American Restomods

Rutledge Wood’s 1949 Chevrolet Step Van

tracy — Fri, 10 May 2013 15:22:10 +0000

From the Rutledge Wood Press Release on this project:

Summit Racing Equipment and several top parts manufacturers have teamed up with American Resto Mods of Buford, Georgia to build a 1949 Chevy step van for Top Gear on History co-host Rutledge Wood to drive on the 2013 Hot Rod Magazine Power Tour.

“I am absolutely thrilled to be working with Summit Racing on this project,” Rutledge explained. “Summit Racing is the ultimate candy store for guys like me—they have virtually every part you will ever need, and if you need help, you can talk to actual people who know their stuff and get things like a hot rod step van. That’s a big deal in my book.”

Rutledge Wood is a gearhead’s gearhead. Not only does he engage in automotive antics with Top Gear on History co-hosts Tanner Foust and Adam Ferarra, he hosts NASCAR Trackside Live on SPEED Channel and collects vehicles like our T-shirts collect grease. Rutledge has owned over 55 cars and trucks, ranging from a 1966 VW Double Cab and the 1968 Dodge Charger that was Kyle Petty’s high school ride to a Buick Roadmaster Wagon and a 1975 Bricklin SV-1.

So it makes perfect sense that Rutledge’s latest project is an aluminum breadbox on wheels. The Chevy step van is something that Rutledge has been dreaming about owning since his college days.

“I used to pass a van just like this one all the time while in college at the University of Georgia,” recalls Rutledge. “The day I went to inquire about it, it was gone. So when I found this one, I knew I had to find the right build partners and turn this thing into something truly special.”

The Project
Rutledge found the Chevy in late 2012 and decided it would be the perfect vehicle to take on the 2013 Hot Rod Magazine Power Tour. Since it had to be the coolest breadbox on the Tour, Rutledge entrusted the build to American Resto Mods.

“Tons and tons of custom work needed to done to make this thing cruise down the road,” he explained. “I knew I needed to do it right and find a shop that I could trust, and I hit a home run with American Resto Mods.”

Mike Karbowski and Ralph Sikes, along with their team at American Resto Mods began working on the Chevy in late 2012. The goal was to build something cool with big horsepower, but also make it reliable and comfortable for long distance drives like the Power Tour.

“We tossed the stock frame and replaced it with frame from a 1999 Chevy 2500 HD pickup,” said Karbowski. “We modified the frame to fit the van’s wheelbase and C-notched it in back to accommodate a rear axle flip kit. We did a lot of nipping and tucking to get the van body to fit over the frame, but everything sits nice and low, and we have modern suspension and brakes as a bonus.”

The Parts
American Resto Mods wanted to deal with the best when it came to parts, so naturally they came to Summit Racing Equipment…and naturally, we decided to help out. American Resto Mods gave us Rutledge’s wish list, and we got together with our manufacturers to make it happen:

• Chevrolet Performance 525 HP LS3 crate engine and engine controller kit
• Performance Automatic Street Smart 4L80E transmission kit
• Summit Racing headers
• Be Cool Power Cooling Module
• Ididit steering column and Touch-n-Go keyless ignition system
• Energy Suspension Hyperflex bushing kit, sway bar bushings, and motor/transmission mounts
• Vintage Air climate control system
• Yokohama Parada Spec-X tires
• EBC brake rotors and Power Stop brake pads

Other components include a full Magnaflow exhaust system, and one-off 20 and 22 inch wheels from Asanti.

What’s Happening Next
Well, a lot, actually—the goal is to have the van ready to go for the Hot Rod Power Tour, which is the first week of June. There’s a drivetrain to install, brakes and suspension to rehab, an interior to stitch, and a thousand and one other jobs. One item American Resto Mods doesn’t have to worry about is paint. Rutledge wants to keep the aluminum body au naturel with just a good scrubbing to remove decades of grunge and oxidation.

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If you are interested in some nitty gritty details on the Rut-man himself, check out our blog post inspired by our web lady’s personal friendship with him by clicking here.

