“Cruise good for local business, auto restorer says - Oakland Press” plus 4 more

Cruise good for local business, auto restorer says - Oakland Press
Michael Phelps unhurt in auto crash - Star-Press
Not-so-green vehicles selling - Dubuque Telegraph Herald
Michael Bonilla’s Big Bully 1 - Kauai Garden Island News
Ford revs up production to meet 'Cash for Clunkers' demand - Axcess News

Cruise good for local business, auto restorer says - Oakland Press

Posted: 14 Aug 2009 06:13 AM PDT

By REBECCA KELLEY
Special to The Oakland Press

Photo courtesy of Hyde Specialty Auto Body Pete Hyde buffs out a 1957 Thunderbird just in time for the Woodward Dream Cruise.

When Rob Hyde sees one of the owners of a car he has restored at the Woodward Cruise, he said it's like seeing an old relative.

The owner of Hyde Specialty Auto Body in Auburn Hills for 18 years, Hyde, 42, said he has been to every Woodward Dream Cruise since 1996.

"I always see something we have worked on at the Woodward Dream Cruise," Hyde said. "What surprises me is the owners of the cars are still showing the same car they have had for years and years. They just don't want to let it go."

The shop specializes in repairing, refinishing and restoring antique, street rod and muscle cars — both specialty and classic automobiles — from minor body damage to full ground-up restoration.

Hyde said the Woodward Dream Cruise and other local car shows help to keep him in business, and he is looking forward to this year's cruise on Saturday.

He doesn't think the economy should affect the cruise too much.

"The messages I get from people is that the cruise should stay the same this year because it doesn't cost anything to go out there, and most of the people are spectators," Hyde said.

Saturday will mark the 15th annual Woodward Dream Cruise. Tony Michaels, executive director of the Woodward Dream Cruise, said the MotorCity Casino Hotel has agreed to be the presenting sponsor of this year's Dream Cruise.

The Woodward Dream Cruise started in August 1995 to raise money for a soccer field in Ferndale. Nelson House of Ferndale and a group of volunteers said they wanted to relive and recreate the days of the 1950s and '60s, when Woodward Avenue was a popular spot for cruising. An estimated 250,000 people participated that first year.

Jackie Holmen, account supervisor for the cruise, said the Woodward Dream Cruise is the world's largest one-day celebration of car culture, attracting more than 1 million visitors and more than 40,000 muscle cars, street rods, custom, collector and special-interest vehicles.

The cruise has become a boon for Hyde's business.

"We get a surge of small repairs just before the cruise," he said. "It is the biggest promotional show out there. Oakland County really needs the Woodward Dream Cruise right now."

A rusty 1966 Mustang that Hyde bought was 15 years old got him fired up.

"I outgrew that car and moved onto other cars," Hyde said. "I started the auto body business out of my parents' garage and worked it around my school schedule until I graduated."

Nowadays, he takes his 1964 Chevelle Supersport to the Woodward Dream Cruise.

"The cruise is so big that sometimes I feel like a grain of sand at the beach," Hyde said. "You have to have a car that is really outrageous to stand out. An old restored waste management truck that is out at the cruise every year is one of the things that stand out in my mind."

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Michael Phelps unhurt in auto crash - Star-Press

Posted: 14 Aug 2009 05:37 AM PDT

BALTIMORE Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps was not injured when the SUV he was driving collided with another car in Baltimore, but the other driver was taken to a hospital.

Police said Friday they had no updates on the woman who was driving the other car.

She was described as shaken up and taken to a hospital as a precaution after the crash Thursday night. Cindy Rivers, a spokeswoman for the University of Maryland R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center, said she could not provide any information without the womans name, which has not been released.

Two passengers in Phelps Cadillac Escalade were not injured, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said.

The other car was a Honda Accord.

Phelps SUV had a crumpled hood and was on a tow truck. The gray Accord had considerable damage on the front driver side.

Phelps won eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics. Most recently he earned five golds and a silver over eight days at the world swimming championships earlier this month.

Phelps has had brushes with the law in the past. USA Swimming suspended him earlier this year for three months after a British tabloid published a photo of him using a marijuana pipe. The Richland County, S.C., sheriffs office investigated the photo but found there wasnt enough evidence to charge Phelps.

In an earlier incident, Phelps pleaded guilty to driving while impaired shortly after he won six golds and two bronzes at the 2004 Athens Olympics. A Maryland state trooper had pulled him over after Phelps ran a stop sign. He was sentenced to 18 months probation.

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Not-so-green vehicles selling - Dubuque Telegraph Herald

Posted: 14 Aug 2009 07:53 AM PDT

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Michael Bonilla’s Big Bully 1 - Kauai Garden Island News

Posted: 14 Aug 2009 05:01 AM PDT

Big Bully 1 was discovered by Michael Bonilla on eBay, and in its original form was a stock Ford truck. The owner of the truck was a "Power Seller" living in Texas. Bonilla searched eBay for a big crew cab for his large family.

After purchasing the truck, the Bonillas thoroughly enjoyed the use of their V-10, rolling up into the mountains for camping on weekends. To maneuver through the mountains eventually required getting bigger tires and a spring system to work with the tires that elevated the truck's height.

"We started off buying an 8-inch spring system then moved up to a 10-inch system and the truck gradually got higher and higher and higher," said Bonilla. Over time, he was forced to find bigger and better spring components online.

Bonilla didn't always own gigantic trucks, nor did he go to school to acquire elevated truck knowledge. He acquired his education first hand by helping many of his friends to build and lift their trucks. After enough time passed, Bonilla felt confident enough to try building a high-rise of his own using the family's Ford Supercab.

