French Canadian VDO Gabe sent me a link earlier this week stating that he found this week’s WTF Friday subject and when I clicked through I had to agree he did find this weeks subject.
However something about it looked very familiar.
A Chevrolet like the one above you don’t easily forget (even after four years) and after a bit of rummaging through the crates I was able to dig up some photos I took of this Avalanche prior to it’s current look.
When you’ve already customized a vehicle to the point where it’s essentially unrecognisable I guess the only thing left to do is add another set of wheels and a new coat of paint.
I will say whoever does the body work on this car is talented, misguided perhaps, but talented
Since I spotted it it has also received a rear end reminiscent of Megatron from Beast Machines. It has also got a new rear end and inside it’s full of audio, switches, lights, and trophies.
If there’s one universal truth that has emerged from my personal experience attending countless automotive events it is that truck shows have never once let me down.
A lot of the childish nonsense, trophy hunting, elitism, and other miscellaneous drama that plagues other scenes seems to be completely absent at these events which vehicles aside makes the vibe pretty awesome.
From a vehicular standpoint truck guys typically welcome anything low so the diversity is unmatched, and since the majority of the field is built not bought they are a great place to take in some great, creative, fabrication.
The organizers of Northern Showdown first alerted me to the show back in July at Eurokracy and having already missed Vanfest and been tied up for The Cruise to the Quarry I knew I had to do my best to keep this weekend open if I wanted to get my fill of low trucks for the year. As always there were a few competing interests for this date but Gabe from French Canadian VDO was insistent that I make out it.
The French videographer proved wise indeed because had I missed this show I would have regretted it.
Fabrication, Creativity, Originality
The amount of raw talent within the truck scene never ceases to amaze me. As someone who hopes to build something that requires some fabrication one day it’s really encouraging to see what people are able to do in their own garage alongside shop builds.
Awards should never be the reason to attend an event, but it is always nice when a show goes the extra mile to gather up some nice onesThe interior award at Northern Showdown was perhaps one of the coolest trophies I had ever seenMatt Moran (builder of this frame among other things) did a wicked job on the best suspension trophyKind of regret not taking a second look at the rear of this s10, looks like there’s an IRS back there
I actually think this might have been the first time I’ve seen Chris Grantham’s ‘Dool-Eh’ in person, should be pretty crazy once it is done
I’m not a PBR drinker myself but the owner of this truck clearly is, the PBR Severed Ties sticker is a nice touch that I actually didn’t notice until I was at home editing the photos
This Ranger GT (which might be the last surviving one locally) was awesome, killer suspension set-up and a really cool dash swap
Got so wrapped up in the details of this Colorado I forgot to take a picture of the exterior! Thankfully I’ve got one here for those of you who may not have seen itOne of the craziest vehicles at the show was this bagged and bodied H3Recently finished by 519 Kustomz this truck is pretty outstanding. Full interior, heat, and work AC as well
Domestic Trucks
These two trucks have been in the scene forever, good on both owners for keeping them up all these yearsI used to draw tons of paint jobs like this in high school, now they are a pretty rare sightOf course if something more simple is what tickles your fancy it’s hard to dislike this satin black ChevyThe paint accents on this s10 are so subtle yet effective, probably why I like them so muchJeff brought his GMC out to the show and parked it among friends@alvanzeben’s F150 laid out with Second GlanceThe complete Second Glance lineupTodd’s Silverado just went away for the 2014 seasonBeing a unibody truck the frame for this was built completely from the underside… my arms ache thinking about it
Import Trucks
Though I would have absolutely no problems looking at Chevy and Ford trucks all day it’s always cool to see some import trucks at an event like this.
Equally opportunity low.
Try as I might I wasn’t able to identify those 1″ BMX forks, perhaps before my timeMitsu and Mazda stare down at the front of the venueThis Nissan 720 was incredible. Awesome color combination and super clean. All the way from Mississippi tooThis Mazda has once again changed hands, for a truck that’s had a variety of owners it is still in great shape
Picture perfect Isuzu that’s part of Relaxed Atmosphere
Classics
With classics ranging from patina’d to painted Northern Showdown had a little bit for everyone.
