Motorama Or Bust: Part 5

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Mar 1, 2016

Ten days. There are ten days left until the Taylor’d Dodge needs to be sitting finished on the International Center Floor at the Motorama Custom Car & Motorsports expos.

If this were a sporting event the ten minute warning has sounded and it is time to start sending hail Mary’s towards the end zone.

On his arrival back from a quick vacation Blair was greeted by a painted frame and the now completely rebuilt Oldsmobile Rocket motor.

The orange paint the motor had in part one is long gone, replaced by a better suited black and silver combination.

The polished blower has been mounted a top the V8 mill along with the crazy looking pulley set up that enables the 31:1 blower ratio.

The alternator was attached via a custom bracket and the gear drive starter just managed to fit as well.

The Carter carburetors have been restored to their natural color that looks a darn sight better than the early 90s street rod blue they were previously.

The belt for the blower has shrunk from lack of use, but a new one should arrive in a few days, so out of towner Will Northrup of Stance East was put to use polishing various motor accessories.

As you can see from the photos below the bare chassis from the last update isn’t quite as bare as it was before.

Final mock ups and mounting is underway and the last time I was at the shop I expended a considerable amount of drill bits mounting the battery box beside the fuel tank.

The wish bones that didn’t fit over the straight axle have been opened up by machinist Julian and mounted.

Brian Taylor, along with his friend Russ, have been cranking away at getting the finer details of the chassis squared away like fuel lines and brake lines.

Doing all this now is worlds easier than taking care of it when the body is on.

Blair’s dad also did a restoration of the original analog gauge cluster which looks really trick and should (hopefully) still work when all the necessary sending units and sensors are re affixed.

Though the deadline isn’t getting any further away spirits are high in the shop as each day significant progress is made.

If you’re wondering what’s left aside from the obvious mounting of the body and wheels here’s the ever-growing whiteboard list as of around 5:01 PM Sunday night.

I’m going to be popping by the shop and updating as quick as I can but be sure to follow @taylordcustoms on instagram for updates between the updates.

WTF Friday: Artisan 2JZ

By

DaveT

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Feb 26, 2016

0

In the lowrider world metal polishing, plating and engraving are nothing new and a fairly often used customization technique, in the import world however not too many people currently dabble with these techniques (more so the latter engraving). Of late though there seems to be an increase in its use.

The paint engraved GTR and matching VR38DETT motor from Artis Racing in Japan is probably the most recently example that shocked the world at Tokyo Auto Salon, but this 2JZ from RM Polishing & Gold Plating is sure to cause a similar social media wave.

RM is a Kent UK located shop run by Rob Mitchell who is clearly a man of a lot of patience and a lot of skill.

The lengths he’s gone to set this motor apart from the rest is truly astounding and the fact that all the engraving has been done by hand is mind-blowing.

The build is called Dressed to Kill and the progress so far is documented here on his personal Facebook page.

The motor isn’t the only part of the Supra getting a lot of attention, the car is also going to be the recipient of a carbon fiber wide body custom interior, and well the works.

Given the level of meticulousness Rob is going to I wouldn’t expect this car to be done very soon but you never know…

Give the RM Polishing & Gold Plating page a gander on Facebook as his client work is also quite impressive.

GTA’s Bag Bros

By

DaveT

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Feb 25, 2016

2

Mike Pimmenta and Steve Luangpakdy ran around last summer with two of the most polarizing bagged Honda vehicles in the GTA. Mike’s car seemed to appear virtually out of nowhere completely finished, while Steve’s was a long time coming towards its current look.

Though these two cars have no problem standing out on their own together the really make a visual impact and Chris Johnston just so happened to get the two of them together while shooting for USDMFREAX magazine.

Like so many other cars featured on this site Steve’s started as a vehicle “that was going to stay stock” before “just a wheels and a drop” kicked in leading to what would eventually be a complete make over prompted by winning a set of Luxury Abstract wheels at Liberty VIP’s Black III event in 2012.

