This Courier ended up on my screen a couple months ago while gathering photos for a Theme Tuesday and quite honestly blew me away.
I’m not sure I have ever seen a Courier before (stock or otherwise) so happening across this was pretty rad, more rad is the fact that it is an Ontario build.
It’s always nice to stumble upon photos of an unfamiliar build from Ontario because it means that I’m no where near the end of amazing builds this province (or even just the GTA) has to offer.
Additionally the truck was shot by a local photographer who’s work is pretty awesome and worth checking out.
In the description of these photos Josh explains that the truck belongs his friend Dennis who built it at home in his garage and in 2012 Dennis drove the blue, blue oval from Ontario to Ohio to take home the “No Shine” award at Dropt & Destroyed in 2012.
Hopefully this truck is still around because I wouldn’t mind seeing it in person some day.
It’s been some time since a craigslist find was the focal point of a WTF Friday post so this week I’ve got one wicked creation from the mean streets of El Paso.
Like most other odd, black, vehicular creations listed Craigslist (or Kijiji for that matter) this vehicle is touted as a custom built ‘rat rod’ by it’s owner.
With no mention (or indicative signs) of the original chassis, what this started as is really anyone’s best guess but now it is a curiously styled ‘heavy-duty’ daily driver with at least 15,000 invested says the owner in the description below:
Completely custom built 2-seat hot rod. 38,000 miles. All street legal and has been used as a daily driver since 2006. Overbuilt and heavy-duty. Powered by a small-block 377 Chevy (destroked 400) and 700R4 transmission. Rear radiator. Three Optima batteries and two alternators. All-steel, all-welded construction is extremely rigid. Fun to drive. I have most receipts (at least $15,000 in this car) and a clear title.
As a bonus this beast comes with a second set of tires fit for roasting into the earth in a quiet stretch of road somewhere.
If you do go take a look could you figure out why on earth it needs three batteries and two alternators? Yes of all the weird aspects of this build that is the one I am going to dwell on.
Site Updates
There may or may not be a show at a strip club on Sunday. I’m not sure exactly and no one seems to be offering up any real information other than the questionable flyer below:
Same guys putting it on are behind the video below which honestly turned out the best it could all things considered.
Flashback Friday
I was recently reminded how awesome the blog Low-Tech which in turn reminded me of this awesome Nash:
Really can’t be happier with my first trip to H2O and I’m glad to have finally gone. Thanks to Blair and Kristina for guiding the way and Shayan for riding shotgun and preventing me from dozing off and ending up shiny side down in a ditch.
Going to round out the last of the coverage with a few photos from the Taphouse and a couple shots of cars that were running up and down the strip. Hopefully I’ll be saying to hello to Ocean City once more in 2014!
I could fit most of my phone under @framebanggang‘s rear tire, most camber I have seen on a 3 by farCan’t see anyone trying to fit wheels bigger than this on a 3 ever againThe Renn Werks LLC bus, super nice people
Still astonished by the number of clean MKI’s that made their way to Ocean CityIt’s really a shame what Ontario’s salt does to these cars… I’d love to see moreBoth the car and trailer in this picture are on bags, sadly I never saw it again the entire weekendUnique looking VW Thing rolling out of the Taphouse
The lone decent Audi picture I took from out quick pre dinner stop at the Audi get togetherFuturas are such great looking wheels…Can’t say that I have ever seen another Corvair truck in my lifeI really hope a feature of this car appears somewhere in the near futureGreat looking e30 mobbin on the stripCrazy fender pull on this 3Really liked this speed 3, though that center bumper piece kind of looks like a Charlie Chaplin moustacheIn my humble opinion this car looks absolutely awesomeNot going to lie I kind of wish I owned something aircooled… add it to the never ending list of cars I want to own I guessThe beautiful Scirocco from part one of the coverageSo long Ocean City
At first pass a few of you are going to think I am off my rocker –which I might be– for posting 70s Street Machines in the Theme Tuesday category and not the WTF Friday one but, in my opinion 70s Street Machines and today’s aggressive fitment scene are really not that different from one another.
Swap BBS wheels (or your 3 piece of choice) for Cragars (or you slotted mag of choice), coils for shackles, stretched tires for the widest tires possible, wild vinyl wraps for wild custom paint, and it’s tomato, tomato.
Also like aggressive fitment it is/was a style employed on nearly every type of vehicle in existence with no doubt more than a few naysayers ready to point fingers and make “you’ve ruined that car” accusations.
