The bros sure know how to make a shot hot!
Showing posts with label Chevrolets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chevrolets. Show all posts
On Friday, January 22, 2010
simply excellent. Japan strikes again...
http://acekustoms.blogspot.com/
I'm not convinced on the spots mixed with the rabbit ears, or the skirts, but definately badass!
On Tuesday, January 12, 2010
You all saw LBCC friend PrimerDave's Buick ( Click Here ) Now heres some pics of his daily driver... gad damn son
On Thursday, November 5, 2009
Car Craft, February 1963, pg. 29
There are no photo captions, only this text:
The latest creation to leave the Star Kustom Shop is Fantabula, a sectioned '58 Chevy Biscayne, sporting a wild double-bubble Lucite top. Winner of the Best Custom Sweepstakes at the recent NHRA Championship Show in Indy, the car is owned by hair stylist J.P. Danos of New Orleans, Louisiana. The front and rear end received a custom renovating by Darryl Starbird. A special mix lacquer, Iced Ruby Red, is harmonious with the white pearl Naugahyde and red frieze interior. Contoured seats are partitioned by a chrome console that contains the central control stick, gauges, buttons and television. The Lucite top and doors are electrically operated in keeping with the up-t0-date styling. The rear fender fins have also been restyled.
Owner: J. P. Danos
Builder: Star Kustom Shop
Make: 1958 Chevrolet
Darryl Starbird built this National Custom Sweepstakes winner (NHRA show at Indy) for one J.P. Danos. The '58 Chevy features a bubble top which is electrically controlled, as are the doors.
Contoured bucket seats done in pearl Naugahyde and red, tufted frieze accentuates modernity of interior. The large console has center stick steering and a TV screen positioned for rear-seat passengers.
The lean look is emphasized by fins, extended 6 inches rearward and 12 inches forward. Side trim with bracketed round rod tub rails adds to illusion. Taillights, bumpers are handmade.
Body has been sectioned 4 inches, and frame has a radical drop to achieve lowness. Note protruding lower front pan section, molded in.
On Monday, July 13, 2009
I'm not really a Kat Von D fan, she's hot and all, but I dunno. Anyways, I just happened to be channel surfing the other night in my usual post-work lethargic state when something caught my eye... gold flake... dropped stance... dazzling chrome...2 hotties driving an old car... shit now you got my attention! It was Kat Von D's TV show. They showed a few split seconds of her crusing LA in this sweet bomb, then it was off to the usual drama and bullshit of TV land.
Well I must say I enjoyed those few seconds, then it was up a few channels to a show that actually makes sense... South Park. SWWWWWEEEEEET.
On Tuesday, June 2, 2009
One of the best things about cars is they always have the ability to be changed, modified, and refined. If you build them right, making changes can be simple, while different builds may take a ton of effort to redirect from the original modifications. For Aaron Lobato, the changes to his car came after changes in his personal tastes and profession made it clear what the next incarnation would be.
The story of Aaron and his '53 Chevy 210 hardtop goes way back to the tender times when he was diligently combing the streets of his hometown looking for what would be his very first car. Aaron wanted something that would shake up the horsepower-hungry locals so it may seem that a '53 Chevy "barge" would have little chance of gaining his favor. But after Aaron's dad said, "We could fix up that car," the fate was sealed. Aaron's dad would play an inspirational role as the young rodder figured out for himself how to makes his dreams a reality. That reality ended up being heavily steeped in the "pro-street" arena and the '53 sported all the goods, like a built Chevy big-block and some 15xHUGE Mickey Thompson tires on a narrowed and tubbed rearend.
Aaron learned a wealth of information from his inaugural build and the '53 served him well for years until other projects came along. As the years passed, Aaron found himself drawn to the styles of the early '60s, more specifically to the work of paint legend Larry Watson.
Watson's personal rides and the cars he painted are known for a few key charteristics. In no specific order those characteristics include minimal (but highly effective) modifications, eye grabbing colors and patterns, timeless class, and an enduring charm. After building another '53 Chevy in a purely Watson-esque style, Aaron decided it was time to give his original '53 a new look based on that same theme.
The first matter of business would be removing the gigantic wheel tubs and narrowed rearend that had given the 210 its "pro-street" persona. The big-block power would remain, but little else.
Another element that definitely needed to be changed was the root beer brown paint still in place on the high school hot rod. To show off the skills he had gained since the first go round Aaron rolled the '53 into his US Kustoms shop in Albuquerque and got busy nosing, decking, and frenching the headlights, hood, doors, decklid, and taillights. Once everything was smooth, Aaron broke out the tape and spray gun to turn the variety of custom-mixed PPG hues into an awesome Watson-style freeway job. Shaved and filled one-piece bumpers and Radir ribbed five-spokes wrapped in era-correct early-'60s style rubber are the perfect finishing touch.
