The Rolling Bones, Keith Cornell and Ken Schmidt, rolled out of Crown Point, Indiana Wednesday morning, had lunch in Bloomington, Illinois with H.A.M.B. buddy Derek and pulled into Morfab Customs in Union, Missouri last night. Keith at Morfab Customs was a gracious host and gathered fellow rodders and customers to join in welcoming Keith and Ken. Dennis Parks, Motorbooks author of the recently released Hot Rod Chassis and Builder’s Guide, was on-site to take photos. Thanks to Dennis for putting the Rolling Bones in touch with the talented people at Morfab Customs! See Dennis’ photos attached.
This afternoon, The Rolling Bones will be stopping into the Darryl Starbird Custom and Hot Rod Hall of Fame in Afton, OK at 1pm. Stop by and say hello if you’re in the area: 55251 E. Hwy 85A in Afton . Tomorrow afternoon is a spooky Rolling Bones gathering at Bozo’s in Santa Rosa !! Hot Rod Haven Sunday morning… and then Booth #22393 at SEMA Monday afternoon!!
A cross country road trip car, a couple of hot rod projects in the background, and a Bonneville record holder off to the side…what do you think these guys are talking about? You can bet it ain’t golf.
While the body is still in the painting stages, the painted chassis is assembled for one of Morfab Customs’ customers. The chassis for this ’32 Ford three window was drawing admiring glances throughout the evening.
Of course I said yes when Ken asked if I wanted to sit inside the coupe. A ride would have been nice, but it was raining pretty hard at the time. I literally took a “rain check” and yes, I’d ride to the SEMA show in it.
It may not be pretty, but if it gets you there and back, who cares? This kind of hot rod is how you determine if a guy is a true hot rodder or a gold chain wearin’ street rod buyer. No billet here…
Signing books and spreading the gospel…
Plenty of character, charm, and road miles on this ol’ Ford.
‘Nuf said.
The rain splattered roof of the Rolling Bones coupe proves that this is a road warrior. Ken and Keith have experienced plenty of rain on this trip.
Keith, Bob Galbraith (New Port engineering), and Ken in the office of Morfab Customs. Checking out MBI books and Dean Bittick’s Model T speedster on the Hub Garage, and just pretty much talking hot rods.
With the huge choice of car audio equipment available today it is often difficult to decide what car stereo would best suit your needs. This article will hopefully help you negotiate the technical minefield and make the best choice for your requirements.
There are two main contributing factors to the quality of the audio that is produced by any audio equipment which are the frequency response and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The frequency response of the ear is around 20Hz to 20KHz although this often diminishes with age. A ‘loud’ facility is sometimes provide to boost the frequencies that become degraded with age. The SNR is important as it is what constitutes the background hiss that is often associated with cheaper audio equipment.
The car stereo or head unit today can play audio from a wide variety of sources which we will now discuss below.
Cassette Deck
If the reason for replacing your car stereo is to allow you to play your CD’s or music from your iPod then please be aware that it is possible to purchase equipment that allows you to play music from an external source. These specialised adapters look like a cassette with a flying lead that plugs into your alternate music source ie iPod, CD player etc. This is often a very cheap and easy alternative if funds are tight!
Audio Cassettes in general do not give as good an audio experience as CD players as their frequency response and SNR is often inferior to that of modern digital equipment.
Although cassette tape sales have declined extensively it is still possible to purchase due to the amount of tapes that are still out there however as a long term investment a CD or MP3 player would probably be a better choice.
CD player
The CD has been around for many years now and is well established in the market-place. A CD can store its information in a multitude of formats but the most popular at the moment is usually just referred to as an Audio CD in the specifications. These are the CD’s that you can buy of the shelf from any major music retail shop.
As with all technology the the common audio format is under threat by a relatively new format referred to as MP3. MP3 is a digital audio compression technique that allows much more audio to be squeezed onto a single CD. A typical compressed song will be roughly 4-6MB depending upon the quality of the audio and a typical CD can store around 700MB of data. So you can see that you can store many more songs using MP3 technology than with the conventional music CD’s.
It is also possible to purchase a head unit that has a remote CD player or CD changer. A CD changer is like a mini duke box that can be located in your boot, glove compartment etc. They typically have between 6 and 12 CD’s within them and often support the ability to play songs randomly between all the CD’s.
