Belleville Cruise Night
Every Tues there is an informal cruise night held in the Zellers parking lot up beside Future Shop across from the Quinte mall. It seems to start around 6 or so and this was my first time  going to it and it was Canada Day so there were a few cars missing. I

I'm going to start with one of my personal fav's. I'm neither a Chev guy or a an old truck guy but this kicked ass. I have a real love of cars that are built to drive and that is what this is. It was chopped 7 inches and instead of cutting the roof into peices to get it to line up the windshield was laid back. That is one of the advantages of two peice windshields with flat glass and it looks wicked.  I'm sure it pisses off lots of purists which is half the fun isn't it?

The owner of this 47 Chev is Rob Dykstra and he was a real nice guy. I never talked to Mary Ann, his wife, but he definitely married up a league. This truck is for sale so if if you are interested drop me an email at guru at quintewheels.com and I'll put you in contact with Rob.

When I was 11 or 12 I could identify most cars by a glimse of their tail lights.  Like most car nuts I went though phases but the cars that held my interest the longest were the ones I had the least chance of owning, the exotics. As time moved on I've become  less impressed with the ultra cars though. It seemed each year my tastes got simpler and now I'm a rat car & bobber bike kinda guy.  I want something I can build for cheap and drive fearlessly. 

That said .....holy shit, have you seen the prototype that BMW has built?  This is the first prototype to truly impress and inspire me in 25 years. A car that completely reinvents the common belief of how a vehicle is built. It is being whisked off to a museum for display but I am positive that we are getting a little glimpse of the future for this is certainly the stuff that sci-fi was meant to inspire.
Wired has a nice article on it and you have to check out the video at the bottom of the article.

I have a lot of projects on the go at the moment which is fine as I handed my resignation into Century 21 last Wed. I believe that I will simply allow my real estate license expire as well. The entire experience not only ate up 3 years of my life but was very disillusioning. 

So I am working on several websites with the intent of eventually making money from them. I'm also working under contract for a company called iCheck that does maintenance for banks and looking for other work as well.  In addition we are working to promote our fledgling cattery WildExpressions and fine tuning the website located at www.wildexspressions.ca.

I live in an odd part of Ontario and I mean that in the best way. It is probably the most populated rural area in all of Canada and lately its become a retirement area for city folk.

Yesterday there was an Eco tour which involved folks that had homes based on alternative methods such as straw bail, solar powered, living roofs, etc opening their homes up so strangers could wander though and observe their oddness first hand.

It was a stunning summer day, the 2nd such day we’ve had, and we decided to take the VWubster. This was our first extended trip in the Wubster and like all trips in a rat bus you feel like you are in a parade. People wave, honk and holler and you are kept so entertained that you don’t notice the VW bus smell, the shot muffler, hurricane level wind noise, the bad suspension or lousy seats. That turns out not to be the case if you head in to the deep boonies.

People still notice you, some smile, some wave, some cock their hat back and mutter under their breath, some reach for a big stick, but they all notice you.

Could Oil be Any Cheaper? I Don't Think So
I personally am fed up with people blaming oil companies for the price of gas. If you think about it for even a moment is it not  amazing that these companies are able pump the oil out the ground and transport it 1000's or even 10,000's of miles for refinement and distribution at union and higher wages and still manage to sell it to me for less then it costs the Oak Hill Water company to get a bottle of water to Belleville.?

Don't get me wrong. I'm pissed about the situation as well. I'm just saying blaming oil companies is pointless stupitity.

Today I had an online convo with a fellow on volksrods.com and damned if he didn't anwer back telling me that I made a good point. It made me reread my response to his bitching and I thought "damn, I actually sound kinda semi-intelligent!" so I thought I had better post it here to make it official that I occasionally make sense so here it is.

A Toy Tank ...Cool!
The neighbors phoned the cops and reported this guy when they looked out the window and saw him driving it down the street.

He build it at college and brought it home for the weekend. Foster's tank can reach speeds of around 20 mph with its three-cylinder diesel engine. Just like the real thing, the tank runs on treads and has a 360-degree cannon powered by compressed air from a scuba tank.

What does it fire? Why  cans of Red Bull of course :)  Apparently it can fire golf balls as well. Here is a link to a video of  it.

Last year the Amialiaburg car show changed its damn date and me and most everyone I knew missed it.  I'd  like to avoid that this year .Well with spring almost here I'd like to ask any of you that happen to wander into the forum to post the time, dates and location of any upcoming car shows that you are aware of. In return I will setup a calendar that we can all access. 

I took the VWubster out for her first run of the summer and was reminded that tt is definitely not the vehicle for a shy person. I meant to go for a little cruise and 3 hours later I pulled back in the driveway. It is friggin addictive driving a vehicle that get so much reaction. 