Thinking about heading out for the 2013 Hot Rod Magazine Power Tour? Check out this handy dandy UNOFFICIAL guide we created for all things HRPT 2013! Please feel free to SHARE it with your friends.

1949 Alluminum Step Van

1081 photos

1960 Corvette Roadster Gets a Makeover

tracy — Wed, 01 May 2013 20:34:06 +0000

Whether they openly admit it or not, most every gearhead is a wannabe car designer on the inside. That’s why, since the dawn of the automobile, modifying cars has been the choice pastime for so many. Of course, there are those in our world who prefer concours-level restorations in which individual parts are compared to the original for authenticity, but luckily the craving to make cars “better” or “unique” is rampant enough to provide our guys with a paycheck!

Now, there are many levels to which you can take modifying—and we have seen it all here at American Restomods. As our name suggest, we are known for embodying the catchall phrase of restomodding, which can be summed up like this: taking a classic car, restoring it, all while mixing in some modern equipment to make it faster, better handling, more comfortable, or D all of the above.

This 1960 Corvette Roadster we have been working on for one of our most loyal customers is the perfect example of how to mildly create a more modern car while maintaining the beauty of a classic. When Wayne looked at buying this C1 Vette 8 years ago, it wasn’t a very smooth driver. Not only was the frame bent in an accident, but also the steering had too much play. Still, it was a good enough deal that he decided to add it to his existing classic car corral.

Intended for his wife to scoot around in, Wayne wanted to make sure she not only enjoys a smooth ride, but also looks good while doing it—that’s where American Restomods comes in. When it was unloaded at our garage, Wayne had already taken on the feat of switching out the frame, rebuilding the original transmission and drivetrain, adding 4 wheel disc brakes, and having 4 custom wheels made to accommodate the larger brakes. After helping him build his thrice award winning 1956 Nomad, he knew that we would be the perfect professionals to finish up the restomod.

Our usual first order of business is disassembly. Being that Wayne wasn’t interested in a show-stopping restomod, the engine was not part of our removal process, leaving our guys plenty of time to go nuts on the rest of the teardown. After getting her stripped down to the basics, we went on about our business of bringing her back to life and ready to drive. Ninety percent of the work we did was reviving the original parts for re-installation. Amongst the highlights is all original chrome, a revamped radio that looks stock, but is actually all digital on the inside, and stock spinner hubcaps. The other ten percent came in the form of refreshing the old car with some brand new items, such as the stock reproduction interior and drop top. We also sprinkled in a little mechanical revitalizing by way of all new wiring and ignition system. And let’s not forget we topped it off some fresh paint in the stock 1960 Corvette colors of Roman Red and Ermine White.

This car is on the verge of being finished. All we have left is basic reassembly. Stay tuned for the finished product and in the meanwhile enjoy the restomod gallery where we document every detail of the process, not just for the lookie-loos, but more so our clients can keep a close eye on the daily progress of their project. Nonetheless, we know you will enjoy them, too.

1960 Corvette Restomod

684 photos

2013 Hot Rod Power Tour Unofficial Guide

tracy — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 18:59:41 +0000

Here at American Resto Mods, we don’t just build cars…we LOVE cars. That being said, most of our free time is also dedicated to them by way of car meets, shows, and cruises. For the past 2 years, we set off on one of the biggest cruises in the country, The Hot Rod Power Tour, and we are signed up to do it again this year. As Hot Rod Power Tour Veterans, we feel it is our duty to recruit new cruisers and in order to persuade potential new cruisers, we decided to set up this 2013 Hot Rod Power Tour Guide to make it easy to find the information you will need all in one place. We hope you find it useful and motivational!

*DISCLAIMER:

This website is not responsible for, and does not represent or endorse the accuracy or reliability of, any opinion, advice, statement, recommendation or other information included in any page posted. Any reliance by you on any such opinion, advice, statement, recommendation or other information shall be at your sole risk.

