If your car was on the cover of a VERY popular magazine, would it have an oil leak ?

[KevinMoparFord]

Nice Dart. Here is a video of my Coronet. Yes it has some oil leaks. I did pay an engine guy to build most of the motor, but I put it in and did all fo the rest of the mechanicals. I have built an engine or two before. THis one having the 'professional' build still leaks around the oil pan. I was not pressured into showing off the car for Youtube, I entered a burn out contest. Yes I do put my foot in it. It is not a trailer queen. No it is not perfect and will never be on the cover of anything.

[CadillacPat]

Luckily, it was Dusk when this Mopar Muscle guy shot my '69 Dart Swinger 340.

But I think the '68 HEMI Coronet R/T was leaking a little something in the background.

my little dart out in the daylight:

Nice Dart!!!!!

But wait, I see a molecule of dirt on the edge of that front tire.

CadillacPat

[MachinistMark]

>leaking fluids of any sort is just piss poor maintenance. plain and simple

ok...so you just rebuilt the motor and have it all buttoned up and 200 miles later you notice small amount of seep from the rear main seal, not enough to drip, yet, but enough to attract dust and make it look messy on your nice new chrome thingie. so you tear out the motor and tear it down to replace the main seal and put it back in, to find out if maybe THIS time the stupid thing seated properly and nothing else messed up in r/r.

if so, i salute you. most people would just drive it. i know i would. then again i dont have cars on magazine covers either!

Or, id just do it right the first time...

[Guest]

If I had a car worthy of a magazine cover, it would not have an oil leak! If it did happen to get one before the photo shoot, I would have to crawl under it and wipe it off at least before the photos were taken. Then, I would take it straight home and do the repair needed to stop it. I'm OCD when it comes to leaking fluids on any vehicle I own.

[Junkman]

Well, all you no-leak-fanatics, never buy British!

My Rover doesn't leak oil, it marks its territory.

[Greg Myers]

I wonder how many of you have seen said picture? That given, one really has to look to see the "oil" stain (?). I'm thinking one might be looking at the wrong thing. The car is stunning, oil stain or not.

[tubbs]

I can appreciate seeing some oil stains or radiator water stains (or whatever) on a feature vehicle because it shows me that the car gets used. If I were prepairing a car for a shoot I would spend a reasonable amount of time cleaning but not to the point that it looks like the car has never been driven.

I am definitely NOT the guy at a car show that gets out of his lawn chair every 5 minutes to wipe down his car, haha.

love this stuff. my humble opinion, if it goes in a magazine, it better be perfect!! no dents, rips, worn stuff or leaks! magazine cars are top of the line stuff. the driven stuff is at your local cruizes. not saying the mag cars are not driven, but they better be toop notch when that camera comes out!! think of cars as the girls in those adult magazines, you want dents and drips on them? not that i have ever lookes at a playboy before??

depending if its a saturday night cruize or a major show, wiping down your car every 5 minuits is a bit crazy for me too, but once and hour should be perfect. my 69 runner is a pro street beast and barely gets washed. my neighbor did a ground up resto on a 71 cuda 440+6, did 100% of the resto himself, they inclosed trailor it to the nats, clean it constantly till judging, then beat the snot out of it for a day and a half and clean it when they get home. he would clean, polish and replace anything that was dented or dirty on the car for a mag shoot.... i know this cause he has had 3 cars in magazines.

its based a lot on how you view the car, i appreciate trailor queens as well as the everyday driver. repairs, insurance and paint jobs are very expensive nowadays.

[tubbs]

That's because 90% of people who build hobby cars with engines making stupid HP numbers are posers and have never opened the trottle more than 50%. Which is a good thing because your average person has below average skills behind the wheel. We all want to think we are a "wheelman", but lets face, we're not. Most of the people you talk to with stupid HP making engines don't even understand what it took to get there, and especially why. They just write a check to the engine guy. These are the same guys you see videos of on You Tube getting pressured into showing off by a crowd of people while leaving a car show. It's obvious they have no clue behind the wheel because the car gets away from them instantaneously as their foot hits the floor.

It's like anything else, it's bragging rights for the car shows and magazine articles.

you are correct and i kow lots of these people. i am no engine builder, i dont know all the ins and outs of making true hp. i will pay someone to do it for menot because i have money, because i dont, because it will be right. then i would put it in and have fun. i dont care how it make power, just make power!!

my car is pushing around 500+ hp, i can handle it, is it too much for the street? sure! thats why i am going for more power and building a blower motor (hopefully). that will be waaaayyyy too much power for what i need, i probably wont be able to handle it, i will never use that much power, it will never be to the strip, and i will half throttle it all over town. and it will be sooooooo coooool!!

[tubbs]

Or, id just do it right the first time...

good luck with that! something always happens.....

[FASTBACK340]

I just received the new Hot Rod and looked at that BEAUTIFUL Willys.