After posting this on instagam I realized that many of you were more open to this Theme Tuesday idea than I thoughtOne of the people from a Street Machines group I am in said most people didn’t care what was done to these cars because at the time they were out of fashion to many because of the gas crisisLove this though I can’t quite tell what it is… Classic 70s through and through with this SSFor those who prefer things a little more restrained..I distinctly remember building a model kit as a kid with a hood scoop identical to the one on thisVans could –and did– get the treatmentAs did first generation Civics surprisingly! Now the question is RWD stagger on FWD car or RWD swap?The style also appears to have made it’s way to Europe……and JapanAs well as popular media… (Snake’s Lil Bandit could be posted here as well)While not quite a Street Machine they are jumping there was no way I could neglect posting this shot. No doubt sending it to flat tooThis Corvair is simply bad-ass, another car for me to dig up more information onThis is incredible‘MericaCheck out the arches and big diff sticking out from under this MiniI’m a bit of a sucker for these old EconolinesCruisn’ the streets wheelie bar intactThough quite a bit tamer than most of the cars in this post this little coupe looks pretty awesomeThe Kawashima Celica of the Street Machine world?Evidently not just for boulevards or stripsProbably car to end this post with given the era
If this type of stuff is your thing check out 70s Street Machines on Tumblr. If it’s not I’ll be back with something ‘normal’ next week.
People have swapped quite a few motors into the nimble little Mazda Miata chassis but I think Quebec native Yannick may be walking away with the top spot for ‘most unlikely combination’ with his current project.
Yannick is a man who likes to buy cars that are either damaged, undesirable, or missing key components, and his search for damaged goods landed him a 2005 Maserati Quattroporte that was auctioned off (slightly damaged) with 64, 000 miles on the clock.
Shortly after ownership Yannick discovered that parts and repair on a Quattroprte (aka Ferrari) are quite expensive so he decided the ‘best’ possible solution would be to find a reluctant host for the 395hp V8 and horribly complicated duo select manual/automatic transmission.
In his mind he saw only two options; a Honda Prelude or a Mazda Miata. He eventually ended up settling on a Miata that the previous owner had already tried to do a Nissan swap with.
The unsuspecting Maserati QuattroporteThe 4.2L V8 in it’s original homeYannick’s 91 Miata with 193 000 KM on the odometer
Sound crazy to you? You’re not alone. There’s over 100lb worth of wiring and computers in the Quattroprte and the fancy –unreliable– F1 transmission can only be bled at the dealership via a computer.
Yannick is of course unfazed, and in short order managed to get the Maserati motor to sit in the Mitata engine compartment.
The Maserati motor shook from it’s mooringsAlong with the finicky transmissionI was actually shocked when the motor fit in the Miata bayOf course the Miata chassis doesn’t leave much room for anything else with the bigger motor installedBut the hood does indeed close
Shortly after roughly sorting out where the larger engine would fit it became quickly apparent that ‘metal must move’ so he got out his Sawzall and at his admission things escalated quite quickly.
Anything in the way was effectively removedSome may argue that now it isn’t really a Miata but I will not make such silly argumentsThe new frame has allowed for more clearance basically everywhere
Currently on a brief hiatus for work Yannick says he is going to pick right up when he returns and hopes to have this marriage of Italian bulk and Japanese finesse running as soon as possible.
For those sceptical I should probably mention that Yannick is the same fellow that built this:
One of the beautiful things about H2O is that though the get togethers are ‘scheduled’ that doesn’t mean if you show up late all is lost. More often than not a few people stick around because on the next hour another meet is sure to spring up around them.
Today I’ve got a few photos from the air cooled get together and the Scraped Crusaders/E30 get together which are both meets that we technically ‘missed’ but still enjoyed.
Scraped Crusaders E30/Early BMW Meet
This was the meet we were on our way to when we got distracted by the festivities documented in part two of the coverage. By the time we left that Gold Coast Mall most of the e30s had ironically made there way over there but there were still a number of cool cars lurking about the Roses parking lot.
Nicely executed Passat Wagon on banded steelsGill taking off back to the Scraped Crusaders Ocean City HqIt’s crazy how Mesiters can suit pretty much any type of car, they look excellent on this e36 coupeRan into Mike from Stance Factory with his S54 powered e36Stance Factory specializes in OEM looking motor swapsThis Arctic camo e46 was hard to missThe Avant affectionately known as the ‘Fap Wagon’Those new Rotiforms are sure catching on…Wobbie pulling up in his recently completed 2002 project
You can read the build up of this car right hereI just about crashed when I saw this car cruise by us on the stripSuch a well done creation of a car BMW never madeGreat fun with the ring taxi motif also
Aircooled Meet
Once again we showed up about an hour or so late but the owners below were in no real hurry to go anywhere.
Pulling up to see this is never a bad thingOne advantage to showing up a little late was the lack of people to spoil shots……which really made it easy to capture the cars presentThe ‘Slow Riders Vee Dub Club’ had a couple really nice radiator free builds outLike this……and this with the almost Harley Quinn inspired passenger side fenderBrightest thing I’ve ever seen!Going to go out on a limb here and say the owner of this buggy likes skullsLove how the swap cooler was painted two-tone to match the car, great touchWonder how often that stinger hits the ground?Beauty.
