I really, really, really, try do avoid single picture WTF Friday posts but I honestly can’t find any other photos of this e30 clipped Nissan. It’s almost like other than this photo the car didn’t at all exist.
Since I can’t find any more information questions like why it was done and why an early model e30 was used simply go unanswered. Very unsatisfying.
Can anyone help a brother out?
The first Fleetwood Country Cruise In I attended was in 2011 and then it was easily one of the largest and best classic car shows I had ever been to. I’ve wanted to return ever since but there was usually some sort of scheduling conflict preventing me from doing so.
This year I happened to be near London the weekend it was held which gave me a chance to check the show out on its last day. Unfortunately the not quite so favorable forecast drove a few show goers home early.
However the day was by no means a waste as there were still a lot of cars worth taking a long look at.
Right near the entrance The Jalopy Jam Up had a small display of traditionally styled cars that gave people a taste of what to expect from their show August 14th and 15th.
Part of the display was the Mercury Maurder below that I simply can’t resist taking multiple photos of at any event I see it.
Bagged and sitting on Astro Surpremes this car perfectly represents the height of the kustom era, while still looking simply stunning today.
It has a timeless look which is something I am really looking to achieve with Project Why Wait.
The entrance of the Plunkette Estate is also where they had the celebrity guests. George Barris, Linda Vaughn (Miss Hurst), and the legendary Gene Winfield were just a few of the big names that made the trek for this show.
Near the stars were cars that they worked on or drove, including the Jade Idol II which is a car built-in tribute to the Jade Idol, the first car Gene ever sectioned.
Of course there was also the George Barris designed Monkee mobile GTO as well.
The show also hosted a Dukes of Hazzard reunion, and further within the grounds you could find starts of the show as well as a handful of General Lees.
Many were replicas but the one showing a bit of damage below was an actual show driven car.
The rest of the expansive estate was filled with a wide variety of different vehicles, from A Dodge Rampage (one of the only ones I have ever seen) to a Jr Dragster and everything in between.
A stand out car, that I’m not ashamed to admit I couldn’t identify without looking at the information on the windshield, was this ’39 LaSelle made by Stylish Getaway cars.
Unlike anything I had seen before the “Ice Queen” was part boat tail speedster, part hot rod, and a significant part one off custom.
Recently the car drove to Salina Kansas where it took home the 777 Custom Crown award at the 34th annual Kustom Keps of America Leadsled spectacular.
I had previously never heard of Stylish Getaway Cars before, but I’ll be sure to keep an extra eye out for their builds. If they all look like this it shouldn’t be too hard.
The car I’m choosing to end this post off with however is a surviving 1957 stock eliminator record holding drag car.
Built when light parts didn’t exactly come easy this car has some of the most extreme weight saving measures I’ve ever seen.
I can’t imagine just how long it took to do all of that work with a hole saw, but the owner tells me the weight savings were quite significant.
If my memory isn’t leading me astray I believe it was to the tune of 1000 pounds saved in comparison to factory trim.
The new owner plans to drive the car in the nostalgic drag races this year so it will be interesting to see if it still does the numbers it did back in it’s Glory Days and lives up to the ’11th commandment’ on the dash.
Last week on instagram goodnewamos suggested that I do a Ford Probe Theme Tuesday.
Being a sucker for a good challenge I dove head first into a land of swing up doors and body kits until I came back with a collection of Ford Probes that didn’t scream 1998.
Probin’ ain’t easy.
The car above is actually the second Probe he built, with the one below being the first
A few years ago on the way back from a local classic car cruise Lyndsey brought up the would be project I’ve been talking about since the day we met. Something that I would buy, wrench on for a few years, and most importantly keep for many years once it’s done.
Of course specifics like what that vehicle would be or when I would start it were up in the air. I was content with ‘one day’ and ‘something’. She said why wait, why not now?
With plans to start a family and a larger second home (with a two car garage) inevitable I suggested that now might not be the best time for a project.
She challenged saying that it also wasn’t the worst time.
Her only words of warning were that I not put us in the poor house, and that I don’t think of the project as solely mine. Yes I would be doing the work but it would be hers, and ultimately our sons as well.
Meeting her more than fair terms was no problem, so we began to seriously think about what vehicle we would soon own. E30s and Blazers were quickly canned, because repeating the past wasn’t something she was interested in.