You guys are kidding, right? 34 posts picking apart a magazine car with what everyone is guessing to be an oil leak. If you guys spent that much effort studying pages 76 through 93 I bet you'd have some seepage too....

[moparmagiclives]

Not picking anything apart, it was just an observation. That thing is Awesome !!!

[Greg Myers]

I just received the new Hot Rod and looked at that BEAUTIFUL Willys.

You guys are kidding, right? 34 posts picking apart a magazine car with what everyone is guessing to be an oil leak. If you guys spent that much effort studying pages 76 through 93 I bet you'd have some seepage too....

Now that is funny!!!

[tubbs]

I just received the new Hot Rod and looked at that BEAUTIFUL Willys.

You guys are kidding, right? 34 posts picking apart a magazine car with what everyone is guessing to be an oil leak. If you guys spent that much effort studying pages 76 through 93 I bet you'd have some seepage too....

i haven't got hot rod in years...... what on these pages? is it thier "body" special...

and yes, i study the pictures, cars in magazines should not have oil leaks. for that, you dont have to study the picture, its like the bug on awall, your eye is just drawn to it.

[Greg Myers]

Ahhhh, yes, I see it now.

[Skip]

>leaking fluids of any sort is just piss poor maintenance. plain and simple!

You've obviously never tried to get chrome oil pans or valve covers to seal. I have and it just isn't that easy, I've seen people sandblast the chrome off the mating surfaces to make them seal. Stuff dosen't stay pristine forever.

That said, my current "toy" has a miniscule oil leak (it's Brittish, enough said) we've worked pretty hard to get it down to that, it is clean without evidence of oil leakage though, and it's got rock chips from being driven! It's a car drive it ang have fun with it. It's not a museum peice.

[FASTBACK340]

i haven't got hot rod in years...... what on these pages?

Leg me put it to you this way: If I saw pg. 77, 84, or 90 just before I died I'd be OK with it.

[Skydime]

As a mini trucker, I have gone to many truck shows on the east coast. And, of coarse, have read Mini Truckin' Magazine for close to twenty years. Almost every single cover truck in recent years lays body or frame and looks really good on the cover. But 99% of them have scuffed and banged up rocker panels in person. Even if they don't drag them, some get damage when laid out on trailers. So, nothing really new to me to see a flaw to a cover vehicle. It's not like they are competing for the Riddler of anything so, it's all good.

[tubbs]

As a mini trucker, I have gone to many truck shows on the east coast. And, of coarse, have read Mini Truckin' Magazine for close to twenty years. Almost every single cover truck in recent years lays body or frame and looks really good on the cover. But 99% of them have scuffed and banged up rocker panels in person. Even if they don't drag them, some get damage when laid out on trailers. So, nothing really new to me to see a flaw to a cover vehicle. It's not like they are competing for the Riddler of anything so, it's all good.

good point, pictures ALWAYS cover up flaws.

[vwdave92]

I drive a VW... if there's no oil under it there's no oil in it!

[Skydime]

I drive a VW... if there's no oil under it there's no oil in it!

I always say Chevys leak it and Fords drink it. But at least you can easily fix it when you know where it leaks.

Edited September 14, 2012 by Skydime

[moparmagiclives]

As a mini trucker, I have gone to many truck shows on the east coast. And, of coarse, have read Mini Truckin' Magazine for close to twenty years. Almost every single cover truck in recent years lays body or frame and looks really good on the cover. But 99% of them have scuffed and banged up rocker panels in person. Even if they don't drag them, some get damage when laid out on trailers. So, nothing really new to me to see a flaw to a cover vehicle. It's not like they are competing for the Riddler of anything so, it's all good.

Scrapped rockers are a little different then oil leaks. That's kind of badge of honer, like a quarter panel full of tire/bleach box left overs. You would expect that from those types of vehicles. As much as I tried when I was little, my mom wouldn't let me out of the house come hell or high water with out combing my hair and tucking my shirt in.

I guess I figured the cover shot ment a little more then some have expressed.

[Joe Handley]

Well, all you no-leak-fanatics, never buy British!

My Rover doesn't leak oil, it marks its territory.

Which Rover? I was under the impression that Land and Range Rovers were very, veeerry distant relatives of the Jeep, that marking it's territory could be hereditary!

If you can show me an old Jeep that isn't leaking, I can show you a Jeep that needs it's fluid levels checked

[crazyjim]

Can somebody scan the pic and post it here? I'm not buying Hot Rod just to see it.

[moparmagiclives]

Major, no

Makes it any less of an incredible car, no

REALLY hard to see, don't think so.

Just. Something I noticed and thought I would bring up, see what everyone else though, I don't think it calls for a total tear down, heck I would probly run it, and who knows, maybe it has a crankcase problem with the super charger. But a rag would have taken care of it for the shoot.

[crazyjim]

That's the pic that everybody is posting about? I'm EXTREMELY disappointed. I thought it was some big deal, but it's nothing.