USB/Memory Card
With the rapid adoption of MP3 format and the availability of cheap USB memory sticks car audio manufacturers have started to adopt USB ports on their equipment as standard. A USB stick or memory card can be thought of as a very small CD usually about a couple of inches long and about half an inch wide but capable of storing vastly more information than a conventional CD. Something to check when buying a head unit supporting this feature is the upper memory limit of the USB stick or memory card. Typical memory cards today are around 2-4GB which would store many albums however these sizes may not be supported by the head unit.
If you purchase a head unit supporting this type of media then you’ll need to make sure that you have a method of getting the music from you CD collection onto the memory stick. This will involve ‘ripping’ the audio and copying it onto the memory. There are many programs available for doing this such as Windows Media Player.
Radio
Most people are familiar with car radio’s and understand what to look for when purchasing one. However something to keep in mind when looking is the uptake of DAB radio which is the new digital transmission method.
DAB radio uses modern digital compression techniques to offer a greater variety of music and programmes as well as short messages etc that often appear of the display. Since this is a new format and isn’t widely adopted as the mainstream format most DAB radios also still support FM transmissions.
The DIN form factor
Finally something which should be overlooked is the form factor and connections for the head-unit. With early cars there wasn’t really a standard which led to all sorts of problems when replacing the factor standard unit. However there is now a standard size referred to as the DIN which is 2 1/8″ (50mm) tall and 7 1/8″ (180mm) wide and double-DIN which is twice as tall as the standard DIN size.
The connectors used to plug the stereo in are fairly common but there is no one standard connector. Luckily due to the size of the problem there are many different types of adaptor readily available in most car audio shops.
One problem often experience with fitting new audio equipment is with the memory ‘forgetting’ its settings. This is often due to the power supply wires to the head unit being switched over. To over come this problem the manufacturers of the cabling adapters easily enable the yellow and red wire to be interchanged which will fix the problem.
It is always worth checking out many retailers before making a selection on a head unit and I would recommend searching an automotive directory for the best choice.
Erie Flathead Club hosted The Rolling Bones last night on their first leg of the WHERE IN THE WORLD ARE ROLLING BONES cross country adventure to SEMA. Keith Cornell and Ken Schmidt met with about 40 Erie area rodders at the Quaker Steak and Lube for a few hours. Thank you to Steve for organizing the group! Bright and early this morning, Keith and Ken were sipping coffee with Jeff at Tregler’s Precision Services in Fairview , PA. Specializing in racing and high performance engines, Tregler’s was a great way to get the motor running this morning!
Next stop is the Road Rockets Custom Car Club at Culbertson’s Rod & Custom Shop in Indy ( 1815 South Lynhurst Drive ). If you’re in the area, the fun starts at 7pm tonight. Thanks to Tom and Naomi for gathering friends, family, customers and fellow rodders to meet and greet Ken and Keith on their 2nd day of their journey!
ADVENTURE ADDENDUM
We’ve added an additional stop to the tour!! On Halloween evening (Saturday, October 31st), Ken and Keith will be swinging through Jamie Johnson’s Hot Rod Haven in Albuquerque . This world-renowned shop is located at 2215 Edith NE in Albuquerque . Thanks to Jamie for hosting this last gathering before the last leg to Las Vegas ! Hope to see you there!
The Where In The World Are Rolling Bones cross country adventure to SEMA started today!!
Hot Rod? Check.
Books? Check.
Maps? Check.
Ken and Keith? Check. Check.
Speeding Ticket? Check.
The Rolling Bones Cross Country Adventure to SEMA started bright and early this morning… with a speeding ticket! Even before they hit the highway, Keith got a speeding ticket on the way to pick up Ken this morning. The best part? The guys only live 10 miles apart. I guess they were excited to get the WHERE IN THE WORLD ARE THE ROLLING BONES adventure started!
Rolling Bones arrive in Erie , Pennsylvania this afternoon and will hang with Erie County Flatheads Club tonight at the Quaker Steak & Lube ( 7851 Peach Street , Erie ), 7pm. All rodders in the area are welcome to come!
Don’t forget to check back again to read what happens when they get there and see some pictures of the turn out!
When people think of Lowriders the first thing that most people with think of is the ground-scraping stance and the bouncing of Hydraulic competitions. However there is much more to the Lowrider scene than dropping the suspension and one major area is that of Lowrider Arte.
The creation of the Lowrider scene can be traced back to the late 60s and was due to the mixing of several cultures which were the California car culture and the Mexican culture.
Lowrider Arte is not confined to using a Lowrider as the canvas and extends to Tattoos, paintings and most other art forms. The Lowrider Arte magazine is solely dedicated to providing an outlet for Lowrider artists and features articles and tattoos, car drawing and much more.