Using the go big or go home motto Steve went big and ordered his wheels at 10.5 and 12″ width all around and 19″ in overall diameter.

These wheels were much, much, too large for a standard body TL so Steve sent the car off to Ottawa Autobody for a little plastic surgery. The ensuing wide-body build used oem fenders borrowed from a different vehicle along with a lot of man hours and block sanding.

After an extended stay in the body shop the car came back purple with much wider hips.

Tucking the wheels into the new fenders is Air Lift Performance suspension controlled by a DVS switch box.

Ultimate Motorsports handled the trunk install that features a host of RE Audio components including XXX subs, speakers and components powered by an RE Audio 45KV amplifier that’s been mounted in the center of the trunk floor in a way that allows the guts to be showcased.

Inside Steve, the newest Canadian member of the Liberty VIP Car club, went the VIP route with carbon fiber interior accents, Junction produce neck pillows, Junction Produce curtains, and a matching JP Kitsuna knot.

Mike, previously a Civic owner who valued function over form, took the complete opposite approach when it came to modifying his s2000 opting to flip the script and put form over function.

His car features K3Projekt Wheels, one of very few in Ontario (and I believe the only IND K37s) sized at 18×9 et 35 and 18×10 et 10 wrapped in heavily stretched 205/40 and 215/40 Bridgestone rubber.

Like Steve’s car Mike rides on air using Airrex struts paired with Accuair management.

Hard Race front upper control arms, Megan racing rear upper control arms and Buddy Club extended ball joints allow Mike to run the camber he does without the suspension literally pulling itself apart.

Under hood most of the Password JDM catalog has been used from Carbon Fiber heat Engine shield all the way down to billet aluminum battery mount. Non password JDM under hood products include Downstar bolt boys baby spikes, a J’s Racing Strutbar, and Science of Speed Hood Dampers.

Interior Mike’s got some tunes as well, but with less trunk space than Steve he’s kept things pretty civil with one 12″ JL W3 sub-woofer. He’s also added a Nardi wheel, flip out screen and red stitched shift boot to match the factory red door panel inserts.

The sheet metal of the car is stock, save for the fender massaging to get the wheels to fit and subtle additions are an OEM Style lip, Downforce splitter and side splitters and a Spoon rear diffuser.

Rounding out the exterior are JDM red Honda pages, smoked side markers a BYS spoiler and the Mugen top that makes having the roof up for these photos excusable.

With fitment that isn’t for the faint of heart and sure enough to give any alignment tech a headache both Mike and Steve’s cars are sure to be causing double takes for a few years yet. The only question left now is what’s next

Winter Wednesdays: Spicy Snowstorm

By

DaveT

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Feb 24, 2016

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We are supposed to be in the middle of one of the worst snowstorms of the year as I type this but it largely appears to be raining from the lunch room at my office.

Considering I don’t want a hellish commute I can’t complain, and as a bonus this ‘snow fall’ gives me an excuse to post Gray’s Spicy Orange Mazdaspeed Protege. I don’t see nearly enough of this car in the metal.

More of his work can be found on stillsteezy.com as well as a few more pics of his car here and there.

Theme Tuesdays: Lincoln Continentals

By

DaveT

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Feb 23, 2016

3

Sometimes in an effort to keep Theme Tuesdays unique and non-repetitive I overlook some of the most obvious vehicles to show case. This is clearly what happened with the Lincoln Continental, one of the best looking American boats to ever hit the ground.

