — 20hz Audio did a great job on the trunk

vw_golf_oem_plus_1 — Great OEM+ Golf owned by a reader! Nice meeting you Jahz

vw_jetta_vette_wheels — Jetta on some Corvette Anniversary wheels

vip_m45_junction_produce — Caught Yudi rolling around just as I was about to leave

subaru_wrx_bagged_airlift_rotiform — Quick shot of Brad’s Subaru which you can read more about here

subaru_sti_varis_nextmod — Got a chance to talk to Kevin about a track build he’s got in the works for 2013, should be pretty nice

scion_xb_borbet_type_a_lv — An XB I’ve never seen before covered in Louis Vuitton stickers

nsx_supercharged_nsx — This NSX was owned by the gentlemen in the photo, the doors caught me by surprise…

nsx_supercharged_nsx_2 — As did the super!

nsx_blackonblack — Black on Black NSX, there were actually quite a few NSX’s out on Sunday but I managed to miss most…

lexus_ertefa_restyleit — Ertefa flagship car freshly wrapped by Restyle it for the 2013 season

team_importfest — Team Importfest, lead by Harvin’s blinding 370

team_importfest_angelo_mercedes_kw — Angelo with his new wrap and KW suspension

team_importfest_bmw_1 — Basit’s chrome black M

This weekend there is another BBQ at ReStyle It if you are looking for some pre Mothers day Food.

More info can be found on ReStyle It’s Facebook page.

Theme Tuesdays: Surf Wagons

By

DaveT

-

May 7, 2013

4

Not long ago I waded my way into a thread about “Surf Wagons” on the H.A.M.B in an attempt to find more information on the Suburban included in today’s post.

After clicking through a few pages I noticed that there’s a bit of a debate in regards to what makes a real surf wagon but, loosely defined it’s a vehicle that could potentially be used to shuttle surfers to and fro.

As someone who’s never surfed a day in his life (though I’d like to) any surfers reading this will have to excuse me for not knowing if the boards on a few of these are nothing more than props.

Wonder if surf wagons the precursor to today’s bike and roof rack craze….

surf_wagon2 — A photo shopped version of this photo has been floating around for awhile now but this is the original

surf_wagon17 — Love the airbrushing on this

surf_wagon4 — The vehicle in the driveway also looks quite interesting…

Dusted off my Low Class Customz login to grab a photo of Jeff's Tiki truck with the new surffboard — Dusted off my Low Class Customs login to grab a photo of Jeff’s Tiki truck with the new surfboard

slappy — Slappy’s lenghty Bravada/s10, the 86 page long build thread is here

surf_wagon14 — The dude hanging out of the window of this truck reminds me of those ceepy headless dolls often seen at classic shows

surf_wagon5 — This could perhaps be a wagon that just slipped in…

surf_wagon6 — Perfect setting for this car

surf_wagon7 — Impala Wagon captured by Not Stock Photography

surf_wagon8 — The more I searched for Surf Wagons the more I kept coming across this Merc

surf_wagon9 — Another car that came up quite a number of times

surf_wagon10 — A tad bright for my taste but still quite rad, love how it seems to be one piece from the end of the fender back

surf_wagon11 — I’ve never seen a surfboard used like this before, pretty different

surf_wagon12 — The ‘Burb behind this entire Theme Tuesday

surf_wagon13 — Love this… little details

surf_wagon16 — A contemporary take via Canibeat

surf_wagon15 — Car Art Theme Tuesday one day?

The Road To A Perfect Daily

By

ChrisJ

-

May 6, 2013

3

As fall 2012 came to a close, Brad Dale began prepping his car for winter in Toronto. As the months got colder, a thought began to snowball in his head.

After scraping around all summer static on HSD coil overs he decided to take the plunge into air ride.

He contacted the guys over at Air Assisted who pieced together a package around the Air Lift Performance Subaru kit, one compressor, and a small tank. For management Brad is running the AutoPilot V2 that allows for 8 different presets.

The compact setup allowed him to retain a lot of the factory trunk space and carry a spare, crucial as this car is his daily driver.Once all the parts were in, Air Assisted had his car done in a quick two days.

Anyone with a low Subaru knows there’s two spots in the front that are annoying –where the axles hit and inside wheel wells towards the front of the strut towers– so all that’s left for Brad to do now is trim some metal in the front so it sits like the rear.

Over the winter Brad also stripped and polished the faces of his Rotiforms to a mirror finish, leaving the windows metallic silver.

Now with the car looking this good Brad just needs an equally impressive winter wheel set up to roll hard all year.

So far he is loving the convenience of having adjustable suspension and raves about the ride quality compared to coils.

Gone are the days of taking the long way home, slinking through parking lots to avoid speed bumps, or cringing when frame hits ground.

All Brad has to do is choose one of his eight settings on his AutoPilot V2 and enjoy.

