“If only you were nearer” – a road trip tale

If you’re a long-term reader of the site, the name Mystery Machine might ring a bell. I’ve covered a variety of Bruce’s exploits over the years, starting with his Teenage Dirtbag MX5, then the Area 52 communal garage space, and finally a general look at some other projects he was working on. Bruce has been a little quiet over the past couple of years, with work and general life taking a front seat to his car tinkering, but now he’s back. Oh boy is he back! A childhood love affair with the iconic aircooled Porsche saw him make the pretty huge decision to travel across the Atlantic Ocean to acquire a sight-unseen project P-car. Many of us can relate to the good ol’ road-trip-to-pick-up-a-new-car story, but have you ever flown to another continent to collect your ride? Bruce did, and he’s slowly but surely documenting the whole trip with his trademark sharp photography and poetic wordsmithing, authoring a thread on Retro Rides that is just a visual and mental feast for the senses. The thread is about more than just cars; it’s about the discovery of new friends, new surroundings, and a new appreciation for a land never seen before, documented through Bruce’s natural talent and gifted ability to capture the mood through his lens. The journey isn’t over yet, so I’ll be sure to update this post when the chronicles of the trip are concluded, but it’s up to 19 pages already and growing, so there’s plenty of content for you already.

You might want to warm up/chill your favourite beverage for this one.

Continue reading ““If only you were nearer” – a road trip tale”

The world of Sakurama

Since building my own garage, I’ve been hanging around The Garage Journal a lot more, which has made me re-discover some threads that I had breezed over back when I was a casual visitor. Amongst all the amazing (and huge!) garages on the forum, I became reacquainted with a great thread that showcased not only a garage, but the renovation of the whole architect-designed mid-century home attached to it. I made myself sit down and read it from start to finish, taking in all of the gorgeous photography (did I mention the owner is a photographer?), various materials, construction techniques and bespoke joinery. As the page count increased, I realised that apart from the renovation of the gorgeous home and garage, the thread is also peppered with links to Gregor’s other passion, restoring and modifying motorbikes. For this reason I decided to make this post a builder spotlight, where you’ll find links to all of the visually delightful projects at the bottom of the page.

Click here for more Builder Spotlights.

Check out Gregor’s personal website here.

Continue reading “The world of Sakurama”

’95 Mustang OCD Machine

There’s a twisted tale that goes along with the feature of this car. Dan, the owner, bought a Build Threads sticker pack when I was offering sketches with every order (NLA!). Once I found his car online to use as a reference for the sketch, I really liked what I saw and thought everyone else would, too. It was only after clicking through a few pages that I realised I had actually shared pictures of his oval-exhaust build technique on the Build Threads Discussion Group earlier in the year. Funny how things work. The journey of this thread begins with a car that’s already been deemed magazine-worthy, but that doesn’t stop Dan from continuing development on the ‘stang. The big-on-detail thread begins with an IRS swap and fitment of a pro-charger, then continues along with airride, oval exhaust with cutouts, sound system, interior, and much more. It’s far from over, so be sure to add it to your bookmarks and check up on the sharply photographed progress in the future.

Click here for more Mustang builds. The red paint and modification style also reminds me of this build.

Continue reading “’95 Mustang OCD Machine”

’69 Karmann Ghia, powered by Subaru.

This feature has been a long time coming, and to be honest I’m not sure why I didn’t do it sooner. You see, Mike is one of the few people that liked to share updates of his build on the Build Threads Facebook page, and every time he’d post an image, readers would love it. Just last week I posted an image of his, and again, people flocked to it in droves, so I thought it was time to share it with the whole audience on the website. Mike is obviously great at taking photos, and the fact that he is stuffing a Subaru engine into a naturally patina’d Karmann Ghia doesn’t hurt. If you have your own build thread, then you know the struggle of wanting to get your work done versus picking up your camera and documenting your steps. Sometimes – and I’m guilty of this too – you just forget about taking photos to git-er-done, but not Mike, he’s turned his thread into a virtual gallery of awesome images filled with playful use of light and shadows.

Click here for more VW builds. Click here for more Subaru builds.

Continue reading “’69 Karmann Ghia, powered by Subaru.”

1UZFE 1986 MKII Supra

What can I say about builds like these? High quality mods, high quality images, and high quality documentation, everything we all love in a thread, steered by my favourite kind of builder; one with OCD! Another thing I love about this particular build is watching the owner’s skills progress and improve as time goes on. The choice of car is something we haven’t seen on the site before, we’ve had Supra’s, but never a MKII, so it’s refreshing to read about a platform that can sometimes go unnoticed within the nostalgic Japanese community. There’s so much quality here, from fiberglassing, wiring, welding and CAD design – and over 50 pages of it – so get comfortable!

Thank to Zac for submitting.

Click here for more Toyota builds. Click here for more of the best builds on the site.

Continue reading “1UZFE 1986 MKII Supra”

Steampunk Honda CB350

I remember hearing the word “Steampunk” a while ago, maybe a year or two back, and I had to turn to trusty old Google to see what it was all about. All I found was a bunch of Photoshop’s and renderings featuring lots of brass, chains, cogs, gears, and other vintage industrialist type decorations. I wasn’t sure if this was a real thing or just a fantasy subculture, that was until this very interestingly customised and beautifully photographed Honda CB350 made it’s way into my inbox…

Thanks to Chason for submitting.

Continue reading “Steampunk Honda CB350”

1JZ Nissan Cefiro

When I first stumbled across Liam’s Cefiro build it was still in it’s infancy, and I remember thinking to myself “I hope he goes through with this”. As we all know, time and time again build threads are started but sadly not finished, however this was not to be the case. In a matter of months the thread detailed the transformation of a very stock looking Cefiro into a 1JZ powered, kitted and slammed drift/street machine. The updates came in thick and fast, with great photography and a very cool shared workspace, the build is now close enough to completion to be enjoyed by the masses…

Continue reading “1JZ Nissan Cefiro”