New Summer Tees at HUGE Savings

We have a limited number of our well-received (and obviously popular!) Art Ragz series of t-shirts, and in sizes from small through 2XL (adult sizes only). What's great is that, for under ten bucks, you get a THREE COLOR (yeah, 3 colors!) design, printed on the back, and our logo up front... all on a lightweight tee that's perfect for Summer. Even better: with the low price, you won't live in fear of messing it up in the garage, shop, studio, environmental disaster, using it to choke a hippie, pie-eating contest, whatever.

These are Gildan Ultra Blend tees,and the printing is light enough (and has enough open space, too) that you won't get that dreaded "sweaty back" feeling... And, as if that weren't enough, we threw in some 'flake, too... because, after all, what's cooler than THAT?

Here's the front, BTW:

You can buy some tees in our online store... As we said, limited quantities remain, and Summer's here, so grab 'em while they last... And, as always, thank you for the support!

When the Rubber Hits the Road

While it certainly sounds like the event which might signal the close of a truck stop tryst (We apologize for that. Brian apparently found the good coffee again –Ed.), but we’re more interested (for the time being) about the 2010 Amsoil/Street Rodder Magazine Road Tour car leaving the shop, and hitting the wide open spaces, highways, side streets and assorted roadside tourist traps that make our country great.

The Shadow Rods-based hauler made a grand entrance on May 16th at Southern Rods in Greer, South Carolina, and we’re stoked all over again! Built by our pal (and Hall of Famer, no less) Zane Cullen over at Cotati Speed Shop in Santa Rosa, it’s a killer combination of traditional style, reverence to the Bay Area’s storied hot rod past, and modern reliability and power. The car looks incredible with a track nose, hood blister, and so much of that trademark Cotati Speed Shop attention to detail that we can’t begin to list it all here…

You can keep up with the Tour Car  on the official blog HERE, and see where Jerry is headed, where he’s been, and where you can join in the fun, too! And if you can, head on out and join the fun!


…and hey…. if I can be of use to design YOUR next ride, website, whatever… hit me up on the site! www.problemchildkustoms.com

Ideas for Custom Cars

Ideas upon ideas… Oh, we get lots of those… and while we could write a book about the ideas Brian throws out there each day, we just can’t afford a blanket insurance policy that big. Suffice to say, then, that it made our day when the new Motorbooks Custom Cars Idea Book hit the doorstep…


Alan Mayes (managing editor of Ol’ Skool Rodz and Car Kulture DeLuxe) has thrown down a nifty collection of photos reminiscent of the Motor Life, Car Craft, et.al. specials and columns of the 1950′s and 1960′s highlighting custom car ideas and trends, and packaged them neatly in this 160 page (with, dig this: 536 COLOR images… yes, over 500 color photos!) book. What this amounts to is a great reference piece for the garage or den or studio. Imagine having all of your Google searches for headlight and tail light, top chop, grille and other ideas in one book?

For me, it’s a great lunchtime companion… seriously. A couple of times a week, I take a break to just sit back and eat something, and this book is a tremendously fun way to kill a few minutes, and stretch the brain, car-wise when the mood hits. It’s laid out in an almost intuitive fashion, spanning Pre-War models, the ubiquitous ’49-’51 Mercs, and then on to 1950′s and 1960′s cars, before diving into show rods, trucks and a few late-models. There are even handy sections (a-ha! a pun…) on front and rear end treatments, chassis, paint, trim and more.

While I’d certainly love to see more on show rods, it’s a great overview, and again, collection of custom cars. It certainly works very well to spark your creative side when planning a project, and excels as an overview of popular customizing techniques. This book would be a fantastic primer (pun count: 2) for anyone new to the hobby, and certainly a great quick-reference guide when the inevitable “do you know that car?” conversation pops up.

My only gripe would be with some of the photographs, which seemed sourced rather than shot with the specific intent of being used in a book of this nature. A few more “head-on” shots or closeups would have been great, but overall, the message in each photo (and all are captioned, by the way… which is FANTASTIC) comes across loud and clear, and the clarity of every photo is great. Highly recommended for your reference library, and well worth the cover price.