Anything newer than 1970 was cut as well because if we were going to ‘invest’ a sizable amount of money into a vehicle it had to be one that would at least maintain some of its value.
Both being Chevy fans we started there, and car wise we both love Chevelle’s but they were out of our immediate price range. I’m not sure if it were her or I, but one of us suggested why not a truck? They are generally a bit cheaper, generally a bit more practical, and generally pretty awesome all around.
We ran the idea past good friend Blair Taylor of Taylor’d Customs and he was more than on board to help everything come together.
Over dinner a rough game plan was sketched out and the hunt was on.
This was all roughly two and a half years ago and from then to now we came close in our search several times. Then life threw us a few curve balls, most notably my old car losing about a foot of cargo space.
Staying in the 3 family allowed me to keep the truck fund whole, which meant that I was able to start the search anew this year.
Eager to get a base before something else happened, I looked at a number of trucks, and I must thank Blair and Jeff Wybrow for being good sports about my asking questions about several trucks that were prettied up piles or rust and bondo.
While I sifted through Southern Ontario rot boxes Blair sourced a really clean base out in Saskatchewan.
Money quickly changed hands and I can now officially present the first long-term Stance Is Everything build; Project Why Wait?.
At the beginning of our search we were dead set on ’55 – ’57 Chevrolet but as time went on Lyndsey decided she liked the earlier style better so we refined the search to 48 – 54.
A GMC was actually never part of the plan but sometimes you just have to roll with it and in the grand scheme of things a 5 window GMC is a bit more unique.
From purchase to delivery at Taylor’d Customs was about three weeks, and when it arrived I was glad I passed up on the numerous other trucks I considered and scored an unmolested all original.
Though it doesn’t have a bed this truck is very complete and very clean.
During the search Blair stressed that while I wanted to keep something in patina today, I may not in the tomorrow so I should buy something that could reasonably be painted some day in the future.
Being incredibly solid –other than the need for a passenger side cab corner and patches in a few other, very small, areas– this truck is a great candidate for one day wearing glossy paint should I go in that direction.
Currently the plan is to leave the patina, match a bed to it, and put it on the ground, but future plans and further specifics about this truck will be ironed out in subsequent posts.
For now I’m just happy to have finally landed the ‘something’ I always wanted and I’m over joyed that ‘someday’ has become now.
It goes without saying that I am extremely excited to start wrenching on this truck, and I really look forward to a long future cruising around in it with my wife and son.
This will be the first full build I have ever done and I plan to post it all up here. Hopefully some of you can contribute with advice, tips, parts and encouragement a long the way.
I’m going to need it.
The summer of 2015 seems to be flying by with the second round of the Canadian Sport Compact Series coming up tomorrow at Toronto Motorsports Park Cayuga.
Usually CSCS event coverage is up a lot sooner than the day before the next event, but with May through June being a particularly busy time here in Toronto it’s been a bit of a shuffle getting all the coverage up.
Drake Nolte is back again contributing to the CSCS coverage for the 2015 season and for round one he took in the entire CSCS weekend experience by staying the night at the venue.
As soon as the sun rose and engines began to fire he and the CSCS time attack field eagerly awaited their chance to hit the track for some of the first 2015 racing action.
The Driver Development Track at this venue is a favorite of many so the time attack roster was pretty full with many drivers looking to start the 2015 season out on the right foot.
The drift course run at this venue is a particularly challenging one being held on a banked corner and it gave the slightly smaller than usual drift field a run for their money.
Once the tire smoke settled it was Nelson Montiero who wound up on top of the podium and sitting first place in the standings leading into tomorrow’s round two event.
The show and shine field this year was treated to a few out-of-town residents who stuck around from the Fitted Event the day before to see what all the CSCS hype was about.
In addition to the crews from Ottawa and Quebec there was a large showing of Southern Ontario locals in attendance who were debuting their 2015 looks.
The weather is looking great for tomorrow’s event so hopefully I’ll see you all out at Toronto Motorsports Park Cayuga bright and early tomorrow!
Doing my rounds this week looking for something to post today I found myself on The Amazo Effect (which I have not visited in a while) and stumbled across this peculiar looking hot rod of sorts.
