We haven’t had a good ol’ hot rod on the site for a little while, so here’s one that’s been patiently waiting in my archives. A classic looking Model A, low to the ground, in a gorgeous combination of blue and gold, stunning in it’s simplicity. Notice the distinct lack of rust, skulls, or goofy body proportions. This is my kind of rod.

Thanks to Chris for submitting.

CLICK HERE for the full build thread.
There are some pin-up style model shots in the thread which may be NSFW, so please express caution.

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Is there any other car that can be so easily and instantly identified by it’s nickname? We’ve all seen the movie and felt the urge to step into the screen and drive that fastback right out of the cinema parking lot, but for most of us the dream ended when the credits rolled. Most of us. For one Eleanor fan over in NY, simply dreaming wasn’t enough, so he sold his ’03 Cobra to fund the purchase of a ’67 Mustang and set about creating the most accurate representation of the famous fastback that he possibly could. What stands out about this particular replica is the attention to even the smallest details that are usually left out by most who attempt it.

Thanks to Christian for submitting.

CLICK HERE for the full build thread.

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Almost 2 years ago to the day I featured a hand-built aluminium hot rod named Emerald Tide which took it’s styling inspiration from an artist’s painting. Well the same artist has many more paintings and the same builder is creating another awesome car to match one of them. This time it’s a chopped and channeled ’51 Ford pickup going by the name of Lit Up. I know I say this about many builds but the fabrication work in this one really is simply amazing. The word “talent” doesn’t even come close when trying to describe the one-man, metal-morphing, killer-shop-owning, car-building machine they call Jimmy. The custom chassis rails made from laser-cut sheets of flat metal on the first page should give you a fair idea.

CLICK HERE for the full build thread. The car is still unfinished but I will be keeping an eye on it and will definitely post up when it’s complete.

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Late last year, shortly after I posted the heartfelt story of the FreedomBird, a gentleman named Matt contacted me to tell me about his own muscle car project. You see, Matt’s company  Anvil Auto was responsible for the carbon fiber work on the FreedomBird, so when the attention was turned to his own build, you knew it was going to be slathered with that glorious woven composite material. As you can see from the preview image, when it comes to styling this ‘stang takes a slightly different path from the norm by tweaking the Pro-Touring blueprint and borrowing cues from race cars of a bygone era, albeit with a modern twist. Enlisting the expertise of master car builder Steve Strope to orchestrate it’s transformation from render to finished product, the completed car screams American Muscle with whispers of classic European and Japanese influences. I’m a big fan, especially of those retro-inspired and drool-worthy wheels, not to mention the trick inboard suspension both front and rear.

CLICK HERE for the full build thread. Work warning on Page 11, images are NSFW!

CLICK HERE for the Lateral-g.net feature & studio photos.

Official site: AnvilMustang.com

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It’s been a while since the last hot rod build, so I think it’s time we sink our teeth into some vintage American iron. I can’t help but be extremely jealous when I see such talented folk create a car with their bare hands from such a depleted starting point. Scooter, the talented fabricator behind the build, certainly knows how to piece together a good ‘rod and document with very nice photography. Make sure you keep your eye out for some text links posted on the first page of the thread, which will take you to some other (earlier) threads of the build process.

Thanks to Pingar for the submission.

CLICK HERE for the full build thread.

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I’m not sure if you’re familiar with the 24 Hours of Lemons races, but to be very brief the official site describes it as “A nationwide series of endurance races for cars that cost $500 or less.” That $500 includes the purchase AND building costs. The entries are very interesting, the teams are hilarious, and the whole deal raises money for charity. So now that you’ve got a run-down on the competition, let’s see just how far you can stretch that $500 budget with a bit of know-how, a lot of had work, and a sense of humour. This frankenstein hatch-back started out life as a Geo Metro (a.k.a. Suzuki Swift to my fellow countrymen, hence the title), which was gutted and then had it’s rear end violated by some Ford V6 goodness from a Taurus donor car, awesomeness ensues.

CLICK HERE for the full build thread.

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If you’re a regular Speedhunters reader, then you would have already seen this monster being built over the last couple of months. For those of you who aren’t, here’s the lowdown…

Ford, Monster Energy Drink, and Team Need For Speed teamed up with Formula D driver Vaughn Gittin Jr. to build a street/drift styled ’69 Mustang to debut at SEMA 2010. Using a brand new Dynacorn body and an Art Morrison chassis as bases for the project, numerous sponsors came on board and threw their own catalogue of desirable parts at the build, culminating in one awesome ‘stang.

The best part is that Vaughn plans to hit the track in this beast in the future, so keep a close eye on Speedhunters because this ’69 won’t be confined to car shows. Find the links to the build after the jump.

INTRODUCTION

PART ONE

NEW RENDERINGS

PART TWO

PART THREE

PART FOUR

PART FIVE

PART SIX

PART SEVEN

PART EIGHT

PART NINE

PROJECT EXPOSED

SEMA DEBUT

Or you can browse all of those posts, plus a few more, via the RTR-X tag here.

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Here’s another build to go with the other chassis-swap projects that have been previously featured. This time it’s a 1959 Ford Thames van being sat on top of a shortened BMW 2002 chassis, built by it’s owner, Mike Pugh. Kindly submitted by Mikael.

So, after featuring a handful of projects like this, it begs the question; what would your ultimate chassis-swap project be?

For more info head to http://www.britishv8.org/Other/MikePugh.htm

Anyone remember the Koenigsegg Granada? Well Joel, the owner, contacted me after noticing his car was featured on Build Threads and filled me in on some details about the car. Apart from giving me a link to his proper build thread, Joel also schooled me on some Koenigsegg/Ford facts.

Apparently, all engine parts on the Koenigsegg are based on – and interchangeable with – the Ford 4.6 modular family, a fact that the boys over in Sweden aren’t too keen on telling people. A new block is cast in England for the Swedish supercars, allowing them call it an “in-house design”. Interesting!

The car has been developed further since it’s previous feature, so if you want to read the Granada build thread, click here.

I was reading up on this thread a while ago, however I stupidly forgot to note it down and in-turn forgot about it until very recently when Christian submitted it via email and brought it back to my attention. This car interests me for a few reasons. Firstly, it’s different, which always makes for a good feature. Secondly, it’s Australian, and I love featuring home-grown builds. Third, it’s an un-orthodox choice for a drift car, it’s always good to see people trying something different. And lastly, because when I grew up we had one of these (albeit stock) as our family car.

The XD Ford Falcon, an early 1980′s square edged family truckster, built like a tank and usually heard labouring up hills with the 4.1ltr inline 6 sounding like a giant exhaust fan. Not this one though, XDRFT2 is the second incarnation (hence the “2″) XD drift car to emerge from the Mobile Mayhem stables, powered by a 410ci Cleveland V8 and sitting atop a complete coilover set up from RSS. Builds like these are extremely interesting because you get to read about all the issues that need to be overcome when developing such an un-proven platform to a competitive level, not to mention the amounts of clever weight reduction needed when starting with such a heavy base. This is one of those great tech-filled threads with lots of images and information, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.

Full thread: http://www.xfalcon.com/forum/showthread.php?19787-XDRFT2-the-build

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