Air Assisted’s trusty Ford did the Markham to Kitchener haulBeside it was this Impala living up to its custom plateThis was LOUD
I think I might have figured out what shell to put on my nitro car…
I’m in love with this Impala now that it is one wires, the hubs and whites looked good but these looks perfect
Caught up with the Ford Monterey from Reunited again, another great looking carPosted about this truck last year and I finally got to see it in person. Didn’t let me down great build on a unique chassisI’ve become quite fond of ’57s and Mike’s was stunningIt’s actually up for sale right now so he can move on to the next projectThis ’53 Ford Panel took home best of showThis build is 10 years old and goes to show that if you do it right once you never have to do it again
Limbo
The Nine O Five Rides limbo pole has seen a lot of use this year!
Chris Grantham’s ‘Wedding Crasher’ had no problems making it through a few roundsThis Mazda looks to be about tucking lug up frontThis Accord coupe was incredibly clean, super quick air set-up tooNever seen a motorcycle go under a limbo bar before, first time for everything it would seemThrowback to the days when Supra tails made their way onto everything
Now With More Doors
Finally got to check out this International in person since it has become an extended cab, I’ve seen it on the highway going the opposite direction once or twice but not parked since Scrape By The Lake five years ago.
This truck just looks too damn good on the ground
If this was yours what would you tow with it?
There’s more of coverage from this show up on Speedhunters.com in-case you missed it!
My first response to this photo was ‘why so extreme?’, and the second was that I’ve been neglecting a category that is the complete opposite of shock value fitment for far too long.
Today I breathe life back into the Fat And Flush category, and give props to those who made little to no compromises in regards to wheel fitment, tire fitment, and wheel gap. The three pillars of modern day stance.
People are often up in arms about ‘ruined’ Subarus but there are still plenty of functionally fitted ones out thereStock body is of course no obstacleLove how close everything is on this carMight be the fifth or sixth time I’ve posted this car, I love itS2000 owners are of course not going to let themselves be left out of the fitment partyThe rear is a little hard to make out in this photo but judging by the front I’d say there’s a lot of tire back thereVolk CE-28n wheels look great with man sized rubberFunctional Fitment looks great with functional aero
These two e46s could almost be the same car…I could not for a second leave this Camaro out. One of my favorite ever built.Brian Hobaugh’s Corvette runs an astonishing 305/30/R18 all aroundLove this photo of a tidy little Miata getting put to good useFitment up front is certainly pushing the realms of what is possibleGreat looking car and great looking shot by Visual Echos Close things out with this FC that is so awesome that I only just now noticed there’s another hiding in this photo
Got cars I should include in part 2 of this post? Let me know in the comments below!
While at the same show I spotted these two lead sleds this rodded Ford sedan rolled up with a young chap behind the wheel and a middle aged man riding shot gun.
Once parked it became pretty apparent that the duo were father and son, and that it was one of the first times the dad had let his son drive to a show.
When the duo got out of the car a few of the other show-goers gave the boy some light hearted ribbing for being scared to open the car up en route.
Had I known the kid any at all I might have teased him as well because if I had a few minutes behind the wheel of this I’d be hard-pressed not to leave some black strips in my wake.
Happy Thanksigivng to all the fellow Canadian’s reading today!
I spend a lot of time looking at s10s. In fact I probably spend way more time looking at s10s than someone who doesn’t own one should, and in my time spent looking at the well traveled pick up I’ve noticed that people do a lot of… questionable things to them.
Among one of the things people seem to keep trying to do,with limited success, is make them into some sort of bastardized hot rod.
From what I’ve seen it doesn’t seem to ever really work as displayed here by these two builders who, despite trying very hard, seemed to have missed the mark on creating the ever elusive s10 hot rod.
Hard to say who wore it better but I will say that I prefer the wheel and tire setup on the first one.
Speedhunters gave me the opportunity to write another guest blog for their site and this time I decided to devote it to Northern Showdown, a truck focused show that recently took place in Kitchener Ontario.
