Sema?...

[dangeroustoy]

Any word from our Vegas boys?...

Maybe we are going to have to go bail them out of the "Pokey"...

Dave Brisco

[Bob Parmenter]

WORD!!!

[robot]

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas?

[Bob Parmenter]

Couldn't resist Dave!

SEMA went well this year, I think it was bigger than ever. Man my legs are sore!! Got to meet up with kenny on Wednesday, as well as robot (aka Mike Edwards). Good to put a live face to the web presence. Kenny doesn't lite for long so after swapping stories and looking at pictures (cars not kids) he was off like a bug on water. Mike and his buddy Pete were on a different cycle of row walking than we were, and only had about a half day left so they took off on a tear. Dan J came in Wed afternoon, and just dropped him at the airport a couple hours ago. So, all in all it's been a quick few days.

As for the show, there weren't as many new hot rod products as last year, or maybe it's just that what was new didn't wind my watch. All the paint boys were promoting their specialty lines, probably as a response to the market success of HOK. Waaaayyyy toooo mmmaaannny wheel makers out there for the bling bling boys. More and more folks getting into electronic fuel injection. Ford had a gang of 2005 Mustangs in their booth, all modified to some degree or other. Then there were quite a few scattered around in various aftermarket supplier boothes. Some looked good, others were just okay. Got to sit in one, and they are very roomy for tall folks. I'd say anyone up to 6'5" should be comfy without any modification. Overall it's a pretty neat car, though I still prefer the styling of the prototype.

Got a lot of things to do today on the Dodge, so I'll get back with more as I have time and can recall new things.

[robot]

Ditto on Bob's info. There were the usual "really big" wheel displays.....none of which would look marginally cool on a hotrod. There were a lot of lifted pickups with intense graphics painted on them. Not as many booth bimbos signing posters (darn). The Hemi Cuda from TV was in the BFG booth....it was very impressive and every detail was perfect.

Most vendors had same stuff. A lot of stainless headers and mufflers that were really nice. Most of the new product displays were new models of existing products and such.

There was a nice all fiberglass 69 Camaro body but we didnt see the all steel repro Camaro body (it had to be there somewhere). Lots of neat Camaros and 55/56 Chebbies that were super. It seems that the cars on display in vendor booths are getting more detailed....ie expensive. The '33 from the project33.com web site was there....the purple paint was really nice. It was hard to take any pictures since SEMA claimed that there were 120,000 folks registered. And all 120,000 were walking one direction and looking the other.....

There were about 1900 booths and the show was open about 32 hours (1920 minutes) so you had about 1 minute at each booth!!!

mike in tucson

[kennyd]

GLAD TO BE HOME ! vegas is toooo much for a fri - thurs trip .
it was very good to meet BOB and MIKE face to face . there was some good cars to see , bobs favorite was the lifted f350 on snow tracks in fords booth.
i didnot know DANJ was going to be there . he is a wild man !
way behind here so , later

[dangeroustoy]

Good to hear from you guys, and glad to have you back... Hope you got to go spend some time with toad in the HOK booth and check out his cool paint program...

Dave Brisco

[kennyd]

i did go by and see carter .

[awsum34]

Talk about Toad, I bought his program. It's really not bad. You can do some really cool things with it. There's alot of color selections to choose from. I'm still tinkering with it. I havn't found that right color yet.

[Dave Severson]

As usual, I was in the shop working. But hey, I'm a Cubs fan so again I can only say wait till next year !!!! Thanks for the info on the show, guys. Sounds like the bling bling was a bit intense, friend of mine from Minneapolis went, stopped by the shop and gave me his report on the way home.

[robot]

For 39 pages of pictures, go to

http://socalcustoms.com/Shows/2004/SEMA/index.htm

[Dan J]

Unfortunately my trip was too short. I only had one day to hit the SEMA show, and there’s way too much to see in one day. It did seem like more products are being developed in the electronic fuel injection area. I like the nostalgic looking systems; you know the type geezers are fond of And wheels, can you imagine 30” gold plated wire wheels? Yep, way too many players in the wheel market these days!

Kenny, talking about being a wild man, I’ve always heard about the famous “Ranch” there in Vegas. So when Bob and one of his Washington state running mates told me Thursday evening that we were going out to the edge of town to “check out” some place, I figured we might be going to see what the “booth bimbos” do in their spare time Turns out that Bob and his buddy are not as “wild” as you and Brisco are... we ended up at one of the Vegas area’s rod shops for a little open house. It wasn't the "Ranch" but still a cool stop. So Brisco, come on out next year and we’ll see if any bail money is needed!

Dan J

[Bob Parmenter]

You should have seen the look on Dan's face when they pulled back the curtain on the "viewing rooms"!! Ooops, I promised not to tell.................!!

In the "why ask why" category was the independent front suspension in the Hot Rods and Horsepower booth. It was a display piece with the front rails of one of their '32 frames. It had what appeared to be a dropped beam axle that was cut so that it would pivot on torsion bars just under the rails. It got weirder from there. At the ends of the axles were spindles that looked something like MII units, but not exactly, mounted to the axle end at what would normally be the lower ball joint attachment point. Then there was a single bar control arm to the top of the spindle, tying back to a bracket on the frame rail. Personally it looks like a Rube Goldburg concoction. Nicely chromed, and good craftsmanship, but very strange looking. For the "I want to be different" crowd I guess! Otherwise it looks like an inelegant answer to a question that was probably never asked. Straighten me out here kenny.

Ford had some interesting crate engines on display. They're really pushing the single and double ohc modular motors, particularly the new 5.0 version. A supercharged version had a nicely designed intake plenum that was above the blower, and the accessories mounted to the front (alt, a/c, p/s,,,,)were very nicely tucked in tight. To emphasize the potential, they had a HR&HP roadster in their booth with either a 4.6 or 5.0 dohc engine in it. Looked pretty good................although the chrome frame detracted some.

I'm not a big fan of billet in general, and Billet Specialties stuff really hasn't done much for me in the past. But they had a display engine with a front mount system for a serpentine belt driven accessory package that was gorgeous as well as very compact and well engineered. Many folks are going in this direction, Vintage Air being one of the first I recall, but somehow the others look very "clunky" when compared to the Billet Spec. unit.

CPP, http://www.classicperform.com/, has a nice aluminum master cylinder they've just released. It has an integrated, adjustable proportioning valve, and is set up to exit the lines from the bottom of the unit. For those who insist on mounting the master cylinder to the firewall it would make for a much neater looking installation. It comes in both natural cast, and full polished finish.

And for the flathead nuts among us who would like to have the functionality of an alternator, but want to keep the look of their old generator, Powermaster, www.powermastermotorsports.com, has come up with a solution in both polished aluminum, and black finish. It comes with an integrated bracket to mount to the intake manifold just as the originals did. Pretty clean unit.

[dangeroustoy]

...fess-up! What all were you and Hemi Bob up to?..

There is a little place on the outskirts of town that I am planning on visiting on my next trip, but it may not be the same place you were talking about... I am dying to check out the Snake Ranch!

Sounds like you guys all had too much fun in "Sin City"... Guess I will have to plan to make the trip next year!...

Dave Brisco

[robot]

Here is a picture of the axle setup that Bob is referring to. It doesnt seem to lower the car any nor is it any simpler than an A-arm setup. Kinda a cross between a beam and an A-arm. The Cen-Pen bag axle setup is simpler.