Event Coverage: The 2019 Canadian International Autoshow

Feb 25, 2019

As I sit and type this the Metro Toronto Convention Center is well on its way to being converted from the Canadian International Auto Show into whatever event comes next.

Based on the media emails that hit my inbox every morning it sounds like the CIAS 2019 was another resounding success.

Though (like every year) I planned to return for second day I wasn’t able to make it happen. I think double dipping may be easier when I bring Ash along for his first Auto Show experience.

However, repeat visits aside barring one room, I was able to take a look at most of what I wanted to see in 2019.

I am in absolutely no need of a new daily driver, but I think these new Tacomas are some of the best looking trucks currently on the market.

Even in fairly sedate trim packages, like the one above, they are quite appealing. From what I understand they’re quite good from a reliability stand point as well.

Looking at Mazdas offerings, its interesting to see the 3 available in all wheel drive for 2019.

Unfortunately they pulled a page from the Volkswagen playbook and are only offering a manual transmission option in the front wheel drive cars.

The speed3 also continues to be dead in the water. So I might currently own my last Mazda daily driver.

With all the hype surrounding the new Supra it was honestly slightly underwhelming to see one in person.

Unlike a lot of people I am not polarized either way about this car.

It has some styling characteristics I like. But overall, I know it’s not for me so I’m not too fussed over it. There’s potential in the car to be sure, and I’m sure we’ll see some wild ones to come.

I do think if it were called something else a lot more people would be into it, but, the marketing strength behind the Supra name is hard to deny.

The only unveiling I managed to catch was the Genesis Essentia Concept reveal. On paper it’s an all-electric high performance vehicle that, like every other concept, is marketed as the future of automotive performance.

Visually the car looks like it ought to be in movie set sometime in the future. It is so forward thinking that it’s super hard to imagine a time where care like this will be commonplace.

The interior was just as wild as the exterior. Seating was bathed in an extremely elegant looking Cognac leather, and the surrounding was laden with technology.

The end-to-end widescreen was an interesting touch. Would a screen like this count against distracted driving? I guess that’s a question better suited for the authorities.

One of the big draws of the 2019 Auto Show was Lego exhibit featuring the 1:1 Lego Bugatti Chiron. As someone with a son that’s currently in the throes of a pretty large Lego obsession, I probably spent far too long looking at this.

It’s a massive, massive effort that is impossible not to be impressed by.

There’s over 1,000,000 LEGO Technic pieces used in the construction and not a drop of glue. The completed project moves under its own power thanks to over 2000 Lego motors.

I can’t imagine how stressfull it must be transporting this car. One would hate to open the trailer door and be greeted by a massive pile of unsorted Lego.

Gives me slight anxiety just thinking about it.

On the way to the Auto Exotica room I came across this 1961 Impala hard top built by the late Boyd Coddington. The car was apparently featured on Boyd’s TV show, but my memory doesn’t seem to reliably go back that far.

Looking at the car today, it is certainly dated, but not without its late 90s charm. It was at the show care of Barrett Jackson where it sold for $88,000.

Not a bad hammer price. But based on the work done more than certainly a loss, if it was sold by the orignal owner/cheque writer.

Moving into the Auto Exotica room, all the main members of this room were still present, from Legendary Motorcar to Pfaff Motors.

One of the more talked about vehicles of the Auto Exotica room was the Devel Sixteen. There’s a ton of hype surrounding this Dubai built car that mostly stems from many thinking the entire thing is a farce.

The car, from a visual aspect, is fairly different from anything else on the market. This one being a prototype had a few spots that could be tightened up, but it’s certainly going to shake up the industry with its looks.

The 5000 horsepower claim though? That is still highly questioned. Especially considering it sounded an awful lot like a V8 when it was revved up.

I’m also told it was pushed into the venue, so take from that what you will.

If the room was to be won, or stolen, then Autostrada magazine did both.

AS absolutely slayed with their line up of exotics and super cars.

Their booth was the backdrop for countless interviews at the show, as well as perfect fodder for any level of automotive photographer.

I managed to get permission from Lucas to head under the stanchion and take a few close up photos of the cars therein.