These cars are undeniably bad ass and despite common misconception actually do come in colors other than black. Who knew?

lincoln2 — Hale’s Speedshop builds are always super undterstated but super awesome

lincoln1 — Wicked two door from a 2011 Stance Works feature

lincoln5-rampage — This belongs, or belonged, to Rampage Jackson of MMA and A Team fame

lincoln12 — If your significant other wants to watch a love movie suggest ‘Hit And Run’ its a love story between a man and a woman but you can play it out as man and car in your head

2016-canadian-international-auto-show-kreater-3 — Obviously the Kreater Continental from the auto show played a part in this week’s Theme Tuesday

lincoln15 — Hands up if you completely forgot about this episode of Monster Garage

lincoln4 — Combo breaking the sea of black, this green on green looks fantastic

lincoln6 — Bringing in some more green here’s a before

lincoln11 — This is a wicked way to separate a black 4 door from the rest, you can almost never go wrong with a flaked roof

lincoln14mkv — I don’t think I’ve seen a MKV on the road in about three years

lincoln9 — The look pretty good down on wires if you can find one

lincoln13 — Vacuum line headlight covers are long gone but I always though they were pretty rad (when they worked)

limbo_1 — As far as I know I’ve never seen this car again since 2012

Motorama Or Bust: Part 4

By

DaveT

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Feb 22, 2016

0

In the last Motorama Or Bust update nothing but the chassis was left at Taylor’d Customs as the 1933 Dodge body was sent out to be massaged by Smallwood Custom Paint, and the Latham supercharged Oldsmobile Rocket was getting a new lease on life thanks to Tenant Automotive.

This update starts the weekend after the last –and the day before the frame was to be picked up– and as the clock continues to tick wrenches turn and sparks fly.

Starting at the back of the frame where we left off last, the custom aluminum fuel cell has been delivered and tabs have been added to mock it into place.

It is sitting off-center in the photos, but its final positing will be between the body mount tabs on either side of the rear cradle.

You’ll also notice in the photo above that the upper bag mounts from post three have been reinforced by a length of round tube.

At the lower part of the frame nothces have been added by cutting metal pipe and welding it into the square tubing of the frame.

These notches were made to clear the floor supports so the frame can be tucked up into the body as much as possible for maximum low.

With not a lot of real estate left in the rear, the compressor mounts were sized using an old unit and positioned as low and outside as possible just aft of the body and previously mentioned floor supports.

The compressors will be exposed in this position but this shouldn’t be much of an issue because the large hole in the roof means this car will be a fair weather driver.

Moving to the front the motor mounts –which were little more than flat pieces of metal in updates one through three– have been boxed in so that they can split the weight of the motor and transmission with the box steel transmission cross member.

A grill shell has been sourced from the barn (original origin unknown) and Brian Taylor fabricated the grill from scratch.

In part one I mentioned Blair had some tricks in mind for the straight axle based front suspension, and as of last week the aluminum CNC’d arms arrived.

Unfortunately they were a little too snug to fix over the axle ,so they were quickly wrapped back up for a return trip to the machine shop for some adjustments.

A slight setback but one easily overcome and work continued pushing forward none the less.

With a pressing deadline, and a frame pick up scheduled for the next day, Blair had no other option but to blow through a ton of outstanding chassis work in roughly twelve hours.

This work included making link bars, fabricating mounting points for those same link bars, and figuring out how to affix the steering box.

All of this was done in-house using box steel, flat plate, round tube and a few off the shelf pieces.

Impressively Blair managed to push through the remaining fabrication without a hiccup and the frame was picked up on time Monday morning.

Currently Blair is somewhere between Mexico and Canada on his way back from a quick vacation, but while he was gone Smallwood Custom Paint hustled to get the frame finished and delivered back to the shop in time for Blair’s return.

As you can see below the frame is back at the shop wearing a fresh coat of black paint along with a scissor lift to aid in the final assembly.

The motor however is still on the operating table, apparently the head needs a bit more work, but the body is coming right along.

Remember that significantly rusted out bottom section from part two?

Well a replacement has been fabricated entirely from scratch and the floor, which was welded from the top side before going to the body shop, is now welded up from underneath as well.

Flipped back right side up progress has resumed on getting the body straight as an arrow, not an easy task, but it seems to be going quite well.

As of today there are roughly 17 working days left to get this car together. Crunch time!

