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Jul
14
I pondered this question before, when I created the short wheelbase Cadillac Fleetwood:
What if downsizing the US land yachts went a little different?
Every car enthusiasts knows that the oil crisis in the early 1970’s eventually spelled the end for the gas guzzling land yachts. Cars from Europe and Japan with much better fuel economy flooded the US market and created a situation the big three had to face. They tried frantically to build something suitable. However, most cars they came up with were great achievements horrible miniature caricatures of the bygone era of dinosaurs. You fondly remember the downsized barges and new designs like the Ford Pinto, AMC Gremlin amongst others. Especially the shrunken Cadillacs and Lincolns put a sad expression on most peoples faces. But hey… what if they had approached the whole downsizing trend with a little bit of humor and left the interiors of the cars full-size and only compromised on the outside of the body and the drivetrain? They might have come up with something like this Pontiac Bonneville 2-Door Hardtop Shorty concept.
Feb
07
To be quite honest, I’m not the biggest fan of the Toyota FJ Cruiser styling. However, I appreciate the value for money this vehicle gives any aspiring off-roader. These are very capable vehicles and there are lots of aftermarket parts available to improve it. When Larry Chen of Speedhunters fame bought his manual transmission FJ and started posting his stunning pictures, I literally looked at it in a different light. When modified, it doesn’t look bad at all and I was wondering what I could do to make my vision stand out from all the other modified FJs out there. Even though the design doesn’t naturally lend itself to being modified into a 2-door version, I thought I’d give it a try. To keep one of the main design features of the FJ, I carried the door/roof line over to the concept and kept the two-tone paint scheme. The shorter wheelbase I first tried looked rather silly due to odd proportions and therefore I decided to keep the original. The resulting proportions hint at the equivalent Land Rover Defender 110. A meatier set of BF Goodrich tires on budget-friendly steel wheels called for alterations of the front bumper, even though a lift kit with coil springs was utilized. While at it, the rear bumper was also modified to improve the departure angle and because two spare tires are better than one, I mounted them Dakar or Baja 1000 style in the area formerly occupied by the trunk.
If you want to compare the panel van conversion to the original picture, click here.
Jul
30
“A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of.” Ogden Nash
It really makes me wonder what the photographer of the original picture had in mind, when he placed a rather large dog in the rear seat of the Volvo 262C? Is it possible that he wanted to illustrate that dogs are good companions and like to travel in Volvos? Good idea, but judging by the dogs’ rather sad face he might have actually prefered to ride in a 265 station wagon.
The original picture was on my hard drive for more than a decade. The first try on modifying this vehicle is just as old – and was horrible. So I saved it and forgot about it. A chance encounter with a 262C on the Autobahn last week reminded me of the old file and I openened it in Photoshop again… only to delete it minutes later. After a quick search for the same picture with better size and resolution, I started to modify it again. This time around I changed a vital part that I didn’t think about ten years ago: the rear fender. The Volvo 200-series cars have a rear fender cutout that prohibits lowering the car without looking odd, because the upper part of the wheel disappears behind the sheetmetal. Once that was fixed I selected a set of wheels with period correct design, lowered the car, modified the front spoiler and added the black stripes.
It took ten years to finally finish this one, but now I’m happy with the result. If you have any suggestions what could be done differently or better, please let me know in the comments. Thank you in advance.
Jan
18
This is part one of the Ford Focus ST chops. The car has been lowered over a set of nice wheels. The body has been cleaned and some details have been added to the bodykit. However, there was no need to change the bright orange color.