WTF Friday: RX2000

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Feb 12, 2016

Cyrious Garageworks is a name not unfamiliar to Stance Is Everything but usually they don’t end up in the WTF Friday category.

However their latest project elicited a genuine WTF from me and then a guy at computer pose as I read through the recent blog post.

No stranger to F20 Swaps –Pat’s never say die ae86 runs one– they are putting an F20C in place of a rotary motor in a customers RX-8. Apparently this is what the owner’s idea and since the customer is always right guys at Cyrious got to work.

You’d think the F20 would just slide into the RX-8 engine bay given its size, but that wasn’t the case. The cut in the factory cross member below got things started, but eventually it became two pieces to facilitate getting the motor where it needed to be.

The firewall was next to get chopped, and then the electric rack went to the scrap pile in place of a Miata rack.

The build is ongoing (along with a lot of other craziness at Cyrious) so be sure to follow their blog and Facebook page for updates. This is surely one of a kind!

Theme Tuesdays: Chevy Suburbans

By

DaveT

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Feb 9, 2016

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This Theme Tuesday had an interesting progression, originally I started out looking for first generation s10 Blazers, then I got sidetracked by K5 Blazers that naturally lead to K5 Suburbans which hung me up on Suburbans in general and here we are.

I didn’t limit this post into a particular generation (but I did organize it by generation) of Suburban but there’s a chance that might happen in subsequent posts based on the feedback from this one.

Spotted this beautiful example at SEMA in 2014. Love the Rootbeer paint job

burb12 — Metallic red interior with white piping to match the red steelies and white walls? Perfect

burb11 — Really like the frenched headlights on this truck, and while I’m usually not a fan of chops on these trucks this one seems to work pretty well

2015-elta-summer-bash-58-chevy-suburban-2 — This driver was spotted at the ELTA summer bash, great finish, pinstriping, and paint

northern-showdown-2015-chevy-suburban — A rare moment of more grand clearance making it to the site

burb5 — These trucks are a shining example of “so much room for activities”, even with a notch or raised floor there’s so much cargo room

burb2 — Personally I have not seen many with this particular front end

burb6 — Another wicked SEMA example spotted on Saftey Stance

burb7 — I’m slowly learning I should have never said anything about not liking this particular generation of front end.

burb8 — Call me crazy (wouldn’t be the first time) but I see some sort of twisted potential here

burb1 — So mean, so raw (and technically a Yukon)

burb9 — If you build it, someone will inevitably race it

burb4 — This truck was actually the turning point that said “I need to post Suburbans today”

burb13-trucktrend — The perfect road tripper via Truck Trend

Like I said a little scatter-brained this time around, but should I pick this one up again what generation should I start with?

Rough World Toronto

By

DaveT

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Feb 8, 2016

2

What really is there left to say about Nakai-san and his now famous brand Rauh Welt Begriff? Roughly six years ago RWB could have been considered a niche brand known only to those obsessed with, or living in, Japan but today RWB is a house hold name among enthusiasts.

Behind some of the most popular Porsche builds in the past three years the work of Nakai-san and RWB has been featured several times over both on-line and in print bringing the Rough World aesthetic to people around the globe.

Just like his reputation Nakai-san too has travelled the globe, meeting up with his kits at their destination to perform the conversions himself. In the past two years he’s found himself the UK, Thailand, America and here in Canada.

Everyone knew that he would eventually make it to Toronto –after getting pretty close with trips to Montreal and Quebec respectively– it was just a question of when and last week was that ‘when’ arriving mid-week to Speedstar Automotive located just outside of Toronto in the city of Markham.

Flying in on the 4th of February and out again on the 7th Nakai-san left himself just a few days to perform one of his famous conversions to a white on black 964.

Assisted by the mechanics at Speedstar Nakai-san knocked off most of the hard work prior to the weekend, where Speedstar opened its doors to scores of people who wanted to check out the legend at work.

Left to be completed on Saturday was the final fitment of the 265F and 295R tires wrapped around huge Work M1 3P wheels, the application of the notorious ‘Idlers’ stencil, the famous street sweeping RWB lip, the Zweite Enticklung inscription and of course the equally famous and necessary Rauh-Welt wind-shield banner.

Working quietly and diligently while everyone snapped photos Nakai knocked off all of these tasks one by one before taking the car out himself personally for the first test drive.

Now on his way to his next build, the evidence of Nakai-San’s visit to Toronto will no doubt be spotted several times over cruising the streets and at shows.

I can’t wait to take a look at it myself in person, and a huge thanks go out to Aidan Borges and Chris De La Cruz for the photos of it today.

