Why is Toyota constantly a top safety pick?

Toyota may be in line to have another recall. Why, you might ask? Because they used flammable cloth for their seats. I mean, I know that, ideally, you'd never really have a fire on your seat. But this is a vehicle who's company is consistently producing cars achieving outstanding safety ratings, yet their floor mats make pedals stick and their seats catch fire. Anyway, check out the story here. And if you drive a Toyota, I'd avoid smoking and roasting marshmallows in it.

Connor
-ThrownRods-

*Edit* They are saying there is a good chance there won't be a recall, which is good for Toyota I suppose. Their reasoning is that they found that the seat cloth may not be 'up to snuff' but there have been no reports of any concerns by Toyota owners. Glad everyone is safe for now. Hope it stays that way.

End of an Era? Not Quite

Still looks like a panda bear with a unibrow

Earlier today Connor posted about the recent passing of the Type II Microbus. After doing a bit of searching I found some news that should put a smile on the faces of all the VW van lovers out there. The latest Kombi was a very slightly updated version of the model from 1967. It had the 78hp 1.4L engine carried over from the VW Fox and a large black radiator cut into the front. For the past 37 years the little van has been produced in massive numbers in Brazil. Recently there has been some legislation which requires all vehicles produced there to have ABS and airbags. The bus's production was in danger of being canceled, but then some big names in the Brazilian government gave a glimmer of hope, saying that they could see waiving the legislation restrictions on the Kombi. Their reasoning was that there is currently no match to the van on the market there and therefor nothing to replace it. Hopefully they continue making that little guy for at least a little while.

Connor, as for the beetle, 2003 called and they have some sad news for you.

-G-

sources:
Image: onlycarsandcars.blogspot.com
http://jalopnik.com/reports-of-the-death-of-the-vw-microbus-may-have-been-a-1485549668

The end of an era. I've got a soft spot for microbuses

The Last VW Microbus
By Connor Wilkinson

The Last Bus Arrives (www.autoweek.com)

          A sad day is upon us. On December 20, 2013, the very last Type-2 Kombi Last Edition was assembled in Brazil. Sure, America phased it out in the 70's, but Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil had the honor of carrying on the legacy. I love these things- almost got one as my first car when I was 16. At any rate, demand just never died for these things. The worst part is that IT STILL HASN'T. The only reason it is leaving us is that the Brazillian government changed its safety policies.

          The very last production model (the 1,200th) has arrived in Germany to be kept pristine with other VW products from through the ages at the vehicle exhibit of the Volkswagen Commercial Vehicle headquarters in Hanover. The bus has had many different alterations to it's design, but it retained it's iconic form. an example of these changes- the latest models were water-cooled (where as air cooled has always been the standard in the microbus), but again, the bus remained a "sleek" two-tone bread box. The symbol of Volkswagen MPV's lived a long life with 3.5 million units produced since 1950.

         Now I know it hardly belongs on a site with sections for Hot Rods, drag racing, and classic muscle cars, but regardless- it has been in the automotive world far longer than most vehicles. And that is pretty admirable. See the full article at autoweek.com for more about the revered history of the microbus, the second longest produced passenger vehicle with 63 years of production, second only to the beetle, which is still kicking. Germans do something right with their cars.

-C-

-ThrownRods-

*Edit* Griffin has made me acutely aware of the fact that the Microbus may not be discontinued after all. As I referenced in the first paragraph of the post, the Brazilian production ceased because of governmental policy. Therefore, currently the bus is out of production, however it may very well be brought back soon. See the article at Jalopnik. And yes Griffin, I love little vans. I don't know what is wrong with that. :)

Email Change

Hello all! To avoid compromising our personal accounts, settings have been changed and buttons have been pushed and whatnot. If you want to get a hold of us, by all means do! You still can, but we ask that you use the email thrownrodsblog@gmail.com and not our personal emails. We will not respond to you otherwise, or will respond requesting you email the correct address.
Thank you for your cooperation!
-C-

New and Old Roadkill

Hey ladies and gents! Griffin here. There is a new episode of Hot Rod Magazine's Roadkill on YouTube. I highly recommend you all check it out as well as their older videos. This show is the inspiration for our blog, so we'll be plugging it pretty regularly.