For one reason or another it has been a few weeks since the last Theme Tuesday so lets get things back on track with a second/third edition of ‘uncommon stance’ which is a reliable old favourite.
I know there are plenty of people out there with lesser modified, limited after market, or just plain oddball chassis so hopefully this post inspires at least one of you not to push that project into the nearest river.
Spotted this in Ocean City and I think I can safely say that it is the lowest of it’s kindThe owner was trouble shooting a tail light issue hence the lack of lightAlso spotted this Saturn in Ocean city which I actually like way more than I shouldAwesome Looking Ford Probe which I sadly never caught stationary at h2OiThis Saturn was also in Ocean city, it’s baggedI’m sure there’s more about this Alfa on the internet and I should really go look for it…Super awesome looking Hillman ImpI must admit I completely forgot about ‘Project Luv‘ until this photoI don’t see many of these on the road these days… maybe I just have funny looking Saab blinders on.. this one looks good thoughI feel like I might have posted this before at somepointI was hoping to see this car at H20 as I’ve been following the owners progress on instagram but I missed itMay as well complete the oddball family ford trifectaThis car just needs the power plant from the local 700hp one and we are set..When I first stumbled upon this Dakota I was pretty shocked because in addition to being a Dakota it wears a very pro street inspired wheel and tire set-up and……it throws sparksWhile looking for the photo above I also stumbled upon this unibody truck.. oddTrevor recently sent in his Ford Transit connectInfiniti G20 on a great wheel selection (I’m bias)Going to end things with this stellar Peugeot 406
In part one of the 2013 H2O coverage I mentioned that attending the show is optional if your goal is simply to see a ridiculous amount of awesome cars. Having only just now popped my H2O cherry I can’t really speak to how or why it happened but –to the ire of some VW enthusiasts– Ocean City has become the destination for car enthusiasts of all kinds on the last weekend of September.
The Saturday before the show consisted of basically on non stop trips up and down the strip stopping at packed parking lots along the way to see a variety of different cars.
Today’s coverage is from about mid afternoon Saturday where we happened to stumble upon a meet at Gold Coast mall on our way to Roses for the Scraped Crusaders E30 meet.
Turns out this unplanned stop had some of the most interesting cars of the entire weekend.
Great looking Lex on Ordens from Liberty VIPCan’t say I’ve seen a lot of people work with this colour EL but this one makes me think more people shouldSpent a long time looking at this Toyota… pretty crazy, not what I would do, but crazy none the lessThere’s a cage inside because a significant portion of the roof is absent from class700 horse bagged Mustang…Laying out on drag radials is certainly a different lookI didn’t mind it though…Visually loud as hell TI that I like quite a bitI saw more BBS RF wheels H2O weekend than ever beforeE30 fit with an Audi 1.8T motor, pretty sure this is the only one of these aroundThe owner is @clutchkicked on instagram, and yes he slides itAwesome Corvair with tons of original patina
Datsun Sports 2000 I think?It was now equipped with a set of CF flares and a matching CF hardtopBride trimmed interior with awesome wood grain accentingLater in the meet it befriended this 510 wagonChocolate brown bagged Evo that’s been the subject of a few features online recentlyStatic EvoI’m not really one for Ruks but this was was pretty radBagged and boosted S2K with a great wheel and tire selectionBenz sitting right on VIP ModularsAggressive Eurolines on this 350zThis was beautiful, probably one of the cleanest examples of the chassis I’ve seen in some time. Great choice with the CCW LM5Ts as wellGrimis looking hawkeyeTwo great looking GRBsSuper classy Benz; It’s hard to describe but the paint on this car had aged so it looked like worn/cracked leather, it fit really well with the carThe Camera is actually the switch boxGoing to end things off with the Brody Worx Mustang which is perhaps my favorite car of the entire weekendSuch a different take on the Classic Mustang and it sounds absolutely incredibleGive him a follow on instagram if you’re on there, seems anything he works on is pretty rad
Plenty more coverage from H2O still to come this week!
Decided to get lost in a few ‘good old days’ forums last night and when I emerged I came up with enough material for a continuation of the Crazy Show Rods WTF Friday series.
Like the first I can’t be sure that all of them were actually driven, but a bit of back and forth on the forums alludes to at least a few of them seeing some road time in some capacity.
Probably similar amounts of road time that full blown show cars today see really.
