...or is that my hobby is now my job. Hmmmmm. I know, most of you who might read this will say that I have it easy. I work on cool cars for a living and get to shoot video of the process. And I'l admit that most days it is a fun place to be. But friend, it is still work. For instance, for every video there is about 24 hours of culling and editing. Plus the web site and Facebook. Plus often we have to "do something else before we do something on the show".  That means that often we are doing lead up work that never gets filmed (like doing one side of a suspension before we attack the one on video. We do this so that you can work smarter and better via videos that show the right way. We work pretty hard for you to NOT see the umm "man behind the curtain".  

The job is tough but now my hobby (restoring and modifying old cars) has become my vocation. We've learned a lot over the past three years and hope that it shows in the videos. We plan to learn a lot more. 

I'm excited to see where we go from here. And speaking of that, if you have any requests, pitch them. We are not a static show. since we film from week to week we can answer questions (within reason) pretty quickly on the episodes, so ask away.

Thanks for watching
Jeff

If this was your truck...I'm sorry. 

I have to admit that there are times when I see things that make me scratch my head, like midget tossing, presidential campaigns and, well, this. Granted, I look pretty dorky standing next to the thing but W.T.F. At first I thought "fording kit" (no pun intended since it IS on a Ford Ranger). But it was a two wheel drive and had no other evidence of fording equipment. Then I thought "silly teenager" and as quickly realized that no teenager currently drawing breath would expend the sort of energy and time to do this...and paint it caution yellow.

This has to be the artistry of a drunken exhaust installation specialist who in a fit of beer goggle induced frivolity created it to market to bass fishermen. There is no other explanation--I hope. 

OK so I've not blogged about cars in a while...actually I haven't blogged in a while. That changes now. You may or may not be aware that we dug up a '69 Fairlane wagon  out of the great state of Texas. We'll be using said wagon to video feature cars for upcoming episodes. And we've already used it for or series on what old gas     can do to your engine. go HERE to see the first part of the             three part series.

When we pick up a car I kinda get obsessed with it. Wanting to know about the type and options (did you know that the '68 1/2 to 69 Fairlane and Torino WAGON was available with the 428 Cobra Jet?  It's true! So when we spied the two openings shown in the top of the photo at left on the extra Fairlane dash that we got from the former owner Steve Rabe, we were curious..OK no one else cared but I was curious. 

Why did only one side of the panel light up red?  Why not both sides? So through laborious effort we, OK I, took the panel apart and found that some engineer at Ford had decided that we needed to be told when the car was cold...yes, cold. Then obviously late in pre-production, some other person decided that was...well...stupid. Satiated, I then decided that I needed an oil pressure gauge....If you are interested in us posting a tech story about how we did the oil pressure gauge, drop me a line at jford@autorestomod.com 

Fry and egg on the sidewalk.... or bake cookies in your car.

Folks that have been around a while know that in the winter, when I want my house heated up, I like to bake.  A lot.  My oven is hardly ever on in the summer though.  I have been wanting to bake some cookies for a while though.  In comes the heat wave.  It has been in the 3 digit range for the better part of a month here and the black interior of Cricket gets HOT!

So, we have a desire to bake, and effectively a rolling oven... CAR COOKIES!

I ran to the store on the way to work and got the supplies.  Some place and bake cookies and some foil.  Joined by a towel from home.  I drove to work, parked the car and went to work:

7:30 AM:

Ready to roll!  It wasn't that hot out yet, mid-70's so it was going to be a while.  Roll on lunch break.

1:00 PM

4 more hours to go!  See all that melted shortening?  That is why I hardly ever use these things.  They were perfect for this job though.

5:00 PM

And the tasty results:

Best cookies I have ever made?  No.  But they tasted good and it was a fun experiment.  Might as well do something with this heat and my car other than singe my hand on my metal gear shift cap.  And my car smelled fantastic for two days.

Carra
Voice of AutoRestoMod

I am not sure what possesses me to do this, but I buy parts for cars I don't own...yet. It has happened for years. Back in 2002 I bought a '66 Falcon dash pad at a swap meet. Great price, good looking Aqua pad that was the lone Ford part in a Chevy guys pile of four barrel intakes and cylinder heads. he didn't even know what it fit...but I did. And I didn't even own a car it would fit; but I was potentially almost about to--eight months later.

So this last week I was at Temple Auto Parts (a salvage yard) in Batesburg, SC and spotted a 1969 Torino Clock for the dash panel of the 1968 Fairlane I almost near am about to go get. So I snagged it. Why do I do this? I dunno, a deal is a deal is a deal? I am somewhere deep down an eternal optimist and not the realist I present myself as? Hmmmm. No matter, I scored a CLOCK!

Jeff Ford
Producer

We typically will “learn by doing” around here.  Since there are no professionals lurking off camera Vinnie and I have to do what you would have to do if we didn’t exist—learn on one side then show you how we do it on the other. This is why most of the cars I’ve ever built are better on one side than the other.

This was my justification for finishing off the driver’s side door.  The TMI Deluxe Door Panels, NPD vent windows, and door glass were installed  off camera so we could learn again (the last time we adjusted glass on a classic was over 10 years ago) how to make the door glass go where it should and look as good as it could doing it..  And helped us to discover that we may have to do that panel all over again as the wiring for the window relays may be sitting like a damsel in distress on the window scissors. Oye.