Rutledge Wood

In reply to N Sperlo:

Is there dirt in the tire treads instead of Armor All? Then yes, your truck satisfies me.

In reply to Javelin:

Oh, good. I thought I was going to have to rip off the GRM vinyl.

N Sperlo wrote: In reply to Javelin: Oh, good. I thought I was going to have to rip off the GRM vinyl.

Nah, just add a "Javelin Approved" sticker on it and you're good to go.

novaderrik wrote:

Anti-stance wrote:

Javelin wrote:

N Sperlo wrote: Rut has a fantastic taste in cars... Super Duty.

Wait, seriously?

We have stuff like that come to our shop often. We also do lift kits and all that jazz. Not my style at all but it's better than some forms of "car enthusiast" out there. Stance-tards, I'm looking at you. The black wheels thing on these mall crawlers is getting as played out as Altezza tail lights though.

that is just the other end of the "stance-tard" spectrum.

More truth in this statement than anyone will care to admit. Everybody screams about safety when a hellaflush car is brought up but these monsters with their bumpers at every other motorists head level and headlights pointed at the same location for maximum glare and blinding effect go by without a comment.

I see no rock-rash or snorkel. So what kind of off-roading does it do?

I like his other cars, but that truck makes me lose hope.

turboswede wrote:

N Sperlo wrote: In reply to Javelin: Oh, good. I thought I was going to have to rip off the GRM vinyl.

Nah, just add a "Javelin Approved" sticker on it and you're good to go.

That already exists. It's called "dirt". Also acceptable are rock chips, road tar, gravel scratches, mud, clay, or snow.

ditchdigger wrote:

novaderrik wrote: that is just the other end of the "stance-tard" spectrum.

More truth in this statement than anyone will care to admit. Everybody screams about safety when a hellaflush car is brought up but these monsters with their bumpers at every other motorists head level and headlights pointed at the same location for maximum glare and blinding effect go by without a comment.

Meh, I don't see a safety issue with stance cars, I can usually get around them pretty well when they are bouncing all over the place and driving slow looking for pot holes and speed bumps.

Javelin wrote:

turboswede wrote:

N Sperlo wrote: In reply to Javelin: Oh, good. I thought I was going to have to rip off the GRM vinyl.

Nah, just add a "Javelin Approved" sticker on it and you're good to go.

That already exists. It's called "dirt". Also acceptable are rock chips, road tar, gravel scratches, mud, clay, or snow.

The Ranger wont be able to get rock chips after I paint the whole thing with bedliner, so the dirt, road tar, mud, clay, and snow will have to do.

I like Rutledge. I've known him for a few years, and as it happens, I was wearing a T-shirt with his face on it today...

That truck is bad ass and anyone who says otherwise is lying to themselves. Come on, if you had a buddy who made lifted trucks and he said "I would like you to drive a truck with my parts on it. Buy the truck and I will trick it out for you for free", not like anyone here would say no.

93gsxturbo wrote: Come on, if you had a buddy who made lifted trucks and he said "I would like you to drive a truck with my parts on it. Buy the truck and I will trick it out for you for free", not like anyone here would say no.

This is also true. After hearing some quotes for lift kits, wheels, and installation it makes turbo LSx swaps sound like pocket change.

93gsxturbo wrote: That truck is bad ass and anyone who says otherwise is lying to themselves. Come on, if you had a buddy who made lifted trucks and he said "I would like you to drive a truck with my parts on it. Buy the truck and I will trick it out for you for free", not like anyone here would say no.

My buddy used to have lifted Chevrolets. There is something cool about driving down the highway doing 70mph across Indiana (I65) headed to the Indy 500 on a warm day in a 4x4 Suburban with an 8" lift kit and 38" Ground Hawgs screaming........

93gsxturbo wrote: That truck is bad ass and anyone who says otherwise is lying to themselves. Come on, if you had a buddy who made lifted trucks and he said "I would like you to drive a truck with my parts on it. Buy the truck and I will trick it out for you for free", not like anyone here would say no.

Not only would I, I have. (Turned down free parts for publicity because I thought they didn't meet a certain standard).

