Trend Pushrods - New Ways to Combat Pushrod Troubles Seeking and finding stories about great engine builders and the high performance parts they use, every once in a while, you find yourself asking. "What makes xyz so special?" In this case, I got to talking about high performance pushrods and didn't know much about them. Luckily, Trend Performance makes pushrods for everybody from the weekend warrior to the best of NHRA and NASCAR. So I asked a few questions... An interview with Bob Fox, founder of Trend Performance By Sam Logan with photos by Moore Good Ink Today the Michigan firm Trend Performance is the largest manufacturer and supplier of pushrods in racing and the performance aftermarket. But in 1988 when Bob Fox founded his pushrod company, after working the phones as a tech rep at Diamond Racing, things were different. During his time at the piston company, he noticed that the performance of competition pushrods was little better than adequate—their lengths varied and their ends failed—both ends! Manufacturers would reduce the material thickness of the cup ends in order to form them, and as a result they would...

How to Find Classic Car Insurance Photo by Ron Ricci Are you one of those people that never has anything bad happen? If so, you may not care about this info. The rest of us need classic car insurance. Once a year, you get a letter from your classic car insurance carrier saying it's time to renew. For the last several years, I wrote the check. For me, it was less than $200 and since I'd never used it, it was working just fine!  Trouble is, since I got my roadster upholstery done, I really wanted to increase the the agreed-on value. That's when I found Condon & Skelly. I needed new insurance and they needed to find new ways to get the word out about their insurance products. Condon & Skelly advertises here now, but that happened AFTER purchasing my new insurance. Why change insurance? For me, it was simple: I got the higher value for my roadster I wanted, no questions asked I got better insurance coverage overall Coverage went from $100k to $500k Same deductible Price went down by $10! Finally, I received great service! I...

Words and Drawings by Ryan Hadden See more at thehaddenhotrodshop.blogspot.com I am no Chip Foose, but I do like to draw cars. I have no formal education in drawing automobiles, but I did leave some killer renderings in the back of a few school books when I was younger! I hope that this quick tutorial will help you to do something a lot of guys / gals fear they cannot do. A few "tools of the trade". This is a shot of some of the tools I have collected over the years while drawing. Included in this photo are markers, colored pencils, pastels, a metal ruler ( I prefer them over wood or plastic), ball point pens, and erasers. Art supplies are expensive. If you are just starting out don't let a trip to the local hobby shop scare you. Honestly all you really need to begin drawing is no more than a pencil, paper, and a good drawing surface. It is also helpful to have reference material. This can include magazines, books, posters, photographs, internet (including websites like myrideisme.com, haha, thanks for the plug Ryan!), or 1:1 subject...

Written by Jim McIlvaine Our cars are our pride and joy. We love them, cherish them and in some cases, treat them better than we treat ourselves. Realistically, we know the relationships we have with our beloved machines usually don’t last a lifetime. Our tastes may change or our family obligations may finally win out and we eventually part ways. Still, we’ll always have memories and often photos are a great way to re-live some of those special times. Unfortunately, our love for our vehicles is often blind. When we look through the viewfinder, all we see is our car and we often overlook some pretty glaring issues that are really detracting from our pride and joy. It doesn’t have to be this way! To help out, here are three easy tips, which will, regardless of what kind of camera you own, help you take better pictures of your ride. Tip #1: Location, Location, Location You’ve spent all weekend detailing your car and finally it's perfect for pictures. Next, you break out your camera and start snapping some shots, right? WRONG! Your car deserves better than that. Take a...

Happy 2010!! Now that the holidays are over, it's time to get down to business! And for Grease Girl that means giving you more of what I originally set out for...to help the beginning car person get involved in the garage! While I hope my Studebaker wish list will provide the topics for some great how-to articles over the coming months, I've got a few tech how-to's up my sleeve already. Next to mechanics, paint is priority for most. However its my opinion that interior is more important, particularly if its a daily driver. Far more hours are spent sitting on the inside than viewing the paint outside, right!?! So what better place to start this year off than with the very first job I tackled on my Studebaker - the interior! Get ready for a whole series of articles this month on redoing your classic car's interior. Before jumping in, I thought I'd start with a few tips from a pro. Luis Loyola was kind enough to have me over to his shop, Loyola Auto Interiors, and share with us some terrific expert advice. So sit down, relax,...

Optima Red or Yellow top? I bet you've got it wrong! If you missed the other stories about SEMA, then you didn't read how Optima Batteries brought up car and truck enthusiasts for a "round table" of sorts to find out what's happening with their customers.  Great idea, right? MyRideisMe.com, through Grease Girl and me, Pikesan, represented the hot rod and custom car crowd. Also strongly represented was the off-road, diesel towing/performance, drag racing and serious computer-audiofile segments. Why'd Optima do it? Cause they're serious about making batteries for enthusiasts. The showed me they care about their existing customers and want to earn more by selling a great product. On the first day, I learned about the "Optima Paradox." Red top or yellow top?  Ken, my expert technical guide, schooled me on how folks that need a yellow top see that it's more expensive and buy a red top instead. Understandable, but wrong. Optima's a premium product and costs more than a run of the mill wet battery. But, experience tells  you, or should, that getting the right parts for your ride, even if they're a little more money,...

