Tips For How To Avoid Brake Failure As  GreaseGirl, I’m always attempting to share with you all the things I’m learning within the hot rod world. Owning my own classic car, I've experienced a pretty steep learning curve to say the least… and brake importance is just one more thing I needed to learn! So read on to hear about my own misadventure and hopefully avoid your own!!! "Collision closely avoided. But my brakes are gone! I have NO brakes…what’s a girl to do!?" I’d had friends see my brake line situation and tell me I should do some work on it. I’ve considered changing my master cylinder. But when your classic car is your only car… sometimes your time and money get spent on what’s needed to keep it running. Lately that list has been pretty involved with "Studie" My 1955 Studebaker pictured above. From a new exhaust system to changing my transmission and rebuilding my front suspension – at each turn of the road I’ve learned a lot and improved Stude’s performance greatly. What was next on my list of things to do to my 1955 Studebaker???...

Homebuilt Hot Rods Car shows, car club, breakdowns, wrench nights, possible near death experiences, getting things fixed, and as always adventuring in the hot rod world - these things and more are what've been goin' on for the past month as I've neglected my writing. The month started with a car club meeting (I haven't told ya'll too much about them yet...I'll have to remedy that soon!) The following day was Bedlam Ball Car Show in San Pedro. Me and the other Gasoline Girls had fun hanging out together and seeing our buddies the Throttle Kings along with some other cool cars down in the port town of Los Angeles. The next week included ongoing wrench nights to get Lori's truck finished, a 1948 Ford F1, as well as some work to be done to get Rosa's 1965 Ford Falcon working correctly again. In the meantime, Stude was tellin' me her front suspension was gone, really gone. After months of driving her knowing that her bushing were on their way out and then completely gone. With rain falling in LA and a nearly bald tire... I decided to park...

Buick Skylark's LS2 Engine Swap:   Most car guys make like-minded friends, and Jason Rushforth is proud to know car guys all over the world. Take a half-dozen of his friends who live close by him in the Pacific Northwest, throw in some emotional roller coaster moments, one '64 Buick,  a high-tech engine swap and a few late nights. From there, subtract proper nourishment and numerous hours from the daily schedule, and you get the story of some of the best friends any guy could hope for... And collectively the reason his car made it to their big, local Goodguys show.   The following tale comprises all of the above, and makes for the memories we all share in late-night benchracing sessions, and throws a decidedly modern twist on the engine swap gone- bad-but-brought-back-from-peril-by-good-pals tale. It's one of those MyRideisMe-style blips in hot rod history, where the car brings the big picture together, and all seems right in your high octane world. In Jason's words:   Every car guy has a story about a late night thrash getting a car ready for a show whether it's debuting a million...

They say distance makes the heart grow fonder. Since Stude's spent the past 3 months suntanning her metal in the Mojave sun outside Gene Winfield's shop...I've grown fonder then ever. The great news is (drum-roll please,) she's back on the road!!! Not only is she back, she's running better than ever! Replacing the transmission was the biggest job that needed to be done. Saving money and finding the right transmission is what took the bulk of the time. Luckily I had good friends and lots of help through the process...thanks to all who were involved! I ended up having a great guy, Rick Annis in Phoenix, AZ, rebuild a 700R4 for me. Then my car club pal, Lori, and I took the 700R4 up to Mojave to meet Stude. Up at Gene's we got a lot of help from Bart putting it in. With Bart having a lot of experience in engine tuning he wouldn't let my car out of his sight with just a new transmission - so we worked on getting Stude's little 383 small block up to par also. The first weekend we did a lot...

I've known for awhile that I needed to change the spark plugs in my Studebaker. But I'd heard things. Things like you could break the plug inside your motor if you did it wrong and to be sure to tighten the plugs to the correct tension. So although I knew they should be changed, I was scared to do it on my own, and my spark plugs in there were working...right??? As I'm learning, I'm seeing that spark plugs (although they don't cost much and are small little things) are a major, MAJOR component of your engine. Without 'em, your engine wouldn't run. Without 'em working at their best, your engine won't run at its best. So as part of last weekend's wrenching adventure up at Gene Winfield's in Mojave, I changed my spark plugs...for the very first time! Gasp! The fellow at the local parts store recommended Autolite over ACDelco plugs which I had been running (What do you think? Leave a comment below!) I was surprised, and a little confused, when he informed me the gap for my application was .052. What?!? While perhaps some people just throw...

