This might be another one of those WTF Friday posts where I take a late pass, but this ‘Semi-Nova’ is new to me so perhaps it’s new to you as well.
Cummins motors have been finding their way into a more and more cars these days but they usually don’t take the rest of the dually/semi truck traits with them.
The owner of this ’70 Nova Super Sport however decided to go whole hog when he swapped in the Cummins 4BT diesel.
Air horns, 8 lug wheels and the 14 bolt rear end, all came to join the fun with the 4 cylinder diesel motor, heck there’s even a fake trailer hook up.
It was for sale at $75,000 over a year ago and $35,000 recently, but I’m willing to bet this is one of those projects the owner is going to be ‘stuck’ with the rest of his life.
I could do without a few things myself (the visor and the vinyl roof most notably) but it’s pretty gnarly looking over all.
Here’s a walk around video as well as a driving one. The 4BT isn’t the most potent thing in the world so it doesn’t really light the world on fire, but still a unique build none the less.
If you know where I got the title for this post you’re awesome.
Going to try something a bit different this week, instead of posting photos I’m going to toss up a few videos that I’ve recently watched on YouTube, Vimeo and Facebook.
Some local, some not, some short, some long, basically an assortment of random that best describes my automotive video watching habits.
If you dig this let me know in the comments and I’ll try my best to make it a monthly feature!
I had a completely different WTF Friday written for today. Tagged, edited, ready to go as of last night. Then this franken car appeared in my timeline and that other post got pushed to another date because this, well this is crazy.
Seeing a first generation Eclipse/Talons in general seem to be exceedingly rare these days, but a first gen Talon with a 355 small block under hood? Rarer than rare. One of one in fact.
From the looks of it builder Kyle Swanson tube framed the car from at least the sub frame forward to make everything work. He’s also clearly got a sense of humour with the Audi grill thrown in front of the radThe headlights look like Volkswagen units (MK4 Golf maybe?) and I can’t place the front bumperThe fact that the motor is for sale makes me wonder, something more potent going in or is this car destined for the scrap heap?
It’s got that classic muscle car rake, which combined with the sound probably leaves a few people scratching their heads as it rolls byand if you were curious about whether or not it was plated, the answer is yes.
For 2015 I’m proud to announce that Stance Is Everything and 3D Products Canada have partnered up, and in addition to product give-a-ways on both of our social channels I will be putting a few of their products and services to use on my personal car.
The test subjects for the HD line of products were my newly acquired Mtechnica Directional wheels. Having not been driven much by the previous owner the wheels were in fairly good shape when they arrived at my door, but they were a bit dirty.
Not filthy mind you, but certainly in need of a little TLC.
Test fits, moving them in and out of boxes, and fixing rash on three of four further necessitated the need for a through cleaning and proper polish so May 2-4 long weekend I stole a bit of time to give these wheels the attention they deserved.
In the past the products I used to keep my Equips nice and shiny were Griot’s Garage Wheel Cleaner and Optimum Metal Polish. Having always had great results with that combination I was curious to see if the 3D Products line stack up favourably.
First things first was a good wash using the HD wash.
Before pictured top, after pictured bottom
Many years ago I had a cheap wheel cleaner oxidize my unpolished lips so ever since I’ve always been a bit wary of what I use on my wheels. In this regard I was glad to see that the HD wash wasn’t caustic and didn’t do any damage to my un-treated or coated polished lips.
It is safe enough for painted, unpainted and polished surfaces while being effective enough to remove light dirt from the faces and tough grime from the barrels.
Had these wheels not had embedded water stains I probably could have run them straight after a through cleaning.
After drying the wheels (and grabbing a cold beverage) it was time to get to work on the elbow grease portion of things, the polishing. The HD Multi Metal Cleaner and Polish is a cream polish which means it is a little more user friend and forgiving than the paste type (Mother’s and Autosol for example.).
Compared to my previous polish of choice the HD Polish worked great after my first initial pass and I was able to do everything completely by hand.
Since I really like a high polish, and it would be awhile before the wheels were off again to get a through polish I repeated the process three times per lip just for that extra bit of shine.
Note: I did have to go back on each wheel and give the area around the bolts some extra attentionBefore above, after bottom
Once I was happy I hit the wheels with a double coat of wax to help keep the elements at bay, applied 3D Products HD dress to the tires and slapped them on the car where, to toot my horn a bit, I must say they looked great.