WTF Friday: Goin’ Up On a Friday

By

DaveT

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Feb 5, 2016

0

Very quick, very short WTF Friday this week. For a second I want you to think about every car you’d imagine about lifting. Done? Ok good, was a Genesis on that list? Nope not mine either.

However it was on the list of @alex_ankrom who took his previously bagged Genesis and went the complete opposite way jacking it up to the sky.

He’s also gone as far to add push bars and what not behind the bumper which obviously leads to the next question on when does the off-roading video happen?

None yet, but soon seems to be the word of the day. As one commenter said “this is oddly satisfying”.

Motorama Or Bust: Part 3

By

DaveT

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Feb 4, 2016

0

Compared to parts one and two currently the Taylor’d Customs shop is relatively empty with both the motor and body sent out to neighbouring shops Smallwood Custom Paint and Tenant Automotive respectively.

The motor, which left before the body, is a bit of a mystery machine with an interesting back story. Blair’s father Brian originally purchased it in the late ’90s long separated from the car it ran in previously. However after a few years of ownership he couldn’t find a home for it in one of his own projects so he ended up selling it.

Around 2012 Blair heard a rumour about an interesting motor with a ‘aircraft thing on it’ kicking around Northern Ontario and decided to chase the lead down on a hunch that he might know exactly the motor in question

After banging a few doors he tracked down the then owner’s shop and slid a few bills in his hand so he could get the motor back in the Taylor family. Upon bringing it back to the shop Brian confirmed it was indeed the same motor he had sold over a decade ago, completely untouched.

Fast forward to present day and the motor is completely blown apart in the midst of a rebuild.

During the tear down process the motor has revealed that it was hiding a few surprises.

First, it hasn’t been a standard 324 cubic inch Oldsmobile Rocket V8 for quite a while because at some point –presumably when the Latham Supercharger was added– it was punched out to 371 cubic inches.

Supporting mods for such a large jump in displacement include Dodge pistons, a Speedway cam and custom-made roller lifters. As cliché as it is to quote The Fast and The Furious someone did indeed ‘put in the wrench time’.

Exactly how significant of a power jump these changes and the supercharger will make is still just a guess but I’m sure we’ll be finding that out sooner rather than later.

Before the motor left the shop Blair had to rework the oil pan that had previously been modified for whatever vehicle the motor was last installed in.

This involved removing an oddly shaped extension and restoring it closer to the shape it left the factory as.

Being a steel pan Blair could do this all himself with a TIG welder but it did take quite a bit of lather rinse repeat flow of welding, grinding, and light shining, to get the pan watertight.

While Blair stared at blue light his dad gave the supercharger a good polishing before it went to Tenant Automotive to join the motor and quad Carter carbs.

With the motor and the body out of the way chassis work has been the name of the game at the shop. The frame kick up –pictured below in a photo from part 1— was made up of multiple pieces and portions of it remained open so that Blair could weld in some internal gussets.

Those holes have since been filled up as the reinforcing is complete and to make the frame rails look like one cohesive unit Blair put me to task with a grinder.

After a few hours of sending sparks every which the frame rails look a darn sight better and the same will need to be done to the rear before the chassis is flipped over and repeated once more for the underside.

Then it can get some paint and should be done just around the time the body comes back.

As I was grinding up front Blair tackled the problem of caliper position when the car was laid out.

As you can just make out from the photo above –again from part one— the brake caliper came into contact with the body at 0 psi.

To fix this issue the caliper mounts on the axle were chopped off, flipped right-to-left and left-to-right rotating the caliper down and away from the body.

This creative solution to the problem meant no extra trips to the parts shop were necessary and no custom mounts had to be fabricated, incredibly important when you’re under a tight timeline.

As for the rear suspension a panard bar has been installed and the link bar mounts that were previously just tacked in became a little more permanently affixed.

The next order of business was to mock-up some upper bag mounts for the rear. John and Blair tackled that together and in relatively short order slam specialities RE7 bags were roughed in and the suspension became several steps closer to complete.

Of course there’s still lower bag mounts, shocks, front suspension, final engine mounts, fuel tank mounts…. well quite a bit left to go but there’s 30 days left until the début at the Motorama Car Show March 12th so no big deal right?

Theme Tuesdays: Honda CRXs Revisited

By

DaveT

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Feb 2, 2016

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Today’s Theme Tuesday suggestion comes from @richardkha on instagram (the same person who seeded the Toyota Sienna Theme Tuesday) and it calls for a showcase of the rarer by the day Honda CRX.

I actually did one of these back in 2012 but since that is over three years ago now a revisit is well in order.