Click the links to scroll quickly to each section:

Hot Rod Power Tour Summary
Dates and Cities
Venue Addresses, Links, and Maps
Vehicle Registration
Costs
Hotel Info
Gas Prices
Food
Places the tour will visit
What you need to bring
Stops along the way
Southeast Caravan/Forum
Social media fun
HRPT forums and other useful links

1. Hot Rod Power Tour Summary:

The Hot Rod Power Tour is a yearly event put on by the Editors of Hot Rod Magazine. This year the Hot Rod Magazine Tour is celebrating its 19th anniversary. Coined as a rolling tribute to the performance car, and the ultimate gearhead road trip, this year’s tour will spend 7 days roaming the Southern States. The tour welcomes all makes and models of hot rods, street rods, custom trucks, sport compacts, and street machines. You can expect that about 4000-5000 cars will register for the Hot Rod Power Tour, and this doesn’t count the several thousand extra people that show up just to hang out and see what all of the fuss is about.

In short, get ready for a rolling party on hot rod wheels!

Keep in mind that you can plan on cruising for the entire 1400 miles, or if don’t think you can swing the “long haul” for any reason, you can just show up in a city near you where the Tour will be passing through.

2. Dates and Cities:

Technically, you are on your own when it comes to getting to the first location in Arlington, TX. That doesn’t have to be the case because we are setting up a Southeast caravan to get to the first location as a group. That being said, once you have met up with “The Tour” in Texas, you can choose your own route or roll with the herd. No one will judge you either way. If you do want to follow the Tour Route, you will receive an email with turn by turn directions to each venue. It is not available yet, but we will update this post with the link when it becomes available.

Saturday, June 1: Arlington, TX
Sunday, June 2: Texarkana, AR
Monday, June 3: Little Rock, AR
Tuesday, June 4: Memphis, TN
Wednesday, June 5: Birmingham (Hoover), AL
Thursday, June 6: Chattanooga, TN
Friday, June 7: Charlotte, NC

3. Venue Addresses, Links, and Maps

These are subject to change at any time. The official 2013 Hot Rod Power Tour route map has not been released yet, but we will update this post when it becomes available. For now we are just providing you with easy resources based on what we know at this time.

June 1: University of Texas, 701 S. Nedderman Dr., Arlington, TX 76019
June 2: Four States Fair, 3700 E. 50th St, Texarkana, AR 71854 (200 mi)
June 3: Arkansas State Fair, 2600 Howard St, Little Rock, AR 72206 (142 mi)
June 4: Memphis Raceway, 550 Victory Ln, Millington, TN 38053 (137 mi)
June 5: Hoover Stadium, 100 Municipal Dr, Hoover, AL 35216 (249 mi)
June 6: Chattanooga State College, 4501 Amnicola, Chattanooga, TN 37406 (156 mi)
June 7: zMAX Charlotte Speedway, 5555 Concord Pk S, Concord, NC 28027 (316 mi)
June 8: Long Haul Photo and awards (1400 miles)

Big Google Map from location to location

4. Costs:

None of your expenses will be included along the way, but all of the “venues/tours” are free to enter. Spectators are free.

Vehicle Registration: Online pre-registration is $83.50 ($80 plus $3.50 handling ) per vehicle and is available until Thursday, May 23. On-site registration is $90. You can get a one-day pass for $30 and that is available on site only.

You can click here to register your vehicle for the 2013 Hot Rod Power Tour online.

Your registration fee entitles you to a goodie bag of Hot Rod Power Tour credentials and swag that will be given to you when you check in at the first location in Arlington, TX.

Hotels: You have 2 choices when it comes to booking your room for the Tour. You can do it yourself, which lots of people do with great success, or you can do it through the Hot Rod Power Tour. Either way you choose, there will be Power Tour folks everywhere, so you won’t miss out on anything if you just book your own room.

To book with the Tour, you can either contact the Hot Rod Housing Bureau at 855-346-8354 to make your reservations or you can click here to make your Hot Rod Power Tour Hotel reservations online.