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...

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'm a car guy, not a web guy.   Yes, I've spent the last 3 years making MyRideisMe.com and spending a huge portion of my limited free time on the computer, but it's all been worth it. The community's growing, sponsorship is growing and that means there'll be more free stuff (see the freebies stories) and more content for everyone to enjoy.   That said, I had to spend some time in the garage this weekend to prove to myself, I am a car guy. My 1963 Falcon wagon's been neglected so that MyRideisMe.com's not. I've had a new radiator to put in for a while now and I have an Optima Battery to put in as well. My new yellow top's still waiting, but at least I've got the radiator in!     Why'd it take me so long? It was a hard day's work, but not as bad as I thought it would be. I have this tendency to over think to the point where it keeps me from getting started. Maybe that's how I'm wired as an engineer. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out....

Are you a "do-it-yourselfer" (DIY) hot rodder?  Do you wrench on your own cars?  Well, this is a DIY'er to the max.  I came across pictures of Jared Drinkwater's Mitsubishi Evolution on NASIOC.com, a Subaru enthusiasts forum of all places.  I'm a huge fan of the Mitsubish Evo for sure, but I was blown away at Jared's engineering and build skills.  Jared is like the ultimate do-it-yourselfer.  He is a Mechanical Engineer by day, by night he engineers parts for his Evo, which he races on road courses.  Jared makes his own aero parts, race seat rails, fire extinguisher mounts, rebuilt his own engine (with a stroker kit and bigger turbo) and more.  Dig these pics of his ride and Binary Eng parts you can buy for your own Evo. Jared's "Binary Engineering" Mitsubishi Evolution in his new race livery.  Of course, he designed and applied these decals on his own.  Dig the front aero package, designed and built by Jared using lots of aluminum sheet and carbon fiber. This was the stock front bumper.  Jared has added a tow hook (just in case he needs help getting out of...

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...

When I wrote my 2010 Car Project Wish List, Get a new exhaust system on was top priority. I'm glad to report that this past week I tackled the first item on my list! I certainly can't take the credit on this one, because I had a lot of help! B&C Industries down in Anaheim put their skill and expertise to work in crafting a top quality custom exhaust system for Studebaker, along with tons of help from Matt over at Department of Customz also. As I'd previously explained Stude's exhaust: The pipes that went on my car were originally shaped for a different model Studebaker. This means I’ve got an ugly exhaust system taking a good 6” under my car’s profile – yuck! It’s also taken a good beating on the asphalt because of that, which has resulted in both mufflers been torn open! Take that and worn out Hooker headers and you’ve got crazy noise and a less-than-healthy exhaust system. "Less-than-healthy" is an understatement. We're talking nearly-unbearable noise, exhaust fumes pouring into the passenger area, and a slight embarrassment anytime I drove anywhere "car people" would be....

So, February in Utah isn't a great time to bust out the street driven Gasser, you'd think, but the owner of this '55 Gasser called "Hemi Hunter" gets a big high 5 for doing just that.  Of course, it is the warmest day since November 22, it was a balmy 46.  Ha ha  I've got no info except for the pics I took.  But its a gorgeous example of an early 60's Gasser built to run on the street. This car was immaculate!  Cherry black paint, all the correct Gasser mods, like radiused rear fender, bumperless, big long tube headers, no front fender wells to block the headers and straight front axle.  Those keystone mags set the car off nicely as well.  Rad!!! "Hemi Hunter" is right, that's what a 502ci big block will get ya. Love the gold lettering.  Period correct and Rad! Super clean, that's the word that comes to mind.  I dig the scoop sittin' under the vette hood bulge. That paint is reflecting everything.  Wow!  Dig that vette hood bulge/scoop and big street meats in the rear! I dig the white steering wheel and white...