Ren’s NorCal Ford F-150 – Bagged on Big Wheels

It was March 2004, and Ren Robinson of American Canyon, California was shopping around for a new custom truck to build. He did some research, and after a while realized that there weren’t many 2004 Ford F-150’s out there, so he decided he’d build one. Just a few days later, he picked up a bone stock burgundy crew-cab, and got going on it. Some 22’s, a 4/6 drop, a pair of billet grills and an exhaust later, Ren rolled into a show, expecting the trophies to come pouring in, trumpets playing in the background, hailing him as the new king of all things custom. Instead, he heard the loud sound of air evacuating from valves and the distinct sound of frames slamming down on concrete. This was not going to be the day he expected.

A little setback like this wasn’t going to get him down. Instead he made a few phone calls and a few days later, he was ready to begin anew.

The journey starts at SIC Motorsports in San Jose, California, beginning with an altitude adjustment. The control arms, springs and shocks were yanked out and tossed, and in their place went a set of AirRide Shockwaves, DJM lower control arms, and Total Chaotic heavy duty titanium upper control arms. Those upper arms have a uniball with a misalignment spacer instead of the balljoint, which allows them to kick back at some wicked angles without binding,letting the truck lay frame up front. All that work kicked the wheels into the engine bay, but to keep it all looking stock under the hood, they lifted the stock fenderwells three inches.

Out back, they bridged the frame and made mounts for AirRide 9100lb bags that were mounted on top of the axle. The whole system was done with ½-inch line, ½-inch AirRide valves, dual Viair compressors and a pair of chromed 6 gallon tanks. Keeping an eye on the system is a digital AirRide control panel, and a SIC Motorsports switch box. With all that work on the suspension, the booty 22” chromies had to go, so he ditched those and got a set of 22X8.5” Intro Twisted Vista 6’s, and mounted 265/40 Nitto’s on all four corners.

He had to be ready for the car shows now, right? Sure enough, Ren hit the scene and he was looking pretty tight, but wasn’t pulling any heavy jewelry home yet. What was the deal? Now he noticed people rolling around with custom paint, and he knew that graphics were next on his list. After getting a good referral from Dan at F.B.I., Ren decided to meet up with James Cashman of Cashman Customs in Concord, California. The two discussed ideas, and Ren showed James a few sketches of what he had in mind. After the meeting, it was time to go to work.

Ren wanted a clean look, but he didn’t want to move up a class because he had done too much. James kept it simple by shaving the tailgate handle and emblems, then smoothing out the stock door handles and painting them to match the graphics. Since the truck was still pretty new, and the stock toreador red looked clean, they decided to base the graphics on the stock color. The truck was painted using House of Kolor products, including Kandy Tangerine, Cinnamon Pearl, Candy Apple Red, and metallic silver. No detail was left untouched, even the bridge cover was decorated to match. By the time the truck was done, it was a whole new ride.

You should know by now what was next, another visit to a show, another new idea, and this time, his wife Rose brought it up. “You know, you might as well take it to the top,” she said. That woman is a keeper.

The interior was a whole new land for Ren, and it started by going back to Cashman Customs for some custom paint. James took the stock door panels, smoothed them flat and sprayed them the factory toreador red with some wicked tangerine pinstriping.Next, it was off to Larry’s Custom Upholstery in Napa, California to stitch in some red leather into the seat inserts. The whole family helps out with this truck too, as evidenced by the purchase of chromed interior pieces by Ren’s son Chris. Throw in some aluminum floor mats, and a Colorado Custom Climax steering wheel, and it’s a formula for a show winner, right?

