Posted By
Ashley
Smissen
,
May 24, 2011
Last week’s Route 66 Cruisein Santa Clarita, California, brought out a great collection of classic cars and trucks. The cruise, held monthly in the parking lot of the Route 66 Grill, is known to local hot rodders as the place to be on the second Saturday of every month.
One thing that many of the cars at the cruise had in common was a catchy and unique vanity license plate. Vanity plates are a great way to provide additional personality to a classic car or truck.
Wondering how to get a vanity license plate for your customers’ cars or your own?
Read more…
Posted By
Devlin
Smith
,
May 23, 2011
The 29th Lone Star Classic Chevy Convention, billed as the biggest Tri-Five Chevy show in Texas, will take place this weekend in Irving, Texas.
This long weekend is a time to honor those who died in military service and marks the unofficial start of summer. This weekend you can check out stellar rides, show off your latest projects, connect with potential customers and support local organizations by spending the day at a car show. Here are 10 events that are happening around the country this weekend. Additional shows will be posted to HRR’s Twitter throughout the week.
The NSRA’s Mid-American Street Rod Nationals Plus takes place Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Ozark Empire Fairgrounds in Springfield, Missouri. The event will feature a swap meet, commercial exhibits, a model car show, NSRA safety inspections, tech seminars, special vehicle displays, entertainment, drawings and an awards presentation. For more information, click here.
The 29th Lone Star Classic Chevy Convention takes place Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Sheraton Grand DFW Airport Hotel in Irving, Texas. Billed as the biggest Tri-Five Chevy show in Texas, the event will feature drag races, a show-and-shine, a swap meet, tours of the Dallas Cowboys Stadium and Texas Motor Speedway, an Indy 500 watching party, a poker run, and a drive-in movie screening of “American Graffiti.” For more information, visit www.lonestarchevys.com.
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Posted By
Devlin
Smith
,
May 23, 2011
Your business has grown to the point where you no longer have to handle the bookkeeping yourself but have been able to bring in a CPA—congratulations! Just because you have a professional crunching your numbers for you now, that doesn’t mean your books are no longer your responsibility, so says Jeanette Mulvey, managing editor of Business News Daily.
“If you think you don’t need to understand accounting because you have a professional accountant, think again,” Mulvey wrote in a recent article. “Even though you go to the dentist once or twice a year, you still brush your teeth every day. Think of accounting the same way. While you may use a professional for the big stuff, you need to be on top of the daily maintenance of your finances.”
Mulvey discussed a few key reasons why it’s important for business owners to keep familiar with their numbers, such as for planning purposes.
Read more…
Posted By
Mike
Mavrigian
,
May 23, 2011
HRR Tech Editor Mike Mavrigian recently put Snap-on Tools’ new Tech Angle Wrench to the test. The wrench includes a protective case and is available in several versions, including ¼- 3/8- and ½-inch drives. The digital torque wrench is capable of operating in several modes, including ft./lbs., in./lbs., Nm and angle of rotation. Below is his review of Snap-on’s Test Angle Wrench Model No. ATECH3FR250A, which features a ½-inch drive. To read his complete review and see photos, click here.
Anyone who has serviced engines (or even certain driveline and chassis components) from the early 1990s until the present is aware that many OEM threaded fastener tightening requirements call for a combination of torque-plus-angle specifications as opposed to a torque-only spec. The common applications for this procedure include cylinder head fasteners, main cap fasteners and connecting rod bolts.
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Posted By
Devlin
Smith
,
May 23, 2011
Like many small business owners, Scott Gerber experiences slow times when his cash flow dips. Gerber, owner of a promotional video production company, came up with the following six tactics for smoothing out his company’s uneven cash flow that he shared in a recent Entrepreneur.com article.
- Adjust customer-credit and payment terms.
- Offer discounts for early-payers.
- Establish “milestone payments” for longer projects.
- Create new revenue streams by expanding existing service packages.
- Retain control of the final product until it’s paid for.
- Renegotiate vendor and freelancer contracts.
Read more…
Posted By
Mike
Mavrigian
,
May 23, 2011
2 comments
This downflow radiator from Saldana has horizontal tanks and tubes running vertically.
