Congratulations Shafi!

[Bill Howell]

Great article on the K Cuda in this month's Hot Rod. Should be fun to follow it across the country in about two weeks. Two Mopars on a cross country trip should give people something to talk about....

[Damn True]

If only one of them was white.

I think you need to refer to Shafi as "Kowalski" for the entire trip.

[trapin]

And when the naked girl asks if you wanna shag....take her up on it this time. She was cute.

[Krazed]

And when the naked girl asks if you wanna shag....take her up on it this time. She was cute.

This.

I was actually shocked to see that part in the movie. No one had ever made mention of it, only the cars.

[JEFFTATE]

Congrats Shafi !
Nice car !!!

[tazzz25906112]

Congratulations buddy,,, you built a sweet car!!!

[KEISLER]

Hey, thanks for the kudos! I am very proud of the Kuda. It's like a 15 year old daughter that went to the prom! After all these years, and starting with a car that could've easily been junked back in '94, this project was my headfirst dive into hands on restoration. I learned how to weld, make patch panels, bondo/sand/block, painting (did it single stage urethane back in '94), rebuild a thermoquad, unstuck a frozen 440 and make it run, and other cool stuff along the way.

And I learned how lucky I was to have a good wife that didn't kick me out of the house when I filled it with paint fumes and exhaust fumes from the basement as I thrashed on the car day in and day out.

When I finished the car Nov '94, a bunch of the Japanese management staff at DENSO went nuts over the car and featured in DENSO's newsletter in Japan, talking about America's love for muscle cars and the famous HEMI. That was a good memory.

Making the transformation of the car into the Kuda would not have been possible without the help of Rick Ehrenberg of Mopar Action magazine and the Macioce brothers at Empire Mopars in NY. All of these guys believed in my concept of a manufacturer's co-operative effort of essentially bolt-on products of high quality and high value that yield a great bang for the buck while achieving milestones in many areas of performance, function, dependability, driveability and artistic form and presentation. And they helped to realize the vision of keeping the elements of the car within the reach of the typical consumer, eliminating the "unobtainum" factor of parts and processes that cannot be obtained, or out of reach for most of us.

And the Sponsors and Supporting Vendors products made the car a truly terrific rolling roadshow. Fast XFI, House of Kolor paint, AutoMetalDirect shaker and body metal, Vintage Air SureFit gen4 ac, B/E&A Parts, Moser Engineering differentials, XV Motorsports intake/fuel tank, Flaming River tilt Mopar key column, XV suspension and brakes, TTI Exhaust, Accurate Ltd side exit Exhaust, Legendary Interiors, Millsaps Upholstery headliner and trunk finishing liner, Just Dashes soft touch door panels and dash, Firm Feel control arms/sway bar/fast ratio steering box, Factory Reproduction viper SRT10 Wheels, Glenray Radiator & viper fan/shroud module, ABS Power Brakes electric hydroboost, the Right Stuff Detailing fuel and brake lines, RestoRick PistolGrip shifter, AMD glass, ElectricLife power windows, Redline gauges, and Mylon Keasler Racing engines for assembling the gen3 HEMI motor and dialing it in on the dyno.

We were graciously invited to participate in the optima Invitational. And thanks to the support of Rushforth Wheels, Nitto Tires and Wilwood Engineering the car will sport some new wheels, tread and heavier duty brakes for the event.

The trip to SEMA with Bill Howell's Charger (Keisler 5speed equipped no doubt), Yancy John's Fairlane and Brian Finch's Camaro is almost here. Thank you Bill for inviting me, and see you in 10 days!
cheers and beers

Shafi Keisler

the Maximum Overdrive Kuda

[Damn True]

I wish I was going on this trip.

[YancyJohns]

fun to follow it across the country in about two weeks. Two Mopars on a cross country trip should give people something to talk about....

Follow? I hope you two mopars can keep up w/ Finch and I....J/K
Great car Shafi! I always enjoy see my sons eyes light up when he opens a magazine and says " I know that car". That's Cool..Nice article! This is going to be a Fantastic trip!

[Krazed]

Big congrats on finishing it Shafi! Hope to see more news and media about the car. And some day, I hope to get the money for one of your transmissions!

Have fun at Sema, represent us Mopar guys with Bill!

[KEISLER]

If only one of them was white.

I think you need to refer to Shafi as "Kowalski" for the entire trip.

hehe ... Kowalski .... I can definitely see myself doing the high speed runs and other crazy stuff. Geoff Stunkard told me to stay out of trouble - no "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" stuff with his editor Chris that's riding with me... says he doesn't have a 300pound Samoan to bail me out ,,, ... hilarious!

[KEISLER]

Big congrats on finishing it Shafi! Hope to see more news and media about the car. And some day, I hope to get the money for one of your transmissions!

Have fun at Sema, represent us Mopar guys with Bill!

Krazed,
Thanks much. You'll see more on the car. Mopar Action has the Kuda suspension and brakes feature coming out later this month. Geoff Stunkard is doing a feature in Mopar Enthusiast on this cross country round trip to SEMA and the optima Challenge. And Hot Rod will cover the optima Challenge so may be we'll get a mention there.

I plan on having fun at SEMA this year, and making the rounds. This trip should be a great time for all of us!

[KEISLER]

Follow? I hope you two mopars can keep up w/ Finch and I....J/K
Great car Shafi! I always enjoy see my sons eyes light up when he opens a magazine and says " I know that car". That's Cool..Nice article! This is going to be a Fantastic trip!

Thanks, Yancy! It's a funny thing with all of us guys doing the trip to SEMA cross country are in Tennessee. And the really weird part is that there are more mopars than chevys!! see you next Thursday

[tazzz25906112]

Hey Shafi don't forgot a lone Canadian in a Bird in that group from Pigeon Forge,,,,besides you know I've got a lousy sense of directions and it's long road to SEMA from Toronto LOL...

[KEISLER]

Hey Shafi don't forgot a lone Canadian in a Bird in that group from Pigeon Forge,,,,besides you know I've got a lousy sense of directions and it's long road to SEMA from Toronto LOL...

Hey Albert! I did not realize you are driving down from Toronto to Tennessee to hook up with us. I thought you were joining in somewhere in the midwest. That's great that you will be along. We'll have 2 Mopars (bright orange and blue/silver), 1 Chevy (bright yellow), 1 Pontiac (white), 1 Ford (bright blue) ... very nice rainbow of colors traveling

[KEISLER]

I wanted to put a seperate post to thank David Freiburger and Rob Kinan of Hot Rod. These guys are as busy as a one armed paper hanger, and it's hard to get face time with either of them. David met with me in Los Angeles and liked the Kuda project and decided to shoot the car on the Power Tour. I drove out for the Power Tour with just 190 miles on the odometer - a new car with virtually no shakedown. So on the Power Tour, I was working on the car every single day to fix the shakedown bugs - things getting loose, water leak, this and that.

When we were doing the photo shoot, the Nu Relic pass side window lift finally totally crapped out, and Wes (photographer) had to work around this. But David understood, and liked the car nonetheless. There is another story about the photoshoot that I'll tell another day, but I can say that David is one hell of a great guy and that the industry is lucky to have him. Being the same age as David, I have have a lot of respect for how hard he has worked to earn his position as editor-in-chief of the legendary magazine of the automotive enthusiast industry.

Here's a shot of David and Wes doing their work on what became the lead shot of the Hot Rod feature.

[P-Designs]

COngrats on the Kuda. Got mine yesterday and read through, Great Job! Tom

[tazzz25906112]

Dam Shafi, that car looks so good....