Now it was time for the stereo, but it’s never just about the sound these days. Any cool truck has to have monitors everywhere, and Ren’s ride is no exception. It all starts with a double-din Kenwood DDX-7015 DVD Monitor head unit. The DVD portion feeds a video signal to a pair of Eiger Vision 5.6” monitors in the headrests, and a Microvision MTV-7SW mounted in a drop down off the headliner. For speakers, Bazooka mids and highs cover the front, while Eclipse’s run the rear doors. There’s also a JL Audio stealth box hidden under the seat, next to a pair of JL Audio amps; an e4300 for the mids & highs, and an e1800 for the sub. Motor Music of Concord, California hooked Ren up with the setup and the install for the Ford.

It took a long time, but Ren finally did make it to that show. That show was the SEMA Show in Las Vegas. Now it’s time for the trophies.

Ren would like to thank his club Acrophobia, Clint & Nick at SIC Motorsports, Robert Espajo at Motor Music, and a special shout out to his parents, his son Christopher and his wife Rose.

Work Truck – Andrew’s Dumped ’72 Chevy C-10

It’s funny how trucks work. No matter how many stories are written about trucks and their experiences, they all seem to have a common thread: Guy buys a ride with the pure intention of just doing a few things here or there to make it a little bit better, and next thing you know, the truck is getting painted, the suspension is rebuilt and it becomes as far away from stock as normal.

This story is no different.

Andrew Moreno, of Tucson, Arizona, bought this ’72 Chevy truck in 2004 with the intention of fixing it up a bit. His brother was about to turn 16, so Andrew and his father figured that they’d rebuild the motor, give the truck a blue paintjob and some chrome wheels and it’d be a perfect driver for his little brother. Andrew and his dad tore into the truck, taking out the drivetrain in the process, and they discovered that the suspension all needed to be rebuilt. Plus it really needed a quality restoration if they wanted it to be safe. No reason why not, right?

A decision was made: Take the truck and use it as a showcase for Andrew’s company, Discount Grilles, but also make it reliable and a good cruiser for daily driving. That’s when the fun began.

With the motor out of the way, they decided to go with a little bit of old school and new school technology under the hood. They took the original ’72 long block and had it blueprinted and fully rebuilt with quality components, then mated a TPI system from a Corvette to the block, giving it the reliability of a fuel injected system. After the block was assembled, they mounted an old school v-belt system to the front end, chromed the whole thing out and bolted it to a rebuilt 700R4. Now the truck was reliable and usable with the overdrive tranny and fuel injected motor, so it seemed like it was ready to be given to his little brother.

The suspension was pretty trashed though, so there was no way he was going to give it to his bro that way. They needed to step it up a notch and rebuild everything. Every bushing and bolt was cleaned up or replaced with something better and put back together. At first the truck was just lowered, but that wasn’t going to last long. Andrew decided to bag the truck using tubular a-arms, viair compressors and Firestone bags, setting it so that the frame just kissed the concrete. Now the truck was laying out and looking slick.

Except for the paint.

Now it was the rough exterior that was nagging at him, so Andrew had to get that going. The truck was blocked out to perfection, and then Jim Geare at ACE Customs in Tucson, Arizona went to town on the paint. Originally, they wanted to paint the truck a solid blue color, but after more discussion they decided to lay out some green flames for effect. Inside the flames are little details like skulls and other airbrushed accents that set off the paint job that much more. The truck was assembled with other details in tow like a phantom billet grill and clear taillights, and for good measure some 20” and 22” Centerline’s were mounted to Nitto NT-555’s, completing the exterior of the truck, and making it finally worthy of passing on to his little brother.

Crap. There’s the interior too.

Well it had been three years as it was, so Andrew decided to go for broke and wrap the truck up by wrapping the interior in suede. It was a simple plan: wrap it or paint it — just make it look awesome. The stock bench was tossed out, and a set of junkyard bucket seats were reupholstered in gray suede. The stock wheel went too, and was replaced with a Billet Specialties wheel, then the door panels were all custom built from fiberglass and MDF. For the stereo, they wanted it custom but not too ridiculous, so a clean setup with JL subs and Diamond Audio mids and tweets really made it all perfect. The crossovers were hidden in the headliner, the console was all custom built in fiberglass and they even put some monitors in the doors for good measure.