Speaking of the price, you can scoop up a copy in our bookstore, and save a few bucks, too ($8.50 to be exact)!

Custom Cars IDEA BOOK: Coupes Sedans Pickups
Alan Mayes
Paperback
160 Pages
Illustrated with 536 color images
Motorbooks
Availability: June 8, 2010

One Lap Camaro Takes First!

James and David hit the proverbial road on the 2010 Tire Rack One Lap of America, and pushed 3528 miles in eight days, competing in road course (long and short variations), 1/4 mile and skidpad events. The entire event pushes man and machine, and the guys placed first in Vintage American! An outstanding achievement and well-deserving of praise indeed!

We in the Studio were stoked to be a part of it all, and were sponsors alongside the big dogs like OPTIMA Batteries, Hellwig Products, ISIS Power, Camaro Performers Magazine, Currie Enterprises, Heighton Restorations, Speed Tech Products, Spectre Performance, FM3 Performance Marketing, Pozzi Racing, and Mothers Wax’s and Polishes… Hell, we even rode along (logo-wise on the spoiler, anyway! As the wife said, it gives us some street cred, making us kinda like the “Carlton Banks of street cred… known for doing something well, but still funny to watch dance.”)…

…making this our near-official domination, appearing on and off-road, in the air, and on the sea. All we need now is to sponsor a submarine, a train and some form of spacecraft, and we’re golden (we’ll settle for a hoagie wrapper, a scale model of the Enterprise and a few laps around a Christmas tree on a Lionel. Not picky, you know…).

Our sincerest congratulations and a hefty swelling of pride for the team, and best wishes on the next conquest! HUGE thanks, too, to all who grabbed a t-shirt and helped to support grass-roots racing at it’s finest.

No doubt that this win puts a little something extra in the meaning of the shirts, and I can’t begin to tell you how cool it was to have the opportunity to play a part!
(if you haven’t grabbed one yet, hit the boys up HERE, and grab a few!)

Art, a Gathering... and an Invader

If you've been reading this blog for any time, you undoubtedly know about my involvement with Motorburg.com, the community, forum and magazine for automotive artists, designers and enthusiasts (and if you've been looking for just such a place, get over there and join in the fun!). I bring this up because over in the 'Burg, we have some HUGE things planned... Most notably the Motorburg Design Center to be featured at the 41st NSRA Street Rod Nationals in Louisville, KY, August 5-8, 2010.

Motorburg’s associate artist list reads like a “who’s who” of rod & custom art and design and includes: Darrell Mayabb – Thom Taylor – Jimmy Smith – C•Cruz – Greg Tedder – Ralph Burch – Brian Stupski – C. Smith… as well as CARtoon greats Nelson Dewey and Errol McCarthy. The Design Center gallery will display art by these associates as well as prints and portfolios by Motorburg’s talented forum members.

The exhibit will feature the Charlie Smith designed 1941 Buick Centurion Roadster – a removable-top beauty built by the late Egon Necelis and still turning heads after more than twenty years “on the road”. Of special interest will be the display of the “Invader” – America’s Most Beautiful Roadster in both 1967 & ‘68 and the subject of a Motorburg Forum design challenge.  You’ll also get to watch as artists work in the exhibit’s two design studios, in traditional and digital fashion. The public is invited to get up close and personal as the designers do their magic on paper and monitor.

Additionally, the exhibit will display several rods and customs designed by the stylists, along with drawings and illustrations involved in the actual build.So, stop by and “talk shop” with the artists, builders and industry guests at the “Motorburg Design Center”. They’re in space 1001 through 1003 that's 20-feet by 70-feet of eye candy and artistic inspiration!)  at this year’s NSRA Nats.

Aside from the plotting, planning and organization (as well as trying to get the word out there about the event) for the Design Center, it's been steady in the Studio, which is great. I took a little time and pounded out some work which had been burrowing a hole in the right half of my brain, and used up the last of the Masonite in the garage:

...as well as a few client works that went a step beyond the typical rendering, and grew into little chunks of fine art all their own:

That said, hope you dig the new stuff (check out the website, and see about having your own hot rod art created!), and please spread the word about the Motorburg Design Center! Hope to see you there!