Sorry, not sorry, the F50 sucked me in. I’ve never seen one of these in person before and I needed to determine if it had what it took to overthrown my favorite Ferrari to date, the F40.

Valued at four million or so the car was certainly quiet impressive. It’s obviously much rounder than the F40, but not so much so that you can’t tell where the design elements originated from.

I was taken aback by just how thin the paint was on the panels. The CF weave was clearly visible under the almost mandatory red paint.

Did it dethrone my favorite? No, I still love the look of the F40 but this is by no means an unimpressive car.

Seeing this car however made me think. With fewer kids today learning to drive, and the automotive industry, and media industry, changing do kids even have dream cars on their walls anymore?

Are device backgrounds the modern-day equivalent? Or is the concept of a poster car going to cease to exist in a few years?

Based on the number of kids who went the show, specifically to check out the Autostrada booth, I do have some hope kids still throw a few cars like the F50 on their walls.

But perhaps that’s just me holding hopeful that the future won’t just be all CUVs and automated cars.

Musings aside, the F50 is for me the only way to end this post, so I will conclude 2019 Canadian International Auto Show coverage here.

Theme Tuesdays: Lowriders & The Canadian International Auto Show

DaveT

Feb 19, 2019

Media Day at The Canadian International Auto Show has been my escape from winter for nearly a decade now. If I’m to be completely honest it’s not the new model releases, or concept unveils that keep me returning year after year. It’s the special interest rooms.

In years previous these rooms have hosted muscle cars, exotics, vintage manufacturer concepts, motorcycles and hot rods. This year the show opened it’s doors to an unlikely niche, lowriders.

To be clear, I love lowriders, but they’re not a genre that has a lot of universal appeal. In general the culture is quite a bit misunderstood. That’s why it was awesome to see lowriding promoted on a stage like this.

Most people in Toronto don’t know there’s a thriving lowrider culture here, so some widespread exposure certainly can’t hurt.

Given the record foot traffic the auto show receives I think it’s safe to assume that at least one child leaving the show is no infatuated with the art of building a low rider.

One of the cars I was most excited to see back out dippin’ was the Chilango ’64. The car was in for a bit of refurbishing these past few years and has returned better than ever.

Can’t wait to see it back out at shows this summer, and perhaps even out doing a bit of cruising.

The main feature vehicles of the elaborate lowrider display came from Los Angeles care of the Del Alba family and the Petersen Automotive Museum.

Petersen brought six cars to the show in total, three of which were lowriders.

I’ve had the pleasure of enjoying some really well built lowriders while operating this site, but these three were truly next level.

The car above, a ’36 Chevrolet Master Deluxe known as El Padrote, was “bomb” of the year in 2011. With bombs being fairly rare in Ontario you’ll have to forgive me for giving this car a little bit of extra camera time.

There wasn’t a panel or curve on this car that wasn’t heavily detailed in some way, and it was quite difficult not to get lost in the work.

The other two cars on display, The Legacy, and El Rey proved to be a bit of a challenge to shoot. Their positioning, the surrounding hall, and people didn’t allow for the best overall photos.

However the beauty of shooting a lowrider is that it’s totally appropriate to get lost in the details. So I adapted and shot what I could to capture the beauty of El Rey in particular.

I still may try to return to the show to see if I can do these cars better justice. If any cars are deserving of a revisit, it’s these two.

El Rey has been lowrider of the year twice. It’s a stunning example of just how detailed an Impala build can be.

Truly a countless number of hours have gone into painting, striping, engraving and airbrushing every inch of this car.

I’m sure, even with these top-teir examples on display, there’s still quite a few show goers who don’t “get it”. But that’s ok if they’ve at least learned to appreciate them for the works of art that they are.

More general coverage of the Canadian International Auto Show will be up later this week.

Way Back Playback: Car Craft August 1986

DaveT

Feb 14, 2019

Back in 2014 the guys at Performance Improvements changed my life when they introduced me to Rick Dobbertin’s Pontiac J-2000. Despite being born long after the peak Pro Street era I’m still a really big fan of the niche.

An acute attention to detail, wild stance, loud paint, and ever louder motors? Sign me up. These cars were the height of excess at a time when excess was the rage.