Photos and text: by Chris Johnston

WTF Friday: Water to Air

By

DaveT

-

May 3, 2013

3

In the Volkswagen world the watercooled-to-aircooled conversion isn’t exactly new. I’ve seen it a few times over at this point, but this is shaping up to be one of the more refined examples I’ve come across.

It is also the first time I have seen it done to a Porsche, taking advantage of the fact that very few people are going to be up in arms over anything done to a standard 924.

With the factory four kicked to the curb the underhood (or is it boot now?) area was given a few renovations making it quite the tidy place to house the fuel tank for the Beetle sourced motor that now resides in the rear.

The ~~hatch~~ engine room has been shaved and bead rolled to match the under hood, and the motor now looks almost factory in it’s new home.

The builders saw to it that this swap didn’t just look the part either, all the various sensors report to the factory 924 cluster just as it would had Porsche put the motor there from the factory.

The exhaust has been routed in a way to visually and audibly attract as little attention as possible (unlike the one on this car), and inside the car appears largely stock save for what appears to be a very large, very white, sequential shifter.

The suspension looks to be a mix of various updgraded VAG aircooled and water cooled part, and the wheels hint at the cars watercooled heart.

The build can be found in it’s entirety here and while I’ve yet to make my way all the way through it in detail the work done here is incredibly impressive.

Once again nod goes to Suck Squeeze Bang Blow for putting me onto this.

Site Updates

Heading over the Simply Tire in the morning to get new tires put on my Equips. Hopefully they don’t leak after having the bolts removed to get them cleared. If that all goes well it’s over to Automatrix auto service for an alignment. Hoping to get some decent tire life out of the new rubber.

With it being all in one presentable piece I should be able to take a few snaps and jot a few words down about my life on air ride so far. I also plan to swing by the Tiremag get together on Sunday provided everything on Saturday goes to plan.

Flasback Friday

Might as well send it back to 2011’s Theme Tuesday ode to the Air Cooled Beetle.

Six and a Dime

By

DaveT

-

May 2, 2013

1

I’ve posted plenty of Datsun 510s on the site over the years but I’m pretty sure is the first 610.

Truthfully I’m actually not certain I have ever actually seen one in person and if I have it certainly wasn’t as nice as this particular one I spotted on Joy Rides Art Company.

This 74 has been given the retro mod treatment with the exterior and interior retaining mostly original equipment but the drive line and suspension getting a healthy update.

610_1 — The car has re chromed euro bumpers and was resprayed this interesting cream colour in ’06

610_2 — Troy Ermish coils hold the car up on 16″ TE37V wheels over Wilwood brakes

610_4 — This KA24 was rebuilt by Troy Ermish Racing and runs a Garett GT2871R turbo pushing with 14 pounds of boost which reportedly makes it good for 300hp

610_5 — Two tone Recar Trophy’s look great inside…

610_3 — I know I wouldn’t kick this Datsun out of my garage

More about the car as it appears above can be found on bringatrailer.com which also has info on it’s previous incarnation.

Photo Credit: Joy Rides Art Co.

Theme Tuesdays: Mitsubishi Eclipse/Eagle Talon

By

DaveT

-

Apr 30, 2013

5

I must be feeling a little nostalgic with the next Fast & The Furious around the corner because it occurred to me the other night that I’ve never done a Theme Tuesday on the Mitsubishi Eclipse (Eagle Talon) before.

In my opinion the first two generations are the best looking so they make up the bulk of today’s post but a fourth generation did manage to squeak in there.

Tyrese ruined the third generation.

eagle_talon_2 — After all these years I’m still a big sucker for the RPF-1

Really hope to see this car at CSCS again this year

eagle_talon_4 — Older photo but the wheel choice is still quite relevant

eagle_talon_20 — Had to include one car with Hoosier tires on all four corners

eagle_talon_21 — Function and form are about even with this car

eagle_talon_10 — Simple, clean and (judging by Emilio’s watermark) local

eagle_talon_1 — This all came together pretty nice

eagle_talon_6 — Posted some photos of this car back in February

eagle_talon_5 — I do believe I have posted this one previously as well

eagle_talon_9 — Local spyder on what look to be Stance wheels

eagle_talon_11 — Fairly subtle two tone here, almost missed it at first glance

eagle_talon_12 — Blood red Advans look great here

eagle_talon_14 — Black seems to be a reoccurring colour…

eagle_talon_16 — Some class out of texas

eagle_talon_17 — This car looks great and think I recall it receiving a magazine feature at one point

eagle_talon_15 — Same car different angle

eagle_talon_19 — Turns out Saleen Wheels look great on the Eclipse, who knew?

eagle_talon_7 — Found this surprisingly over on NASIOC

eagle_talon_8 — I suppose one could say it’s got a bit of styling borrowed from the Subaru community

World Tour

By

DaveT

-

Apr 29, 2013

0

Early last week Buni sent in a few photos of his m3 converted e91 Touring and Iended up posting one of them on the Facebook fan page.

