The last post I did using Pascal Hein's photos was German cars in Germany.  Today, I bring you American Hot Rods and Customs in Germany.  It's an interesting idea to think of an American Muscle car or a traditional roadster as an "import" car.  As we saw with Tano's '26 T Roadster from Japan, there are some very cool American rides all over the globe.  Let's see what Germany has in store for us... Here's a great line up of 20-30's hot rods.  I spy a sedan, a roadster, and a pickup.  Looks like we're at a car show on main street USA right? Low ride height, white walls.  This is a beautiful 40's (right?) cruiser.  I'm not good with cars from the 40's.  Anyone know what this is? Now, something from the 50's.  A well used 4 door Chevy Bel Air hot rod project.  A little rust here, a little primer there, mismatched doors.  I love it.  You know this car gets driven. Dig this mild custom Ford Edsel!  Ya, Ford Edsel.  You can't get any more American than this.  ha ha  As big of a failure as it was back in the day, the...

You just read that title and said, " a Gasser what?" I admit, I ain't right. I have strange tastes compared to some and I guess you could say I have a vivid imagination, too. How else can I imagine how nasty a 1961 Rambler American station wagon would look as a Gasser. I've got the idea in my head, but like alot of you, I can't draw, much less make a rendering like this showing my crazy dream to perfection! That's where artists like Joel Nelson from 1320designs.com comes in. (Click on the image above to see it full size. It's a higher resoultion pic perfect for a desktop wallpaper) Before continuing that story, let me back up. I dig wagons. I don't know for-sure why, maybe it was because my dad drove us around in 1967 Ford Wagon when I was a kid. My brother and I'd drop the back seat down and slide around in back on the metal floor. This was the mid 70's so seat belts weren't the rage they are now. Looking back, we survived alot of things that have today's parent's gasping!...

Custom 1959 Cadillac from D'Agostino The Grand National Roadster Show is truly the "Grand-daddy of them all" when it comes to hot rod and custom car shows. Where else would you find two super-custom 1959 Caddy's?  Finished to near perfection, take your pick of the "Custom Restoration" '59 Cadillac (story here) or this latest 1959 Cadillac custom from D'Agostino.  Put your hands together for "Elvis II" built for David E. Walters. Unlike the custom-restoration 1959, this is a true Biarritz. The full name is a mouthful: 1959 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz convertible. Deserving the long name, the Biarritz marked the top of what was already a very expensive ($7401 in 1959) and extremely luxurious ride. With the 3x2, 345 horse Q-code Cad motor standard for the Eldorado, the options separating the Series 62 from the El-do include a host of cosmetic tricks in the grille, taillights and interior, but also include air ride from way back in the 50's! What's old is new as just about every custom you see these days is on air. Even with it's superbo-delux-ness right from the General and limited 1320 production, I'm glad to...

Sapporo, Japan is NOT what people think of as a center for hot rodding car culture and they're right, its not.  But, there is a cool dude from Japan who's a real hot rodder living the hot rod life.   Kiyoshi Tanomura (aka Tano) and I became Facebook friends a couple weeks ago.  I accepted Tano's request solely because of his Profile Picture.  It was a picture of this 1926 Ford Model T roadster, built in the Traditional rod style.  I saw his Japanese name with that American hot rod picture and said to myself, "I need to find out about this guy!" Just looking at the roadster, would you expect this to come out of Japan?  As you can imagine, the hot rod parts came from the States.  The build is a well thought out, period correct hot rod that few could achieve.  Japanese car nuts are just the type to achieve such a build.  Why?  From what little I know about the Japanese culture is they have great respect for their ancestors and history, they are very detailed oriented, even passionate about the details and seem to be natural engineers. Tano mentions two friends from the USA...

I think its safe to say that there's a little bit of everything at Viva Las Vegas. So instead of just bringing you back pictures of all the cool stuff we saw at VLV13 - Pikesan, Swanee, and I thought we'd give ya'll a chance to put in your own two cents. So time to VOTE! MyRideisMe's first official, Top 11 Viva Las Vegas Car Show Favorites! We're each including our top three picks (plus one from my Dad, plus Pikesan's added a 4th) ...making for a varied and diverse choice of 11! Leave a comment and vote for your choice! From Kristin & her Pops, Picks and Pics: #1 Suede 1953 Chevy Custom with fade... #2 Suede Ford Pickup with Green Flames #3 (another) Suede 1936 Ford 3 Window Coupe #4 Custom ?? From Pikesan, Picks and Pics: I'm cheating and making it the top 11. Never conform, right!?  I would have ended up with all customs (and what's with the orange theme?) so I picked a pair of hot rods to contend! #5 Pike's Pic of the 1953 Chevy Kustom with fade... (sorry GreaseGirl! This is probably...

We're HERE! After an uneventful drive through the Nevada desert we hit Vegas in the daytime. Not quite as exciting as the nighttime skyline, but who cares! We're here for the hot rods, customs and pinups that make Viva Las Vegas a must every year. Vote for your favorite here. Sunset's a great time to catch photos, even for a hack like me, but my man Swanee's doing his thing for this picture. Several beers later and with a dead cell phone and wireless that doesn't work, we're still getting these pictures and tons more up in the next few days. One of the best parts of the Viva Las Vegas is the pinups. The show's a gathering of all things hot rods, music and vintage clothes wearing girls with bright red lipstick, a flower in their hair and some great expressions on their faces! I'll try to catch this lovely lady's name at the show today. Update... didn't see her again on Saturday. Anyone know her name? Please leave a comment below. I hijacked what looked like a professional photographer shooting another lovely young lady in front of...