Long running title Car Craft had its finger on the pulse of the Pro Street movement early and has featured a wide variety in their pages.

At Oshawa Ontario’s Autofest in 2014 one of the show goers had a box of magazines marked ‘free’. I walked by it once without looking but on my second pass I had to take a look at what he had available. I mean the price was right…

About a third of a way through, there it was, the pro street holy grail, the cover feature on Dobbertin’s, double boosted and double blown small block Pontiac J-2000.

Having done a WTF Friday post on the car previously I had to own the legit feature. I read the feature magazine cover to cover later that same week then eventually it got shuffled away.

At the top of the year, while cleaning, I found the magazine. This time I decided to take some photos of what was inside.

The magazine itself is a treasure trove of an era gone by. Can you imagine a feature titled “Yellow Fever” flying past an editor’s desk run in 2019? No, me neither.

Seat belts are pretty much worn by all now so the entire Crash Test Dummy campaign almost seems ridiculous in hindsight.

Things have come full circle with the Pioneer TS-X20 speakers. Considered retro today, they are often seen as the perfect accessory for a period correct build. Should you be able to find a working set of course.

Being the 80s, smoking was still considered cool, and Camel was the coolest. And of course no vintage magazine would be complete without some sort of recruitment advertisement.

It was pretty awesome to come across ads for companies that still exist today. Enkei, Recaro and Centerline have all managed to weather the storm, surviving over 30 years.

Hitting Google it seems like Kamei is also still around, to some degree. But, I can’t tell if it is the original company, or if someone just bought the rights to the name.

Either way I had no idea they made a aero package for the Pontiac Fiero. Quite an odd choice for a company I most often associate with European brands.

Flipping back to the (black and white) table of contents, the goods on Dobbertin’s car are revealed to be on page 24. Rick’s feature would be one of a few in the magazine to get both black and white and color photos.

I’ve always thought the concept of getting the “color” centerfold pretty neat. I imagine getting a color feature was a huge, sought after, accomplishment.

Quite a change from today where people are excited to get a small picture and an ‘@’ mention on Instagram.

The text (which there will be a link to at the bottom of this post) outlines how Dobbertin did a staggering amount of the work to the car himself learning as he went. It also mentions that his bar for execution is fairly high, which obviously plays a huge part in the vehicle’s overall look.

I’m told that the car does still exist today, though it’s been in storage for quite some time.

Hopefully at some point this car does make it back out of storage because it is far too much of a monster to just be sitting under a car cover in some random corner.

If you want to read the entire article, I’ve taken the opportunity to scan the article page by page. Click the links below to open up the full link scans:

Please note I don’t claim ownership of the magazine pages. All credits here go to Car Craft Magazine along with the photographers Jeff Smith and Neil Love. The article itself was written by Bruce Hampson.

Theme Tuesdays: Ford Taurus

DaveT

Feb 5, 2019

I’m going to be completely honest, I never thought I’d sit down and put together a Ford Taurus Theme Tuesday. Outside of SHO models the Taurus is a car that’s seldom discussed, and these days seldom seen, even as commuter vehicles.

However the photo below immediately sent me down a bull infested rabbit hole.

The scanned photo, that appears to be of Japanese origin raises so many questions. The most obvious being why, off all the possible vehicles to import, did this owner choose a Taurus wagon?

Regardless of answers I’ll never know I was curious to know what other Taurus examples I could find.

Initially my search for fittingly modified Tauruses (Taurusii?) lead me right back to a 2013 ‘Uncommon Stance – 2’ Theme Tuesday. I’m pretty sure neither of these two cars above are around today.

(Yes i know the red one is a Contour, but for the sake of this post it is close enough.)

Corvette saw blades were the go to ‘cheap’ low offset wide wheel for a hot minute. I imagine one makes very few friends with Chevrolet wheels on a special edition Ford.

A bit of digging revealed that Mobsteel actually built a bagged 400hp Taurus back in 2009. There’s next to nothing available on the car that’s current that makes me wonder if perhaps it went back to Ford after it was complete and shown at SEMA.

Apparently in the early 90s there was a team of four Fords that raced in TMNT livery. As a 90s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle obsessed child it seems a bit odd I only found out about these cars today.

