One of the most important things about TIG welding (I think I say that a lot - there must be a lot of important things!) is keeping things steady.  I've shot a video on keeping the filler steady so it doesn't get bumped into the tungsten and mess everything up, and now here's a video on using your hand as a sort of tripod to control your torch. I've used the writing analogy before, but here's another one: think about shooting a rifle.  You don't get a steady shot by holding the gun with both hands on the stock - the muzzle would be waving around and there would be almost no way to prevent some movement.  The best way to steady a rifle is to have some kind of support as close to the end of the muzzle as possible while still being able to fine tune your aim.  Think of a welding torch in the same way - support the torch as close to the cup as possible without burning yourself.  Of course, there will be compromises like visibility and pain.  But to produce a good weld,...

I wanted to continue my international hot rod theme of late and share some pictures sent to me by Ken Sakata of Trident Speed Shop from Nara Prefecture, Japan.  We first introduced you to Trident Speed Shop in Tano's '26 T roadster feature a few weeks back.  In an email from Ken, he told me that Trident has been in business for 10 years.  He was proud to say that he does not advertise in any magazines becaues he gets his business from word of mouth. Tano tells me that he takes his '26 T Roadster to Ken in Nara, which is on the opposite side of Japan from Sapporo, because Trident is the only shop he trusts with his hot rod.  This black and white photo above is rad!  This is Ken's roadster built in traditional hot rod style.  I love these aircraft style windscreen frames, they really give hot rods that 1940's traditional feel dont they? Ken says he loves the speed culture.  Hot Rods are very important in his life and he especially respects hot rodders. Here is Ken lubing crank bearings during reassembly.  Anyone know what kind of engine this is? ...

Throttle Magazine was the first known "hot rod" magazine, before it was even known as hot rodding.  Throttle was almost 100% focused on southern California Lakes and Midget racing.  It was only printed for 1 year, 1941, and included 12 issues.  The bombing of Pearl Harbor turned the USA upside down and hot rodding all but dried up for 3-4 years along with the magazine.  Throttle never came back after WWII ended.  "Hot Rod Magazine" picked things back up in January 1948 with their first issue.  Here's a quick look at Throttle through a Reprint book I purchased at The Rodders Journal website. Thom Taylor (check out Thom's website ThomTaylorDesigns.com), hot rod artist, was the person who spearheaded the effort to put together a quality reprint of all 12 issues.  No small task considering relatively few copies were printed and the fact that they are almost 70 years old.  That's Old School cool! Here's a glimpse from the Introduction by Thom Taylor of just what kind of effort was involved in this project: "Jack Peters, who created Throttle and was its editor and publisher, was an enigma.  Finding out what happened to him was difficult but also...

We featured Kathy's 1961 Comet back in March.  Kathy and the Comet were invited to the 2010 Fresno Autorama.  You know, the Blackie Gejeian Car Show.  It's only his 51st show.  Only!?  The Fresno Autorama is considered to be THE finest indoor car show in the States.  Kathy hooked us up with Jerry Burt and his photos on JBurtPhotos.com. First, let's see a couple pictures of Kathy and her Comet, along with Blackie Gejeian.  Check out Kathy's BIG smile.  Friends and hot rods makes for some Good Times! Wow, what a cool experience to have your hot rod invited to the Fresno Autorama by Blackie Gejeian.  Congrats Kathy and the Full Tilt crew. That deep purple paint on the Full Tilt built Comet is a sight to see!  Just gaze into the purple hue under the lights at the Fresno Autorama.  Heaven!  ha ha In this photo by J Burt, the tan leather custom interior is poppin' real nice.  The suicide doors help bring attention to the interior too.  But, its hard not to notice the low down air ride and injected powerplant. Now, on to some of my favorite...

The last post I did using Pascal Hein's photos was German cars in Germany.  Today, I bring you American Hot Rods and Customs in Germany.  It's an interesting idea to think of an American Muscle car or a traditional roadster as an "import" car.  As we saw with Tano's '26 T Roadster from Japan, there are some very cool American rides all over the globe.  Let's see what Germany has in store for us... Here's a great line up of 20-30's hot rods.  I spy a sedan, a roadster, and a pickup.  Looks like we're at a car show on main street USA right? Low ride height, white walls.  This is a beautiful 40's (right?) cruiser.  I'm not good with cars from the 40's.  Anyone know what this is? Now, something from the 50's.  A well used 4 door Chevy Bel Air hot rod project.  A little rust here, a little primer there, mismatched doors.  I love it.  You know this car gets driven. Dig this mild custom Ford Edsel!  Ya, Ford Edsel.  You can't get any more American than this.  ha ha  As big of a failure as it was back in the day, the...

Kristabelle, don't shoot! Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekender is no doubt it's own car show. The cars get checked before entering so there's no billet anything or any car built after sixty-something. But it's the people and more specifically the wandering pinups that make the show. Who doesn't love Hot Rod Pinups! Burlesque Performer Sophia Sirena If you're watching closely, you'll see well known pinups like Heidi Van Horne and Dayna Delux enjoying the show, but they're generally not posing. I guess you could say they've "made it" and get paid when they're shot. Dayna teamed up with Sabina Kelly to host a "Bottles and Pinup Models"  night at the Foundation Room at the Mandalay Bay and Heidi's doing a little bit of everything. She's acting, directing, writing a blog for the Houston Chronicle... she's busy but just as sweet as ever! Viva's become a hot spot for pinup models and the photographers that make their living shooting pinup. This is Mitzi Valenzuela from Mitziandco.com shooting one of many pinup models on the long (Wednesday to Sunday) weekend. Mitzi's contributed quite a bit to MyRideisMe.com and has shot with...