Custom 1959 Cadillac Photos by Paul "Swanee" Swanson I think I just coined a new term for cars: Custom Restoration.  Why? I guess we could just say "custom" because this 59's been customized front to back. On the other hand, the builder's shop, Xtreme Restorations out of Rhode Island, suggests his specialty is "restoration".  So somewhere between full custom, resto-mod and restoration, I introduce to you: Custom Restoration. What better start than a 1959 Cadillac!? Standing back, trying to take in the 225.0 in (5715 mm) length that is 1959 Cadillac, the first nod to "restoration" over pure customization has to go to the color choice.  Not a factory color, but also not the typical red or black; PPG supplied a Soft Yellow and Vanilla Shake to gracefully compliment the flowing lines of the Cad. I think it works perfectly and gives a taste of understated modesty to a car that makes a quite a statement! Back to a custom nod then, check out this interior! Bold yes, but as you can see it works! As outrageous as you might think it is, it's a factory ORIGINAL color on Cadillacs in...

You don't have to look that closely to see the dust piling up. My friends never let me forget what I already know. That ain't right. Good news is,  MyRideisMe.com is growing, but it's at a cost to why I made it: The fun of driving and working on cars. No regrets, but just the same, I'm glad to have Bonnie, my 1927 Ford Roadster back on the road. So what was wrong? General laziness Get out there son! Stripped out threads for 1 header bolt I've never done a Heli-coil before Sounds even more pathetic when I write it down. Backing up some... A friend had a gift certificate for ceramic header coating that he couldn't use, so knowing I'm a fellow car dude, he offered it to me. I needed to do something! If you've been following the build/update progress of my roadster for a while, you saw this post (Click to read it): Home-built Header finish-ATF! After applying the ATF (and after the smoke cleared...) the header was an amazingly cool gray-blue. I loved it and you couldn't beat the cost! It looked pretty good for...

Drawing Cars with My Buddy Joel This blog post is a long time coming.  We at MyRideisMe have shown off a number of talented hot rod artists.  Joel Nelson of 1320 Designs is most definitely on that list.  I mean, just dig these drawings below.   Asking Joel how he got into drawing cars, he said: I got into drawing cars from watching The Dukes of Hazzard on prime time and Smokey and the Bandit. Thankfully CarTOONS was in full circulation too and that really put me over the edge! Then during the late 80's and early 90's, I really got into drawing Pro Street cars. Nothing was safe from becoming "pro street-ed". You could make anything look nasty by dropping it and adding a set of big 'n' littles!  I like to work with markers and pastels mostly but have been known to do hand painted work in Photoshop too. Nothing beats pencil and paper though! This first one is Joel's latest and is our own Pikesan's 1961 AMC Rambler Wagon gasser concept drawing.  You'll be seeing more of this concept from Joel in the future as he fine tunes...

The first thing I picture when I hear the words “chrome car” is my childhood Barbie car that I outfitted with reflective chrome tape. This 1932 Ford Roadster is no Barbie car, that’s for sure. Let’s begin by taking a look at the Platinum Bomb. This 1932 Ford Roadster was designed and built by owner Zach Norman along with the Troy Ladd and his crew at Hollywood Hot Rods with a WWII airplane in mind. (Get more about this car in A Roadster That Can Fly?) So when it came to paint, he wanted a polished aluminum looking body. Those of you who have worked on 30s-era cars know that finding a rust-free body to do this with naturally would be impossible. What else is there to do but give it a chrome-like paint job? Simple right? Hardly! When painter Tom Prewitt chuckled and told me, “We just followed directions,” I knew there was more to the story. How did the Platinum Bomb get to be so shiny? (Speaking of shine...the picture of Tom below shows the car's body before clear coat is put on. As you can see...

It's been too long since I rambled on about Hot Rods and Customs, I mean Kustoms.  My crazy car brain has gone down the path of  "Mild Customs".  I'll say it right now, the car that really got me started digging Customs was Nick Hoesing's ex-Ford Galaxie I scoped at Bonneville last year.   Peep it below... Then I picked up a Rodders Journal that featured Kirk Jones' 1960 Ford Starliner.  Kirk's a member at MyRideisMe.com, see his Garage Here for more pics.  Our camera man Swanee grabbed this first pic at last years Grand National Roadster Show.  This 'Liner blew me away!!!  I pulled that TRJ #45 out again last night to re-read the story and stare at the rad photography.  Man, this kustom is mad rad!  Ok, so it may be categorized as a Mild Custom, but this thing is Wild!  That paint (better pics in the Rodders Journal, you're just gonna have to go buy a copy) is nutty!  The interior is grade A.  This Ford oozes style and stance.  Can you imagine the hours spent building this car.  I bought this magazine when we were staying in the hospital for the...

Goodguys Spring Nationals, March 12-14 Street Challenge Autocross To see all the juicy event details, check below.  What we are excited about and wanted to point out to you readers is the new event they're having this year.  The "Street Challenge Autocross"!  Take your hot rod and bash some cones and yank that steering wheel around and put a hurtin' on your tires and brakes.  Check out these 2 hot rods showing you how autocross is done!   Check out this CRC Vette getting it on in the twisties.  Man that looks fun! ...or maybe Corner Carving Muscle is your thing, check out Bryan Frank's Trans-Am.  I'd love to see some lead sleds or kustoms out on the course.  Or maybe a 32 roadster!  Details of the event below: The Goodguys Spring Nationals is a new hot rod and custom car festival featuring the Southwest’s premier custom vintage automobiles! The event will feature over 2,000 1972 & earlier hot rods, customs, classics, street rods, muscle cars, & trick trucks as well as manufacturer and vendor exhibits, a swap meet and cars for sale area, special “themed” parking areas, model...