With racing livery more popular than ever on street cars, might I suggest someone flip this one next?

Blew the dust of quite an old Stance Works build thread to find this car.

Sadly the thread was last updated in 2015. So where the car is today is anyone’s best guess.

For the quarter-mile fans, here’s a Taurus pushing 21 ponds of boost with a stock connecting rods, stock heads, stock crank, event stock head gaskets. Who knew these motors were so strong?

Of course, the end to this admittedly quite off kilter Theme Tuesday is a 1-JZ powered Taurus:

I highly recommend checking the owner’s Instagram @porschetech101 for more on this build. It’s a kit-bashed model car come true and quite frankly it’s exceptional.

Winter Wednesdays: Surviving

DaveT

Jan 31, 2019

Well, we’re here again, in the dregs of winter. The thermometer here in the Greater Toronto Area is currently nineteen degrees Celsius below 0. It feels 35 below with the windchill. If you don’t know what windchill is consider yourself lucky.

At this time in the winter it’s easy to get discouraged about the weather. The long, dark, cold, days generally forces people insides. It also elicits a general consensus of “damn it’s cold” at any time.

However soon, very soon, it will be the Canadian International Autoshow and shortly after that the seasons starts anew.

One thing that’s been helping with the winter is the fact that I picked up some pretty cool winter wheels. They are 17×7 Work CRs at ET 32 offset.

They’re quite beat up, but for winter wheels they do a pretty good job of reminding me cars get to look cool again in summer. To be honest I’ve grown so fond of the wheels that I might end up with a CR variant for summer as well.

The Air Lift Performance Suspension set up continues to perform flawlessly despite the arctic weather, and besides my own grumbling everything this winter has been going pretty well. Probably cursed myself now by saying that however.

Hopefully not.

Theme Tuesdays: What Ever Happened To…

DaveT

Jan 22, 2019

Last week I had a request for an old photo and on Sunday I went on a crate dive looking for the original file. One thing lead to another and I ended up digging a little deeper, and then even deeper still.

During that dive, I came across a V10 powered Dodge Challenger project and posted it on Instagram. Naturally I asked Boot Hill Auto Resurrection if the car was ever finished.

Boot Hill didn’t respond, but one of their employees did and oddly enough work resumed (5 years later) the day before I posted the photo.

Fate? Coincidence, who knows, but either way I’m going to see if lighting will strike again with a few more builds that I’ve lost track of over the years.

Turbo H22 Powered Fiat X19

This is a car I saw way back in 2011 and have never seen it again. To be honest, I don’t think I’ve seen another Fiat X19 again. If I have, it obviously didn’t leave an impression like this one.

From body to turbocharged Honda power plant this car was incredibly unique through and through.

Looking back, I’d say it’s pretty over the top, but I admire the creativity. I can’t imagine a car like this blending in anywhere, so I’m really curious where it may have gone.

LS Powered, Body Dropped Nova

Looking at this car, you might be wondering why I’m posting it. Novas in general are not all that uncommon, but in comparison to other years, late 70s ones are far less common. Some might say they are the ugly duckling of an otherwise pretty well put together Nova family.

Regardless of the general consensus bagged, bodied, and fit with an LS I always thought this particular car was pretty cool.

In reality of all the cars on this list this one probably has the greatest chance of still being around, I just haven’t seen it since.

Bagged, Convertible Ford Ranger

Convertible trucks have always been a bit of a rare breed. From what I understand the second you consider putting a roof back on them they leak, so it’s better to just commit and go topless all the time.

If memory serves this Ranger had no provisions for a roof so the owner clearly committed 100%.

There was a lot of work put into this truck. A motor swap, the aforementioned convertible conversion and even a tail light swap. It would be a shame if this truck was parted out and sent off to the big crusher in the sky.

I know there isn’t a huge market for minitrucks, especially partially finished ones, so hopefully this is just under some clothes in a garage somewhere.

Bagged, Rear Wheel Drive, Dodge Dart Coupe Frame

How much of a vehicle do you need for it to be considered a project? That’s a rhetorical question, but this back half is probably pushing it.

