Americans Speak With Their Wallets

I knew it!!!!

This pleases The Skirt.

Gone Trick and Treating

Hope you're having fun this Halloween instead of looking at this blog.

Not really, we love it when people read our blog,

no matter what day it is.

Graduation Portrait - '29 Ford Roadster Pickup

Last Saturday we trailered Paul Bos' '29 roadster pickup to a friend's old barn for a photo shoot. We were on location from two in the afternoon until past sunset. Professional photographers are right, twilight is the "magic hour" to shoot. The Skirt took the artsy shots below, the others we set aside to see if anyone wants to use them in a magazine.

Cab Mods to '55 Cameo

The '55 Cameo was back in the shop this week for a few little body mods. Dustin shaved off the stock Cameo vent.

and made this little box to house the A/C. Monday it's back to

Scott Motorsports for paint.

Making A Vintage Style Gas Tank

New in the shop this week - Dr. Roger's 1938 Dodge pickup. It's old gas tank is a leaker. It had completely rotted out and an earlier repair with All-Metal filler was about to blow, so Eric and Bob made a new one to look like the old one. In the past, artists and manufacturers always added embellishments to even the everyday items.

You can see the old tank in the background.The tank will be powder coated in black.

The '38 truck is in the shop for re-conditioning and 3-point seat belts.

Dr. Rogers' and his wife owe their life to 3-point seat belts.

Owls Are Cool

What do owls have to do with hot rods and collector cars? Nothing. The Skirt just wanted to take one of those Martha Stewart-style pictures of her owl jewelry collection.

Joy Ride

Paul's '29 roadster pickup is done.

After debuting the Ford at this year's Goodguys Great Northwest Nationals, the guys got down to work finishing it, constructing and upholstering a seat, installing the windshield and sewing up a tight, little tonneau cover. Dustin assembled the bed, mounted the headers, finished up the wiring and a bunch of other stuff that still needed doing. Hot rod photographer and writer, Chris Shelton talked to Paul about coming over to Spokane from Seattle to do a photo shoot, but it now looks like that's not going to happen this year. (That's show business for ya.) Next week, if the sun's still shining we'll do our own photo shoot. Yesterday Dustin took The Skirt and our candy striper Chuck out for a spin around our "test track" . Check it out. In the video below I mention driving the truck to Vantage. Vantage is the finish line for the Washington State Reliability Run next year.

Engine Cover for 1957 T-bird

Dustin finished the engine cover on the T-bird. Everything is nice and tidy the way the customer wanted it.

Here's a picture of the dash, I promised to post last week. The picture is not as I would like, but the lighting stinks in the shop right now. We are in the process of putting up "energy saving lights." The Skirt is not convinced they will provide better lighting than the ones we have in there now. The guys are thinking they may have to install more of the "energy saving lights." (Exactly what you can expect with "energy savings" devices.) The console was done at another shop some time ago.

Almost done with this project. It's headed to CG Customs for paint.

Record Cold Weekend For Inland Northwest

They are saying it could get down to 18 degrees around here.

Inner Beauty

It has been several months since we looked in on the progress of the '57 T-bird. The owner decided he wanted a show car. A beauty queen needs tasteful cover-ups, so Dustin fabricated all the shiny panels you see here. He also came up with the nifty accessory brackets.
They've done some nice work on the dash as well. I'll post a picture as soon as they set it back in.

There You Have It

I guess that's it for summer around here in the Inland Empire. It is noticeably cooler than it was yesterday. It's overcast and breezy. It looks like it's going rain. Dustin said it looks like it could snow. We backhanded him. We are fighting the doldrums around here.

Bring us some donuts.

Progress on '55 Cameo

Bolt by bolt it becomes something you can drive down the road and look good doing it.

Bryce at Scott Motorsports brought the cab back last week for a fitting.

How's Business?

How is your business doing? Good, we hope. We are still holding our own thanks to all our great customers who find what they are looking for at Rod Builders. By the way, Spokanites, if you haven't eaten at Terry's Breakfast and Lunch you really should. The food is delicious and the staff is a hoot. We're there every Sunday!

Gotta Blog About Mad Men Episode 6

Spoiler Alert!!! The Skirt has not been blogging about Mad Men this year, it could be a full-time job, but I have to write something today because last night's episode - "Guy Walks Into An Advertising Agency" was so good. We loved every single scene, didn't you? Ok, only one little thing, there's no way Ken could have gotten that John Deere in there. But we're glad he did. OMG! Are we all sick? I was wondering why that Brit kept kicking his right foot out each time he'd start walking. (Maybe sort of a poker tell.) And wasn't that brunette Barbie dreadful? Don's scene with his daughter was so touching. Someone on the Mad Men blog wrote that it was the most powerful ending since Betty shooting the pigeons. We so agree. How strange, I was just thinking about Betty shooting the pigeons the other day. The bits of Guy's foot spraying across SC are now implanted in my memory too. If you haven't been watching the show they are re-running third season shows this week sometime. Check out their web site.

It Was a Very Good Summer

The 2009 Inland Northwest car show season is coming to a close. We'll remember it as being a pretty nice summer for cruising around in our cars, taking in the sights and sounds of small town America, visiting with folks, sitting in the shade of the old walnut tree. Sweet memories of summer will have to hold us through till spring.

Pictured above are cars of RBI customer's, Tim Pomerinke and Chuck McVey. Congratulations gentlemen on your win at the Palouse Days Show and Shine last weekend.

Speedster Wins at Bailey's Brigade, Congratulations Dennis

Winning is the sweetest ... (or is that success is sweetest) whatever, it's time we saw Dennis with a trophy. Congratulations!

Watching Our Garden Grown

Day 120Things are winding down in the garden. All the onions and potatoes are in our pantry/cellar. The green beans, carrots, and broccoli are in the freezer. Bob has been canning his tomatoes. There is cauliflower still to pick and a few errant cabbage, but that's about it. Bob's already put up 20 or more quarts of sauerkraut. We'll try and muster up the time and energy to deal with the rest. The acorn squash and pumpkins are still on the vine and that's a good place for them until first frost. This was our second garden and we were satisfied with the amount of food we were able to grow, eat and preserve. We are already making notes on what we want to plant next year and are planning on doing more seedsaving.

Day 90 Day 60

Day 30

He Kept Us Safe

Thank you President Bush. Readers, you might like this.

NEVER FORGET

Custom Air Intake - 46 Chevy Pickup

This is yet another example of how we solve those pesky, bottom of the project problems. Steve McConnel needed fresh, filtered air for his engine; We designed an induction system that draws fresh, cool air from in front of the radiator and guides it through 2.25" intake runners directly to the throttle body. He should see a torque gain in the 2700-3500 RPM range because of the extended runner length. The filter module simply comes out the top of the upper shroud.

The runner tubes are fabbed from U-bends and the plenum in designed on the computer and fabbed from 18ga sheet metal. Silicon hose sections will connect the plenum to the runners to allow for engine flex.

The filter is a standard cone filter shrouded to the front to protect from rain and bugs, simple yet elegant