Fade To Orange: Bob Pankhurst’s Custom 1965 Buick Riviera

July 29, 2016

Bob Pankhurst first encountered the custom scene at a home for delinquent boys in the late ‘60s. Not that he was a resident, the home was the venue for a hot rod show and Bob’s brother-in-law had taken him along. “He was driving an early model Cortina at the time, which he’d hotted up, and that impressed me,” remembers Bob. “He even made his own mag wheels for it, which fell apart! He had to put them on the car to see if they actually worked or not, and they just fell to pieces!”

Squarebird: Vinny Tang's 1959 Custom Ford Thunderbird

July 8, 2016

When I was a teenager growing up I was totally obsessed with anything that had to do with wheels. Skateboards, pushies, bikes and of course cars, cars and more cars, usually of the hot rod variety. Being an Asian kid growing up in the Fast and Furious era I couldn’t help but feel a bit different when all the kids was talking about Nissan Silvias and Hondas in class, but when I was at home by myself I was reading hot rod rags and trawling through the Jalopy Journal and its infamous forums.

An Interview With The Outkast Garage Car Club At The Boogaloo Traditional Hot Rod Event

June 17, 2016

The Oukasts are a small group of mates who get regularly get together to talk about and work on some cool customs and hot rods. The guys made the 800km road trip from Sydney down to The Boogaloo event in Victoria recently, to which we also went and published our coverage right here. I grabbed the Outkasts on the Sunday morning of the show to catch up for a five minute interview.

Wildcad: An Interview With Custom Builder Mario Colalillo

May 5, 2016

A look back at our interview with Mario from Fuel Magazine issue 15.

New Event: The Boogaloo Invitational — Traditional Hot Rodding, The Australian Way

May 1, 2016

The first Boogaloo Invitational was held in Castlemaine, Victoria and wound down just a matter of hours ago. Organised by Des Russell and Tesha Mahoney, the Boogaloo is a traditional hot rod and custom motorcycle event, catering to enthusiasts of pre-1965 hot rods & customs and pre-1975 American and British bobbers and choppers.

Starlight Express: Custom 1952 Studebaker Starlight Coupe

April 24, 2016

You couldn’t blame him really. Ten years old, working after school as the delivery boy for the local butcher, who just happened to have a stack of American Hot Rod magazines. Young Murray Nicholson was hooked from a tender age, and it only got worse.

Custom Craft: An Interview With Gene Winfield

March 15, 2016

Interview Craig Metros Portrait Photography Luke Ray.

Many Australian traditional hot rod and custom culture fans spent the first weekend in October at the sixth annual Chopped Rod and Custom festival. What started out as an intimate 50 car show with live rock and roll capping off the evening has turned into a full blown three day music, hot rod, custom car, bike, and dirt drag strip extravaganza. As the festival increases in size, so does the popularity of the invited guests. This year, it was none other than legendary car customizer, painter and dry lakes racer Gene Winfield. FUEL was honored to catch up with the custom car pioneer. Courtesy of Lucky’s Speed Shop of Sydney, Winfield was on hand selling t-shirts and posters, signing autographs and engaging in conversation.

Fuel Tank TV: Valley Custom | Customising Cars the New Zealand Way

March 4, 2016

See this film and more than 1100 others at the Fuel Tank TV website.

Australian Special: Ken Godfrey's Custom 1963 Lincoln Continental

March 1, 2016

Words Karlee Sangster Photography Luke Ray.

It’s a great story. Born in 1947, Ken Godfrey headed off to school each day, clutching his lunch money. He never bought lunch however, preferring to save the week’s worth until Friday afternoons, when he would stop by the local newsagency on his way home. That lunch money bought more than just sandwiches. It bought the 14 year old his dream world: hot rod and custom magazines. Not content with simply flipping through the pages, Ken began drawing his own versions of the machines before him. His son Michael recalls: “Not many people knew he could draw but his sketches are incredible. He also used to draw a lot of Ed Roth (Ratfink) styled pictures.”

Road Hog: Michael Morris' 1949 Chevrolet Custom

February 12, 2016

Words Karlee Sangster Photography Luke Ray

The story starts like many you’ve heard before; A car obsessed young man grows up around an influential relative, dreaming of building his own dream machine. Michael Morris was that young man.

Michael’s uncle, Frank McGinty, started a panel shop in the ‘50s where Michael would spend his school holidays, working away on various projects and pouring over custom magazines. Back at school, he’d draw cars all day, and when Uncle Frank painted his custom Holden FX ute metal flake orange, it blew his young nephew’s mind. Michael had seen what was possible and wanted in.

Hand Made: Interview With Custom Car And Bike Builder Mat Seely

February 1, 2016

My name is Mat Seely, from Stanley NY, and I build custom cars and bikes. I usually focus mostly on the fabrication side of things.

I have been doing cars for roughly sixteen years, and bikes for ten years. My father was a drag racer and later on engine builder/machinist, so I grew up around some of the best fabrication and engineering inspiration there is to offer.

Fuel Tank TV: Rob Ida Concepts 1940 Mercury

January 26, 2016

A teaser video from the documentary Motor House Media is producing about Rob Ida Concepts’ 1940 Mercury business coupe he built for Jack Kiely.

It is a true work of art with many hand crafted details and innovations. Starting with front wheels skirts that turn with the wheels, an amazing full body aluminum belly pan and headlights that with one touch flip up to gain access to those front skirts. A Shelby GT 500 4 cam Mod motor sits within the customized built body panels and trim, many of which where scratched built.

The KDS Van: Part 3

December 29, 2015

Visit number three in the KDS van saga, and it was time to flake. Karl had been busy prepping his Bedford CF for paint. By the time I arrived to shoot, he’d already silver flaked the whole front clip and the dash. On the morning of my visit, Karl was just doing the past preparations for painting the right side of the van that day.

Orange Bomb: Richard Townsend’s Triumph Bobber

December 11, 2015

My interest in Triumphs was started after finding pictures of my dad and his pre-unit Triumph that he owned back in the ‘50s.

I bought this bike in 2007 after mentioning to my brother that I was looking for a Triumph to cut up. A week later he called to say he found an old 80s chopper sitting in a shed 10 minutes from where I live with a seized motor. Two grand changed hands and it was mine.

The KDS Van: Part 2

December 7, 2015

Karl’s been busy with the CF since we last caught up with him last year. At that point in time, Karl was working on the body lines of the van and getting things straightened up. The end goal for the Bedford is a high end custom paint scheme with a high gloss finish, so getting things straight at this stage is of course imperative.

Words & photography: Luke Ray.

The KDS Van: Part 1

November 26, 2015

You don’t have to go far to stumble across Karl Stehn and his work. Karl has successfully built up a reputation for himself and his studio KDS Designs as one of the finest custom painting outfits that Australia has to offer. His blog, kdsdesigns13.blogspot.com.au, sums it up in just one statement.. “POSSESSED TO PAINT”.

1941 Plymouth Coupe

November 19, 2015

This 1941 Plymouth Business Coupe is a car that you could say is out of character for Anthony ‘Arny’ Beimers. A highly skilled craftsman, Arny takes a difficult project on, jumps in feet first, and emerges at the other end with a concours nut & bolt restoration. So, to acquire a finished custom ‘as is’ and not touch it is a somewhat unusual move.

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