But don’t just take my word for it, here are a few photos from other media houses.
In 2013 I did the first f20 swap Theme Tuesday, and since f20 engines have continued to show up in the darndest places I figured it was time for a follow-up.
I reckon sooner rather than later I will need to do a follow-up for this follow-up.
Start things off with this F20 swapped EG with a huge Velocity stackThis car was included in the part 1 of this series but since it’s no longer a show car I’m including it againF20 Cateram from CSCS last year shot by DrakeJP’s F20 powered 510
In actionDug this up from an old Jalopnik postDon’t think I’ve ever seen an 1800es in personFrom deep in the Speedhunters archives
Turbo f20 C Class? Because JapanInterestingly enough I’ve posted this Mazda B2200 beforeI had no idea this was under the hood though…Didn’t include Heist’s 2002 in part one, not making that mistake againIf the car isn’t familiar to you this is what it looks like on the outsideSoon to be boosted…Flawless te27 Corolla
Hope none of you mind but today we will be foregoing WTF Friday to round out the 2015 Fitted Toronto event coverage.
Today’s post picks up back outside before moving inwards to the two show halls. I’ve also taken a closer look at a few specific vehicles near the end.
Another quick look at the MKIII Golf from part oneKind of regret not looking at this car myself, while it’s certainly on the ‘raw’ side of things it looks like there’s been a lot of time spent on the buildThis car flipped from green to red for 2015, looks like the arches were cleaned up in the process tooFinally got a chance to check out Bryan’s featured FR-S and meet him, nice guy, great looking car
Like the GTI from yesterday’s post this Next Level Car had a complete makeover for 2015Including a great looking diamond stitched red leather interiorNo matter the platform Dan has his fitment nailedFellow Level One member Derek got the wheel matching memoNice to see more 3 and speed3s at these events, didn’t get a chance to talk to this owner unfortunately but it looks greatRyan continues his mission to make his car one with the groundThis makes me wish I had some what more seriously considered Foresters when looking for a new carStep Lip RS wheels were the order of the dayIf I’m not mistaken this is a memorial to someone who passed, and if so it’s nicely done oneEven as someone who will never swing a club outside of mini putt I thought this was very well doneManolo’s cruiser looking as good as everI wouldn’t be upset if the RSO5RR became the new RPF-1…Nice to see a pristine set of BBS RF-1 wheels at Fitted, these wheels don’t appear all that often but are one of my favourites from the BBS line upFor the first time in a long time Aidan’s IS300 is out for the whole season.My son Ash was a fan of Uncle Aidan’s car, though I think he was trying to lower it more hereLow Level from Quebec rolled super hard this year
You’d never think that this style is banned in Quebec the way they drove inConsidering how close to the wire the builder (@douchebagged) cut things this Miata looked really good
The GV style light surrounds and luggage rack are a nice touchPaul Wong’s Z with that fender to lip fitmentMinimoto lab debuted fitted organizer David Soo’s long-term Rukus projectThis Hot Lap exhaust is available exclusively through mini moto labJay from Stance Factory is a fitted veteran and always has unique wheels, like these Shelby Series onesIntuned Online’s Rocket Bunny FR-S
Street sorcery from Nextmod
Purple Stuff
From Montreal to Toronto it looks like dark purple s-chassis are the thing to have. Both of these were static and both immaculate.
Cimon Brouillette’s RPS13 was a winter long project completed for Fitted
Such a clean car all around, nothing too extreme, just rightThe evolution of Jon’s s14 from when I first saw it black and white has been impressive and this year he’s gone back to static
Through some sort of black magic his ride height static seems extremely close to his previous aired out height
Team Mazn’s Widebody EL
Team Mayzn member Francescos’s EL has always been a very clean, well-rounded build and I generally thought it was finished when I saw it last year at Importfest. For 2015 however he got his surgical tools out and cut into the body in order to do the metal work required to fit his new rollers.
The conversion from stock body to this was done in a little under 7 days at Co-Up Autobody. Truly impressive.
16×10 CCW D24 wheels sit on all four corners, the only set in Canada in fact
Stopping the flare where they did was a great choice as it really reveals how wide the wheels areThe camber is kept very minimal all around as well
Steve’s Widebody Acura TL
After a lengthy time under the knife Liberty VIP member Steve Luangpakdy’s Acura TL is mostly complete. Another all metal build this car was crafted by Ottawa Autobody around very aggressive Luxury Abstract wheels.