The truck community doesn’t get a whole lot of exposure outside of the truck community so I went out on a limb a little bit when I pitched it, and thankfully with a little help from a minitrucker on the inside the post was moved along to the front page.
I was expecting to have to defend the post quite a bit in the comment section, but to my surprise the Speedhunters audience actually seems to quite enjoy the content. My goal was to really highlight the fabrication side of things and I’m really glad that message came through loud and clear giving people a chance to appreciate the hard work even if it wasn’t their style.
Those of you who are long term readers know that the Roadmates Corn Roast is an event I attend every year because of its close proximity to my house, laid back nature, awesome collection of classic cars, and amazing hot dogs.
This year the ‘roast seemed a little bit smaller than the ones preceding it but regardless of size any day with hot rods is better than a day without.
This car seems to perpetually be for sale, looks like it would be a fun ride to pick up so I wonder what is keeping it from selling…I wouldn’t have thought a sign like this necessary but apparently small children love to grab exposed headers…Excellent plate choice!This truck had quite a bit of modernization done to it, like the projectors and HID headlights. Not sure how I feel about it being updated so much but the owner did a great job doing itThis plus some Astro Supremes would be incredibleThe owner of this truck should sell it to me…
The talent of pinstripers never ceases to amaze me
This car is always at this event, to many when you mention Hot Rod this is exactly what they picture
Love the color of this…
Never seen this at any of the other Roadmates events, it was pretty cool and reminded me that I desperately need to go to the nostalgic drags one of these daysInteresting ’33, I believe it was an FG body but I’m not sure
I’m told the car just got out on the road this summer after the owner spared no expense building itDon’t come across the Heidts IRS rear ends too oftenThis angle really shows just how aggressive the chop is, interesting build all around
It’s funny how often one random instagram image leads to a full blown post here on the site. The first image in today’s Theme Tuesday came into my feed last week and part 3 of the ever popular dually Theme Tuesday was on a roll from there.
When I’m cruising forums for these photos it never ceases to amaze me how many people will say something along the lines of; “I don’t usually like lowered trucks but I love bagged duallys”.
Might as well keep the under construction thing going a little bit… wonder if this was ever completed and if the off road rubber was retained
Reg cab duallys are pretty neat looking, almost makes you double takeHowever if I was going to build one it would have to be a crew cab, so much more room for activitiesCheck out the truck top left of this photo too..Lil teaser of the upcoming Northern Showdown coverage feautring Chris Grantham’s Dual-ehBig local truck from Reunited about a month agoPretty sure I saw this at SEMALooks like I did!Another from SEMA the same year, crew cab proving useful…and one from last year, aiming to be back at SEMA personally this yearThis dually was crushing the streets of Ocean City for H2OiSic also had this out in Ocean cityAnother regular cab, kinda of looks like Ice T’s wife
Great front end conversion on this truck.I am obviously 100% for more of thisThis truck so hot they needed a fire truck on stand byI’m not really a big Dodge guy, but I am a big fan of this DodgeSevered Ties seems to have an endless supply of awesome buildsBit of a throw back paint job but I like it quite a bitEverything about this is great… if anyone can point me in the direction of more classic duallys I would be appreciative
Roughly one week after my car met the scrapper SYLVANIA Canada asked if I would be interested in putting two products from their current catalogue through their paces.
Since my new car isn’t quite ready to be presented here (read: stock) I offered up the Stance Is Everything support vehicle — aka my wife’s 2012 Kia Soul– as the test mule.
The two products arrived about a month ago and just this past weekend I had the opportunity to put them in and see what they were all about.
ZEVO™ Interior Lighting Strips
The ZEVO™ interior strip kit is advertised as an easy way to transform your factory interior into an exciting light show using their RGB mixing technology.
Generally interior accent lighting isn’t high up on my modification priority list but since Lyndsey’s car already came with factory glowing speaker rings I figured the ZEVO™ kit wouldn’t look out of place, and my son will probably get a kick out of it when he’s a little bit older.