Serious Lowrider car enthusiasts spend a great deal of time on all aspects of their creation with attention to detail being paramount to their success in Lowrider competitions. During the build the car will be completely stripped and many of the major components of the car will be as detailed including chrome plating and air-brushing. Often the bodywork, door shuts, boot, engine compartment will feature murals and fantastic works of art.
In 1931, Henry Ford announced that his company would produce an eight-cylinder car, if only because its competitors were building fours and sixes. The result, introduced in 1932, was Ford Motor Company’s first V8-powered car. The “Deuce” was a design and technological milestone that would become the quintessential hot rod platform. Arriving just in time for the Deuce’s 75th anniversary, this complete authoritative and illustrated history looks at every facet of the Deuce’s story: factors leading to its design, how it was manufactured and sold, the development of the now-legendary flathead engine, and motorsport exploits around the globe. And, of course, there are the hot rods: the 75 most influential ’32-based hot rods as chosen by a who’s who of the hot rod community. From the pacesetting Doane Spence roadster to Chili Catallo’s Lil’ Deuce Coupe, the American Graffiti coupe, and the cars of such hot rodding legends as Gray Baskerville, Ray Brown, Boyd Coddington, Ak Miller, and Veda Orr—each of the 75 vehicles gets its own spread, with rare and famous photographs and detailed descriptions of the car’s history, mechanics, and design. Produced in cooperation with Ford Motor Company, this spectacular book, for vintage-car enthusiasts and hot rodders alike, also includes a foreword by Edsel B. Ford II, grandson of the Deuce’s principle stylist. Publisher’s Note: In 2007, Ford Motor Company will launch a yearlong tour of the “75 Most Significant Deuce Hot Rods” that will display several of the cars – some are still missing – at shows and events across the U.S.
This is a big heavy book that will have your both a little more muscular and more knowledgeable after reading it! It is actually an extended version of a book originally about the Deuce. The book now has 75 of the best Deuces that have shaped history to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Deuce.
The beginning of the book is devoted to the history of Ford with an interesting insight into how Ford operated as a company. It is packed with photos of early prototypes, production lines and designs and tells of how the Ford V8 was a move to go 2 cylinders better than the competition which were mainly using 6 cylinders. Henry Ford also tried to avoid using a water pump in the design to cut down on production costs which were always his key objective in any new project.
The 75 Deuce Hot Rods at the end of the book include cars from Bruce Meyer, Boyd Coddington and Dan Fink. The pictures are large and very hi-resolution and each section has a small piece of interesting text about the car and its creator.
Rolling Bones, one of the nations best-known hot rod shops, is teaming up with Motorbooks and rodders across the country on an adventure to SEMA! Ken Schmidt and Keith Cornell (aka Rolling Bones) will drive their 1932 Ford Three Window Coupe from their shop in Ballston Spa , New York to Las Vegas . Their final destination would be the Motorbooks booth (#22393) at SEMA! Rolling Bones were featured in Peter Harholdt and Ken Gross’ book Art of the Hot Rod(which recently won a GOLD medal at the International Automotive Media Awards and author Ken Gross won the Lifetime Achievement Award) and Peter Vincent’s Hot Rod Garages. They will be meeting with hot rod enthusiasts and builders all the way across the country… and selling books to pay for their gas!
Dates
Monday, October 26th – Erie County Flathead Club hosts at the Quaker Steak & Lube ( 7851 Peach Street , Erie , PA ), 7pm
Tuesday, October 27th – Road Rockets Custom Car Club in Indianapolis hosts at Culbertson’s Rod & Custom Shop ( 1815 South Lynhurst Drive , Indianapolis , IN ), 7pm
Wednesday, October 28th – Regional Streeters in Crown Point , Indiana hosts at Schoops Hamburgers ( 1124 N. Main Street , Crown Point , IN ), 5pm
Thursday, October 29th – Morfab Customs in Union , Missouri hosts ( 79 Hi-Line Drive , Union , MO ) hosts, 6pm
Friday, October 30th – Darryl Starbird Custom and Hot Rod Hall of Fame hosts (55251 E. Hwy 85A, Afton, OK) 1pm
Saturday, October 31st – Bozo’s Garage in Santa Rosa hosts ( 2601 Will Rogers Drive , Santa Rosa , NM ), 2pm
Sunday, November 1st – Heading to Vegas!