Hope you all enjoy!

-G-

Connor's First Real Project Car?

Alright, Connor here.

Griffin has the fortune of having an entire motorhead family, and he's been working on project cars most of his life (at least a lot in the past few years)- his own cars, his dads cars, his neighbors cars, his friends cars... the list goes on and on, and even made it to my girlfriends car at some point. He just works on cars. He's good at it and he knows what's up. I on the other hand, am lacking in the opportunity to be working on a car consistently, and even then, it's usually my dad's 69 Z28. Which, don't get me wrong, I do love working on it, but it's his. When it's done, he will drive it. I'm sure I'll get the chance to at some point, but if I just want to take it out sometime, it ultimately isn't my property. I want my own project.

I'm looking to get a good project probably in about 2-3 years whenever I get my shit together and graduate. I can't really until then because I'm in an apartment. I may get one before graduating if I get the money, but it will probably be the world's biggest paperweight until I do, because I'll have rent to pay and groceries to buy and class supplies to pick up... you know the drill. So I've got some time to plan. I figure if I start saving now, I'll be ready if the perfect deal comes up before graduation.

69 Chevelle Source www.netcarshow.com

Now the car... I'm definitely gonna get an American muscle car between 65 and 75 (soft dates, but it's gonna be a muscle car). I don't have any particular allegiance to Chevy (even with dad's Camaro) or Mopar or any specific brand, but I want an American made. Because 'Murica. Because I'm tired of everything being made in China. Because I'm from Texas and I can say stuff like this. So I'm thinking so long as I'm going classic, I'm gonna stay domestic.

66 Pontiac GTO Source: en.wikipedia.org

The list of possibilities....
- Chevelle
- Camaro
- Mustang
- GTO
- Charger or Challenger if I could. But money

Anyway, the list is more extensive than that, but I'm ready to get to work. These are, by my understanding, not too hard to work on and worth the time to make them look right. Whatever I get, I'll probably drop a bigger engine in it, just to get it out of my system before I tackle any really serious restorations. Now I say that because I'm not necessarily interested in making a stock, factory perfect car. But I also want to be able to daily drive it. But I want some power out of it.

So I'll keep you posted on how this decision pans out. I pretty much just started thinking about it seriously around the time of the addition of this blog to my free time. As soon as I pick something up, I'll start posting pretty regularly on my progress, as will Griffin in regards to his 65 Coronet. Posts for our updates will be on the Shade Tree homepage. And if you email us your personal project, we will write up a post on it and throw it up on the board so your fellow car nuts can appreciate it, since your spouse or significant other probably wont give it the attention it deserves.

Keep on keepin' on,
-C-

Here's the system...

Alright everyone, you'll notice that we've added some more pages. Technically they are links to other blogs, but we'd like to think it's all just Shade Tree.

The pages are as follows: Carbage, FND, The Cutting Edge, and Auto Tech.
Carbage will be mostly based in humor and ridiculous images, GIFs, and stories, and will mostly be posted to on Mondays and Saturdays. FND stands for Friday Night Drag, which is pretty self explanatory; pitting cars against each other in theoretical, following drag stories around the world, and just a lot of fun to light up Friday night (or a Saturday morning hangover cure!). The Cutting Edge will house all of our commentaries on fresh off the line cars from all over the globe, and will range from more than just positive to negative. We have some strong opinions, and I'm sure you do too. With this section, we'll keep you up to date. Look for posts mostly on Wednesdays. Some weeks, there just won't be much news, and sometimes we may not want to wait for Wednesday to roll around. But most weeks- Wednesday. Finally, we have our tech spot, Auto Tech. This is the paradise for the hot rodders that don't want to sift through a bunch of bullshit just to find some hard facts. Well have all kinds of specs from common to uncommon, suspension to engine to body to everything. If you want somethings specific, just ask us. Griffin will probably know off the top of his head, and I'm damn good at doing research. We'll answer you over email or with a post, whichever suits your fancy! You can find posts (at least) every Tuesday on the auto tech spot.

