Everyone gets into the truck scene differently. Some inherit the interest from their father, some get sucked in by their friends, and others, like Tony Saenz of Andrews, Texas, got into it by going into a convenience store to grab a tasty beverage. It was on that fateful day 3 years ago that he first saw a yellow Dodge in the parking lot of said store that was painted with ghost flames. A short conversation later, Tony had the number to the painter of that truck, Jamie Torrez, the owner of Demented Customs in Hobbs, New Mexico. Hobbs isn’t known for being a big town, but for a city with just over 31,000 people, there’s a surprising number of custom car and truck guys. One of those shops is Demented Customs, who have slowly been building a reputation for themselves as powerhouses in the industry. Over the past few years they’ve put quite a few customs out on the pages of various magazines, so when Tony decided to take his car to them, it turned out to be a very fortuitous decision. The first thing that Tony wanted to...

We spotlighted the 1st Gen Chevy Camaro RS sponsored by Optima Batteries a couple months ago in a blog (click the link to check it out) when it was being prepared for the One Lap of America 8 day long grueling competition.  The One Lap (it used to be called the Cannonball Run) of America makes the race cars drive themselves from track to track (3500 miles total) and then expects them to race hard at the track.  That's right, no trailers.  How did it do in its first year at the race?  Keep reading... Here is the updated livery for the One Lap event.  Looks just like PCK Studio's rendering/T-shirt. This Pro-Touring built Camaro RS won its class, which is called American Vintage.  This was its first One Lap race, so the fact that the car won its class (which competed against a 1981 Camaro that has run the event 20+ times before) is really a big deal. This is the Katech prepared 427ci LS7 Corvette Z06 powerplant to propels the OneLapCamaro. The team of James Shipka and car owner David Pozzi had a pretty crazy 8 days.  At one point...

So, if you missed Part 1, The Tear Down, read that first, then come back for this, Part 2: The Install.  So, at the end of Part 1, we had removed the old ring and pinion.   Now we're ready to install the Ford Racing 3.73 ring and pinion gear set from AmericanMuscle.com. First, I wanted to show you what the Ford Racing 3.73 Gear Set comes with.  Ring gear, check.  Pinion gear check.  Crush sleeve, nut and shims, check, check and check.  But remember, its SUPER DUPER HIGHLY recommended that you ditch this crush sleeve and get yourself the Shim Spacer Pack for easier preload setup.  You'll thank yourself later, trust me. OK with Ford OEM/Racing gears i have found that they are pretty much ground on the same centerlines. So if you measure the pinion and shim after you've removed the pinion bearing and match the length to your new gears by adding the correct shim to equal the first measurement, you will be very close.  Now that being said, I always have to check the gear pattern and add or subtract shims to get the gear pattern correct. it is recomended to...

A lot of adjectives come to mind when describing Adam Hartley of Las Vegas, Nevada … Eclectic, unique, maybe even a bit odd. Not that this is anything new in the custom car world. Not only is he the father of three, but he's also a heavily tattooed car builder with quite the collection in his stable. He’s built quite a few rides in his past too including a ’94 Toyota pickup, a few VW’s, and an ’87 Astro van, which lead to the purchase of the ’63 Impala you see here. We do mean that literally too. Adam was cruising around a Tangelo Orange pearl Astro van around Vegas everyday with a little “For Sale” sign in the corner of the window. While cruising around town he ran into a dude with a ’63 Impala wagon, also Tangelo pearl, that was selling his car as well. The ’63 was juiced, laid on 14” wires, and even appeared in the pages of Lowrider back when the car was in Hawaii. A deal was struck and Adam traded his van for the Impala, straight across. Even though the car was...