You can see the route that the guys from Rolling Bones will take across the states in the map below;
The Rolling Bones Route
The guys below will be performing the adventure in the hot-rod (also shown below) if you’re in the vicinity and see them don’t forget to give them a wave!
Rolling Bones Coupe Hot-Rod
The Intrepid Explorers
If you’re interested in following their progress as they drive cross country, become a friend of Motorbooks on FACEBOOK or check out this blog.
We have now modified the members section to allow them to upload a picture of themselves together with some information. A good example can be seen for Kate in the lowrider models gallery.
The Hot Rodding culture dates back to the late 1940′s and the end of World War II mainly in southern California. It was fuelled by a period of peace and growing prosperity as well as the enthusiasm of young men returning from war with newly acquired mechanical skills.
After the war there was a plentiful supply of mainly early fords such as Model T’s and Model A’s that became an excellent choice for tuning and improving the performance. At this time in history performance parts weren’t available and these came later with the car tuning pioneers such as Edlebrook, Offenhauser, Weber and many more. At this point for those who didn’t have access to machinery or the know how to improve the engines performance the main option was to improve the power to weight ratio of the vehicle. This was easily achieved by removing some parts such as the wings, running boards etc. To those with the facilities other enhancements were made such as channeling the body over the chasis rails to improve the stability and performing a roof chop to reduce the drag.
Over a relatively short period of time the aftermarket tuning parts industry became big business, with the illegal street racing eventually evolving into the new sports such as NASCAR and drag racing that we see today.
The original drag racing strips were much wider and longer than they are today and were mainly formed from disused landing strips that had been created for war-time purposes. As drag racing became increasingly more popular it became evident that a central body was required to ensure that certain levels of quality and safety were met which led to the formation of the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA). The NHRA was formed by Wally Parks in 1951 in Southern California and today is one of the largest motor sports bodies in the world.
Hot Rod Evolution
In the 1970′s there was a drive to improve the efficiency of cars which led to an overall loss in power for most manufacturer’s cars. Due to the high fatality rates caused by accidents around the 1970′s there was also a drive to improve the safety of all vehicles which mainly required the removal of hard objects from directly in front of the driver etc. All these changes in the main stream motor industry forced hot-rodding to evolve as well with cars hot-rods being safer and more fuel efficient. This new stream of hot-rods are now referred to as Street-Rods and are built to be driven and more family friendly. To oversee these changes a new governing body was formed in a similar vein to the NHRA which was called the National Street Rod Association (NSRA). Where the NHRA’s primary focus is on safety on the drag strip the NSRA’s focus at events with an inspection team that checks everything before the event starts.
The definition of a street-rod is a car that was manufactured in 1948 or earlier that has been modified to meet the owners requirments. The usual upgrades that take place are things like the drive train, interior, audio equipment etc.
A stock Volkswagen Beetle is comparatively underpowered by modern standards and even as early as the 1950′s companies were developing aftermarket performance product for Volkswagen owners that wanted a little more power. After a short period of time Beetles began entering drag racing competitions and holding their own on the strip.
In the 1960′s enthusiasts (particularly in California) started to emulate these drag racing cars by stripping of all the chrome, upgrading the wheels and tyres and modifying the front suspension to give a nose down appearance. This style became the foundation of the Cal Look that we see today although it has evolved over time.
Today the Cal Look has become incredibly popular mainly due to the relative inexpensive of the Volkswagen Beetles and the cost involved in creating an eye-catching Cal Look example. There is a myriad performance parts available compared to those available in the 1960′s and unleashing large amounts of power from the flat-four engine is fairly achievable on a modest budget.
One of the main features that identifies the Cal Look is the smooth body where most or all the exterior trim etc has been removed. This can be traced back to its drag-racing roots where reducing the curb-weight of a car is a key ingredient in achieving a good time on the drag strip. The steel wheels are also usually replaced with lighter alloy wheels with popular choices being Porsche Empi 5 or 8 spoke wheels. The choice of 5 or 8 spoke is mainly determined by the age of the car they are being installed on because older Volkswagen’s had 5 studs whereas the later one only have 4 studs.
A common popular half-way variant on an all-out Cal Look is the Resto Cal Look. These Volkswagens are essentially stock with the exception of a lowered stance and tuned engine. They are often fitted with aftermarket period accessories such as roof-racks, fender-skirts and air conditioning units.
The Cal Look is no longer only popular on Volkswagen Beetle and is now also very popular with Campers, Ghia’s and Type 4′s.
Please wait...