Ok so it took three years, but the truck finally got done and was perfect. It was reliable, drivable, and a perfect advertisement for Discount Grilles. Andrew learned a lot along the way, and it even spawned a new business, ACE Customs, specializing in building killer rides just like this one. The truck has also seen time at the SEMA show in Las Vegas, and California Truck Jamboree, making it well traveled as well as perfectly built. Nowadays it’s not hauling wood to and from work, it’s hauling home trophies.

El Diablo – Adam Hartley’s 1963 Chevrolet Impala Wagon

A lot of adjectives come to mind when describing Adam Hartley of Las Vegas, Nevada … Eclectic, unique, maybe even a bit odd. Not that this is anything new in the custom car world. Not only is he the father of three, but he’s also a heavily tattooed car builder with quite the collection in his stable. He’s built quite a few rides in his past too including a ’94 Toyota pickup, a few VW’s, and an ’87 Astro van, which lead to the purchase of the ’63 Impala you see here.

We do mean that literally too. Adam was cruising around a Tangelo Orange pearl Astro van around Vegas everyday with a little “For Sale” sign in the corner of the window. While cruising around town he ran into a dude with a ’63 Impala wagon, also Tangelo pearl, that was selling his car as well. The ’63 was juiced, laid on 14” wires, and even appeared in the pages of Lowrider back when the car was in Hawaii. A deal was struck and Adam traded his van for the Impala, straight across.

Even though the car was “done”, it wasn’t the style that Adam was going for. It was a good start though for a custom low-rod, and that’s exactly what he had in mind. He turned to his good friend Joe Musso of Musso Motorsports, and they mapped out a plan of attack. The goal was the Sema show, 2002, just 8 months away.

The car was stripped down to the bare essentials to be rebuilt. The bodywork was first on the list. Off came the handles, the mirrors, fender emblems, lower rocker moldings, the roof rack and the factory antenna. Between Joe Musso and Tristan at T-Creations in Las Vegas, the car was shaved, blocked, and straightened out. Next it was time for the paint, and Adam had a sick plan in mind. He wanted lots of scallops, flames, and some old-school pinstriping to give it a real custom touch. Ryan Evans & Joe Musso did all the work, painting the car using all House of Kolor products. The car was painted Persimmon Kandi with orange flake from the windows up, and flames were added in Tangelo Pearl. The rest of the car was painted Tangelo pearl also, with scallops and flames in the same Persimmon pearl that the roof was painted in. The car was then pinstriped by Ryan with other various House of Kolor products.

While the outside of the car was being built, Adam sent off the interior to Friend’s Upholstery in Las Vegas. Since the car is a factory 9 passenger model, there was a lot of work to do. The seats were previously wrapped in white vinyl with gold plated buttons. Adam took a few hours to strip the gold from the buttons, and repainted them to match the brown vinyl that Friend’s Upholstery used to wrap the seats. The headliner was redone around the same time, as well as the door panels.

The dash, however, is a whole other story. The original dash pad was removed and the holes were shaved, then the dash was sprayed with Tangelo pearl with a gang of flake. ACC Carpet provided a brown carpet kit for the car, and Colorado Customs hooked him up with a Paradox steering wheel to match his rims. A B&M floor shifter was mated to the tranny, and a custom shift boot was made at the same time. When it came time to do the stereo, Adam went to Dave Rayna at Audio Xcellence in Las Vegas. Since he didn’t want to hack up the factory dash to fit a din-mounted stereo, Adam made a plate in the glove box to fit a Panasonic CD player. An Eclipse component set was installed into a set of custom kick panels that were painted Tangelo Pearl as well.

