American Car Craft
Creating the "Bling" that the factory left out
There
was a time when hot roddings only rule was to stuff a big high
horsepower engine into a light vehicle. The vehicle had to have a good paint job and a relatively clean engine
bay to be accepted by fellow gear heads. Over the past decade there has been a paradigm shift in what
constitutes a great performance car. The factory has for the most part taken care of the basic horsepower
needs of the hot rodding masses. 500
to 700 horse muscle cars are now a part of everyday life and for the
right amount of cash are available in America’s automotive showrooms.
The
only thing missing from these factory power wonders is some quality
“bling” in the form of customized add on body, interior and engine
parts. The factory cars are bursting with technology but come up short
in the appearance department.
The factories lack of
attention to details in the “bling” department has opened up the door
to a new market for the modern hot rodder.
This
paradigm shift has taken a most unexpected turn. Most of
today’s
performance cars no longer prowl the streets and drag strips but have
taken up residence at local car shows. Like it or not the
days of
street racing and the weekly trip to the drag strip do not appeal to
the majority of today’s hot rodders. This may be due to the
fact
that a very large percentage of today’s hot rodders are well into their
“baby boom” years. Most of this group still remembers the
days of
street rodding. Many of the lucky ones still have their old
flame, usually a mid 60’s to early 70’s Chevy, Ford or Mopar muscle
car. That treasured relic will only come out on special
occasions
and will never be subjected to abuse or non factory add on’s.
The gear head “boomers” that were forced to trade
their precious
heavy metal cruisers in for things like down payments on mortgages,
kitchen renovations or college tuition for their unappreciative
offspring are now in a position to recapture some of their hot rodding
past. That recapture often takes the form of a modern day
muscle
car.
Like vampires muscle car era names like Camaro and Challenger
have been
resurrected from the dead. These undead pony cars no longer
prowl
the dark streets looking for blood in the form of a street race.
They now sit in the paved parking
lots of local car shows thirsting for a best in class trophy.
Likewise the modern day Corvette and Mustang crowd sit along side them
content in the fact that they never died but have been transformed into
something very different from what the original creators envisioned.
To
be competitive in the world of car show’s the new breed of
gear
head must not only be able to brag about horsepower but he must also be
able to put together a car that will “shock and awe” the
crowd.
At the SEMA show in Vegas we stumbled on to what just may be the
pinnacle of the new “auto bling” art form. American Car Craft
is
a Florida based company that specializes in state of the art custom
stainless steel automotive accessories.
The
American Car Craft booth at the SEMA event featured a
wildly customized Corvette ZR-1 that was a center of attraction
for the show. The car featured a radical blend of stainless
engine
parts that were accented with electric blue LED lighting. The
effect of the blue lighting on polished stainless is breathtaking to
say the least.
Being
overwhelmed with this modern beauty we had to speak with one of the
cars creators, Cameron Rivera of American Car Craft. Cameron
is a
hands on guy that takes pride in the products that his company produces
for the new hot rod market. American Car Craft’s innovative
designs and the use of cutting edge technology makes them a leader in
todays after market stainless accessory market.
ACC
manufactures and assembles all of their products in Hudson,
Florida. They use only the finest T304 stainless steel.
American
Car Crafts products are precision laser cut and hand built by
a highly qualified staff. The company has over thirty years
of
experience in the customization business. American Car
Craft product design concepts are based on laser cutting
technology utilizing
flat 304 stainless sheet materials.
The company uses state of the
art lasers and equipment that is run by the latest software to create
their award winning accessory line. ACC has merged ten of the
top
design and creative software technologies. This merging of technology’s
has enabled ACC to develop a distinct class of custom stainless steel
and graphics products.
American
Car Craft is constantly developing new and exciting products.
The
company takes a very unique approach in product development by
utilizing its customer base in what they term as its "Vehicle Accessory
Product Development Program”. The program makes use of
customer
cars as a base for the design and development of new accessories. The
best part of the program is that the lucky donor vehicle gets to keep
the newly installed items for free.
We cover many local
and national car shows throughout the year and invariably the top show
winners are sporting many of the products produced by the American Car
Craft company. Our advice to anyone who is considering
showing
their car is to get their “Bling On” and contact American Car
Craft. Their customer service and help line is 727 861 1500.
You
can also visit them on the web at www.americancarcraft.com
.
The Vette Nuts
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