Who doesn’t love dune buggies? You could have gotten a good healthy dose of buggy envy at the Carlisle Import and Kit Car Nationals which was held last weekend in Carlisle, PA. Dig that metallic green finish!  Wow!  There were two seaters, four seaters, white ones, blue ones, green ones, and just about every color imaginable. If you strolled over to Building T you could have chatted with Bruce Meyers, the designer of the first fiberglass dune buggy known as the Meyers Manx. Bruce Meyers was present all weekend to sign autographs and pose for pictures if you asked nicely enough. The good news is that you can once again buy new Meyers buggies like the Manxter 2+2, which is capable of doing 0-60 times of just over 4 seconds. Want something with a little more displacement? How about a Cobra replica? The Cobras dominated the kit manufacturer area and there were plenty of them on the show field as well. Throw a 4.6L motor in a Factory Five Racing 1965 Cobra replica like Anthony and Robin DiMemmo did and I bet you would have a smile plastered on...

Hot Rodders and a stop watch you ask?  Ya, I'll get to that in a minute.  But first, let me introduce you to one of my favorite automotive competitions:  Time Attack or Superlap Battle.   These pictures were taken by the MotorMavens.com crew at Eastern Creek Raceway in Australia, as part of the World Time Attack Challenge, the first of its kind, pitting the best the world has to offer in Time Attack. What exactly is Time Attack?  It's simply taking your car around a road course as fast as you can and recording the fastest single lap time, hence the name Superlap.  There are various classes that your car might fit in.  Currently most of the vehicles that compete today are of the Japanese or European make.  Here's where the hot rodders with the stopwatches comes in.  Time Attack has almost zero muscle cars.  Wat up wit dat?  Here's the R-Magic prepared Mazda RX-7, one of the fastest Unlimited Time Attack cars in Japan.  Time Attack began in Japan in the late 1980's.  It was a chance for top Speed Shops (they're referred to as Tuning Shops, not Speed Shops, but...

The latest Internet Barn Find is for those land speed racing Salt (or dust) Fever infected bunch.  I bring you DLRA.org.au, the Dry Lakes Racers Australia site.  The Dry Lakes Racers Australia held it's first Speed Trials meet in March 1990 and has been doing so (weather permitting) ever since. It has attracted competitors from all over Australia, the United States of America, New Zealand and the UK.  Currently they only race once per year, but that could change in 2011. The racing happens on Lake Gairdner (well, it used to be a lake).  It's an 8 mile track including the shut down area.  The bummer part is it takes 80 miles driving on dirt roads to get to the race track (compared to Bonneville's 1 mile from "Lands End").  Just like at Bonneville, the site admin told me that if you stand around too long, you'll likely get put to work.  Here's a fendered (smart move with 80 miles of dust) hot rod roadster heading out to Lake Gairdner for Salt Flats Racing.  80 miles of dirt roads is no joke and not for the faint of hot rod heart. There...

As I mentioned in the blog about the Rocky Mountain Raceway's Midnight Drift event, I met Marco and his friend Rudy in the pits during the Midnight Drag and Drift event.   First of all, to you hot rodders out there who don't YET get drifting, let me tell you about the Nissan 240SX.  In a way, this car in Japan is similar in following and cult status as a Mustang or Camaro.  The similarities may be more than you think.  Rear wheel drive setup, Coupe body styling, small back seat, huge aftermarket support and fun to drive status.  The differences are aplenty as well though.  Mustangs get a solid rear axle and V6 and V8 engines and weigh 3200-3600lbs.  The Nissan 240SX (or 180SX or Silvia in Japan) comes with an independent rear suspension and 2.4L 4 cylinder (turbo 2.0L outside Japan) naturally aspirated truck engine in the USA and weighs about 2800lbs.  So, there's a little history on the 240 for ya.  Marco has owned his S13 (S13 is like what the Mustang guy's equivalent of SN95 or S197 chassis codes for the 1989-94 240SX, S14 for 1995-1998 and S15 for...

