Last week Justin delivered our latest project back to it's owner in Martin Place, Sydney and moments later both car and Justin appeared on live TV. The '55 Buick is owned by professional photographer, Shane Monopoli who was filming his latest advertisement for his chain of successful photography studio's Exclusive Photography. The advert, filmed for 'This Morning' on Channel 7 was to promote Exclusive Photography's new car photography studio service. Check out these beautiful pictures of the '55 taken by Shane. To have your car photographed by Exclusive Photography call them on 1800 800 810, www.exclusivephotography.com.au

What a busy month Justin has had! while in the US a few weeks ago he got to go to the amazing workshop of Troy Trepanier of Rad Rides nr Chicago. Justin was blown away by the cars being built there - many taking more than 18,000 hours! When asked how do Aussie cars compare, Justin says that Troy's team are not doing anything we (in Australia) can't do but they are just given so much more time to take them to a higher level - the Australian market is just not ready to pay for so many hours on a build, he says.

While also in the US Justin visited Hollywood Hot Rods and met with custom car legend George Barris who asked to keep copies of articles of the Buick - Justin said he was just a really cool, friendly guy. George Barris is famous for being a founder of the custom car scene and has built many famous hollywood cars including the original bat mobile and James Dean's porsche.

The original purpose of the trip was to inspect some Cadillacs for a customer and the trip was very worthwhile. Our customer ended up buying 2 Caddies - lucky him!

Back in Oz, Justin has been to Sydney again for the Sydney Tattoo show where the Buick took out the trophy for Best Iron Body. Justin attended workshops with Gene Winfield - see our Latest News section for more on this.

Well the '50 Caddy turned out to be the genuine article, Justin inspected it this morning in the US and said it is amazing - the interior in particular is immaculate. He's off to Canada tonight to look at another one, not sure how he will go with the weather over there right now. With the winter olympics about to start it's pretty damn cold! And of course, Justin has little more than a long sleeve Hills and Co T-shirt to wear.

In his absence, our team continue to work on the current projects and man the fort brilliantly. One of the current projects being worked on is the '55 Buick (hot hot hot), this car was driven regularly by it's very passionate owner before being in an accident. Shane brought the car to us, not only to mend but to give a whole new personality and she is coming along nicely. This will be a Cruzin feature car I'm sure.

Also being worked on is the very pretty T-Bird that has come through it's rusty ordeal very well indeed. This was another of the projects that came to us looking very sorry indeed - when the owner's had initially purchased the car from the USA they thought they were buying a car they could drive straight away, this was not the case and this lovely couple had been swindled by the seller. They came to us desperate for honest help and I hope they will be happy with the soon to be finished project, rust free and ready for crusing.

I think it actually was a coincidence, but after posting my last blog Justin was asked to go to the US to inspect a '50's Cadillac or two for some customers. These Caddies are a little spread out - Las Vegas, Montreal and Southern California. So, for the man who is none too keen on flying, he is braving it in order to ensure yet more bodgy US cars aren't being brought into Australia.

One of the Cadillacs sound pretty special - just 15,000 original miles on the clock and still with it's plastic protector on the seats! Even though this won't be a project, we're still excited about such a find. Justin will be checking for originality and condition.

Once in Southern California, Justin will be heading to a 3 acre yard full (yes full) of Cadillacs. So I was thinking I might have to freeze the bank accounts!

The funny thing is, I think it's the same same site we stumbled across 14 years ago when on holiday in the US (yep we did a scrap yard crawl) and it wasn't open. Justin tried to peek and nearly got shot - no amount of pleasantries could soften the guy on the gate and we were denied entry!

This time, I have been assured entry shouldn't be a problem. Justin flies tonight and will begin his inspections Sunday morning in Vegas.

Our latest project, a 1950 cadillac convertible has been hiding a secret. LOTS and LOTs of rust. Please people, be careful when buying an old car online - parting with your money without properly inspecting the car leaves you wide open to being ripped off.

In the last 2 years we have seen 6 old cars that have been purchased by unsuspecting Australian's online from the USA - all 6 of these cars had been deliberately bodged up by their US owners and sold as good cars. The rust damage has been extensive in all these cars and owners find themselves having to spend a small fortune to sort it all out.

I think I will write a full article about this to give you some tips and show some pictures of just how far some of these guys go to cover up the rust. WATCH THIS SPACE.