This previously featured car is a great example of how it doesn’t take much at all to get a CRX looking quite nice

crx8 — Simple and clean, I’ve had this car on my hard drive for a while now

crx4 — As an old E30 kid I have a lot of love for K1s and the functional fitment on this car is great

crx10 — Those of you who prefer your CRXs with a lot more low and wider wheels will like this cali example

crx1 — Mtechnica created a real hit with this reinterpretation of a classic design

crx10-chevlon6spoke — And this one on Chevlon 6 spoke wheels

crx3 — Flipping back to the functional side of things te37 wheels work on damn near anything

crx23 — More te37 prowess via Skooter Media

crx9 — And what’s not to like about a big intercooler and MHT drag slicks?

crx-mef2 — How about a bit of a flash back. Love the wide as they are tall OZ turbo wheels on this and if you removed the wing and did something else with the exhaust I could see a kit like this working out today

crx2 — Space out the wheels some and this car wouldn’t look completely out of place either

This photo should really be all that's needed to explain why this car is being posted — This photo should really be all that’s needed to explain why this car is being posted

...but for good measure here's the money shot — …but for good measure here’s the money shot

The entire build of this crx is here on Honda-Tech

crx-weirtech1 — Not to be out done locally we have a turbo RWD CRX that I really do need to make the effort to go see

crx-weirtech2 — Art Malczewski (Drop Culture) shot these photos

crx-weirtech3 — ..and I beleive he had a hand in the videos below as well

I know first generation CRXs were mysteriously absent from this post. I’ll look to correct that next go round.

Event Coverage: The 2016 Grand National Roadster Show

By

DaveT

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Feb 1, 2016

0

The Grand National Roadster show is the oldest and longest running indoor car show in the world dedicated to automotive craftsmen who spend a considerable amount of time and resources building their automotive dreams out of metal, fiberglass, and fabric.

The previous sentence, while true, is essentially just paraphrased media sugar from rodshows.com, the host of the Grand National Roadster Show (GNRS for short) and several other notable events.

Personally the Grand National Roadster is the next event on my American list of ‘must attend before I die’, sliding in just ahead of the Scottsdale Arizona Barrett Jackson Auction.

Most of you with even a slight eye on the Hot Rod and Kustom scene in North America have likely heard of GNRS but for those of you who have not it’s essentially the mecca of classic American car customization.

From hot rods to Lowrider, to kustoms, and even a few trucks and pro touring builds everything is present, and it is all awesome.

Since Project Why Wait and the low Canadian dollar, have essentially obliterated the 2016 Stance Is Everything travel budget #gnrs2016 wasn’t in the cards for myself this year but Performance Improvement’s own Mike Bennett found himself in Pomona California at the perfect time and took so many photos that I had to reach out and ask if I could run a few here.

For enthusiasts who like a bit of everything, but really love low American Iron GNRS is a paradise and Mike got a chance to visit paradise before I did.

He gave me full use of the photos he took while perusing the 600+ cars at the show and I did my best to round-up photos that well represents the quality and variety present GNRS.

On my first pass through his multiple photo sets a number of cars looked instantly familiar from various previous memorable appearances.

Artist Max Grundy’s 1950 GMC COE is a truck you simply can’t ignore, the classic styling combined with a unique paint hue and the fact that it lays out with the best of them gives it an undeniable presence.

The SpeedKore Performance 1970 Charger known as “The Tantrum” also stood out in Mike’s photos, largely because of the hefty 9 (yes nine) liter Mercury Marine motor under the hood that has 94mm turbochargers hanging off each side.

Ironworks Speed and Kustom built this ’55 which has been sectioned to give it the profile it has now.

The ‘wedge’ sectioning process is a little hard to explain but luckily the entire thing is documented here on Lateral -G so I don’t have to break down how the profile was changed in such a way that avoided unsightly lines, or really evidence that it didn’t come from the factory the way it looks now.

Not an all show no go build a supercharged LSX sits under the hood which has been modified to look as though it came from an earlier era than it actually did and the chassis is of course equipped with all the latest pro touring bells and whistles.

@belloskustoms built this `51 Fleetline that actually has an Oldsmobile grill and bumper of some vintage and model I can’t place.

Disguised bumper, grill, headlight and tail light swaps are really the name of the game at GRNS where special care is taken to make vehicle as unique as possible but factory smooth as well.

I have to admit I had no idea what the car below even was until I did a little digging and found out it’s James Hetfield’s ‘Aquarius’ built by Rick Dore Kustoms.

I would have been in the same boat with the Mercury below had I not been following the build on Instagram.

@Rob_IDA (robidaconcepts.com) is responsible for this mechanical marvel.

Like so many a great build details are what make this car exceptional and the swing up headlight reveals some of the inner workings that allow the side skirts to turn with the wheel.

