Aside from the many guests Jay has on his show, Jay Leno’s Garage, he also has a plethora of vehicles in various states of restoration. This ~22min video showcases some of the unfinished projects in the shop, perfect for people like us who want to see the bare bones more than the finished product.
Tag: restoration
1932 Ruxton Restoration
It looks like we have a few firsts, here. This just might be the oldest car to ever feature on Build-Threads.com, and most definitely the first Ruxton! In fact, I’d never heard of the manufacturer until I stumbled across this thread, so I did a quick Wiki to get up to speed. The fact that stood out to me the most is that these cars were actually front wheel drive, and apparently the first ever US-built car to drive the front wheels. What started out as a 10hr job to get the car running (after being parked in 2006) evolved into a full frame-off restoration, which ends up with the car making an appearance at the 2014 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. This is a nice change from the usual 1960s-onwards stuff that I feature, so take the time to enjoy the wonderful details of Pre-War engineering, and make sure you drink in that marvelous step-gradient paint job.
Click here for more restoration builds.
1960 Aston Martin DB4GT ZAGATO
Well here’s another first, a car featured on Ebay, of all places. This isn’t a build thread as such, but there are some great behind the scenes build images of this gorgeous Aston Martin that I thought would be a shame to lose when the auction is over. I have re-posted all of the text and images in the post below. Sadly, the $2.4mil USD asking price is just sliiiightly out of my range.
Thanks to Michael for submitting.
Forum spotlight: JDMST (pt1)
I’m a member of many different forums, but I’m not much of a poster. JDM Style Tuning was one of the first forums that I really got involved in, posting regularly and attending meets. While I don’t post there much these days, I still like to read the forum almost daily and make the odd post every now and then. There are a number of great builds on the forum, so I thought I’d do a little spotlight on some of my favourites in no particular order. Please note, this is not a “best of”, it’s just the ones that tickle my fancy. There’s a few builds to get through, so I’ll split them up over a few different posts over the next couple of months in between regular build features.
Subaru FF-1
A very thorough ground-up restoration of a very rare car, a 1970 Subaru FF-1. Enjoy.
Thanks to Stephen for submitting.
Datsun 240z: Projekt Hugo
From the dark depths of build thread history comes Projekt Hugo. Does anyone remember this video series about a guy from Sweden who imported a supposedly “rust free” 240z from the US, only to find it littered with rotted metal? He then proceeded to rebuild the car whilst documenting the whole thing on well-edited videos. This was before the days of Youtube or Vimeo and before every car guy was a photographer/videographer, so a series of clips like this was a big deal back then.
Thanks to Dave for reminding me about it.
Niscort – MK1 Escort CA18DET
Many years ago I remember seeing what I still think is one of the best looking CA18DET’s ever put together. It was posted on a forum, and I liked it so much I pm’d the person who’d posted the image. That CA18DET wasn’t bound for the usual S13 Nissan or Datsun 1200 ute, it was built for Glenn’s MK1 Escort, hence the name “Niscort”. Apart from the crossbreed engine conversion, the little Ford receives a full rotisserie build with plenty of rust repairs and custom suspension work. Unfortunately it’s not quite finished yet, but I’ve been checking for updates for so many years I thought I should just go ahead and feature it, enjoy!
Toyota Supra – Complete Rebuild
I’m not sure where I sit with this one, I’ve heard about it many times over the years and have read the entire thread myself, but I’m kind of on the fence about it. On one hand, it’s great to see someone so thorough in their quest for modification perfection, sparing no expense in a build that is so meticulous it crosses over to obsessive. The parts used are all of the highest quality, and the work is carried out by skilled technicians. But at the same time it’s an exercise in excess, so much so that it turns me off. Firstly, the car gets shipped from Australia to America to be built (I assume at great cost), even though we have a thriving and capable automotive industry right here. Then, pretty much every part of the car is replaced with brand new factory-bought items, including the wiring loom, plastic trims, hoses, interior parts, transmission, diff, you name it. Anyway, I guess it takes all kinds of us to make up the car scene that we love so much, so the best way I could put it is that I’d love to take a look over the car but I don’t think I could sit down with the owner and have a ‘car chat’ over a beer. Give me a low-budget, bruised-knuckles, blood sweat and tears garage-build any day. Still, it’s a great build thread, which I guess is all that matters.
Mini Pickup Restoration
With so many out-there projects and engine swaps being featured lately, I thought it would be a nice change of pace to feature a good old fashioned restoration. Jon emailed me his very thorough re-build of a classic 1977 Mini pickup. What I love about this build is that Jon built the car to be driven, and when I say “driven” I don’t mean to a few shows and back home again, he took his freshly completed Mini on a 3000mile road-trip around Europe.
Click here for more Mini builds.
Official Porsche Restoration Update II
A few days ago marked exactly 1 year since I posted an update about the Official Porsche Restoration. The factory rebuild of a 1973 911T has now been completed by the Porsche Classic workshop and raffled off to one lucky winner, so check out the finishing touches or re-live the whole build if you so choose.
Click here for more Porsche builds.