WTF Friday: V8 Single Cab Volkswagen Street Rod

By

DaveT

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Feb 19, 2016

1

Scrolling through my Facebook timeline this morning, dodging an ever-increasing amount of click bait articles, I saw a few photos of the front of a type II Volkswagen cab sitting behind a straight axle, with what appeared to be a truck bed behind it and a very wide wheel and tire set-up.

I was instantly interested.

Starting with a rusty Type II cab YouTube content producer ItsBenModified built a custom chassis for his no longer quite a Volkswagen creation out of 2×3 3/16 wall tubing. Up front a stainless steel drop axle is used while out back leafs springs have been fabricated in.

The motor is a 400 hp zz5 small block Chevy 350 crate motor, the rear end comes from an explorer, and the mufflers look to be from a sport bike. The interior is currently fairly Spartan and the wheels are Welds in a fitting big and little configuration.

He’s got the entire build on YouTube with part one below having a posted date of January 30th 2015

Less than a year after the video above he got the thing out for a test drive. Less.than.a.year.

If that wasn’t crazy enough he’s also building a V8 Daihatsu Hijet among a bunch of other crazy things like electric bikes, electric busses, and a beetle street rod. The rabbit hole goes deep here so tell your secretary to clear your afternoon.

More of Ben’s unique crazy builds can be found on his YouTube channel.

The Two Best Rooms Of The 2016 Canadian International AutoShow

By

DaveT

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Feb 18, 2016

1

This year, in my humble opinion of course, two rooms at the Canadian International AutoShow absolutely stole the show, these rooms were The Auto Exotica room and the Hot Rod & Chopper room. Thematically these rooms couldn’t have been further apart, but both were an enthusiasts dream none the less.

The Auto Exotica room, which years previous show cased heavy hitters like a Pagaini Zonda R, a raw carbon Pagani Huayra, and Ferrari F40 continued the trend of bringing both luxury and poster cars to the show.

Pfaff Motorsports has always been an important part of the Auto Exotica exhibit, and we’ll get to what they had at the show a bit further down, but first lets take a look at the 1972 Ferrai Dino 246 GTS that Ferrari of Ontario parked immediately beside the Pfaff line-up.

I’ve never seen one of these before (and with good reason, I don’t imagine they frequent many events, especially those I attend) and while outside of the F40 I’m not a huge Ferrari fan this I am a fan of.

Beautiful lines, and I can only imagine how great the rear mounted V6 must sound roaring down an empty country side.

As mentioned Pfaff always pulls out all the stops at the AutoShow but this year they out did themselves to the point where people are wondering exactly what they will do next year.

The Pagani Huarya above featured blue carbon fiber, and paint compared to last years raw carbon version. The blue interior was a bit much for me but I can’t sit here and type that like I’d ever turn one down.

Pfaff also had what I believe to be the second Singer Porsche in Ontario.

Singer builds are all the rage among the Porsche resto mod community for good reason, these cars look and perform great without taking anything away from the original factory Porsche lines or diverting from them entirely like say an RWB build.

The real show stealer of the Pfaff booth, room, and to some people the entire show was the McLaren F1 GTR ‘Longtail’.

Rumoured to be valued in excess of 16 million it was the most expensive car at the 2016 show and perhaps the most expensive car to ever be featured at the show. Impressive is simply an understatement when it comes to this car.

With F1 production numbers in slightly more than a 100, an outstanding Motorsports history and a look that holds its own against contemporary cars of today everyone was clambering about trying to get good angles of this car because the chances it will be seen on display again are pretty slim.

I threw a few elbows at a local car spotting group to get these photos and Matt Campbell managed to snipe a few when he went to the show on a public day.

The awesomeness of the Auto Exotica exhibit aside my personal ‘room of the show’ was the Hot Rod & Chopper exhibit, though I must admit that is because I was incredibly stoked to see my friend Keith of Binbrook Speedshop (featured in 2014) so heavily involved with this show along side Kreater Customs.