When you make your reservation, a deposit of about $12 for each room will be charged to your credit card. The hotels range from about $70-140 per night. It has been our experience that your credit card will not be charged for the balance until you arrive at the room.

Gas:

Click on these links for gas prices and locations in each city:

Arlington, TX 76019
Texarkana, AR 71854
Little Rock, AR 72206
Millington, TN 38053
Hoover, AL 35216
Chattanooga, TN 37406
Concord, NC 28027

Food: Most hotels these days offer some sort of complimentary breakfast. For lunch, if you travel with the tour and visit all of the scheduled venues, you will receive a free lunch at mid-day venue location. You are on your own for dinner.

6. Places the Tour will visit:

The 2 venues that the Hot Rod Power Tour will visit each day have not been officially released yet, but generally they include very cool places like well known shops, manufacturer facilities, etc. When they are ready to release the venues, they will email you a link to the turn by turn directions to and from each venue. We will update this guide with the link when it becomes available. They generally send it out a few weeks before departure time.

7. What to bring:

This is a very casual event. Comfort is king here! Most people are wearing shorts and t-shirts. Comfortable shoes are a must since you are bound to do a good bit of walking each day. Also, don’t forget your sunscreen, hats, and sunglasses! It’s going to be summer in the South and that means tons of sun.

Keep in mind that The Hot Rod Power Tour is not your typical parking lot car show where you sit in your lawn chair by your car. Typically people take their chairs into the venue (away from the cars) and put them in front of the stage. They then walk around the mid-way (vendor area) gathering the swag of the day. It can be quite a bit of walking and standing to take in the entire venue.

8. Stops along the way:

You have 2 choices here: stay with the Tour and visit the locations set up through them or pave your own road! Plenty of people do both. We usually stay on the tour route and we always have plenty to see and stop many times each day to check out our surroundings. There isn’t any pressure to hurry or keep a schedule. The planned venue at the end of each day winds down about 5:00 or 6:00. This is when everyone heads to their hotel and plans where to meet up for dinner. Everywhere you go (on route or off) is filled with folks on the Tour. That being said, we never felt crowded or over run, or unable to get to a venue.

9. Caravan/Forum

American Resto Mods is planning a Southeast caravan to the first stop in Arlington. If you are interested in joining us, sign up for our forum here and jump in on the planning discussion. You can also just email us at info@americanrestomods.com to be sent emails with details and updates on our caravan. Just make the email title “Southeast Caravan” and we will add you to our email list.

The more the merrier!!

10. Social Media Fun:

We will be using Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter along the way. Facebook and Instagram are a perfect platform for picture sharing. No better way to make your friends jealous that they missed out on the Tour than to flood them with pics of thousands of cool cars everywhere!

Twitter was made for occasions like this. If you have found it hard to see what all of the Twitter hype is about, now is your change to realize its use. If you want to follow the conversation on Twitter, just use and search for the hashtag #hrpt.

You will find the platform pretty useful for a lot of things in addition to making conversation. If you break down or get lost Twitter is a good place to look for help. Twitter can be a good place to find out about locations to visit while you are in a certain town, yummy places to eat, and where everyone is meeting up later. Twitter also serves as a perfect place to share your Tour sightings as they happen.

Here is a nice short video on how to use Twitter.

Follow us at @amerrestomods and here is a list of other people to follow while you are at it (mix of companies, celebrities, and regular folks we follow). Remember #hrpt is the magic hashtag:

Hot Rod Magazine
Chevrolet Performance
Coker Tire
Royal Purple
Motortrend
Rutledge Wood
Magnaflow
Morgan Osbaldeston
Bill Goldberg
Optima Batteries
Berry Lowman
Sean Loh
Mothers Polish

11. HRPT Forum and Other Useful Links

Hot Rod Power Tour official press release
Hot Rod Power Tour official forum
Bangshift HRPT unofficial forums
HRPT Facebook event
Pessimist Guide to the HRPT