Never the less Ash Pratt had big plans for this chassis, wanting to put it underneath a two door converted PF chassis Dodge Dart.

I have not heard anything of the project the second Northern Showdown that year so I can only assume it was shelved indefinitely. Life sometimes has a way of doing that, despite best intentions.

Hybrid, Hydraulic, Air Suspension ‘S10’ Chassis

I wasn’t going to post this frame again, but, after including the back half above I think it’s appropriate. When this chassis hit the International center floor everyone stopped to take a look.

The creativity, fit, and finish are still incredible, roughly five years later. The chassis still hits a number of Facebook groups a year with people wondering exactly how it all works.

If you’re also curious, two of the bags in the rear lifted the back of the truck, while the other two push hydraulic fluid to a pair of rams up front to provide lift.

Originally built for an S10 the chassis Gary Donkers still has it and at last check he wanted to put it under a Toyota instead of an S10.

Coyote Powered F-100

It seems like trucks projects have a way of winding up, unfinished. Which is unfortunate considering I’m building a truck of my very own. But, I remain hopeful that my truck, along with all of the others in this post will some day get finished.

This truck was interesting for a few reasons. The motor, which was quite new at the time, being one, and the interior being the other. Looking at the photo, clearly there were plenty of dots left to connect, but crazier dots have been connected.

The twin tube back half was really interesting too, and it looks like that continued up under the cab and all the way to the tube front end.

Viper Powered S15

Start with a V10 project, end with a V10 project. If you’ve been reading this site for any length of time then you know I include this car somewhat often in posts like this.

The back burner this car was placed on has likely been turned off at this point but I don’t think it’s been scrapped yet.

At current I have nothing to base that on but there’s no harm in being optimistic rather than pessimistic right?

Hopefully I come across a few of these projects sometime down the road because they’re all pretty interesting. Who knows maybe reading this will give reinvigorate a build or two.

If one of these is yours, let me know how it’s going in the comments.

Project Why Wait: Unboxing Ididit Steering’s Retrofit Steering Column

DaveT

Jan 21, 2019

Project Why Wait started with a basic idea and plenty of ‘I’ll fill in that blank later’. Brakes, motor, suspension, wheels, tires these are all things I know. So, selecting what to run for each came fairly easy.

But a functioning vehicle is so much more than the big-ticket items. With all of my previous ‘projects’ I’ve been able to heavily rely on factory engineering. To be honest I’ve historically taken said engineering for granted. I can’t tell you how much time I’ve spent researching things like accessory drives or parking brakes. Neither items are glamorous by any means, but both quite important.

One area of the truck I thought I had nailed down, until I really started thinking about it was steering.

When I removed the cab from the original chassis in update five, I took a Sawzall to the factory column right above the steering box and kept disassembly thundering along. I figured I’d be a bearing, a bit of double ‘D’ shaft, and a couple U-joints away from a functional steering system sometime in the future.

Using the factory column would be the best fit for my truck right? After all it’s what GM spec’d it with.

Well, as fitting as the original column might be it’s not without its faults. Most notably it’s not a tilt column which means though the column fit the truck, it might not fit me. At the end of the day I’d like to be comfortable behind the wheel of this truck. Or at least as comfortable as possible in a farm truck that’s nearly 70 years old.

With my seating still up in the air –I’m going bench, but not sure if original or late-model– any adjustment at the wheel will be beneficial down the line.

It is possible to change the angle of a fixed column but there’s no guarantee that angle would fit my wife or son. Never mind the potential issues adjusting a fixed angle column might introduce on the motor side of the firewall.

With an Advanced Design truck the tilt problem can be solved a few ways. One of the most common is to use a column from a late-model GM vehicle. Van columns are usually the go to because often they don’t have an ignition directly on the column. There are also a number of generic tilt columns available from mail orders and performance shops all across North America.

I considered both routes, but with a used column there’s simply no true guarantee it will be any good, which is always the problem with used hardware.

With the offshore steering columns, reviews are split 50/50. Some people have no problems while others are plagued with excessive rattles and ever-increasing wheel slop.

After asking friends, both professional builders and non, for a do it once, do it right, product one name repeatedly came up as a sure bet; Ididit.