Kreater had the center stage with this Lincoln Continental laid out right in the middle of the room. Though more known for their motorcycle builds I’d love to get this car out somewhere to take some photos of it.

I’m not a huge motorcycle buff at all but I know “cool” when I see it and Kreater certainly does cool motorcycles damn well.

Mike Livia’s ’36 Copperhead was also in this room, and as you all know I’m a big fan of this truck, Mike is currently involved in not one but two voting contests, the The Canadian International Autoshow “Show Your Auto” contest and the Vintage Auto Insruance Championship series. If you’ve got a minute throw him a vote.

The rest of the room belonged to Binbrook and Keith brought out a variety of traditional hot rods in addition to his own Oldsmobile Rocket powered ’25 Ford Model T affectionately known as the 90″ Death Trap.

Jay Tyrell, one part of the organizing team behind the Jalopy Jam Up contributed his ’55 Gasser to the show which true to ‘Jam Up form captures the look and feel of days gone by.

On the diagonally opposite corner of the room was a chop top ’52 that up until a few weeks ago wasn’t a chop top at all. Somehow Keith, the one man machine, managed to get it done in time for the show.

Also in black primer was this chopped Model A which I removed a few stanchions to get a better picture of.

Finally Chris Mahtton’s nailhead powered 1930 Ford was simply drool worthy. Gold paint, gold block, white walls and lots of polish and chrome. Can’t go wrong!

This rounds out the 2016 Canadian International Autoshow coverage, but the show is still going on until the 21st so if you see something you want to check out I’d recommend taking a trip out before all the cars disperse.

While you’re there be sure to hit up Keith for a shirt!

Event Coverage: The 2016 Canadian International AutoShow

By

DaveT

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Feb 17, 2016

2

In the years previous the Canadian International AutoShow has served as a reminder that yes winter does end and I’d better remember how to work my camera machine for the upcoming season. This year either because the winter has been so mild, or because I’ve been busy following the Taylor’d Dodge build, the AutoShow managed to creep up on me to the point where I almost forgot to register for media day.

My inability to keep track of calendar days aside, the 2016 AutoShow (which runs from February 12th to 21st) was pretty good. I usually travel somewhat with the crowd media day, going to unveiling and obtaining countless ~~USB keys~~ press kits, but this year I spent most of my time venturing solo so I could get as many unobstructed photos as possible.

One of my first stops was the Art and The Automobile exhibit which has always proven to be interesting. This year, in addition to the Cobble Beach cars below, the exhibit featured classic advertising campaigns.

Surrounded by great period correct advertising these magnificent machines throwback to a bygone era when cars were much closer in design and prestige to the horse-drawn coaches the replaced.

Perhaps the crown jewel of the 2016 Art and The Automobile display was a 1935 Auburn 851 Boattail Speedster in all its supercharged glory.

New OEM offerings don’t generally get a lot of play here on the site because I know it isn’t what you guys want to see –and quite frankly I don’t want to wax poetic about new hyper fuel-efficient motors and electric vehicles– but there were a few current model cars that I did take a look at.

The first was Mazda’s MX-5 cup race car, aka a Mazda Motorsports produced race ready Miata. With a sticker price in the mid 50s it’s no chump car but perhaps not a bad deal for those considering building up a Miata racer from scratch.

Dodge showcased the track ready version of their Viper. For 2016 the ACR model features a new upgraded aerodynamics package to keep it planted at high speeds.

Redesigned suspension and a super wide Kuhmo Ectsa 295/25F & 355/30R tire set-up means this car can sustain 1.5g cornering. The carry over 8.4L V10 thumps away under hood and raises a middle finger to a few of the fuel sippers elsewhere in the Metro Toronto Convention Center.

The Ford GT was the talk of the show last year and I spent a decent amount of my 2015 Canadian International Auto Show Favourites post talking about it.

This year Ford swapped blue for yellow and stuck the car on a turntable in a location that allowed viewing from all angles, including this popular top down view.

