I’m a fan of original paint and patina, but I hate the fake stuff. Sometimes the patina on a ride doesn’t look great because of a horrible repaint that makes the car look worse than it probably does underneath as well, and that’s what Matt was facing on his 1934 Ford 5 Window. It had received a brush on paint job that was doing it no favors, but he thought that there was original paint still hiding under it. After doing some testing, he got it figured out and is going to use oven cleaner to get down to the original paint and hopefully make this thing look a jillion times better than before.
Check out the video description below:
In the last video on the 1934 Ford 5 Window we briefly showed some of the original paint that we had started to uncover. Well after 40ish hours, Matt stripped 99% of tan paint that was brushed on back in the 1950s. Matt walks us through some tips and tricks to using Oven Cleaner to remove unwanted paint. While the paint is worn through in spots, we think it looks way nicer. Let us know down below what you think!!
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When it comes to guys who know every inch of a top fuel dragster or nitro funny car, NHRA crew chief Rob Wendland is in elite company. Having won races as a driver and a tuner and having lived his whole life in the sport of straight line competition, Wendland is uniquely qualified to tackle just about any job you can think of, including the work of saving a top fuel blower that has seen better days.
Wendland served as the crew chief for Terry McMillan’s top fuel operation for years and they were always a team that did more with less. It was not ever about out-spending anyone there but it was about using all your resources as smartly and as efficiently as possible. We’re hoping to get Rob and Terry back on the tour as soon as possible. But we digress.
In this video we’re in Rob’s shop and he’s got a blower from a lower budget NHRA top fuel team that needs some serious help. Over the course of the video we see some procedures, some tools, and some tech that we’ve never seen before. The amazingly trick cutter from DMPE is but one example. The process and procedure of not only rebuilding the blower but actually repairing the rotors and the case is great and detailed.
We dig Rob’s honesty at the end of the video when he mentions the fact that the work he did here is above and beyond what most would do, but since this is a supercharger from a smaller team who is not racing for the title, it made the most sense for time and money.
This is some really neat stuff!
Press play blow to see Rob Wendland save a top fuel supercharger that’s had a hard life –
We’re guessing someone lost their job for this one. You are going to watch this 1970s Chevrolet parts film which stars Evel Knivel and makes literally no sense at all. The theme of the film is “conflict” and it is illustrated by a series of scenes where animals eat other animals, black and white movies are shown, and Evel Knievel jumps stuff on his motorcycle, sometimes crashing, sometimes not. Throw in a dose of 1970s Anchoman-level hilarity with a bikini-clad woman, and you have yourself one of the most singular odd things we have ever seen.
Make no mistake, Knievel would never turn down a gig, especially one with Chevrolet that likely was a great payday for reading some cue-cards. The company definitely did not hire him for his suave acting ability because this dude is straight up stiff while narrating the action. By action, we mean the bizarre things we are shown on screen.
Oddly, while Chevrolet parts are mentioned a handful of times there’s barely (if ever) a Chevrolet car shown as a prop in the film. This whole thing is some weirdo theater of the mind that was likely schemed up by an executive’s kid. “Hey Johnson, get my son a job in the media department and let him run wild!”
Obviously, Knievel was majorly famous at this point and his star only grew bigger. Note that he mentions that someday, “I’ll jump a mile….” we all know how that quest ended.
You have to see this one to believe it.
Press play to see the weirdest Chevrolet Parts video ever made, starring Evel Knievel!
Engines tell us things when we take them apart after they’re used, right? We look to see how things are wearing, what stuff is wearing and shouldn’t and what we can do better the next time we put one together. In this case we join the crew at Real St Performance, one of the neatest and most accomplished shops in the country. These guys are wizards with a lot of stuff but the 2JZ engine platform is definitely their wheelhouse. The engine you are going to see being taken down was build to be used as a dyno mule to test a new piston design for the Toyota inline six. You’ll see what worked, what didn’t and what these guys learned from the component inspection.
What we dig most about this video is the honesty. It would have been easy to pull it down and say, “Yep, everything is awesome and we wouldn’t change a thing, we crushed it!” Well, they did crush it because the thing made 1,850hp with a stock block and crank but the parts in a few places were not the happiest. Not the stuff you may be expecting, either, and maybe not for the reasons you are expecting.
Engine forensics at their finest. Check out this gnarly 2JZs guts!
Press play below to see this cool teardown video of a Toyota 2JZ –
Eastwood’s Parked series is kinda cool, and this is one of the stories from it. The idea behind the series, titled Parked – Automotive Adventures, is to have you hot rodders out there submit your stories of cool automotive adventures. There is no production crew, there is no script, just you sending in an email to tell them about your adventure. They choose some cool ones, get photos and video, then shoot a skype video with you telling the story of your find or whatever. In this case, Brant Halterman is telling a story of a mysterious 1932 Ford that had been forgotten, but not forever.
This barn find all starts from stories that a friend of his dad’s would tell, of his 1932 Ford 5-window coupe and the adventures surrounding it. When Brant’s dad passed, it wasn’t very long before the friend did too. And then one day there was an ad online for a 1932 Ford. When he saw the photos it didn’t even register in his mind, but after talking to the seller he realized he was talking to the family of his dad’s friend and that this was the 1932 Ford he’d been told about for years.
I’ll let him tell you the rest of the story, and show you where it was and how it got out of that little old barn. If you have your own story to share with the gang at Eastwood, then for the love of god send them a message and see if you can get your story told on Parked. All you have to do is email them at [email protected] and make sure to tell them that Chad from BANGshift sent you!
