In part II of our Hubcap Heaven post, I’ve moved into the ‘golden age’ of wheel covers, with plenty of fine factory discs to chose from. “Dog Dish” caps were relegated to only the most utilitarian models by the mid 50s, as fancy finned wheel covers were gaining style each year, with GM and Mopar [...]
Art & Inspiration
The Five Finest Wheel Covers of the 50s
The Five Freshest Wheel Covers of the 40s
You might remember my “Five Freshest” Grilles and Taillights of the 40s posts from last Fall. It occurred to me that I left out a key set of parts that are rarely left stock on a custom project, and are actually one off the first things to get swapped: Hubcaps (Well technically, a ‘hub-cap’ covers [...]
The ‘Barn Find’ is not dead, Pt. II
Back in October I wrote a short post about the joy of unearthing crusty old cars that have been hibernating for years. I try not to get too excited till things actually happen, and money changes hands. I’ve lost plenty of amazing cars in the second thoughts of an owners mind… Happens all the time. [...]
Weesner’s Scene
Sometime around 1997, Keith Weesner sat down in his studio and decided to figure out just how many young fellas had traditional hot rods rolling around in the SoCal scene. And like most things Keith does, he did it with an artistic slant that his uniquely his and, well… just god damned beautiful. Click it [...]
Letting it go, or keeping it forever?
Last month I was reading the January issue of Road & Track on a plane flight, where Editor-in-Chief Larry Webster was contemplating selling his late father’s 1955 Ford Country Squire wagon so he would have partial funds towards buying his dream car, a Ferrari F355. Don’t get me completely wrong, I do love (some) modern [...]
Germany’s Pre-War Hot Rodding: The Mercedes W125
Mercedes was tired of getting their racing butts kicked in 1936… The W25 racer that year had a flexing chassis coupled with stiff suspension that caused the rear axle to bend 3 to 4 inches under hard braking. It made decent power, but the car just couldn’t hook up and make any traction. 1937 would [...]
Build of the month at Tardel Ranch
If you don’t get the Vern Tardel Enterprises Newsletter, you should. It’s just an e-mail update of whats going on up at the ranch, including project cars, antique mechanical junk, and other titillating Flathead news. I though it would be worth sharing the build of the month, which is this amazing aluminum belly tanker. Read [...]
Greetings from Nuremberg…
I just left two days of not stop walking and gawking at the Spielwarenmesse International Toy Fair Nürnberg in Germany, where nearly 2,800 exhibitors from around the world are spread out over 12 massive halls, showing the lastest in everything from toys to games. It’s really an amazing show on the scale of something like [...]
Death Sprint In Terror Canyon
In 1971, three men lined up in Terror Canyon with an eye towards figuring a grudge only to get interrupted by the fuzz. The result was costly… deadly even… and Terror Canyon has NEVER been the same. Amazingly, it was all caught on film: This film was created by Pete Dawson, Ben Woollen, Dan Inglis, [...]