That lift does NOTHING for ground clearance. The only thing that truck is good for is interstate driving and tearing up the neighborhood football fields "muddin"

Rutledge seems like a decent dude. I'll be honest, I'm not a NASCAR fan at all, and when I heard they were having a NASCAR correspondent as one of the TGUSA hosts, I was not happy.

But you know what? I gave the guy (and the show) a chance, and they both seem to pretty cool. Anyone with two awesome wagons has to be, that's a law of nature or something.

Plus, he looks like me.

Datsun310Guy wrote:

93gsxturbo wrote: That truck is bad ass and anyone who says otherwise is lying to themselves. Come on, if you had a buddy who made lifted trucks and he said "I would like you to drive a truck with my parts on it. Buy the truck and I will trick it out for you for free", not like anyone here would say no.

My buddy used to have lifted Chevrolets. There is something cool about driving down the highway doing 70mph across Indiana (I65) headed to the Indy 500 on a warm day in a 4x4 Suburban with an 8" lift kit and 38" Ground Hawgs screaming........

I wouldn't walk across the street to piss on that pile if it was on fire. I have to drive a truck. I don't like driving trucks, unless there is a legitimate reason for doing so. Lifted stupid tire trucks are worse. I took the spacers out of my 4 wheel drive Silverado to drop the rear down to 2wd height, and unscrewed the front torsion bars as far as I could. Its still too berkeleying big.

In reply to SilverFleet:

I can't help but assume you look like your avatar picture and drive an 83 Camaro.

Datsun310Guy wrote: My buddy used to have lifted Chevrolets. There is something cool about driving down the highway doing 70mph across Indiana (I65) headed to the Indy 500 on a warm day in a 4x4 Suburban with an 8" lift kit and 38" Ground Hawgs screaming........

This. I'm not saying lifted trucks make any sense for any reason, but they are fun in a purely American expression of excessiveness kind of way.

Anti-stance wrote: In reply to SilverFleet: I can't help but assume you look like your avatar picture and drive an 83 Camaro.

Fun Fact: I once owned a 1983 Z28. I only had it for about 6 months. It had no title and the most broken 305 that I've ever heard.

I've never, ever had a real mullet, but I once had a mullet wig that I used to keep in my Trans Am.

In reply to SilverFleet:

novaderrik wrote:

xflowgolf wrote: He used to post on the wagon forums on impalassforum.com from time to time, before and continuing after the laungh of the US version of TG. Seemed a solid car guy from interactions I had. Regardless of whether you do or don't like him on TV, he's a legit gearhead who's inclinations for cars included old GRM flavored stuff that he played with well before any TV celebrity status kicked in (aircooleds, b-bodies, etc.). As noted on the bio page... "Rutledge has owned over 55 cars and trucks ranging from a Volkswagen Rabbit pickup truck to Hondas, Chevys, a 1966 VW Double Cab, a 68 Dodge Charger that was Kyle Petty’s high school ride, a Buick Roadmaster Wagon, even an obscure 1975 Bricklin SV-1."

he calls himself a car guy and he's only owned 55 cars? i had that beat by the time i was 21.. last time i attempted to write down a list of ever car i've owned, i got bored at around 200 and probably forgot at least 20.. but if you want to nail that down to cars that i had long enough to put in my name before trading it off for something else, then the list is probably closer to 100..

And? How many of those cars were rusted out hulks and boring econoboxes?

Back to the step van...it looks like an interesting project, but I'm wondering about the frame splices that are a different size than the frame itself. Are they temporary, or will they box them in before they're done?

In reply to stuart in mn:

I was asking myself the same thing. I am curious where they are going with it.

Thanks for all of the kind words. I hope to have more information on the step van up soon. (I have been busy with SEMA and lots of other appearances.) The F-250 does seem out of place compared to the rest of the cars in my stable, but remember that I live in Georgia! No self-respecting Southerner would be without a pickup. Besides, I had to replace the Dodge that I left behind in Alaska, right?

You guys have a great forum here, I hope to be able to post more as time permits. The producer of Top Gear is active on the board (he posts as squeeze valve or some such odd thing) and he turned me onto it. I love the Challenge!

Hi Rut!