Count down to Autorama... 4 weeks.

And so much shit to get done!  Along with trying to knock out a bunch of new work to debut, I told my buddy Spike that I would put my Columbia in the Board-track and Traditional Cruiser portion of this years Show. I'm excited to do so, since this year it'll be downstairs with the trad, hot rod scene istead of tucked back in a forgotten corner, so the bikes will see quite a bit of traffic... but that means that I have to get crackin on getting it ready!

Here's the bike when I bought it from a shed up north last summer:

52 COLUMBIA

And here's a sneak peak of where I'm at currently:

D-165 Chest logo update

After looking over the logo over and over, I decided to switch it up a bit... now wee're ready :)

Barn Find Friday! Duece 3 Window.

Chopped, channeled, and built in the 50's or 60's. No price...which makes me think it's probably astronomical, but a cool find anyways.

Tha CL Ad

60's T-buckets

Found these old Detroit Autorama Pics on the HAMB *I wish I kept the specific posting so I could give credit to the pics' owner, but I cant find it.
For whatever reason, I have come to really like 60's style T-buckets. I've often thought that if I had money laying around, or less projects, (neither which will happen any time soon,) I'd love to by an ugly street rodded T and make it pre-"Fad-T"  These pics are great inspiration for my case anyway.. :)

NEW "BluePrint" Series under way!

Sneak peak at the the newest series (well, the work in progress anyway).. I've been toying with this idea and doing research on an off for the past year... time to buckle down and get em done!

Can you tell what it is? :)

Finalized the D-165 Shirt and got the front chest logo finished up!

Front:

And Rear:

Barn Find Friday: McCormack Coupe

I know, I know... it's Thursday, but I'm leaving town for the weekend and definitely thought this was worth posting.  For more info and a good account of the find, check out the full article on Hemmings.com.

A small clip of the article:
Built in 1955 by Henry McCormack of Orange, California; he debuted his car at the 1955 International Motor Revue Show in Los Angeles. ...What exactly he used for a drive train, the article didn’t say, but in McCormack’s own cutaway drawing of the car, it appears to be a Cadillac 331-cu.in. V-8....According to Geoff, McCormack built 10-15 cars, of which Geoff has located three or four. This particular McCormack appears to have the engine mounts for a small-block Chevrolet V-8 and was allegedly drag raced at Atco in New Jersey.

Hemming Article

All photos courtesy Geoff Hacker


Update* While looking at the comment's in the Hemmings blog, I saw that someone linked this picture from a show in the early 60's. Is it the same car? Given that the picture was taken on the east coast, and the car in the above photos seems to have had the fenders patched where the following photographed car had exhaust exits, it just might be... ;)



Load Fast and Dangerous

New Sticker ( should be avaiable soon!)

Words to live by.

Random Junk find!

Was coming home from buddy's shop yesterday and as I was approaching the highway entrance, I saw the familiar profiles of some over crowned roofs peeking over an overgrown fence behind the far side a McDonalds parking lot.  So like any car junkie, I immediately pulled into the McDonalds and took a closer look. 
The place appears to be some old time fence company, but it wasn't open. The cars were behind the building, and probably not visible through the growth on the fence any other time of year. Most if not all of the stuff back there has long since passed the point of being much more than donors, but regardless it was an interesting array of old iron.

 

Barn Find Friday! '36 Terraplane

No great story on this one, but it's definitely original looking, has been off the road for a hot minute, and looks complete for the most part. If you dig art deco, the Terraplane is right up there with the Cords & Airflows of the same era.

The CL Ad

Happy Newyears!

Sorry to have been slacking as of late. Between the holidays and life in general, I haven't had much extra time on my hands lately. I'll be updating more frequently soon, as things start to ramp up for the Autorama show here in Detroit.

I found this video on Le Container and loved it. Being a tool junkie, places like this always appeal to me. There's something about old tools that have a certain feel to them. Good tools don't die. They just move from place to place. Some get found and re-purposed, some get recycled. You know it when you find a good old piece though, whether it's a WW2 era bench vice that looks like it should be a boat anchor, but still moves with the smoothness of a well oiled precision instrument, or an old set of Mac wrenches, that after 50 years and countless amounts of abuse, still fit snugly to their appropriate bolts, with zero slop.

Perhaps it's the lack of quality, or the disposable nature inherently baked into cheapy tool places like H.Freight (which, don't get me wrong, I have definitely broken down and bought stuff from on more than one occasion) but the tools that I've inherited from my father or his father, mixed with some of the "junk" I've picked up at swap meets and estate sales over the years is some of the best stuff that I have. For example, I have a early 60's Snap-On tool chest. It's dirty, oily, and ugly, but the drawers still slide as well as any ball bearing unit you could buy today...which is more than I can say about some of my newer budget tool carriers.

Anyway, enough babble. Peep the Vid. I never though about it in terms of sustainability, but it makes a good bit of sense. Enjoy.


There's No Place Like Here: Liberty Tool from Etsy on Vimeo.