Steve said he plans on doing a little work up front to even out the front and rear camberThe trunk was done by Ultimate Autosports a short two days before the show
Elevated
After a few years of fairly subtle changes to his car Brian shocked everyone by revealing not only wider wheels but a super clean, turbo set-up. Unfortunately the near constant crowd around his car means no exterior shots but here’s a few good looks at his engine work.
Will at Auto Select Tuning played a big part in getting this car completeWhile Brian did a ton of the polish work himself
Best Of Show
The best of show winner for Fitted Toronto 2015 was this bagged, wrapped, hawk eye sitting on Water Cooled Industry wheels.
I assume the plate is a “broken rally car” reference
Not sure the specs of the wheels or camber but it is significant
In Search Of The Lowly Grail
The Scraped Crusaders had two unique builds in their area for 2015, Danny’s 1.8t e30 and Steve’s new competition drift car.
Availability and relatively low-cost has made the 1.8t a fairly popular e30 swap the past few years and this is one of the cleanest examples of said swap I have seenSteve has been running on a steady stream of Coors beer to get this car ready for Formula Drift Canada competitionMitchys Speedshop did a great job on the cage and gnarly door barsCosmis, BC Racing and Falken hopped on board for support as wellSteve should be releasing those side skirts for sale soon under 999 Tech
The Elephants In The Room
Going to close the 2015 Fitted Toronto coverage out with these two cars that actually had their plates pulled by Johnny Law for excessive camber minutes before entering the show.
There’s a bit of controversy swirling around the whole ordeal regarding whether or not the cops had the jurisdiction necessary to pull their plates on private property, but I think at the end of the day the age-old adage ‘sucks to roll hard’ applies here.
Hopefully their day in court works favourably for both of them. Their cars were certainly talking points for several days following the show.
I know the car on the right is at -15 degrees of camber, and I think the one at the left might have more than that…I was actually shown progress photos of this car last year. There’s a lot of metal work in those quarters
Spring rates are a whopping 60k in the rear in an attempt to not smash everything to smithereensCan’t stop the camber gang
The next Fitted Lifestyle event is July 11th at Rockliffe airport in Ottawa and following that they return to Ontario for a show at Ontario Place August 15th. More info can be found at fittedlifestyle.com
Year after year Fitted Lifestyle continues to better their events and for myself along with many others it serves as the offical season opener.
The quality inside the venue yields quality outside, and of all the events I attend Fitted is top 3 when it comes to interesting cars in the parking lot. That’s why this year, like every year previous, that is exactly where the coverage is going to begin.
Would you believe this roll in of Mazdas was a complete coincidence?Looking through Drake’s photos at a glance this s13 on style 5s almost looked like a BMW 8 series. Props to the owner for keeping this car super clean and understated. Looks like their might be a hint of purple in the paint tooThere’s always an interesting domestic car or two in the Fitted Parking lotSpeak of Foxbodies and they shall appear!Tony’s Blazer with its almost impossibly clean factory paint….From the looks of things this car could have definitely made the cut to be parked insideI’ve seen this LS hovering around Mississauga, super clean carI actually can’t remember the last time I saw an e21 at an event period, never mind one is as great of shape as this
Awesome looking Harley Davidson Forty EightDrake was pretty partial to this s13
Even with dust swirling like crazy the owner of this dub saw no reason to put his hood on or wind up his windowsIncredibly clean EF rocking one heck of a stinger
Just recently I had heard mention of this car but I’d never seen it in personI missed it first hand at this event but Drake got to snap a few of itNot for the faint of heart by any means……but it’s probably the most individualised car of the entire showIt is actually probably pretty close to being an art car at this pointLuke didn’t enter this year and instead laid out in the grassAs always he also brought a few friends with himIncluding these two magnificent Datsuns!
Drake took a few photos of this one on SSR MKIIs…
…while I spent so much time circling this one on CR01s that I am surprised there isn’t a visible ring in the grass in this photo
Moving Indoors…
Of course the main attraction of Fitted has always been inside the two halls and this year there was a lot to see.
Many old favourites were back and completely redone in addition to a handful of first time shown vehicles.