Two things were out of the way, now it was time for Adam to tackle the engine bay. The previous owner of the car had rebuilt the stock 283, and bored the motor over .030.  Adam did add some dress up items though, as well as a few performance goodies. The motor now sports a HEI Distributor, Hooker Headers, Coolflex radiator hose kit, Edlebrock carb, Mooneyes valve covers, and a one-wire alternator. Adam decided to rebuild the Turbo 350 that was in the car for extra reliability. He really had it easy with the paint work there too, since it was already Tangelo Pearl. The finishing touch was a yellow top Optima battery.

The one last thing on the list before SEMA was the suspension. First on the list was replacing the worn out factory bushings. Out came the cracking rubber bushings, and in went an Energy Suspension bushing kit. Adam wanted to lay the car out, and with the help of Joe Musso, he made it happen. First the factory front and rear springs were tossed in the trash and replaced with Firestone 2600 airbags. The whole system was plumbed with ½-inch line and ½-inch Parker valves. A plexiglass switch box with 10 switches was wired up, and Adam was out of nosebleed status just like that. The 14’s weren’t really a low-rod look though, so he bolted up some 20” Colorado Custom Paradox rims with 255/35 Pirelli PZero Rossos.

8 months and $10g’s later, Adam had a cruiser to be proud of. He’s not done with it either. Since this shoot, Adam’s car has changed up a bit. The Colorado Customs were exchanged with some 5-spokers, and disc brakes were added on as well. The 283 blew up along the way, so in went a crate 350 with all the trimmings. Adam still drives this car every day – well, unless he’s driving his ’63 Nailhead Riviera, but that’s a whole other story.

Props go out to Kevin Books, DJ Rolly Polly, Joe Musso, Triston from T-Creations, Dave Rayna, Colorado Custom, Pirelli, House of Kolor, Energy Suspension,  ACC Custom Carpet, B&M, Mooneyes, Musso Motorsports, Audio Xcellence, Bigtime Threads, Friends Upholstery, and the homie Boogie from Customatix.

“Internet Barn Finds” #1: Miniature Hot Rod Engines

Before I dive in, let me introduce myself real quick.  I go by Hechtspeed on all the car forums I join.  I’m a certified car nut.  It doesn’t matter what type of car, if its modified and customized, I can dig it.  I’m really excited to be blogging for MyRideisMe.  Hopefully I can bring cool content that you readers will enjoy.  So, let’s get to it shall we?  The internet is home to thousands, even millions of websites. That means there has to be cool websites out there displaying hidden hot rod treasures. This “Internet Barn Finds” series of blogs will venture into the world wide interweb to see what we can find.

Part 1 takes a look at a couple cool Scale Miniature Hot Rod engines. These are not your typical scale plastic model kits you put together during Christmas vacation, these are billet aluminum, high precision, CNC machined engines that actually run, some even powering 1/4 scale radio controlled hot rods.

The first Barn Find is from weberprecision.com. Searching through Weber’s website you’ll find detailed pictures of both the end product and the tools/machines used to build it. Said engine is this amazing supercharged V8 that took a few years to build. Weber says this is his first attempt at a running miniature engine. I say it was a successful one for sure. The horsepower is unknown, but this little sucker revs to 12,000 RPMs! Yeeehaa!

It displaces 5.655 ci using a 1.000″ Bore and 0.900″ stroke topped off by a supercharger. Check out the rest of the spec sheet, its a work of art. See the video:

The second Barn Find is conleyprecision.com, a link from weberprecision.com. Conley has quite a history of building running scale miniature hot rod engines… try 30 years! Conley’s website has some nice videos of his latest miniature engine. The coolest part about this engine is it’s mounted in a driving, miniature hot rod. You’ll get a kick out of these video’s. I just kept shaking my head in amazement!

Conley’s latest Supercharged V8 is called the Stinger 609 (named after the cubic inches, but be careful where you place the decimal point, that’s 6.09 ci ha ha) Enjoy! That’s all for “Internet Barn Finds”. Post up in the MyRideisMe Forums your own hot rod Internet Barn Finds!
Hechtspeed