With the winter months closing in on us fast, now is the perfect time to get your rides in the shop and start tearing them down for next season. Seems like the cold weather gives you the extra motivation you need to stay inside and work on your ride, rather than to brave the storms and the cold weather. Or even worse damage our rides over the rough winter. Its time to start stripping your ride down and doing the things to it that you’ve wanted to do all year but haven’t had the time to, tub the fender wells, shave the handles off, relocate the gas filler, you know the drill. A lot of people take this time to search around the net and look for some products that they can order as a project for them to complete over this break. This is the time where we do to our rides what we can to keep them ahead of the game.
What most customizer’s try to do is, well, not what others have done. Or if they do, take their ideas and recreate them. Make them fit you, your ideas, and your thoughts. Turn that idea, that modification into your creation, you know tweak it a little. Fabrication can be done in many ways. Some people want their ride to look stock. These people will do extreme modifications to make it look like the part is supposed to be there. A good example of this would be front-end conversions. I’m talking; clean, cut, well-done conversions that make you go “Damn.” A good example of this would be Josh Freeman’s 1994 Toyota, which was featured in the pages of SSM in 2003. What Josh did was take headlights out of a 1997 Honda Accord and molded them to fit in the front end of his Toyota pickup along with a custom grille. Don’t forget, Josh was the fabricator in his project. Its body modifations like this that set his Toyota apart from many of the other Toyota’s in his class. Thus, putting him ahead of the game. Others opt to change up the rear end of their rides. Take Jennifer Desellem’s 1992 Honda Civic hatch for instance which was featured in August of 04. Jenn decided to do away with the taillights and mold a 15” LED in the rear bumper. Which, I forgot to mention, was also molded in. Those mods are just some of the reasons that Jenn dominates her class.
So while your sitting in your lawn chair, lazy boy, or on top of your milk crate remember this: Be creative, do what others haven’t done but if you do take there ideas and use them in your own personal creation, learn from others mistakes, and always had pride in your ride. For me its back to the drawing board, and I look forward to seeing how all your rides change over the winter months, and hope that someday we will all be ahead of the game.
Doug Large aka Douggie Fresh