So tonight I had to do a little grinding and mig up the chop on the rear door. This thing was chopped by pros but they never finished it for the road but rather it ws finished as a tradeshow display . I have quite a few other things  that I need to take the mig to as well and I need to replace the right hand rocker panel and then its paint time. I'll post pix in the forum.

Eco Tour of the County - April 20 2008 • From 10

Hub Garage was launched and its pretty cool. It is essentially a facebook type of deal except it is oriented on cars. They make you watch a seriously stupid movie to get a password and the password is the same for everyboy which makes it even stupidier. I have the password and I'd tell ya what it is but then you wouldn't understand the depth of stupidity we are talking here. It's worth it though. Like I say, its a pretty good little social network and you can be certain it will grow fast... hell, it already has.

 This was  posted on the H.A.M.B. and before you dismiss it as just another  built from scratch hand hammered all aluminum willys on a complete scratch fabbed chassis by one guy in 9 months car like all the others out there you need to know something. The guy is basically a fetus and he did this as a 2nd year college project. I saw a pic of him and I'm not sure he is of legal drinking age in most places.

Here is the thread . He posted a real nice thread with lots of pix of the car as it evolved. If you are not registered on the H.A.M.B. you might as well do so.

Although there are a lot of hardcore asses over there you will find enough amazing projects to make it worthwhile. By way of hardcore asses I give you this example. A goober named skajaquada posted this in Fetus boys thread

skajaquada says: sure it's a willys. sure is some INCREDIBLE craftsmanship. but... willys with IFS?? STREET ROD?? i really don't get it sometimes. then again, this is how people get scammed. they get so caught up in the flashy part of what's going on that they fail to realize that what's at the core of it all isn't what they are really after. no offense kid, great job on that thing. keep working on those skills, there's a lot to develop still if you're at that point already. stick with the older stuff too but this isn't the place for you unless you feel like going with the more simple, cleaner, traditional side of things. street rods suck, ask anyone here

 It gets ever funnier later when he tries to tear the kid down by trying to spread half truths. Fetus boy is a class act though and handles it extremely well.

Well worth dropping in for a read. You will be both impressed and amused.

 And in closing I ask you, is there anything funnier then drunk rednecks in the woods with motorized shit at their disposal? Check this out and decide for yourself.

Meet the Wubster
Well its been quite a while since I did an update and after looking at my traffic logs its seems I owe a lot of appologies. I'm grateful that so many of you come here every week looking for updates and I promise that the site is going to come back to life.

Well over the years I've gone though automotive phases. I started off  as a Ford man and then when I moved to Calgary I got into late 60's, early 70's MOPARs and when I came to Ontario I started experimenting. I've owned Toyota, Nissan and Chev 4x4's, Honda Preludes and Civic's, Mazda MX-6, a few Thunderbirds and a couple of odd ball custom vehicles thrown in for fun.

 Well for my next phase I've gone air cooled! Let me introduce you to my little friend, the Dubster. She is a 1972  VW bus that has been chopped 5 inches  and lowered  4 inches.

I have many plans for the  Dubster over the next few years and I will keep a running log of the changes. I hope to turn it into a very special vehicle.

 That said, it is a pretty special vehicle to begin with. I've certainly never owned anything that got the kind of attention that this does.

It loud and as rat as rat can be and it causes people to break out in a big grin every where I go.

Most custom vehicles only appeal to those that are into such things but the Dubster ppeals to most everyone on some level. I got to tell you, I love driving it so much that it is close to being my daily driver.

Follow the link and there are a few more pictures of the interior and stuff.  

Well its official. After over a year of flip flopping back and forth we have decided that the Rambler must go.  We simply have to many things on the go and we have decided not to build a garage this year so Rambleon as we have named it is for sale.

This is how the old girl looks at the moment. It is basically all there except for perhaps a couple pieces of chrome, the interior and of course the roof. We found it a cheese factory north west of Stirling around 6 or 7 years ago and of course immediately paid to much for it.  My intention was to mildly rod it out for my wife to drive in the summer. 

I think this shot gives you a good idea of why I thought this car would make a good looking street rod.  This car is smaller then a Ford Falcon and much rarer.  I've come across maybe a dozen of them online in the last 7 years, 3 or 4 of them i good shape, all of them stock in appearance.  If you see one of these cars factory stock nothing about it screams street rod but have another look at the picture above.  It's not to hard to imagine this mildy tubbed and with that nice pro street stance. I guarantee you that you will never have another one like it pull up beside you at a light anywhere ... ever. 

 Click the link below for many more pictures