Buni’s touring was incredibly well received and is proof that of the nearly universal appeal of a OEM+ styled wagon.

Afterwards Buni sent the full shoot on by and I was incredibly impressed at how well the car photographs at all angles. A tasteful build through and through.

I’m also pretty jealous of the ‘shoot location…

Photo Credit: Andreas R Altstätter / Felgen Outlet

WTF Friday: Volkswagen powered…. Fieros?

By

DaveT

-

Apr 26, 2013

4

Growing up the neighbour directly across the way from me bought his daughter a Pontiac Fiero for her fourteenth birthday. The intent was that on her 16 birthday, when she got her license, it would become her first car.

Having already filled the garage with an vast motorcycle collection the car sat outside, unmoved, as her sixteenth birthday came and went. At around 18, when the car had faded from a vibrant red to a Pepto Bismal pink, the daughter finally decided to get her license.

Sadly it was about 95 or 96 when this happened and the 84 Fiero had fallen out of style so it was eventually sold and she later picked up a Honda Prelude.

This chain of events marked my first exposure to the general public’s apathy when it comes to Pontiac’s foray into mid engine sports cars.

It wasn’t until a few years later, while I worked on a few kit cars in high school, that I came to know of people who actually genuinely liked these cars.

As flawed and quirky as some years may be these Fieros have amassed a strong following and people have been known to put quite the variety of motors behind the seats; Cadillac Northstar V8s, 350s, and supercharged Buick v6 3800s to name a few but Volkswagen motor swaps are new to me.

Both of these cars were built by a fellow by the name of Dave, and his own is powered by a VR6 while the second, belonging to his wife, is propelled by a TDI motor.

The vr6 one, seemingly built just because, uses an AFP VR6 from a wrecked 2000 Jetta and was started in 2007 and mechanically complete in 2008.

Despite lots of urging from the Feiro community the VR6 remained relatively stock while the exterior got VW wheels and some… interesting paint.

The TDI powered Fiero started life as an ’88 Formula and again the motor comes from a scrap ready 2000 Jetta, this one is also largely stock and was built to be a cheap to run commuter.

The build thread for the VR6 Powered car is here and the TDI build on is here.

Of course there is video as well:

Site Updates

Going out to do a shoot tomorrow morning of the latest project from Switches N Thangs. Looking forward to it, first outdoor shoot of 2013!

Flashback Friday

Curiously enough this was the last Fiero I posted in the Non Traditional, Traditional Lowrider Theme Tuesday

There’s a Fiero build thread on Stance Works I really ought to catch up on…

Composite Worx Lotus Extrema

By

DaveT

-

Apr 25, 2013

3

In stock form the Exige is a pretty enticing package; weighing 2,015 lbs, and equipped with various mid mounted power plants ranging from 175hp to 250+ hp any model of this nimble Lotus is more than enough to get most people on the wrong side of a radar gun within a few minutes.

Of course more than enough to some isn’t more than enough to all and with Exige people just love to push the envelope.

One well known example is the Hennessey Venom GT and another just so happens to the the Composite Works Extrema.

What’s the Extrema you ask? Well it’s a LS9 powered Exige project currently in the works by Italian tuning company Composite Worx.

Powered by an LS9 the Extrema can fly through 0-62 mph in a hair under three seconds and rips to 100 mph in about seven.

If you keep your foot in it –and have a stretch of road safe enough– the Extrema will make it’s way all the way up to 200mph before a governor kicks in and questions your better judgement.

Composite Works, as the name suggests, steps in with a few Carbon fiber body pieces and full carbon seats.

More info, more photos, and hopefully video of the car are soon to be released at compositeworx.com and facebook.com/Composite-Worx

I’m off to buy a lotto ticket.

STANCE IS EVERYTHING

STANCE IS EVERYTHING- EST 2009 -

A Japanese Limo Lost In Canada

Rolling Like A G: A Datsun 240Z On 305s

Street Track Life: An E46 M3 With A Turbo Surprise

Spec’d Right: A Perfectly Balanced Silvia S15

Breaking The Mold

WTF Friday: Front End Swapping Madness Continued

Site Updates

Flashback Friday

Event Coverage: Tiremag/Ertefa BBQ 2013

Theme Tuesdays: Surf Wagons

The Road To A Perfect Daily

WTF Friday: Water to Air

Site Updates

Flasback Friday

Six and a Dime

Theme Tuesdays: Mitsubishi Eclipse/Eagle Talon

World Tour

WTF Friday: Volkswagen powered…. Fieros?

Site Updates

Flashback Friday

Composite Worx Lotus Extrema

S.I.E.