The kit itself is packaged nicely in a long triangular cardboard box and comes with a little test unit that allows for a quick demo of the product. The test unit with 18v power source and momentary switch is also a nice to have thing in your tool box once you take the product out. .
Spread out on your work surface you are left with a 12v adapter, two 3″ cables, one 2 way splitter and of course the 2 -12″ LED strips.
Installation using the 12v adapter is incredibly simple but since this is a support vehicle and we use both of the front 12V sockets regularly I chose to hard wire it in to a switched source. Not a particularly difficult task if you’ve done any sort of minor electrical work to your car, and since the unit itself handles on off you don’t have to worry about relays or anything of the sort.
The strips install via affixed 3M tape so the hardest part was finding somewhere they would stick to without being seen. The idea here is a glow and not to see the individual bulbs so it took a little bit of masking tape trial and error to find the right spot. In hindsight the passenger side could have been adjusted a little bit more to provide lighting closer to that of the drivers and I will probably do that at a later date.
Installed the lights do good job of being hidden while providing literally a rainbow of color that matches both Lyndsey’s interior lights, and her ever changing (factory) light up speaker rings.
My only gripe with the kit would be the fact that the remote needs a line of sight to activate which means the receiver node is somewhat visible in Lyndsey’s car. This could probably be fixed creatively with a small drill bit in an inconspicuous area but my wife forebode any permanent modification.
If you’re looking to add some foot well lighting to your car these are a can’t miss simple option.
zXe SilverStar headlights
The second SYLVANIA product to make it’s away into Lyndesy’s car was the zXe Silverstar headlights. Halogen headlights that mimic the light output of HIDs have been around for quite some time but these bulbs from Sylvania actually do a good job of comparing to HID lights without appearing “ricer blue”.
Being a straight swap for your factory bulbs getting these out of package without sending bits of plastic all over your garage will probably take longer than installing the lights themselves, and the difference in light output is immediately evident.
SYLVANIA Silverstar zXE (L) vs Factory (R)SYLVANIA Silverstar zXE (L) vs Factory (R)SYLVANIA Silverstar zXE (L) vs Factory (R)
The factory bulbs in Lyndsey’s car were a much more yellow hue (especially when viewed from the interior) and the Silverstar zXe’s are more a pure white.
Both SYLVANIA Silverstar zXE bulbs installed
Since the bulbs I removed were SYLVANIA’s I have no worry these ones will last awhile (something previous HID like bulbs didn’t do) and I might actually pick up a set of these for my new cars day time running lights as I much prefer this look to the yellow fog I currently have.
Interested in winning a set of Zevo Interior Strips or zXe SilverStar headlights? Check out the fan page for a quick contest available to everyone all over Canada!
The products are also available at Canadian Tire and PartSource locations across Canada.
Got a message from Matt Blackhurst that read I think you might appreciate a Golf bodied, Beetle panned, Ford ignitioned, Mazda rotary powered, Morris Minor wheeled, Triumph Dolomite seat framed car and instantly I was intrigued.
Being a very peculiar mix of several different cars and components I somewhat expected a haphazard mash-up, but what I found therein was quite the opposite. The Beetle pan underneath a water-cooled shell has been done a before but never quite like this.
According to Slam Sanctuary, where these photos originate, the running Mk1 was taken off the road last year for an engine swap.
After lengthy discussions, and no doubt some fire-water, a Mazda 13b rotary engine was chosen to be the new driving force of the car.
A rotary motor, with 210hp, in a car that weighs likely not a lot sounds like a hell of a time but doesn’t really put itself together so a lot of custom work has been necessary.
The motor is backed by a 4 speed pyramid bus transmission with a swapped in diff to prevent the drive line from grenading. There’s also a few other CV joint tricks throw into the mix to get everything to work out at the height the car sits at.
It’s also probably worth noting that the motor is a little big so a lot of the rear panel had to be sacrificed to get it to fit.
Then cooling considerations had to be considered as well as further modifications for the ride height. Really you should just head over to Slam Sanctuary and check out the build in it’s entirety. It’s truly crazy and remarkable.
