Roadmonster.org

This cruise-in is on the last Saturday of the month…

…all summer long at the Keizer Station Starbucks.

Sam and I went this morning, and we had a blast!

There was not a single car there that I had seen before.

What a great mix of cars and trucks.

There was everything from a Bug Eyed Sprite…

…to a Ford GT 40.

Ferrari’s and Porsche’s and Audi’s…

…oh my!

One of my favorites there was…

…Troy Walker’s Jaguar V-12 powered Ford Pickup.

I wish I had a sound clip of this thing!

It sounds AWESOME!

I like everything about Troy’s truck.

To me…

…it is perfect.

I like Jason Anderson’s Jeepster too.

I’ve always liked Austin Healey “Bug Eyed” Sprites.

This is the one I would have if I could.

British Racing Green with Tan Interior.

What’s not to love?

The RoadMonster is a good conversation starter.

I really like seeing peoples initial reaction to the car.

They usually ask “WHY?”…

…or “WHAT THE … ???”

It’s fun when they take a good look at all the little details on the car…

We got a lot of positive feedback today…

…which was nice. 

We really had a lot of fun today.

We’ll definitely be back for the next ones on…

August 28th and September 25th.

Hours:  7:30 – 9:30 AM.

Keizer Station Starbucks parking lot.

Thanks Jason for doing this!

-Stewart

.…is now finished.

That’s right.

That sharp metal edge around the body of the Rat Rod is gone.

No more cuts!

No more blood!

The best part is that it looks great too!

This black pebble grain vinyl trim measures 3/4″ tall.

It is for material 1/8″ wide…

…which is perfect for the sheet metal on this car.

It has a built in lock, and is reinforced with aluminum.

I bought it from this eBay vendor.

They call it:  Black Trim Lock Molding – mfg part# 1375B3x1/8.

This vendor has EXCELLENT customer service.

Once I installed it, I gave it a quick coat of SEM Sand Free.

SEM Sand Free is an adhesion promoter.

Even though Krylon paint works well with plastics…

…this edge will get a lot of use, and take a lot of abuse.

I’ve had excellent results with Sand Free in the past.

While the Sand Free is still wet…

…I gave it a few coats of Krylon Ultra Flat Olive Drab.

Now the trim matches the rest of the car.

I am really impressed with the quality of this edge trim.

It formed to the edge very well, but it does not feel flimsy.

It sure gives the body a nice finished appearance.

I highly recommend this product.

-Stewart

…change of plans.

Many of the aftermarket wheels I’ve been pondering are WAY too common around these parts.

Some are downright played out IMHO.

Right now, I am really feeling plain old steel smoothie wheels like these.

Color and center cap options really change the looks of these wheels.

I’ll probably go with center caps like these.

Nice and clean.

No logos.

I’d run the same wheels on the front and back.

15 x 6 in the front.

15 x 10 in the rear.

For tires, I want bias-ply, so I’ll go with Firestone.

These for the front:

710-15 wide whitewall bias-ply.

(These tires are 28.88″ tall)

These for the rear:

These are 1000-15 Bias-Ply Cheater Slicks.

(These tires are 30″ tall)

I’ll probably paint the wheels red…

…using the same red paint we used on the graphics.

That will tie everything together, as that red also matches the seats.

I’ve got to add front brakes next…

…so I can switch wheels, and go with these taller tires.

This tire / wheel combo should give the car…

…all the ground clearance she needs to become drivable.

Just these tires will add:

3.69″ to the front.

3.0″ to the rear.

That should work just fine.

Stay tuned…

-Stewart

The more research I do on the P-40 Warhawk theme of the Rat Rod…

…the more really cool stuff I find.

The more I find, the more I learn…

…about this great country of ours.

I knew that domestic automobile production ceased in 1942…

…and the factories geared up for military production.

I did not know about these really cool ads!

(click on the pic for a larger view)

Check out this Cadillac ad for the Curtiss P-40.

