auto resto mod.

As many of you know, I have a rather large affinity for small, British classic cars.  I entertain inviting one that needs help into my spare garage stall from time to time.  Jeff talks me out of it every time, muttering things about wiring and rust.

Doesn't stop me looking though!  take for instance this little "gem".  This friends is an Austin Healey Frogeye/Bugeye Sprite. Or what's left of one.  I found this car, which had most of its bits and bobs in plastic totes.  It really needs all the help in the world.  And had a low price tag.  Danger!  Danger!

First I show it to Doug, thinking SURELY he will tell me I am smoking something and to forget about this car.  it is not an insurmountable task, but it would be a slog.  Does Doug rescue me from myself?

No, no he does not.  First words out of his mouth:

"Well, it looks about ready for media blasting, and I like doing rust hole repairs.  I'll help!"

D'oh!

So I text Micah, telling him about this poor little thing and how much help it needs (all the help in the world).  I don't know why I expected Micah to try and talk me out of this.  And the text that came back:

"How much do they want for it?"

I talk to Gina about it briefly and she agrees since it is totally lacking a wiring harness at this stage, that any arguments against getting it because of that are invalid.  So, enabler #3 has spoken.

So, armed with auction link, encouragement and a friend that for some odd reason likes doing rust hole repair, I show this poor little beast to Jeff.  This is Jeff Ford, of buying classic station wagon for camera car fame.  Jeff Ford who can look at a car that I would normally go "Really?" at and see it in its restored glory.  But also Jeff Ford who has talked me out of every Britcar I have presented to him to look at.

Honestly, I wish I could nave been in the room when he clicked on the link to the Ebay auction.  I wish I could have seen his face.  The reaction I got - PRICELESS!

He did sputter something about wiring, at which point i pointed out the total LACK of wiring harness.  Then he counters with rust and I tell him Doug likes doing rust repair.  The conversation ended with me realizing though that while I could PROBABLY restore this poor thing with a little help, I don't even have time to do half the stuff I actually NEED to do on a daily basis.  So another Britcar by the wayside for me.

One day though, I am dropping one in Jeff's driveway, I just am.


Carra McClelland
Voice of AutoRestoMod

Carra has expressed her fun of drifting in the frozen north; we down here in South Carolina are walking around in shirt sleeves and seriously considering breaking out the shorts. Yep it is that warm this week. 

Not that I'm complaining. I like warm weather; windows down, breeze in my face, Carla complaining because the wind is buffeting her hair and ears. Of course if I drive fast enough I can't hear her...dang, did I type that out loud?

It is when I'm out in the old cars alone that I enjoy them. All the sounds and smells of a gasoline burning V8 as well as the smells of nature and life in a small town. Carra can have her drifting. I'll take shirt sleeves and arms on window sills any day.

Jeff Ford
Producer, Autorestomod

Ahhhhh!  Winter in Nebraska.  There is just not an awful lot to do up here when the snow flies.  All the really interesting cars get put away, Coworker Doug puts away in nice Mustang in favor of the "Bad Weather Mustang", it is too cold to do much outside but run out there and run a snowblower.

So, what's a girl with a car that has relatives in the WRC and X-Games circuits to do with all this muck and snow and ice?  What if that girl has a BIG open parking lot a mile from her house?  What if going very sideways around a corner has always been great fun?

LET'S GO DRIFTING!

We have had a mild winter, and not many opportunities, but MAN is it fun.  At my spot you will get a line of cars, one car out at a time, then back in line.  Some people are bold, some people are flamboyant, I try to be precise and get my car to go exactly where I want it.  It helps massively when the city streets are a sheet of ice.  I often even beat my car's traction control to the punch (TC off for drifting, on for city driving).

So, what does everyone else do when the snow and ice hit?



-Carra McClelland
The Voice of AutoRestoMod

I wonder how many garage "geniuses" have been sucker punched by situation. Phrases like, "seems simple enough", "surely it can go through there", "How hard can it be", have predicated many a garage endeavor.

The stereo story has proven to be one of those situations that vex "geniuses" like me. While all the parts are easy enough on their own, the application--particularly the speaker placement in the sail panels of our '67 Fastback Mustang has turned a weekend work day into a twisted fun-house story.

For instance: The plasma cutter. In order to make the speaker setups we wanted to use the plasma cutter to make quick work of it. Short version? We spent from lunch Saturday until 4:00PM working on getting it working. A hacksaw would have been four hundred times faster.

Then there is the fun of finding tools that you misplace, cameras that are picky about power supplies or get left on for ten minutes after a take is complete...aaaah good times.

But know what? those speaker enclosures are gonna ROCK! Soon as I can find my screwdriver....

Jeff Ford
Producer

Well, after the last try at car-to-car video...we were sad pandas to be sure. It worked (a bit) with our 2004 F150, but the harsh truck springs and wind buffeting drove us nuts when shooting. To far toward the rear axle and the camera shook like Charro (yes, I'm showing my age) on a talk show, to close to the cab and we got a stellar view of the gunwales of the truck. And don't get us started on the wind noise out in the exposed bed.