It was monumental news when Toyota said that it was going to step up its truck game in the early 1990s with the addition of the T100 model. This was going to be a small-ish truck that was kind of in its own size class. They had done their marketing studies and determined not only what their own loyal Toyota buyers wanted but also what many people who were intimidated by larger trucks wanted to buy.
Their answer was the T100 which was first sold here in 1993. This MotorWeek review is pretty good because it really shows the truck in an honest light. It was “lesser-than” the half ton trucks and even had some short comings when compared to rigs like the Dakota and others. It was short on power, it was pretty slow, and the interior was cramped, but what it did and what they correctly recognized it as doing was to lay the foundation for Toyota’s truck expansion and while that expansion took years and years, it was the long game that ultimately paid off with the Tundra which has been a success for the company.
The neatest part of this video is the end where they basically read the tea leaves of what Toyota is going to do regarding larger trucks in the US market. They debuted the Tundra about 5 years after this truck hit the market and it had V8 power, larger size, and has been sold now for two decades. The Tundra did not harm the Detroit companies in ways that may feared. Lots of Tundras, like T100s find buyers who are already Toyota loyalists and want a truck that it’s “too much” for their tastes.
The T100 really started the whole process.
Press play below to see this interesting review of the 1993 Toyota T100 –
To avoid splashing your hard-earned money on a clunker, you need a certified pre-owned program for your car. But the question is: what does a certified pre-owned car mean for car owners? How is such a program run? Is it even worth spending money on CPO cars? Can you negotiate price when you wat to buy a pre-owned car?
Here’s all you need to know about certified pre-owned car program and how you can benefit from it.
What is a Certified Pre-Owned Car?
Generally, a certified pre-owned car refers to re-conditioned vehicles that have passed the test of complete safety inspections under the supervision and recommendation of the vehicle manufacturer. Such cars must have also undergone all specified necessary repairs and fixes and are certified
Why You Should Consider a CPO car Program
There are quite a number of reasons to opt for certified pre-owned cars, apart from their greater level of reliability, reputation, and durability.
Free Car History Reports
One good thing about CPO cars is that they often come with free CPO checklist and vehicle reports and history that are specific to the standards of the manufacturer of the car. You should get and carefully inspect all legal papers to make sure they carry necessary documentation and correct information.
Comprehensive Warranty
Cars offered under the CPO program feature automaker-backed extra warranty that stretches their mile coverage or months left on them. New owners can enjoy powertrain warranty or the bumper-to-bumper warranty.
Because they’re not the regular used vehicles, CPO cars often come at prices higher than non-certified used cars. But the good news is that you don’t have to break the bank before acquiring them. CPO cars are considered semi-new vehicles, so are offered at prices lower than brand new but higher than many used cars.
Bumper Incentives
Typically, CPO cars have often been used for between 2 to 8 years. Besides, they usually boast extra dealership warranties, breakdown coverage, and roadside assistance.
Reliable Dealership Certification
One thing about CPO car program is that certification from the auto dealers can be taken as the gospel truth. It’s almost impossible to lie about the about the condition of the vehicle, because there are multi-point inspections.
Can you bargain price on certified pre-owned cars?
Sure, you can negotiate a downward review of the price offer on a certified pre-owned car. Even if your salesperson seems to be offering good price, you’re allowed to enter into a negotiation table for a reduction in price.
Wrap
Here’s what you should bear in mind as we round off the discussion: CPO programs aren’t intended for cars that have been used for a decade or more. Potential buyers in search of high-mileage, low-cost vehicles shouldn’t consider CPO.
If there is one thing we know it’s that one of the most fun parts of drag racing in the 1990s was the rivalry between John Force and Al Hofmann. No, Hofmann did not get around Force for a title during his reign of terror but he did beat him enough on race weekends to officially be a pain in his ass and the fact that he so loved doing it and telling the world that he loved doing it made the scene even better. In 1995 Hofmann finished second in the NHRA funny car points and seemed poised to really make some big noise in 1996. It did not necessarily work out that way but for this moment in time captured here on video, Al Hofmann was coming into John Force’s life like a freight train through his living room.
You are going to see Hofmann take on and take down Tony Pedregon, John Force, and then Cruz Pedregon all on the same day and in that order. Tony P almost got him, he puts an all-time gate job on Force, and Cruz has had so many problems that they had to go get a body from the NHRA Top Eliminator Club ceiling which was hanging there for decoration!
Wild and wooly times at the NHRA finals…which we hope will be back in Pomona next year.
This right here is some stuff! The first part of the video seems to date from the first half of the 1960s but the last half comes from 1968 and there’s one really specific way that we know that. This is rare footage of Mario Andretti drag racing for the only time in his life at Connecticut Dragway in 1968.
You will see him landing on the strip in a little Cessna, hanging out with the trophy queen and ultimately see him making laps in a Mustang on behalf of Tasca Ford! Andretti ran a match race against track owner Frank Maratta who is driving a Camaro prepared by Norwood Chevrolet. To double down on the awesome, the car that Andretti is likely a Tasca KR8, the car that the production Cobra Jet Mustangs were based off of! Surely they would not have stuck Mario in some 390 powered Mustang, right? He got the good stuff we’re sure.
There’s plenty of other fun stuff to be seen here in the form of wheel standers and loads of awesome cars but the real story if Mario. Recently on television he talked about this particular day and his memories all these years later are 100% spot on, the video proves it! You will see him fly in around the 13:00 minute mark and his runs against Maratta are shown around the 15:00 mark.
Drag racing history in living color!
Press play below to see this amazing footage from Connecticut Dragway!