I couldn’t tell what it was at first glance, and the reason for that is because the starting point for this car is a Ford Anglia 105e, one of several cool UK only Fords that never made their way over here.
This car of course looks nothing like it did when it left the factory care of a chop and channeling job.
Other unique exterior features include the trick location for the turn signals, Cadillac lights, and an exhaust that exits right behind the rear wheel.
The interior is a hearty dose of customization as well and the olive drab color from the exterior flows inside complimented by splashes of gold/brass and raw metal seats.
The twine wrapped wheel is a nice cherry on top, as it were.
The chassis looks to be custom crafted from at least the firewall forward, and in front of that firewall is a BMW M42 engine. Why a BMW motor? I guess the answer here is why not.
More photos of this outstanding car can be found over at The Amazo Effect
Ah Vanfest, perhaps the only show I’ve been unable to attend a remarkable five years in a row. My lack of attendance has not been for lack of trying however, every year previous to this one Vanfest has fallen on the same weekend as a bachelor party, wedding, funeral, or some sort of other fixed previous obligation.
This year the show was scheduled for Father’s day weekend, so I used my father card to reserve one day of the weekend for my son Ash and I to check the show out.
Upon arrival I was not disappointed, greeting me at the entrance of the Springwater Conservation area was one of the highest street going single cab pick up trucks I have ever seen.
Following that was an almost overwhelming number of highly modified vans, vans done in a style I had only ever seen in extremely small doses, or read about online.
Though the Saturday is considered show day, and I’m sure judges were milling about somewhere, the vibe was more on par with a weekend long party than anything else. Everywhere I looked all I saw were people having good time in the general proximity of heavily customized vans and trucks.
Now vans might not be everyone’s cup of tea but if you want to take lifestyle Vanners really do live their passion. Many of these individuals have been into vans for twenty to thirty some odd years, and have been going to the same shows with the same people for almost that entire period of time.
The van community is tight-knit to say the least and boy are they dedicated to their niche.
Few things characterize a true custom van more than a wild mural and if I were to hazard a guess I would the hours invested in some of these paint jobs triples that invested in some of the entire builds I’ve seen at other shows.
The murals run the gamut of topics and influences, but most appeared to be in the realm of fantasy or paranormal.
The work on the Time Traveler for example immediately made me think of a character that would be in The Never Ending Story.
These two murals were probably examples of two owners very different ideas of the perfect weekend; an island oasis and a cruise above the clouds.
Can’t imagine what it’s like to drive around with a mural depicting illegal activity on the side of your van though…
Very few of these murals were modern pieces either, but they still miraculously stood up to the hands of father time.
The Black Rose was originally built and painted in the early ’80s, but subject matter aside it looked like the paint could have been done a week ago.
I’m told this ’75 Dodge dubbed The Glass Eagle is one of the top show vans in the area and I don’t doubt that for a second. The doors opened all sorts of different directions, the body was largely custom and extensive air brush work ran all over the entire car.
There was even an etched rear window and a fitting glass case for the very detailed motor.
With their awkward engine bays I wouldn’t fault a lot of Vanners for leaving well enough alone under the hood, but several of these owners devoted some serious time to the motors.
The van above (dubbed the Outlaw II) was supercharged and could be seen running the strip on the Friday. Additionally I’ve come to learn that it also has two transmissions, not exactly sure how or why but I’d really like to find out.
While there were tons of Vans modified to levels far and beyond any Van I had ever seen, one that kept luring me back repeatedly was Rose Royce.
A more recent build, it reminded me a bit of the Astros I saw in high school filled with audio, the difference was while those may have had C4 tail lights they certainly didn’t have BMW headlights.
Inside, this van was a tribute to percussionists everywhere, and if you look really close at the photos you will notice that there are snare drums hanging from the roof in addition to the sticks worked into the HVAC and steering column controls.
I’m not sure if the Ford Econoline above was an actual Nebraska Ambulance at one point in its life, but if it wasn’t the owner sure did their due diligence ensuring that it looked the part.
Like the El Camino splits the difference between car and truck the Dodge A-100 does the same between truck and van.
This one also look’s like it splits the difference between street and strip, judging by the motor and wheel/tire set-up.
After being a good sport about looking at vans Ash decided he had spent long enough in the stroller and demanded out.