Building a Street Machine

...can be a wonderfully rewarding experience, and even one of those great bonding experiences between family members or friends... Or it can become a completely maddening and disheartening ordeal that wrenches family and friends from you. What is often the deciding factor is in the planning, and that's where Mr. Bryant's book excels.

What you get, page after page is a modern look at the classic performance build primer. Building the newcomer's knowledge, system by system, the book takes a straightforward approach to explaining the basics, and suggesting methods of implementing a plan to create the car of your dreams. While many folks today simply look at automotive forums and websites and build whatever is trendy or worse, rely on some group approval method (which normally involves a ton of mis-matched bolt-ons) for design and, uh, "planning"... This book gives concrete examples of how to plan, budget and simply get the work done, using the author's own Buick project as a case study.

From the simplest explanations ("What is a street machine?") to more advanced topics (driveline swaps, suspension and steering controls to power-adders), the book is a great read, and is easily understood. Where technical jargon is needed, it is backed-up with plain-English explanations and illustrations, again, making this the ideal book for the first-time builder or enthusiast in your home or circle of friends.

What's really great here is that it's loaded with tips that can be applied to any genre of street machine, and not just another niche-book, which centers on drag race-inspired or pro-touring style cars. And while many "blanket" type books fall short, this is one title that will be on our "recommended reading" list for any clients embarking on their first car building adventure. It has some great reference material between the covers as well, making this a solid investment for both the studio and garage, and a great gift idea, too!

How to Build a Killer Street Machine
MOTORBOOKS WORKSHOP
Jefferson Bryant
Illustrated. 191pp
Softcover
Motorbooks
$29.99

Grab your own copy here and save over $7.00 in our Book Store!

That Rare Barn Find…

…may be just around the corner from where you’re sitting as you read this. Proof of such finds, as well as some stories that put the occasional “right place, right time” story to absolute shame will have you turning the pages of Tom Cotter’s book The Cobra in the Barn — Great Stories of Automotive Archaeology with what seems to be never-ending excitement.


This is, of course, the all-new paperback version of Cotter’s book, originally released as a hard-cover in 2005, and the first of his “In the Barn” series (which also includes Hemi in the Barn, Vincent in the Barn, and the forthcoming Corvette in the Barn). The book takes the approach of the classic bench racing topic of that one rare, hidden or forgotten gem that someone always seems to find in the back of a barn, or tucked behind years of junk in a garage, and backs up the exciting premise with true stories of such finds!


From stories of pure chance finds, like the ‘40 Ford Woody found when a hunter sought refuge from the rain, to tales of utter compulsion and persistence (years of phone calls and visits simply to purchase a long-term project), and everything in-between, the book is a true page-turner, no matter what your automotive tastes. From cars found literally around the corner, to travels almost around the globe, you’ll find yourself wrapped-up in the cars, people and stories.


Like so many of the people featured in the book, I can certainly agree that there’s a thrill in the chase, and occasionally, we learn that once the prize has been captured, it’s simply on to the next hidden treasure… While for others, the cars and their stories become a part of their lives and heirlooms in the process. This was the first automotive book I’ve had in the studio that just grabbed and fascinated everyone who happened to pick it up! Even my wife read the book, cover-to-cover, and has made it a point to seek out the other titles in the series.


As the press release states, “Author Tom Cotter uses his engaging writing style in telling the tales of found Cobras, a rare Delehaye found disassembled in Czechoslovakia that eventually won Best in Show at Pebble Beach, a Ferrari racer found in a California wood chip pile, and several more. Cotter traces the early histories of the cars, how they were discovered, and where they are today.” I’d like to add that the book also stresses the importance of research, and the struggle for some to decide between restoration or updating and personalizing these finds… And having the ability to learn from others with just a simple flip of a page make this book a treasure all its own!

The Cobra in the Barn
Great Stories of Automotive Archaeology
Tom Cotter
Illustrated. 256pp
Paperback
Motorbooks
$19.99

Grab your own copy here and save a couple bucks!