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Where do people get the idea to paint dragons and tigers on their cars? Who came up with the idea to paint life-sized women all over their cars they'd have on display for all the world to see at a show? While people have been custom-painting cars since the very first horseless carriages, and flame paint jobs can be traced to the mid 1930s race cars, it was the counter-culture hippie movement of the 60s which birthed the kind of intense artistic inspiration required to paint a 6-foot-tall dragon down the side of a show car. Youth culture changed rapidly...

Approaching workshops, be they professional workplaces or someone's home garage, is an exciting time for car enthusiasts but, if you haven't spent much time around them it's important to understand there are a few basic ground rules we should keep in mind before we make ourselves at home. I'm lucky enough to have been granted access to many workshops over the years, and after almost 25 years working in this trade, I think I'm in a fairly unique place to walk you guys and gals through the dos and don'ts of behaving in sheds. So, without further ado, here are...

G'day kids, Workshop Manuel here again to drop some knowledge and keep you entertained as you attempt to dodge the Christmas season food coma. A bunch of people reached out to say they dug my blog post on 5 Project Car Hacks (see HERE) so here are 5 more... HAMMER TIME Got a screw that is stuck fast and you don't want to risk rounding it? Find a screwdriver which fits the head as tightly as possible, and then give the end a solid whack or 2 with a mallet. This is often enough to shock the threads and loosen...

Buying dirt cheap cars off pages like Marketplace or Gumtree to build into project cars is a time-honoured tradition for many of us with undiagnosed problems. The challenge of buying a cool car for $1000, or turning a $1000 car into a cool ride, is a strong one we all feel the tang of time time to time.   While the siren song of Marketplace and the allure of dropping a mere thousand-bones onto some biohazard nugget is so strong it seems tied to our DNA, there are some stark realities you need to confront if you want to come wading...

This week we give you the secret to making power in any engine.