Truth be told, I haven't been to an indycar race since I was a kid. At age 9 I was convinced I would be an indycar driver when I grew up. That profession was won over by being a doctor, then being a designer... and on and on the years passed. But when I got an offer for some tickets to the Grand Prix of Long Beach this weekend from Optima Batteries, I couldn't think of anything else I'd rather do on this beautiful Sunday. Ever since I by chance ended up driving these streets while they were blockading them off for the race, I'd wanted to check this event out. It's not some boring circle track - this 1.98 mile track has hairpin and ninety-degree turns and is on the actual streets of Long Beach! This has been a whole 3-day event, but the culmination of it was with today's IZOD Indycar Series race. All 170,000 spectators saw the 25 drivers speed away from the finish line (of these 25 drivers, I'm glad to say 3 were women!) I'd forgotten that there's nothing quite like all those cars...

For my 1 year anniversary and 100th blog post at MyRideisMe.com I share with you a classic Japanese land speed racecar, err... truck, a Datsun 620.  I spotted it on the Japanese Nostalgic Car blog/website HERE.  If you don't have this on your blog reader, go ahead and add it now.  The picture credit goes out to Stephen Rosinni, a professional photographer out of NY. According to JNC's blog post, the Datto truck belongs to Barry Brown of Riter Automotive and was run at the Maxton Mile recently.  It runs in the F/PMP class (F = 2.01 - 3.0 liter, PMP = Production mini/mid pickup) with a 2 liter that makes about 220hp equipped with Nissan 50mm race carbs and a Nissan 5 speed.  The #1620 truck broke the class record of 119mph by running 123 in the standing mile.  The Riter Automotive crew, out of Rochester, NY, plans on running at Bonneville this year.  Hopefully we can bring you all some more pics and details.  Of course, when it runs at B'ville, we'll hopefully bring you news of another broken record.  I was curious, so I checked out the BNI class record...

I've been a little quiet of late on the MyRideisMe blog.  I have good reason.  With (as opposed to without) much adieu (it's taken me years to nail down a car I REALLY wanted) I present my new (and used) hot rod!  Not a hot rod you say?  Ok, well, then let's call it a suby rod. This blog will NOT do justice (crappy pictures, I promise better ones in the future, these were taken while giving son #3 his first ride in "daddy's suby") to how much I love this car and how excited I am to own it and drive it.  But, I'll do my best to introduce you to my new daily driver/project car, "SUBYROD" (see my MyRideisMe.com Garage HERE). Subyrod is a 2002 Subaru Impreza WRX with 115,000 miles (kind of a lot I know, but it was in my budget and very clean with recent important maintenance items taken care of).  What the crap is a hot rod and custom car nut like me buying a funky car like a Subaru for?  Ok, good point... but how about a factory turbocharged and intercooled sedan with wide fender flares, all wheel...

I think its time for some more aircooler LOVE!!!  Remember our German Facebook friend, Pascal Hein?  We blogged about his cherry Lemon (lemon is what he named the car) classic 1973 BMW 1802 Touring.  Pascal took these pictures at a big VW Bug and Bus Meeting in Germany, home of the "People's Car" brand.   Most of the bugs you'll see came from Great Britain, Belgium or from Netherlands. I thought I'd grab my favorites from Pascal's photo website  http://www.vipallica.deviantart.com/. This is my favorite picture.  I'm really likin' this blue Cal-Look big window bug.  It's got the big single turbo muffler, nerf bars, narrowed front beam with all the chrome trim.  Bugs with a nice raked stance are one of my favorite cars of all time. One of the coolest vdubs is the early buses or Kombi's.  When slammed, they are saweet kruzers!  This rust-a-rific bus is rockin' some white painted Porsche Fuch wheels on low pro tires.  I think this is a barndoor model.  Also, check out how you can see right through this car with the barndoor open.  ha ha Gold Member anyone?  Polished Fuch Porsche wheels are always...

You just read that title and said, " a Gasser what?" I admit, I ain't right. I have strange tastes compared to some and I guess you could say I have a vivid imagination, too. How else can I imagine how nasty a 1961 Rambler American station wagon would look as a Gasser. I've got the idea in my head, but like alot of you, I can't draw, much less make a rendering like this showing my crazy dream to perfection! That's where artists like Joel Nelson from 1320designs.com comes in. (Click on the image above to see it full size. It's a higher resoultion pic perfect for a desktop wallpaper) Before continuing that story, let me back up. I dig wagons. I don't know for-sure why, maybe it was because my dad drove us around in 1967 Ford Wagon when I was a kid. My brother and I'd drop the back seat down and slide around in back on the metal floor. This was the mid 70's so seat belts weren't the rage they are now. Looking back, we survived alot of things that have today's parent's gasping!...

Could it be easier to get free stuff?  She's practically handing you your new battery!! This is Arpil's Freebie Contest: I want to give you an Optima Battery or Lincoln Electric Welding Helmet. It's Easy! For the rest of April, 2010 forward our newsletter to a friend and say: This is MyRideisMe.com's newsletter. It's hot rod and custom car stories & pictures. My Ride is Me gives away free stuff from Optima Batteries and Lincoln Electric so please check out the site and sign up if you like it. (it's all free!) Got it?? Not getting our newsletter? You can subscribe here. Here's some important details: Make sure to send it to freebie@myrideisme.com (so I can count your entries) For each person you send the newsletter to, you're entered to win. 1 newsletters sent to 4 friends = 4 entries 2 newsletters sent to 6 friends (even the same friends) = 12 entries When? Until 4/30/10. Forward any newsletter, even last weeks! What do I win? There'll be 2 winners: One battery of your choice straight from Optima One welding helmet Who? All MyRideisMe.com members. (not a member? Click...