The “Magic Carpet” looks like it could be a little bit of a fire hazardNot sure the name on this one though I’m sure it was cleverEvidently this sat outside the Tastee Freeze in Downey California for some time. I’m sure it brought in more than a few kids who just wanted to stop at ‘the place with the cool car’The Uncertain-TI’d scoop that motor for $650 no problem today…The wine wagon is pretty peculiar to look at… can’t argue the follow through of a theme howeverI believe this one was called the PlaybunnyWith shag carpeting everywhere and a name like ‘The Sex Machine’ I wouldn’t recommend actually sitting in this carDave Puhl’s Illusion cruising somewhere. This car was involved in some Aqua Velva promotionsA pair of show rods running the stripGoing to end things off with the ‘Manta Ray’ built by Dean JeffriesUnder all that wire is a Maserati F1 chassisOver it is an Aluminium body, and between the driver and the front plat sits aCobra-spec 289/4-speed
Site Updates
Going to keep working away at the H2O International photos this weekend so that I can get most of them out the door next week. Don’t be surprised if a few make their way up on the facebook fan page between today and Monday.
I’ll be placing an order this week to restock some of the vinyl in the store as well. If there’s a particular colour you are waiting on feel free to let me know in the comments.
Flashback Friday
I’m almost certain I saw the girl below in Ocean City last weekend and if not she has a doppelgänger. Never the less here’s a throwback to the first ‘Girls With Hot Rides’ Theme Tuesday.
On the way to Ocean City my co-pilot and I had a lot of time to discuss just how great H2O could actually be. Previous coverage and instragram updates made it sound pretty great but we wanted to keep our expectations fairly realistic so we talked it down a tad to not be disappointed.
Several hours into the drive we figured we had formed reasonable expectations but the second we turned onto the strip said expectations were blown clear out of the water by the sheer number of vehicles in Ocean City MD.
Modified cars of all make and model where everywhere; parking lots, alley’s, garages, and of course the strip itself and it quickly became apparent why several people we spoke to had never actually made their way to the show.
If your goal is simply to see a heck of a lot of amazing cars then you can just pull up a chair strip side and take it all in and while we did do a lot of just that (minus the chairs), travelling all that way and not checking out one of the best VAG shows in North America seemed a little silly.
Starting from the last day of the trip and working in reverse is a bit of a weird way to cover the weekend but it seems to make the most logical sense.
Being a fan of patina Blair really liked this BeetleHe was the one that noticed these bottle caps crushed on the rain gutters. Cool ideaPersonally this was probably my favourite air cooled Beetle, it was one of the cleanest cars I’ve ever seenThis MK1 had the BBS cool fans all around… not sure I’ve seen a full set in person beforeSpeaking of seeing things, spotted the Seen It! K powered CaddyAs similar as these two cars are it’s hard to argue with this approach to the MK1Perfect fitmentI’m hoping someone can explain the story here… but for whatever reason these two trucks were damn near identicalI think the two bearded guys in the background owned them…Didn’t take too many shots of the Unix MK1 only because I took a whole lot at Eurokracy looks like the wheels changed howeverBeauty from the preview a few days agoSuper stoked to see one of spinfab.net‘s skinny RS spares in personThis was perhaps my favourite MK1 of the show if I were to pick one outSomething about the carb set-up was just so radFantastic looking Scirocco, saw it on the strip a few times as wellSuch a perfect interior for the exteriorCouple Air Society carsI’m not sure the story behind ‘dapper’ but there were a number of cars with their sticker on it this weekend and almost an equal amount of funny knock-offs…These wheels really remind me of older Cavalier wheels…This car had the look of Patina but really it was in great shapeSpotted this car pulled over on the strip he wound up with a no mirrors ticket which is pretty good considering…Epic respray colour choiceFemale owned ride from 2LO crewMore accustom to seeing heavily shaved boser builds like this coming out of EuropeNicely done yellow Golf making me eat my ‘I don’t like yellow cars’ wordsBeautiful Gottis….Love the colour of this car and what’s been done to the Bora trunk lid… great touch. As are the RF wheelsTwin turbo Golf TDIThere was snail below this one but it was hard to get a great photo of so just take my word…Golf dumped at the Air Lift Performance boothAlso at the Air Lift booth was the new-new Beetle on Boyd Coddington wheelsAs it turns out the Air Lift Performance kit on my car fits C30s perfectlyMk6 on what look to be Blonix snowflakes, still never seen a set of these in CanadaSuper clean S4TT on Rotiforms new DAI wheelsSpeaking of Rotiforms here’s a familar Porsche on their LHR wheelsIt was incredible how many people had their IG tags as stickers like @jrjamesdeanNot sure the logistics of getting a Lupo here but there’s one here nowMF Auto’s 1984 Grumman Kubvan which is one of 500 ever built and apparently 1 of 100 surviving…Prior to H2O I didn’t think I was much of a Passat wagon guy… turns out I was very, very wrongGod damn!Going to end with what will be many ‘outcasts’ in the H2O coverage this STI that somehow managed to squeak into the showLooks like it can move…