As soon as his feet hit ground he made way towards the part of the show where there was a higher ratio of truck to van, than van to truck.
I was pretty familiar with many of the trucks but there were a few I had never seen before, one of those was the Smallwood Custom paint Ford F-100.
The clear coated patina’d body looked amazing over the low offset Astro Supremes and under the louvered hood there’s an LS motor that’s just about ready to fire up.
The ’60s C10 below was another truck I’d never seen before, and I’m told Vanfest 2015 was the first show it has ever been to.
Working my way back into familiar territory I had to take a couple snaps of Rob’s International because no matter how many times I see it it’s simply impossible to get tired of this truck.
And of course I had to indulge my inner s-10/Sonoma/Blazer/Jimmy fanboy with a few pictures of the s10s in attendance, heck I even caught Jeff moving a few rocks around with his rear bumper.
One the classic side of things this ’49 Chevy 5-window was so well detailed that I actually forgot to take any photos of the entire thing.
This doesn’t happen often but I’m sure you’ll agree the details were totally worth taking in.
The Nissan 720 that came from Mississippi for Northern Showdown was back again and looking as polished as ever.
This truck is seriously awesome and no doubt something that the guys over at The Coalition of OG MiniTruckin would appreciate.
Speaking of OG’s, Geoff brought out his bagged, tilt bed, t-topped Mazda and parked it beside a female owned Toyota.
And speaking of Jeff’s, when not doing absolutely epic burnouts Jeff used his truck to transport people to and fro.
As Ash continued to snake his way through the trucks I tried my best to snap as many photos as possible, but keeping a small child from wandering off into the wilderness while taking photos is a little challenging so I missed a few of the vehicles in attendance.
One  I made sure not to miss however was Mike Livia’s 36 Ford I previously spotted at Motorama. As detailed and glossy as this Flathead powered Ford truck is I actually didn’t imagine I’d ever see it in a setting like this.
I’m told it also ran the drag strip Friday which means sometime in the near future I am going to have to move mountains and make a proper weekend of everything that is Vanfest because clearly I still managed to miss out!
The theme I didn’t expect to make it past round one, lives on into a fourth rendition. Some of you might say this theme is getting a little long in the tooth (hyuk hyuk) but cars with mouths and teeth seem to pass through my various social media timelines at least once a week.
I wonder how many examples there are around the globe, and if you can just hop on eBay and buy a universal fit set of teeth and eyes?
A few months (or maybe a year ago)Â GrinderTV posted a shot of a very interesting, very low, Suzuki Samurai.
After sharing the photo on the Stance Is Everything Facebook page I regretfully completely forgot about the truck (automotive ADD strikes again).
However about a week or so ago Jason Langley, aka Jason Bacon, aka Bacon media, shared a link to a feature on that very same Samurai.
At first glance things like the Cummins 4bt motor swap (the second Cummins motor to appear in a WTF Friday post this month), Â the body drop and vette wheels, immediately draw your attention but something I managed to completely miss the first time I saw the truck was that it has grown in size.
It’s now 5″ longer and a whopping 17″ wider than it left the factory.
Inside the dash is curiously made up of 1″ Cedar planks and what look to be home renovation surplus materials.
The truck is bagged, obviously, but it uses a (40-cubic-foot) reserve nitrogen tank that feeds a converted fire extinguisher tank. The system is entirely manual so it can be operated without the truck running.
Oh and just because he was familiar with right hand drive from his previous Skyline experience the builder converted the truck to RHD.
A full feature on this truck can be found here on trucktrend.com.
Meets here in Toronto (and the surrounding area) have been in a bit of a troubled state lately. Increasingly immature behaviour has led to local police departments breaking up any sort of gathering in short order.
Not discouraged by recent events 519 Meets has committed to organizing several respectful, well run, casual meets free of debauchery and chaos.
As the name suggests their first meet of 2015 was held in Kitchener last Sunday, and I’m told that in total over 500 cars were in attendance with tomfoolery kept at a minimum.
Gray Schilling of Still Steezy was there to snap a few photos, and once again has kindly contributed them to the site.
The next 519 meet takes place Sunday July 12th at the Sunrise Shopping Centre in Kitchener from 7pm to 9pm.
