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Real Rides: “Lucky 13 Shop Truck”

Feb 082013

For my 9-5 job as a commercial plumber, I often drive the shop truck around, running parts and materials between job sites. It’s a Metallic dark blue hand-me-down two wheel drive 1992 Dodge Truck.

That’s Truck, with a capital T.

It may be a little old and a little rough around the edges but it’s straight and solid, and that 318 has some heart. It could use a good once-over with a cleaning cloth and some newer suspension parts… but by golly if that thing doesn’t just head down the road, gleefully sucking down gas and moving some ass.

It may get chuckled at when I first pull up; but at second glance, Ol’ Blue garners quite a bit of admiration. Sure, it’s not new; but it’s paid for. Sure, it’s not that great on gas; but you get down on the pedal and it will get out of it’s own way. It’s a survivor, and it has some unwitting charm.

I have been mulling over different retro-rod aspects I would incorporate into it, if it were my truck and not just a company mule. I have been thinking about it, but haven’t sat down and drawn anything.

Until yesterday when I bellied up to the front door of a Sheetz, right beside Ol’ Blue’s evil twin.

Doug's "Lucky 13" shop truck.

This thing was pure Beatnik Broterhood inspiration. Unlike Ol’ Blue, it doesn’t wait for a second look of approval, it slaps you across the face and demands respect. Satin black with red accent wheels, hood scoop sporting pinstriped cobwebs… plain perfection. Everything that a modern rod with kustom heritage should be.

As I got out of my own truck, trying not to stare, I noticed that someone else had walked up and asked to get a cellphone picture of it; mostly the “Lucky 13″ inside a spade painted on the door.

I walked over too, noticing that there was a huge shifter sticking up between the seats. I had to find out more.

The shifter on this thing is outrageous!

The owner’s name is Doug, and he said his wife hates this truck. Which gives us all the more reason to love it!

It’s 91 Dodge with a 318 and a whole list of custom parts.

That's a functional scoop that lights up at night, added to give clearance for the custom air cleaner.

The scoop by day...

And by night!

Custom console, air cleaner, shifter, gauges, and more. He lowered it “old’skool” by cutting the coils off the front springs and by making longer shackles for the rear leafs. There was a set of dual exhaust tips coming out from under the bed and the headliner sports the door skin from a local police car.

Doug's job at an auto body shop landed him this sweet door skin.

Oh, and the mega-volt electrical outlet screwed to the gas cap door?

It's a plug-in hybrid too ?!

“That’s there, because, you know… it’s green!” Doug says with a sly smile and a quiet chuckle.

Indeed Doug. A bad-ass rebel green machine that is sure to get some attention. Thanks for the pictures, and thanks for the inspiration. Check back for a sketch of Ol’ Blue done up in some retro-finery!

Lost Soul – The Kia Soul That Lost It’s Way

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Jan 202013

When they left the line at the plant, most were headed for predictable destinations. A senior’s grocery-getter, a college student’s graduation present, a single dad’s sensible first new car. But, one had a very special destination. It was about to wander the timeless landscape as…the Lost Soul.

No one knows how the Lost Soul came to be. Some say some rodders out West descended upon a wife or girlfriend’s Kia and dropped it on a custom frame. Others say it was on the East cost, with a bored panel-banger cruising a salvage auction site and purchasing a cheap Kia that had been flooded out.

The facts surrounding this foreign heap of scrap metal are fuzzy. Is the engine the original 2.0, 145 hp engine longitudinally mounted, with a couple of Holley carbs? Is it a twin-turbocharged Ford 289 hooked up to a Strange S60 rear-end? No one knows. Some even say three people looking under the hood would tell you three different things.

Whoever, or whatever, was responsible for the Lost Soul was obviously was a master with metalworking and plasticworking in equal parts. The was chopped and channeled and reinforced before being bolted to the frame, with the plastic bumpers receiving similar treatments. The interior, unfinished with sharp, exposed edges, betray its strange mix-up between two worlds, one old and one new.

Although it clearly started with very contemporary beginnings, the Lost Soul looks like it’s got a little from every decade in it, especially pulling from the style of 30′s American metal. So what is the Lost Soul? Is it a car? An enigma? A time machine? As Abraham Lincoln wrote, “The Lost Soul is a very peculiar carriage indeed, filled with intrigue and unknown origins, pulled by a thousand angry unseen banshees.”

Baja Re-Imagined

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Nov 042012

My brother, Mike, was once the owner of this gorgeous 1966 Volkswagen Beetle done-up in the classic Baja Bug style.

When Mike pulled the Baja out of a junkyard in 1996, at the ripe age of fourteen, the teutonic titan was a bit ragged. In a previous life, it had been rolled, and the roof had been crushed in. It had some rusty floorpans, which was expected, and it didn’t run – also expected. The eighties-era black paint job featured multicolored, angled stripes down the side – which lent it what now would be considered a cool retro feel, but then felt just felt dated.

After four years of wrenching on it with the paternal, Mike turned that $750 rotted-out ghost of a Baja into a bright, capable off-roader. Swap meets from as south as Virginia and as west as Ohio were the sources for fiberglass fenders, a six-point roll-cage, and the lucky find of a 1957 roof, complete with rag-top sunroof and oval rear window.

Mechanically, the engine was rebuilt, and bumped up to 1641cc. The heat exchangers were removed in favor of a stinger exhaust because, let’s face it, “there’s nothing colder than the heat in a Volkswagen.” Does that joke ever get old? The whole car was given a fresh coat of paint inside and out, all with a revealing-the-checkered-flag theme. And, when he got it finished in 2001, it was a blast. Mike took it through creeks, over hills, through woods, and jumping as much as six feet in the air (with the photos to prove it).

However, as many of you know, sometimes life gets in the way of your relationship with cars, and more important things come along. College, jobs, dating, marriage, moving, kids…

So, what happened to that bug?

Flash forward ten years later, and the Beetle is sitting under a tarp behind Father’s house, collecting snow in Winter, rain in Spring, sun in Summer, and leaves in the Fall. It seems completely dis-attached from Mike’s life. However, the idea of it, the spark of possibilities left behind are always a part of My Brother’s mind. In his mind, the Beetle he once slaved over inside of a cold, dark garage for hours on end has never died, but is only in hibernation, awaiting it’s next stage of awesome.

This true, bittersweet story is not over. Coming Spring 2013, it is my personal conviction, my quest and mission to not accept the decade-long fate that has overcome one sorrowful Volkswagen in particular.

Coming Spring 2013, the Baja will rise again… re-imagined. (to be continued…)

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