@hemans4 is 100% committed to static lifeI on the other hand, remain on the dark side and have transferred my air ride to the new dailyThere’s still a few things I want to do before I make a dedicated post about it but I really happy to finally have these Mtechnica wheels on the carFor those wondering yes I can still drive the car hard enough to enjoy the turbo!Dan’s NSX is a thing of the past, but he’s done real well with his 987A couple of the boys from Stance East made the trek from New Brunswick, farthest travelled award next year?Several Quebec natives escaped their stringent laws this weekend by coming out to OntarioCan’t say I’ve seen a lot of VIP styled Volkswagens but the owner of this car nailed the executionThis interior has more wood grain, rich leather, and high priced alcohol than my house!
Love the trunk set up, lots of thought was put into tying this entire car together
Also from ‘So Clean’ was this Golf which had one of those interesting 1/4 hoods you only ever see among the Volkswagen communityBut it would be a shame to hide this shaved bay under a full hoodQuebec loves their hard liquorMaybe it’s time I picked up a Cozy Coupe for my sonLast year this car was white, stock body, and sitting on BBS replicas
All of that is gone now that it is white and rocking Watercooled Industries wheelsWhen I first came up on Petey’s EF I just about had a heart attack thinking he got rid of his gorgeous SSR Defifin wheels
I breathed a sigh of relief when I noticed he still had them on the driver’s side. This side is my favourite but what’s yours?Not content with just a wheel switch he was also sporting individual throttle bodies under the hood, which are new since his feature here on Stance Is EverythingGoing to finish today’s coverage out with Alex Lachance’s (@black_anvil_garage) incredible WRX wagon that was the subject of a post in September of 2014Modified Karlton flares……a Chargespeed front bumper……and STI front fenders, rear quarters, and doors make this one SERIOUSLY awesome wagon. Nice guy to boot.
Drake and myself will have more coverage to look at tomorrow so do come back, there is lots more to share!
Sure most of the stuff here isn’t low, and isn’t new, but trust me there will be a lot of that coming when the Fitted Lifestyle Coverage starts tomorrow evening.
Until then enjoy some very skewed power to weight ratios!
This tracker was more or less the inspiration for this post. ‘Never Enough’ indeedSomewhere among all this chaos there seems to be a bag set up too
The ‘Bad Seed’ is one of the first, big motor/small car examples I was ever exposed to 15 years ago…Firewall and most of the floor optionalI actually did a Morris Minor Theme Tuesday in 2011 that was a lot of builds like thisThis z600 comes from a 2013 WTF Friday postReally wish it were possible to here and see this car move1500+ HP ethanol sipping AMC Gremlin from Megaspeed a few years backThat’s a Little Field 10-71 Blower you are looking at
This Gremlin is part of a wheel stand contest, and I think it is winningA&D Performance’s VegaNarrow rear end is narrow
This big block smart car was quite the rage a few months backThe guts, for those of you wondering if any smart was really left under there
Now I know there is a very famous big block Civic, but I didn’t want to post that one so I found this one insteadLooks like it might be a weee bit of a handful
This might not be the smallest car, but the motor is quite massive and true to Aussie from the burnout is incredible.
Japan is a land where anything and everything is possible and has contributed to many a WTF Friday post. This week’s contribution from the land of the rising sun is a Toyota Chaser radically modified by Anything-Factory to look nothing like the way Toyota envisioned it.
The side profile of this car is pretty crazy, given the wide-body and almost Testarossa-ish super aggressive side louvers, but what really threw me for a loop was the front end.
Who, but I suppose the builder, would have figured the Charger front end would work on a JX100? I mean really, what a strange front end swap to consider and yet here, combined with the rest of the over the top modifications it doesn’t seem as far-fetched as it reads on paper.
My gut tells me the tail lights are also borrowed from a different vehicle and given the cars previous front end I’m leaning towards BMW.
Clearly owner (Shota Sato) ain’t scared of thinking way outside the box and dipping into the parts box of other manufacturers. The door jambs suggest this car will be green once again but I wouldn’t be surprised if it ended up pink or something crazy like that just because.
Rob Anzit (who you might remember owns this particularly low MGB-GT) started up a local series called Basic Builds.
His aim with this venture is to expose as many local Ontario builds as possible through photography and videography. So far he’s off to a great start choosing two vehicles that I’m already a big fan of, and since the season here is just getting started we should see quite a bit more on his channel in the months to come.