Controlling a liquid-cooled engine’s operating temperature is critical to both an engine’s longevity and its ability to perform. The radiator is aptly named, since it allows heated engine coolant to circulate to this external component and “radiate” heat to the atmosphere. A radiator is simply a heat-transfer device.
Without it (if the water pumped was plumbed in a “closed loop,” simply moving coolant within the captive block and heads), there would be no means by which the elevated coolant temperature could release, other than migrating through the block and head material.
The engine would operate in a savage cycle, with liquid coolant quickly becoming hotter until something had to give. The engine will begin to knock/ping as the combination of excess heat and combustion pressure exceeds the limit of the fuel’s octane. Continued detonation beats up rod bearings and can eventually burn holes through the piston domes.
Read more…
Posted By
Ashley
Smissen
,
May 23, 2011
PRW's new 1959-1967 Pontiac 326-421 Black Damper is shown with a silver-anodized aluminum pulley.
PRW Industries has introduced a new SFI-rated Steel Harmonic Damper that’s designed for 1959-1967 Pontiac 326-421 engines. The damper is tested at 12,500 rpm and is CAD-engineered and CNC-machined from high-grade billet steel and aluminum.
The damper will protect an engine from harmful harmonic vibrations, and can be used for a Concours-level restoration, according to the company. It can be mounted with the stock pulley to help maintain an original lock. The timing marks are laser-etched onto the damper to ensure they’re easy to read and won’t wear off.
Read more…
Posted By
Ashley
Smissen
,
May 23, 2011
ididit inc.has added new 1970-1975 second-generation Camaro steering columns to its Made to Fit product line. The columns are a direct bolt-in application and will connect to a stock box or rack.
The collapsible steering columns feature an eight-position tilt, knobs and handles, a GM top shaft, and GM era-specific wiring. They’re packaged with a Camaro-specific floor mount that’s designed to fit and hold the lower end of the column securely, said the company.
The new steering columns are available with a paintable steel, chrome or black powdercoated finish and are made in the U.S.A.
Read more…
Posted By
Harry
Weimann
,
May 18, 2011
By Harry Weimann
In my previous article. “Finding Your Niche in the Trim & Restyling Industry” [HRR March 2011], I focused on different customer bases— retail, restoration, custom, dealership and heavy equipment customers. These customers seek specific services according to their needs. In this article, I want to focus on additional services that you can add to increase revenue, the costs associated with adding these new services and the research involved in making it happen.
I grew up in the baby boomer era in a blue-collar family from Western Pennsylvania. My father taught me that if you’re not moving forward, you’re moving backward. I never quite understood what he meant by that until I started working and then, ultimately, opened my own business.
In the business world, you have to constantly look at making changes to your business to keep it fresh and up-to-date, and bring in new products and services so that you’re not falling behind and becoming old and outdated.
So let’s start by taking a look at how to approach this.
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Posted By
Ashley
Smissen
,
May 18, 2011
- This 1934 Ford roadster body was painted using House of Kolor’s Candy Apple Red.
Paint, at its base, is chemistry: pigments, solvents, light-bending metallic compounds. Only when combined with human creativity does it transform into the amazing array of shades, hues and special effects that dazzle and delight at, say, a hot rod show. Still, the chemical component is critical, and custom painters are legitimately concerned about pending regulations that could drastically impact the composition of their paint.
The situation is far from simple, but the industry seems to have it handled. We’ll deal with that issue later in detail. Let’s start with a tour of the latest colors and effects, to learn what’s hot and what’s new.
“The OEMs typically set the trend for color, or for what people perceive as cool in color,” said David Kidd of the Planet Color brand of Sherwin-Williams Automotive Finishesin Cleveland. “Color also follows the financial cycle. In the 1980s, when money was really good, we saw some really wild colors. We saw ‘Miami Vice’ colors: turquoise, reds and yellows. The same kind of thing happened just before this recent [financial] crash, even the OEMs had purples.
“Now that the economy has slid, we’re seeing more grays, whites, silvers and blacks,” he continued. “But that’s kind of a broad stroke, it’s not a hard line.”
Read more…
