One of the few books available showing how to build a tuner car, and the only one that shows how to do it on a budget Tuner cars are the most rapidly growing segment of the car modification market Appeals to drivers between 18 and 35 Step-by-step instructions and advice all accompanied by colour illustrations

The tuner car is the new hot rod: a smaller, sleeker, later model, geared up to go faster than the next car. And as always, when going for pumped-up performance and style it’s often critical and difficult to do it on a budget. That’s where this book comes in. How to Build a Hot Tuner Car author Scott Smith tells you all you need to know about how to build a tuner car correctly, and how to do it without going broke. Beginning with the budget what can you afford to spend? Smith offers clear and helpful guidance on finding a good project car, planning its transformation, and making it into the tuner car of your dreams. Every step of the way, he points readers towards great deals from junkyard swaps and aftermarket bargains to low-cost solutions to building challenges. Exterior, interior, suspension, wheels, engine, driveline it’s all here, from getting the parts to installing them properly, and shows that with inexpesive parts and a little innovation the end result can still be eye-poppingly attractive and top of the performance league!

Buy From Amazon
UK : How to Build a Hot Tuner Car (Motorbooks Workshop) (Motorbooks Workshop)
US : How To Build a Hot Tuner Car (Motorbooks Workshop)

Just Customz Review

In this book Scott Smith tries to address all the questions that are asked by someone that is wanting to build there first custom car project. He shows the tools that are required to build the project car that the book is based on to show that you do not need a fully-equiped garage in order to build a great project.

The project that Scott has chosen is a Honda Civic based on the price and modification kits that are available. Through the book Scott applies the following modifications to the Honda Civic with a series of pictures documenting the steps required to perform the task. He also show the problems that he encountered on the way in a bid to help a novice tackle similar problems should they arise.

Short ram air intake
Free flow headers
High Performance exhaust system
Shorter front springs
Short rear springs and shocks
Vertical doors
Alloy wheels
Razzi body-kit
Nitros oxide
Custom Guages
Carbon fibre look dashboard
External vinyl graphics

The Honda’s vertical door during installationIn each section Scott describes why you would want to make the modifications to the car ie shorter springs to lower the centre of gravity which is something that is often missed in similar titles.

About the Author
Scott “Sky” Smith grew up in a family-owned business that included rebuilding wrecked vehicles, fibreglass manufacturing and metal fabrication. He has published several other titles which are published by Motorbooks and his work has appeared in many other publications aw well.

Roy Brizio has been working with customising cars for the majority of his life with his cars featuring in many magazines. In this book it shows how from an early age his father introduced him to hot-rods with a picture of him at 15 months sat on the bonnet of his ’32 coupe. His father worked for Western Tires and was the starter for Moon Bay drag strip in San Fransisco.

The books is broken into 7 sections which are;

1. The early Years
2. The Shop
3. Model A’s and T’s
4. ’32 Fords
5. ’33 & ’34 Fords
6. ’35 to ’40 Fords
7. ’50s to ’60s

The shop section features lots of large high-quality pictures of both finished hot-rods, parts waiting for cars and hot-rods in progress. Each picture shows why Roy Brizio has become such a big name in the world of street-rodding and car customising.

Roy is probably best know for his ’32 and ’34 Fords. In 2001 he was asked to restore the well-known hot-rod ala-kart, which was originally built by George Barris, to do this he stripped it back to bare metal and applied new lead where required.

There are also some stunning pictures of Cliff Hanson’s 31 Roadster Pickup which Roy Brizio built using a reproduction body from Brookville Roadsters.The specifications of this car are truly amazing and the finish is jaw-drooping – a very beautiful car indeed.

The next chapters travel through time showing how Roy Brizio has worked with cars of many different eras with pictures of some magnficant cars.

This book will appeal to both fans of Roy Brizio and those just looking for some inspiration.

The Author
Bo Bertilsson was born and raised in Stockholm, Sweden, and his interest in hot rods and customs started early. In 1969 he took his first trip to California to see the Grand National Roadster Show in Oakland. On this same visit, Bertilsson visited with Ed “Big Daddy” Roth . Roth wanted Bertilsson to photograph choppers for his Choppers Magazine, and it was the beginning of Bertilsson�s career as an automotive magazine photo-journalist. He is now based in California and works for European publishing houses.

You can see the entire review and pictures here.

Peter Vincent has created a very compulsive read that is difficult to put down! As the name suggests the book is packed with high-resolution pictures and insightful information from 18 of America’s top hot rod and custom car builders.

In this book Peter Vincent has visited the following garages;

Roy Brizio
Pete Eastwoord
Cole Foster
Pat Foster
Cam Grant
John Gunsaulis
Gary Harms
Terry Hegman
Ron Jolliffe
Bob Lick
Steve Moal
Dick Page
The Rolling Bones
Don Small
Cal Tanaka
Vern + Keith Tardel
Billy Vinther
Dale Withers

In creating this book Peter Vincent has captured the spirit and unique style of each hot rod garage together with what motivates them to build such fantasic creations.

If you are looking for inspiration then this book will definately help! There are lots of pictures of various show cars both past and present as well as some interesting photos from the Rolling Bones on the build of their ’34 Ford three-window hot rod.

In the book the guys at the Rolling Bones explain that they want to create a dramatic look for the ’34 without pushing it too far. As you can see from the shell that they used it was already chopped but they chopped it even further and raked the windscreen back at the same time! In the section dedicated to their garage they show how they created such a radical chop with lots of very detailed pictures showing each step of the various pieces of work to create this car.