Bonneville Salt Flats: Traditional or Modern? It's no doubt I have Salt Fever.  For me, the car that represents the Bonneville Salt Flats, El Mirage Dry Lakes and the hot rod hobby as a whole is the early Ford roadster. At Speedweek 2009 while hangin' out at the starting line just soaking in the Salt, I spotted 2 Lakes Modified Roadsters.  I knew I dug the stance on both rods.  I went in for a look-see.  CLICK on each Picture to Zoom in. The dark blue roadster is a more traditional style rod with its dual carbed flatty V8, cowl-less engine bay, floorless interior (ok, so there was some wood "floor panels"), bomber seats and wire wheels and skinny tires.  The orange roadster has a plush interior, shiny paint, an independent rear end and hot rod style big n little wheels and tires.  I actually dig each style for different reasons.  But, if I could only have one...which one would it be?  Let's take a closer look. Again, the difference is easy to see.  Bomber seats, no door panels, wood floors, a couple guages and big steering OEM wheel on the left, plush leather interior, shiny...

Salt Lake City, Utah has a decent sized auto enthusiasts community for how small of a city and state it is.  There's about 2.5 million people in all of Utah.  Utah has 2 racing facilities, Rocky Mountain Raceway (RMR) with its 1/4 mile dragstrip and asphalt oval and Miller Motorsports Park with its 4+ mile road course. Last night I hit up the 2nd Midnight Drag and Drift event of the year.  RMR has been holding Midnight Drags since about 2001 or so.  It was touted as a way to get the young punks off the streets and have a safe and organized way to race.  I raced my first Civic at a couple Midnight Drags back then.  A couple years ago though, the Drift Enterprise of Utah started holding Midnight Drift events on the oval track.  I thought this sign was kinda cool.  "Section D" for DRIFT!!! The number of cars entered in the drag portion are probably 150-200.  For the drift boys, there's only about 8-10 cars.  The number of people watching the drag racing is probably somewhere around 1000+.  The people watching drifting?  1, maybe  2.  Ok, not that...

One of the first hot rod tricks a hot street car gets is a set of gears.  If your 'Stang's 8.8 inch rearend came from Ford with a set of 3.08's or even worse, 2.73's, the car was pretty much a DOG!  A set of 3.73's, 3.90's or even 4.10's really wakes 'em up.  Don't throw away those 2.73's though, you may wanna go for a run down the Salt.  haha Here is "Calera Kid" himself doing a burnout at the now defunct L.A.C.R. drag strip.  This was taken at the "Hang Over Nationals" in 2002.  Anyone ever hit the Hang Overs at Palmdale? "Sally" has run a best time of 12.85 seconds at 106mph at Famoso with 4.10's.  Eventually the plan is to replace the stock ported E7 heads for the GT40P heads and the stock cam with a higher lift unit.  For now, a set of Ford Racing 3.73 ratio Ring and Pinion from AmericanMuscle.com might allow the low revving stock head/cam "five oh" motor to utilize the good torque with a set of 3.73's. If you're a "do it yourself" hot rodder, here's the step by step instructions for the swap.  Part 1 will focus on the...

I can't let another day go by without sharing about my amazing past weekend! Yes, I was at Gene Winfield's. Yes, I learned a gazillion metalworking tips from a legend. Yes, I even did my very first burnout. Let me start at the beginning though... Early Saturday morning I stumble out of bed, grab a cup of coffee, and jump in Stude for the hour and a half drive up to Mojave, CA. My Dad makes the trek there from Vegas and we meet at Roadhouse Mikes - just the sort of greasy spoon you'd expect in a small desert town. With full bellies we head eight miles down the road to Gene Winfield's. We're signed up for Gene's bi-yearly metalworking workshop. By 9 o'clock Gene is busy acquainting all 10 participants with the various tools around his shop. Among the tools are a slip roll,  english wheel, beverly shears, pipe anvil, bead roller, and dozens of hammers, dollys, and dies. Soon Gene is fully absorbed into teaching us about various metals, chopping customs, gas welding, breaking an edge, and hammer forming metal. (You'll have to come back for how-to articles!)...