The Cold is Upon Us...

Well, it's that time of year again when we drag out the block-warmers (those of us insane enough to live in a place where it will be cold for the next six months anyway), and build projects get put on the back burner as we run around spending dough we don't have on junk for people who don't deserve it. But before you give up and settle in for the long hibernation, why not go out for just one good romp in the snow...



Brings a somewhat new meaning to the word "sled".

ROD-A-DAY: Pride and Joy

Pride and Joy, originally uploaded by DarkHorse68.

This photo was waiting in the wings from my Flickr photo group and thought it was lovely enough to post today.

Sorry I've been mega slacking lately on updating the site. I've been too busy whipping my fat ass into shape.

ROD-A-DAY :: 1956 Rocket 88

Moon Eyes themed, nosed and decked '56 Olds Rocket 88.
From the 2010 Hunnert Car Pileup in Decatur, IL. Shot by LynchM0B1 on Flickr.

ROD-A-DAY :: 54 Ford Flathead Belly Tanker

Some of my friends have kids. This is one of them. He's going to grow up to make the
ladies crazy.

Grease Girl :: My sister from another mother

Holy Holleys! Can it be?? I recently stumbled onto another female-fronted, gear wrenching website (blog, really) called Grease Girl, based out of Los Angeles, that you really have to visit. Kristin - the Grease Girl herself - found herself needing a car one day and decided to spend the money on something that would last and she could learn to fix own her own in the process: a 1955 Studebaker. The rest is a story about a girl and the love of a classic car and all the bits in between.


Grease Girl herself
Her blog is just great, and a wonderful introduction to the process of learning about and restoring your own car, especially for women out there who feel daunted by the sausage fest that the car scene can be. She even has a whole Learning Section where Kristin passes on many of the lessons she learns while building up her Stude. Gaping spark plugs, installing exhaust systems (and how do they work, anyway? She'll explain!) and there are even instructional videos on a few topics, like installing a headliner. Seriously...this girl has got it going on.


Fun with learning about sparkplugs
I recently emailed her to give a big virtual (and cross-country!) hi-five to another woman who has the need for vintage speed and perhaps you'll see some sort of bi-coastal car colab coming out of the two of us at some point. In what form, I don't know. I've been wanting to write some sort of article about female fabricators and machinists who build and customize cars over the years, but have never been able to find any leads on where these ladies are in this country...IF they even exist. But Grease Girl totally just sent me a few names and leads, so we'll see where it goes. One of them being Ladies in Autosports, an online magazine run by Julia Aschenberg, a journalist who has been trying to put together a women's auto mag for quite some time.

Regardless, it's just nice to know I have a real sisters in sockets somewhere out there, not just more car show bouffant beauty queens who have no clue what rear differential is.

ROD-A-DAY:: 1931 Ford Pickup

Crusty, rusty 1931 Ford AV8 Pickup on the streets of Brooklyn.
I'm surprised how many old cars I am starting to see on the streets of this city. It gives me hope for humanity. (Thanks to owner Drew for correcting me on the model year! Shame on me.)

Ssssstingray

Collection of vintage Schwinn bikes outside of Bill's Cycles in Woodside, Queens (NY).
My boyfriend and I went on a very long (somewhere around 30 miles) bike ride this past weekend to check out Flushing Meadows park, and I hit the brakes when I saw this fine assortment of vintage Schwinn Stingrays and Fastracks outside of a bike shop on Roosevelt avenue.

Once we made it to the park, other sparkling sights from an era gone by included the giant Unisphere, constructed for the World's Fair '64/'65 (which was a horrendous failure)...


(Note the severed tree that was just part of the damage from the tornado that ripped through the area two days before, which tore down the street in front of our apartment as I was looking out the window worrying about the putrid green color of the sky...)

And the other abandoned building from the Fair, the New York State Pavilion, which used to look like this:


But now looks like a horrific abandoned futuristic circus big top, prime for the set of a B-grade slasher movie.


I was inspired to practice my circus skillz.