How about these Buick Ads?

Battle Song of the Liberators

She’s got four “B’s” in her Bonnets!

ALL WORK and no “PLAY”

…it wasn’t all aircraft.

THE HELLCATS ARE ON THE PROWL

BUICK Builds The HELLCAT

The Oil Companies got into the act as well.

THEY FOUND 90 extra miles an hour IN A DROP OF OIL

Pretty cool ads, huh?

It never ceases to amaze me how great this generation of Americans is.

Really.

These people not only built our country, they protected it as well!

And, they did an excellent job!

We owe this generation everything.

I for one am grateful.

Thank you!

-Stewart

…ROCKS!

I bought some at Walmart this week.

I used this to clean up some oil on the garage floor.

Wow!

This stuff is amazing!

It is the strongest citrus cleaner I have ever used.

I’ll definitely buy more.

I like it even more than the Orange Blast Citrus Cleaner.

-Stewart

…and today I cleaned out the garage!

The garage got a real in-depth cleaning.

Every year, I pull out everything, clean it out and put it back.

This year I went really deep.

It looks great!

In addition, I started to take stuff off of the walls…

…as I want to repaint the interior of the garage soon.

I’ve got a bunch of garage-themed artwork that I want to put up.

I got rid of A LOT of stuff today too.

Isn’t it amazing how much STUFF one can accumulate?

Where do all these things come from?

The fun part is finding stuff you’ve forgotten about…

…or thought you had lost.

I did about 90% of what I wanted to do.

I didn’t get into the attic…

…I’ll probably do that tomorrow.

-Stewart

…Head with Wings logo.

I bought four of these today.

They measure 55 x 68 mm.

This equals approx 2.2″ x 2.68″.

(I used this handy calculator to figure this out.)

I don’t know where, or if I’ll even use them…

…but I thought they were cool.

I post up some pics when they arrive.

-Stewart

…for the edge of the Rat Rod cab.

This stuff is 3/4″ tall and 1/8″ wide.

It’s black with a pebble grained finish.

I just ordered ten feet of it.

I’ll paint it Olive Drab.

This will finish the edge on the rear of the cab…

…from the rear 3 inches of the cab, around the entire backside, to the other door.

I bought this from a marine supply company.

This should look good, and provide a nice finished edge.

Right now that edge is downright dangerous…

…and I have the lacerations to prove it! 

Stay tuned…

-Stewart

I replaced the hardware for the sight today with brass parts.

The brass hardware looks a lot better.

While I was at the hardware store…

…I picked up a piece of aluminum stock.

This aluminum pipe is the beginning of the machine gun(s)…

…for the Rat Rod.

I have absolutely no idea of how I am going to do this…

I do have some reference pics that I am referring to.

Here is a pic of the guns on one wing of a P-40 Warhawk.

I think I might do a combination of these tips…

…with the aluminum pipe inside a steel pipe.

That would replicate the P-40′s guns nicely.

Then again, I might make the barrels a little longer…

…and give them the perforated look of the M50 barrel seen below.

I like the idea of 2 or maybe 3 guns protruding through the firewall.

Maybe just on the passenger side firewall.

It might look cool to have a row of three in the upper firewall.

I’d just do the passenger side, as the driver’s side has the brake & clutch cylinders.

I’m just kicking the idea around right now…

-Stewart

…for the new sight.

The gun sight wasn’t sitting flush on the grille when I installed it.

See how the base of the sight was not sitting flush on the grille?

The mounting bolts were visible because…

…there was a gap on each side of the sight base.

We’ve gotta fix that!

I sliced the mounting area in an “H” shape.

Two quick cuts just wide enough apart for the base…

…and then I sliced it down the middle.

Finally, I bent the raised area in and down.

Then a quick coat of Olive Drab…

The sight now mounts flush to the grille.

The hold down bolts are not visible now.

This looks much better.

Now I am happy.

You gotta enjoy the little things in life…

-Stewart