So what to do? We are loath to have a minivan. Loath. But a wagon, especially an OLD wagon, that has potential. So we lurked around and landed on this one. A plain-jane '68 Fairlane. So plain it has a mat rather than carpet. So plain that there isn't even a whiff of chrome on the side glass. So plain that there is not even a body side molding so typical on the Fairlane. Nor a roof rack, not even a power tailgate window. The only options are an AM radio and V8 with automatic. Perfect.

Now to start moving things on e-Bay...

Jeff Ford,
Producer

So this week we're tackling stereo. And no, I'm not going to wax poetic about how stereo was back in the day. 

But what I will say is this: with the likes of Kicker and some of the new/old looking radios (like the one we got form NPD) sound systems for cars are way more than what they used to be. And that thought put me in mind of this: What ten songs would be on your MP3 player for your first drive in your newly minted Musclecar? And no it doesn't have to be classic rock. Here are my ten in no particular order especially since I can shuffle the play:

1. Kashmir, Led Zepplin
2. Rythumeen, ZZ Top
3. Carmina Brana
4. inagodadavida, Iron Butterfly(full version or why bother)
   
5. Dragula, Rob Zombie
6. Flower, Moby
7. Hey Man, Nice Shot, Filter
8. Ain't Nothin Wrong With That, Robert Randolf
9. The Stretch, Detroit Sex Machines
10. The Imperial March, John Williams

And yes, I think it wouold be fun to open the garage door and pull out to the Imperial March.

Jeff Ford,
Producer

We picked up a 1968 Mustang hardtop a while back. Never mind where or how; it is really only important that somehow we have another Mustang in the corral. The reason it is important is that this car will become our Weekend Project car. Thus we plan on doing weekend projects that you can pull off in, you guessed it, a weekend. 

While there will be more extensive projects that we'll tackle on the little Aqua...(I was going to say beauty...but, hey, I've seen it up close) but on the whole we plan on tackling those things that all old cars seem to need.

While we've already tapped a couple of items (door latch repair for one) there is much, much more to come.

Thus when we're done, we'll have a local cruise night car as well as something that we can tromp around in the rain in if need be.

Jeff Ford,
Autorestomod Producer

This week we were emailing back and forth with a viewer in Germany who is trying to restomod a '68 Fairlane Convertible. Gutsy move. The one thing we've found is that it's tough to do what we do on "other" American cars here Cars like Torinos, GTXs, Cougars and Firebirds; you know, cars that are not Mustangs or Camaros. As tough as it is, imagin doing it while in another country that is separated from the U.S. by "the pond". Oye. 

We think our parts are expensive; imagine adding shipping and duties, finding a way to FIND Torino parts when sitting in Dusseldorf and then finding someone that is willing to go through the morass to do said shipping and duties hassle... It would be like trying to restore a '60s Opel Kadett here in the good ole U.S. of A.

The thing that we found cool was that Jorge IS doing this, and uses Autorestomod's videos to help him get it done. So hats off to our viewers outside of the U.S!

Jeff Ford,
Producer

So, this weekend we were buttoning up the Tribute Automotive Tach install. A normal days work. As I started to screw together the '67 dash panel I spied that the stock '68 dash panel  Frank Fragellio, owner of Tribute Automotive, sent had a better speedo than our '67. Way better.

Bloody minutia. 

I mean how much difference can it REALLY make? That speedo is a smaller part of the whole dash panel goodness which is a small part of the whole interior awesomeness...but the '67 speedo is tatty what with it's Sharpie fixed nicks and ham-fisted repair of the needle and "danger-too-fast" 70-120 orange sweep. Yep, compared to the gleaming perfection of Frank's '68 speedo our '67 looks like J Fred Muggs after a bad night of banana daiquiris and multiple packs of Pall Malls.

But it is just minutia. Right. Minutia that I'll be glancing at every time I drive the '67. And it will bug me. No end. Hmmmm where is Franks number....

Jeff Ford,
Producer

I went to shoot some video for National Parts Depot this last weekend. They wanted coverage of the Silver Springs Ford show and I was happy to oblige. The show is huge (950 plus Fords show up for a two day fun fest at Silver Springs Park in Ocala, Florida) and I must have walked half way back to Jacksonville over the course of the weekend. 

Now I'm tired.

But I am also pumped up. Seeing that many neat cars, from a early 1960s Mercury Parklane Station Wagon to a 1968 GTE Cougar to a wildly lifted Ford F350 4X4, you can't help but get pumped.

But I am tired.

We also met with Scott Halseth from NPD and solidified some video ideas for our Daily Driver 1968 hardtop Mustang we'll be starting on this year. As well as toured the new expanded car museum and walked their HUGE Florida stores parts isles to gather up some of these items...

But today, I am zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.