The final step in the transformation was stitching up some fresh silver vinyl into a period-perfect passenger compartment. Sitting behind the Mooneyes steering wheel the only tune necessary is the rumble of the owner-built big-block motoring down an open highway writing new chapters in the relationship between Aaron and his high school sweetheart.
Aaron Lobato
Rio Rancho, New Mexico
1953 Chevy 210 hardtop
Drivetrain
The 454 was filled with 10.5:1 slugs before being topped off with aluminum Edelbrock heads, intake, and 750-cfm carburetor. The alternator is tucked up close to the engine with a bracket from Bill's Hot Rod Company and a set of Sanderson coated headers route the spent gasses. Backing up the mighty mill is an owner-assembled Turbo 350 with a TCI torque converter all controlled by a B&M Prostick shifter.
Chassis
Evolving from an '80s pro-street buildup, the original '53 chassis now sports a Heidt's Mustang II coilover IFS. More pieces from Heidt's include 11-inch front discs and rack-and-pinion steering. Bringing up the rear is a 3.73 Posi-equipped Ford 9-inch located by a TCI four-link setup and coilovers.
Wheels & Tires
This car is all about following a theme and Aaron put a great deal of thought into what would be the perfect set of wheels and tires to reflect his period build. The set he came up with completely nails the 1962 "street and strip" look he was after. A set of ribbed five-spoke Radirs (15x6 and 15x10) is wrapped with Lee narrow stripe 205/70R15 rubber in the front and a pair of serious piecrust Mickey Thompson whitewall slicks in the rear.
Body & Paint
While Aaron built the majority of the car, the part he can be most proud of is the stunning paint and bodywork. The mild custom actually has much more done to it than initially appears, but that's the way it's supposed to be. The frenched '54 headlight rings frame the nosed hood that's also been welded its entire length to make it a one-piece unit. The doors were shaved and fitted with solenoids and the '54 taillights were frenched into the quarter-panels. The trunk lid received an equal dose of smoothing as well. Once the body was properly massaged, the buildup of multiple custom-mixed PPG colors began. The final result is a freeway panel job of which the originator Larry Watson gave his full approval.
Interior
With the paint making the boldest statement, the interior was made to be a little more low-key with a traditional tuck 'n' roll insert job in silver vinyl by Jaz Auto Upholstery (Albuquerque, New Mexico). A strictly business cockpit uses an ididit column topped by a Mooneyes steering wheel and a set of Auto Meter gauges set into a Faria panel. A fresh loom from Painless keeps the sparking to a minimum.
Article courtesy of Jim Aust
www.traditionalspeedandkustom.com
On Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Peggy Martinez, Santa Cruz, NM 1980
64 Chevy
“The symbol of the car at first was just a car to me, but it became a coffin, a boudoir, a phallus. The cars do this sexy hydraulic hopping. They have these plush velvet interiors and wonderful imagery on the outside. I put the color photographs into a red velvet portfolio box lined with silver metallic paper and tied it with satin dice. It was important to me to contain them, especially in a sensual manner, because the cars themselves are containers of so many religious and sexual images. This was the first time I used materials to convey certain ideas.”
— Meridel Rubenstein, interview with John Bloom on December 15, 1987
Meridel Rubenstein began creating this series of portraits of “Lowriders” in northern New Mexico in 1979, following her first major series, La Gente de la Luz, a series of environmental portraits of New Mexicans from the mid-1970s. The Lowriders series was her first major work in color. Descendants of the “cruisers” of the 1950s, the Lowriders are notorious for driving through the streets in small Southwest towns at slow speeds and causing traffic jams. The Lowriders cut and chop the frames of their brightly painted vintage cars, creating highly personal works of art adorned with small murals, messages, and religious symbols. Some of the cars have an elaborate multi-battery powered hydraulic system which raises and lowers the front and rear ends of the vehicle. Originally exhibited with the cars as an “extended portrait” on Santa Fe’s main plaza on October 19, 1980, the photographs were later printed as a series of twelve for a limited-edition portfolio box. 
Paul, Annabelle and Paula Medina, Chimayo
68 Impala NM, 1980
Rubenstein was inspired by the lowriders’ use of materials which create something sensual from something technological, and began her own experiments, making palladium prints on hand-coated watercolor paper. Quickly departing from the straight-forward documentary projects and environmental portraits that established her reputation, Rubenstein’s later work explores a variety of media, use of text, alternative processes, and sculpture, yet the themes of these pieces still tend to connect uniquely to New Mexico. 
Meridel Rubenstein was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1948. She completed a bachelor’s degree in social science, with a film-making emphasis, at Sara Lawrence College (1970). While working on motion picture projects in Vermont, she began still photography in 1971. Minor White accepted her as a special Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate student in photography for 1972-1973, where he introduced her to the large-format view camera before helping her to enroll in the photography program at the University of New Mexico where she completed an MA (1974) and an MFA (1977). She is the recipient of four National Endowment for the Arts grants (1978) and a Guggenheim Fellowship (1981).
— Kendra Greene 
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