Honda also used a turn table to show off the twin turbo v6, space framed, technology packed new NSX.

I feel they have been parading this car for the past five years, but if I’m not mistaken orders can be taken for this car in roughly ten days with delivery presumably expected later this year.

Switching gears entirely Nissan was showing off their Rouge Warrior which is a custom Nissan Rouge equipped with a lift kit, widened fenders, and a Dominator track system.

A press video of the Rouge Warrior in action is here.

I never thought I’d be one to have an interest in current model Cadillac vehicles but damn if the CTS-V isn’t an attractive performance sedan and it makes nearly dead even horse and torque numbers at 640 and 630 respectively.

The sticker price however means I’m pretty well unlikely to ever touch one.

Another luxury car I’ll likely never be able to afford is the BMW M4 GTS. Still a concept should this car hit production it would be fit with a twin turbo inline six and is reported to be another ‘race car for the streets’.

I look forward to being cut off by inconsiderate drivers in it come 2020.

Fittingly shown here with money raining behind it Alfa Romeo showed off their 2017 Giulia that is a great looking new rear wheel drive sports sedan that speced out with a twin turbo (everything is twin turbo it seems) V6 will probably be around the 75k USD range.

Fresh from SEMA is Ford’s latest Cobra Jet Mustang, a fully prepared Whipple charged drag car that runs the quarter in eight seconds. 50 examples of this exact car will be sold at roughly 100K USD a pop.

Speaking of SEMA returnees Importfest’s Rocket Bunny RC350 was in the Lexus Canada booth looking stunning.

I’ve always been a really big fan of the paint colour on this car and combined with the new Vossen Forged wheels and Rocket Bunny kit the impact of this car is pretty impressive.

The Importfest fingerprints were also all over this Acura RLX that sits of course on Vossen wheels and Scale suspension.

Performance Auto and Sound unveiled their #accordplus project a few weeks ago in Montreal, but CIAS 2016 was the local reveal of the project that they worked on with a few local shops like 20HZ Audio, Air Assisted and JD Graphics.

Wraps are something that appear more and more at the Auto Show ever year, and Sekanskin had their work on a few of Deadmau5’s cars which were part of the Blacklist Rally display.

I don’t listen to DeadMau5 myself, but his taste in cars seems pretty solid. Really glad he didn’t cover this McLaren in Nyan cat.

On the same level a few hundred feet away sat NV Autos 2JZ Subaru.

The last time I saw this car it was competing and it looks as though it made it through the season relatively unscathed.

Pat’s FR-S was also looking quite fresh and ready for another Formula Drift Canada season.

Jumping back to into the south hall while we’re on the topic of FR-S builds Speed Academy had their class winning Targa FR-S at the show.

Their site and youtube channel has become a favorite of mine lately, as it follows a few local builds I’ve always been pretty interested in.

Closing things out today is an up-skirt shot of Eurocharged Canada’s R8 that is using their in-house built twin turbo kit. This was the stage 1 version and I can only imagine what kind of monster it must be.

Coverage of the best rooms of the show is still to come so be sure to check back tomorrow for more from The 2016 Canadian International AutoShow.

Theme Tuesdays: Recently Viewed – February 2016

By

DaveT

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Feb 16, 2016

0

Time for another Recently Viewed Theme Tuesday. There’s quite a bit more BMX in this post than any of the ones that have come before it due to the unfortunate passing of Dave Mirra. As a rider of 15 years I looked up to Dave throughout his entire career and like the entire rest of the BMX community his death certainly had an impact on me.

A successful driven person no matter what he did Dave went on to become a notable rally driver and triathlon competitor as well, simply excelling at anything he touched. Deepest condolences to his family, friends and everyone else he touched, RIP Dave.

After a lot of Mirra appreciation (that barely touches the surface of what he did!) there’s the normal eclectic mix of things I find interesting on wheels doing things like drifting, making noise, and going fast.