The idea here is that the Shade Tree homepage will serve as a hub for all information you could possibly want pertaining to automobiles. If there is something you wanna see and haven't yet, email us. connor.a.wilkinson@gmail.com and griffinwest92@gmail.com for those of you who are too lazy to find it in the menu!

Enjoy!

-C-

As promised, here we are.

How about a little more about us...

Source: charlotte.olx.com

I'm Connor. I drive an 07 Honda Accord daily, and it's pretty gutless and gets great gas mileage. Beyond that, I have no passion invested in it, the only money I spend on it is maintenance, and there will never be any real modifications to it. It is a daily driver and that's that. Now, practically speaking it's all I need. But I've been working on my dad's 69 Camaro Z28 for a few years now. Unfortunately, a close friend of his passed of a heart attack, but that meant that his drag project was passed to my dad at almost no fee, because his friend new that a 69 Camaro was my dad's classic dream. Daytona yellow with the black stripes and black vinyl roof. His buddy had it set up to run a 150mph quarter mile, but my dad is (very very slowly) putting it back to stock. When we got it, we scared the entire neighborhood just by starting it. The dumps had a little kick. You know, the way a jet engine does. The back seat was gone and replaced by some ridiculous tubs for the slicks on the back, but with a little welding help, we got it back, and now the car is almost back to the way it was. Even has the original 3 coat lacquer-wet sand- bake process to keep it as close to correct as possible. The downside is that the original 302 and muncie 4-speed are long gone, but in their place are a 327 with Brodix heads and a 6-speed. Things could be worse I suppose. Anyway, it's the closest thing I have to a project car right now because I can't afford my own quite yet. It's a great looking car, and hopefully running soon. In the past, I've driven and worked on an 03 F150, a 98 Dodge Durango, and (again my dad's) an old red Merc 450 SL, which is far to classy for me. The Honda is the first car I've had that has made it a year without something breaking, but give it time. It's only been just over a year, and it's me behind the wheel. Something is bound to go wrong soon.

1965 Dodge Coronet 440

Now, I don't know where to start for Griffin. He's always been a bit of a collector, as has his father. He, his father, and his mother have a grand total of 9 cars and a motorcycle between them currently. Right now though I suppose Griffin's daily driver kind of switches between a Pontiac Grand Prix GTP and a Ford Expedition with some really really dark windows. It's an FBI truck. His project (soon to be daily driver, we hope) is much more interesting. A 65 Dodge Coronet. He will tell you A LOT more about it than I can, hopefully in a subsequent post later today. It's a classic red and white look that at the moment appears to be white ish and rust, but painting is just around the corner. Some of the restoration and mods will be explained when he dives into the specs and everything he wants on it, but in short, he's switch it to a four-barrel carburetor from the two-barrel one and had the motor bored .30 over. He'll correct me on all of this shortly and cuss me for botching it all, but that's fine. That's how we will always operate. His other projects are mostly shared between him and his father (well... depending on who you ask) and consist of an old Mustang, Corvette, another Coronet, a Belvedere, and his dad's Harley. His mom drives a 2000 Corvette, and they've got a 97 Dakota, and the aforementioned GTP and Expedition.

So there's just a taste of where we are coming from in terms of vehicles. Feel free to strike up an email exchange with us about anything listed.

Who are we?

Welcome, we are just a couple of college guys with simple minds. We like cars. For this reason, we shall impart upon you our endless knowledge of pointless and sometimes frightening facts about a wide array of automobiles. Because you know you want simple-minded automotive tutelage. It's the only thing you should want.

From the vomit-worthy 2015 Ford Mustang all the way back to... well, pretty much all the way back to the beginning of automotive history, we will show you the technical side- practical, solid knowledge you may actually be able to make use of, and we will show you the downright dirty side- the worst ideas seen from the exploding-wonder of the Ford Pinto (sorry Ford, you're getting a lot of hate today. You make some good vehicles, but sometimes, guys.... sometimes....) to the era of spinning rims and tires that are 2mm thick, including the worst designs and mods cars have ever seen. Within that scope will be the stupid shit that people have done to their cars and what we do with ours. Old, new, classy, redneck, dirty, spotless, showroom, junkyard, strip-ready, not running... All of it. Mostly not running. That's how our vehicles tend to end up.

-C-