Andy from Andy's Pinstriping gives us 5 Steps for painting Vintage Door Art on Shop Trucks 1. The first thing I like to do is use some wax and grease remover and clean the panel to be painted. This simple step is honestly one of the most critical and most often overlooked steps in any paint project. . . . . 2. I like to make a stencil to help draw out the design. There are several methods I use to achieve the stenciled on pattern. One of the easiest ways is to use a pounce wheel & chalk, but on this particular truck I had no colored chalk, and obviously white wouldn't do, so I went old school on it and cut the pattern out of poster board with an exact-o knife....five blades and several blisters later ta-da, a handmade stencil. . . 3. Finally to the fun part, let's thrown on some paint! I start by tracing the pattern (after centering it on the door) with a stabilo pencil. After that it's pretty self explanatory...just fill in the spaces with the one shot color of choice. ....

Many of you hot rodders and car nuts are able to stick with one car for years.  I don't know how you do it?  I have what what is called "The Car of the Week" syndrome.  Sometimes its as simple as seeing a cool car on the road.  Then I get on the laptop and start google searching.  I look at the classified ads for used examples, forums to see what people are doing to them, and pictures to find inspirational examples.  I thought I'd ramble a bit about a few of those cars to give you an idea of how all over the hot rod map I am.  There is a goal to this madness, and that is trying to decide on what my next car will be. This week's "car of the week" is the first gen' Scion xB.  That's right.  Did I not mention that my car passion has no boundaries?  Did you read my Pro-Touring meets Hellaflush story?  Just a glimpse into my funky car taste.  So, Scion xB...check out this woody xB.  I'd build a Box a few ways, old school hot rod is definitely one. ...

Seems that the MyRideisMe.com Bonneville experience never runs out of steam. Hanging out at the Nugget one evening, we bumped into Clive from Stromberg Carburetors. After a lengthy BS session, the conversation turned to carb tech. And to cut a long story short, we asked him to contribute to our ongoing "5 Things" series. Alright, so 5 turned out to be 6 – or as the English say, ‘half a dozen’.  Here’s what he had to say: 1. Stromberg Carbs Run Better With The Chokes Left In We’ve all seen those pics at Bonneville with 97 chokes removed and the kicker linkages brazed onto the base casting. It should make sense. No choke means more air space means more cfm. And you’d be quite correct, too. Extensive 97 flow tests carried out this year by acknowledged race carb expert Norm Schenck showed that the carb did indeed pick up a little cfm without the choke plate installed. So all those Bonneville racers were right, after all? Well, yes and no. Salt Racers are only interested in WOT. On the street it’s a different matter. Stromberg authority Jere Jobe told...

Back for 2009 with Don Shumacher Racing, Ron Capps is in his fifth full season with Shoe's team driving the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger R/T for the 2nd time and of course, his crew chief is long time friend, Ed “Ace” McCulloch. Born in San Luis Obispo Capps has always been a So-Cal guy and now lives with his wife and their daughter and son in Carlsbad, CA. With a B.S. in Software Engineering from Santa Clara college, Capps joined the NHRA super-team of Don Schumacher Racing, in 2005 to drive the Brut-sponsored Dodge Charger Funny Car. With Schumacher, he's won eight national events and finshed 2nd in 2005, 3rd in 2006, and 4th in 2007. He's hoping to turn that trend around for 2009 Capps joined DSR after driving for longtime friend and team owner Don Prudhomme. DSR is only the second Funny Car team for whom he’s driven since entering the nitro classes in 1995. Since 1995 Capps has collected 25 wins in 54 final rounds, in both Top Fuel and Funny Car. He's been close, but has never won it all after claiming that crown,...

Don Schumacher's a car owner, right? Yea, that's what he is now. He's got 6 full-pro NHRA drag racing teams running including his son and Top Fuel Champion Tony Schumacher. Before that, Don Schumacher was the pilot of his "Stardust" Funny Car.  Don retired from racing  in 1974 to focus on his family business and it's said, "a huge sigh of relief was heard from rivals like Gene Snow and Raymond Beadle in Texas, Pat Foster and Don Prudhomme in California and the late “Jungle Jim” Liberman in Pennsylvania."  Known as “The Shoe” he was tearing up tracks, especially at match races and even in England where you'll find several records he set as an ambassador for drag racing across the big pond. Shoe won the winner of the  1972 Coca-Cola Cavalcade of Stars,  the 1973 AHRA World Championship, 5 NHRA (including Indy) and 9 IHRA event titles driving his Plymouth Barracuda Funny Cars always called “Stardust”. Don Schumacher, the driver and mega-team owner who wears all 6 team colored shirts on any given weekend is our next "Top Five Most Influential Funny Cars" Don "The Shoe" Schumacher's Top 5 Funny Cars “I have to start off with...

MyRideisMe.com has your Funny Car hookups! We asked 3 current NHRA superstars in funny car and top fuel what funny cars are their "Top 5" most influential of all time, and why. Look for the Top 5 from Ed McCulloch, Ron Capps and Don Schumacher. Let's get started with the Napa Auto Parts funny car crew chief, Ed "Ace" McCulloch. The "Ace" has a drag racing career stretching back more than 30 years. A socal boy living right in the middle of where hot rods and drag racing really took off. It's no wonder he's driven everything from top fuel to funny's. During those early days racing all over the country at whatever track was paying, he learned what it takes to make a nitro burning beast go fast and more importantly, win. He's got 18 wins in funny car and another 4 in top fuel and he won at Indy 5 times. "Ace" is truly a legend in funny car and a perfect kick off for MyRideisMe.com's 5 Most influential Funny Cars... Ed "Ace" McCulloch's Top 5 Funny Cars “Going back some years, probably 'Jungle Jim' Liberman would...