The first step in the Big Bully 1 conversion plan was to persuade his wife that this was a good idea. "Noelani, let's sit down so I can tell you my latest business plan," he said. Once his idea to convert the family Ford into a "Pure 808 Customs" monster truck advertisement was approved by the executive board, Bonilla went to see his good friends to muster their support.

When Bonilla first approached his buddies Lincoln Kakutani and Byron Ono with the idea of jacking up his truck to new heights, they both shook their heads laughing and said, "Bonilla, you're Crazy!" Of course they immediately jumped on board.

Because there was no ready-made kit to buy, or digital plan on the Internet for Bonilla to download, he and his friends simply jacked up the truck and from beneath the frame they slowly spec'ed out a plan to raise this behemoth to create a flexible torsion control system. Local boys do it best from under a truck.

The problem created in raising Big Bully 1 involved the flexing and twisting of the frame as the big truck rolled down on the road. This solution was gradually solved by building and installing various expandable rods, suspension shocks, body lifts and hangers, all connected to a middle sub-frame keeping the main frame in a secure and solid state.

This ingenious and unique system was completely designed and created by Bonilla and company. It involved professional welding and creating parts from scratch to custom fit the raised truck rig.

Because of its over-the-legal-limit bumper height, Big Bully 1 is not a road legal vehicle and is therefore only allowed to operate in parades or auto shows. To enter an auto show or a parade requires the transport of Big Bully 1 to the site via local trucking companies like Kaua'i Commercial, Kaua'i Freight Service or Fredstan Kaluahine Brothers. Without their full cooperation and timely coordination, Big Bully 1 remains in the garage like a silent sentinel watching over the neighborhood.

"The kids just love this truck," said Bonilla, as he reminisced about the many parades Big Bully 1 has entered.

One other benefit of driving a big V-10 in a parade is that the gas mileage doesn't hurt as much on those short runs as compared to mountain climbing with the whole family strapped in.

To view a short video of Michael Bonilla's Big Bully click on the "TGI video" link at kauaiworld.com

• Leo DuBois, contributor, can be reached via news editor Nathan Eagle at 245-3681 (ext. 227) or via e-mail at neagle@kauaipubco.com.

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Ford revs up production to meet 'Cash for Clunkers' demand - Axcess News

Posted: 14 Aug 2009 08:22 AM PDT

By Mark Trumbull
CSMonitor Staff writer

(AXcess News) - Carmakers are starting to boost production again, restocking dealerships in a move that could give a boost to the whole US economy.

The shift from idle mode to expansion mode became official Thursday, as Ford Motor Co. said it is ramping up production levels by 10,000 vehicles in the current quarter and raising production in the year's final quarter as well.

Ford isn't the only carmaker that needs to rev up the pace on its assembly lines, because the government's 'Cash for Clunkers' stimulus program has worked faster than expected to deplete dealership inventories. And as factories hum faster, that has a ripple effect beyond Detroit. It means new orders for struggling auto-supply firms, more demand for rail and trucking firms, and more money being spent in affected communities on everything from French fries to fishing lures.

The clunkers program, which gives car shoppers a pile of cash if they trade in an old fuel-hog for a new, more efficient car, is also increasing sales activity at dealerships, helping towns across the US.

"It has a trickle down effect," says Aaron Bragman, an industry analyst at IHS Global Insight in Detroit. In a modest way "it gets the economy moving again."

The effect is biggest in automotive states, mainly in the Midwest and South. But to some extent it's nationwide. Mr. Bragman says the clunkers program has had some of its biggest impacts on dealerships in the Northeast.

Success of clunkers program

Industry analysts expect that GM and Chrysler will also increase production because of clunker-related demand. According to the Associated Press, Toyota has recently moved to raise output of in-demand models at its US plants, and Honda is adding Saturday overtime shifts in East Liberty, Ohio, Lincoln, Ala., and Greensburg, Ind.

The clunkers program surprised Congress by running through its cash within a couple of weeks, rather than several months. Congress approved more money to keep the program going, but analysts aren't sure how many more consumers will participate in Round 2.

Carmakers aren't sure, either. They're not going overboard with the production boosts. Ford's ramp-up amounts to a 2 percent increase for the third quarter. It's been the most successful among Detroit's three US-based carmakers, gaining overall market share in recent months.

The company said its Focus and Escape models have been disappearing fastest from dealer lots, but that production will rise "across a range of cars, crossovers and trucks."

If the recession and the clunkers program have tilted consumers toward smaller cars and crossover sport-utility vehicles, plenty of people still need pickup trucks. Ford has sold more F-Series trucks in the first seven months of the year than it has of the Focus and Escape combined.

Impact of the auto economy

An automotive turnaround won't lift the nation out of recession by itself. But the industry still has important impacts because it is so cyclical. In the first quarter of this year, for example, America's economy would have shrank at a 4.7 percent pace - versus the actual 6.4 percent - had it not been for the decline in motor vehicle production. Add in wider ripple effects, and the impact would be greater.

The clunkers program is a mixed blessing. Taxpayers are shelling out money to help a narrow slice of car consumers. The extra demand for cars is, to some extent, pushing down consumer spending in other areas - a trend seen in retailer sales numbers released Thursday.

But the program may be helping to make the recession's rough road a bit smoother. Thousands of extra cars have been purchased at a time when dealerships desperately needed sales. The program is one reason why economists at Merrill Lynch recently bumped up their forecast for third-quarter Gross Domestic Product. They expect the economy to grow at an annual pace of 2.3 percent or better in each of the next six quarters.