One of the coolest parts about looking through Mike’s GNRS coverage is seeing the creativity that a lot of builders apply to platforms that have already been done several times over.

Take this ’33 Ford built by Creative Concepts and Halabura Hot Rods for example, the chopped roof, and grill really give the car a radically different yet welcome look and the saddle leather like interior gives it a real refined touch of class.

I could see someone cruising around in this smoking a cigar and wearing some sort of fancy cap.

By this point in the coverage the more observant of you may have noticed that some cars appear in elaborate displays and behind stanchions, where others sit open to up close and personal viewing on bare concrete.

This variance is because similar to the Detroit Autorama’s Autorama Extreme (affectionately known as the basement) there is a more ‘down to earth’ part of the event called The Suede Palace where people can escape back to essentially the roots of hot rodding and customizing.

This is of course not a knock to the rest of the show by any means but this portion of the show really caters to your average garage builder.

This show within a show has some of my favourite vehicles including these two Advanced design trucks.

This GMC is on steel wheels and makes me really want to send my grill out for chroming.

And this Chevy is on Astros. I feel Mike specifically took just for me as he’s a firm believer that I should jump straight to Astro Supremes for my truck.

I’m not exactly sure if this Ford would fall under the realm of traditional but it certainly intrigued me.

Hardlines, curved intakes, and a supercharger? How could I not be interested?

The car above is a perfect representation of Los Boulevardos style with the Lakeside pipes, Supremes and whites, and windowed lace paint jobs inside and out. It even has those cool organ pipe speaker covers hiding out in the back.

For pre 1937 cars the most coveted award at the Grand National Roadster show is the America’s Most Beautiful Roadster award or AMBR.

A huge award to win both literally and figuratively this prestige honor is given to one of nine pre-selected cars every year.

Chris Evans’ 1931 Ford Roadster was an AMBR competitor and beneath the hood of this car is a Chrysler hemi, fitted with an awesome set of zoomie headers and sitting oh so right on Coker whites and steels.

Jack Stirnemann’s 1930 was another AMBR competitor, and this Ford is full fendered and powered by a Flat head with Edelbrock heads and three Stromberg 97 carbs.

The winner of this year’s AMBR award is Darryl Hollenback who put together this great looking ’32 High boy that despite looking absolutely flawless actually has 10,00 miles on it.

The mods list for this one (and all the AMBR award finalists for that matter) is quite lengthy so if you want to read what makes them tick hotrod.com has a great run down if the nitty-gritty details.

All in all my jealousy is at an all time high and I and wait to get a first hand account from Mike regarding just how great this show actually is. Hopefully next year I’ll be able to attend, or maybe I’ll just save my money a littler longer and head out to the shoe’s 70th anniversary in a few years.

WTF Friday: Polar Opposites

By

DaveT

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Jan 29, 2016

0

Two very unique and very different swaps came across my desk this week and instead of sharing them separately I’m going to double down and share both today.

The first swap, which is a K series motor in the front of a Chevrolet Corvair is one that many people are calling shenanigans on.

If there was only one shot I too would call foul play, but someone taking time to Photoshop two separate angles seems a little unlikely.

Rumours are that it is actually a Corvair body on a Civic SI chassis which would explain how everything looks so oem. If that is the case I really do need to know more. Anyone recognize the show this car is at or better yet have any of you seen it in the flesh?

The second swap, an sr20 in a Beetle, has been done before but this is perhaps the best looking implemenation of it.

Instead of having the motor hang miles off the back like the one below Cameron Chapman pushed his in as far as possible.

He’s using the stock VW gear box (for now) mated to an adapter plate but already has plans to replace it if/when it explodes.

This project should really zip along once it’s done and already look sreally good so I’ll be keeping an eye on this one.

Brazil Nut

By

DaveT

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Jan 28, 2016

0

Brazil’s Thiago Miranda sent some photos of his static Beetle people on by via Facebook and it’s such a clean and tidy ’68 that I felt it was worth cross posting here.

He’s part of a Brazilian VVolkswagen community called HolyVolks (Facebook|Instagram) that looks to be made up of equally clean and low air-cooled vehicles.

Thanks for the submission Thiago!

Theme Tuesdays: Rear Engine Conversions

By

DaveT

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Jan 26, 2016

3

It’s really no secret that builds a bit outside of the norm get a lot of love here on Stance Is Everything and this week the idea to do a Theme Tuesday on mid/rear engine converted vehicles popped into my head and just wouldn’t leave.

Instead of fighting it I decided to go with it and as a result ended up pretty deep down the Google rabbit hole looking for a diverse selection. There have been so many vehicles converted from FR to RR that a sixteen vehicle list hardly breaks the surface but it is as good a place to start as any.

Expect a part II before the year is out.