Ididit has been manufacturing aftermarket columns since 1986. They’ve built their business on providing a quality product for builders like myself. Proof of this is their ‘I did it with Ididit‘ tour that searches out grass-roots builders all across America.

So –pardon the pun– I did it. I gave Ididit a ring, we chatted about the project and both agreed that an Ididit column would be perfect for Project Why Wait.

Their tech department suggested an application specific 1947 – 1955 GMC retrofit column. Shipping was quick and the column arrived late last year. But, with all the rust repair I’ve been doing it was tucked safely away within the current chaos of my garage.

This weekend temperatures here in Ontario plummeted. Twenty degrees Celsius below zero without the windchill. I’m dedicated to my project but that’s just far too cold to be productive. With idle hands free I decided to crack open my Ididit box and take a look at what I’d ordered.

If you’re wondering, yes these photos were taken in my kitchen and no I didn’t wind up sleeping on the couch.

Ididit offers a few different options for all of their columns and in the end I selected an unpainted tilt, shift, column without an ignition.

Column shift was chosen over a floor shift simply because the cab really isn’t that big. Any floor space I can gain back will make all the difference during long summer cruises. I went with unpainted, because I’ve yet to narrow down my interior color scheme. However I have a sneaking suspicion I will want the roof, firewall, dash, door jambs, and steering column to all be the same color.

Finally I chose no ignition because I’d like to use the factory one.

Pulling the column out of the protective packaging, the first thing I noticed was its weight. The column is an incredibly sturdy unit that makes the original seem quite dainty in construction.

Looks wise, well, it’s a no brainer, the Ididit column is a beautiful piece. However being of mostly metal construction it doesn’t look too modern for a 50s truck.

Ididit proudly manufacturers all of their columns in Michigan. North American construction is a nice reassurance for something as important as a steering column. Offshore products can be more than adequate, but it’s nice to know that should any problems arise I can get a replacement part within a few days after a conversation with someone just across the border.

Even more reassuring was the fact that the Ididit logo could be found on all the key components. Almost everywhere I looked I found an Ididit embossing or an Ididit sticker.

Again, company specific, application specific, components result in better service, every time.

The various additional packages inside the retrofit box contain all of the parts necessary to mount the column, and shifter.

Ididit also offers a number of add ons for both their universal and retro fit units. I’ll probably be purchasing their swivel floor mount, and column mounted shift indicator sooner rather than later.

Despite, realistically, being a few months away from needing the instructions I quickly flipped through them. Being my first go round I live and die by manufacturers instructions and these were thorough yet to the point.

I’m looking forward to putting the column in the truck later this year, and of course I’ll follow-up with an installation post. Until then it’s back to waiting for the weather to break a bit so I can finish up some more rust repair.

Lots more to come in 2019 from Project Why Wait! Be sure to follow the progress both here and on Instagram under the #siegmc hashtag.

Taking It Back To The GMC Syborg

DaveT

Jan 17, 2019

You’ll have to forgive me for indulging in a bit of nostalgia with this post, but I’m going to have to blow the dust off the old ‘my site my rules’ card.

I’d like to take you all back to 2011, Stance Is Everything’s second year in operation and the first year I travelled to Las Vegas for SEMA.

You never forget your first SEMA experience, and really you never forget your favorite car of the event. Especially when that car was a truck.

My favorite vehicle in 2011 was, without a doubt, the Sonoma GT known as Syborg. Ask any s10 builder and they’ll admit that this truck is the thing of legend.

Bagged, boosted, with a killer interior and a timeless paint job it’s a beautiful truck that is essentially peak S10.

The Syborg was the subject of a very long build thread, one of the first I ever read in fact, and naturally several features.

There’s been a lot of square body s10s done before, and after, but this was the first to combine elements of minitruckin, pro touring, and resto modification so flawlessly.

It was sold before its SEMA debut to a private collector. If I’m to be honest I didn’t think that I’d ever see the truck again.

Often these elusive collectors snatch vehicles like this up, put them in their storage facilities and forget about them.

Image courtesy of Barett Jackson Auctions

So you can imagine not just my surprise, but the entire s10 communities surprise when word got out the truck was going to be crossing the block at the Barrett Jackson Auction.

Lot #1219, the Syborg is listed as follows:

Named “The Syborg,” this complete custom SEMA show truck is the product of a no-expense-spared build. It has a 4.7-liter V6 bowtie race-block engine topped off with twin turbos and puts out 565rwhp on pump gas. It has a complete Air Ride Technologies suspension, massive brakes, custom-made wheels, custom chassis, air conditioning, 4L60E automatic transmission. Thousands of hours went into the build and it has been featured in several magazines.

It’s crossing the block with no reserve which means it will sell no matter the price.

Late model trucks don’t typically do to well at Barrett so it will be interesting to see what the final hammer price is on this truck.

It looks to have been well kept in its time out of the spotlight and that’s always a plus.

For the love of everything that is s10 I really hope the truck goes to someone who can appreciate it for what it is, and more importantly show it off a little.

It’s far too beautiful of a truck to have been hidden away for so many years.

If you’ve never seen the truck before be sure to check out its in depth feature on Truck Trend.

~~I’ll update this post with the final price when the auction is said and done.~~ The truck ended up selling for 44k USD, after a reported build cost of 280k…

A Little Something Different; A Custom Lincoln Zephyr

DaveT

Jan 14, 2019

For the long time reader’s it’s no secret that I’ve been spreading my wings beyond this site with a variety of freelance jobs the last two years. Working with a variety of publications has given me the opportunity to dive pretty deep into scenes I previously sat on the fringe of.

One of which has been the local hot rod community. I’ve had a deep appreciation for hot rods for years, but of late I’ve really fallen in love with the stories behind many of the builds.

If I had to describe the community in a word, I would pick dedication. It’s typical for hot rod builds to stretch into decades before completion. Coming from scenes where people switch cars every two years, it’s pretty wild to meet someone who’s had, or built, the same style of car for almost as long as I’ve been alive.

Rod Authority in particular threw me head first into the hot rod scene and in 2017 they sent me to Norval Ontario to shoot Dave Jolly’s 1938 Lincoln Zephyer.

Dave was a gracious host, and took me through all the nooks and crannies of the car as he explained how he lovingly crafted it from the ground up.

Not being a Zephyr aficionado by any means there were a lot of details I would have missed had Dave not sat me down in his workshop for a hearty chat. Looking through his personal notebook of pictures was one of the most enjoyable things of my summer that year.

From the extended rear quarters, custom tails, single suicide door, immaculate engine bay the overall details are incredible.

It’s one of the most complete builds I’ve ever seen and a direct result of copious amounts of passion and exceptional vision.

It’s cars like this that really set the bar for quality of execution while reaffirming that with enough time and dedication anything can be accomplished in a humble home garage.

I feel like it’s also worth noting that this car is not a factory convertible car. Dave cut the roof of the car off himself and made the convertible top, himself. I nearly fell off my (well his) chair when he revealed that little tidbit.

Justifiably the car has achieved its fair share of accolades and I think it’s a vehicle that really anyone can appreciate. At least I honestly hope it is. Otherwise I fear the car community might have gone off its rails.

If you want to read a full in depth feature on this car, and see some build photos check out my feature of it over on Rod Authority. Trust me you won’t be disappointed.

Lost Files: B2B Car Show Mississauga

DaveT

Jan 8, 2019

With so many events in a year, some simply get lost in the sauce. It’s not intentional, or a slight toward show organizers, these things just happen with everything being so fast paced throughout the summer months.

That’s what happened with the photos from Mississauga’s first B2B Car Show.

B2B is a series of car shows popular in the Philippines and some of Toronto’s Filipino enthusiasts brought the show over to Ontario, holding it at Mississauga’s centrally located Celebration square.

A mid summer event the weather was high 30s and there wasn’t a single cloud in the sky. Honestly it could have been a few degrees cooler and still considered perfect.

Held along side a mid summer city celebration the venue couldn’t have been more packed with general foot traffic.

Great for the organizers, not so great for me.

I dodged and weaved through the traffic as best I could, but with an open invite to a BBQ at Binbrook Speed shop later that day I didn’t stay for longer than an hour.