Spooky Art Car Scares Customers at Raven's Grin Inn - Jim Warfield

Spooky Art Car Scares Customers at Raven's Grin Inn - Jim Warfield

There aren't many Haunted Inns that come complete with spooky art cars parked in the front but owner and resident Jim Warfield has done his best to give his clients the complete package.

In the town of Mount Carroll, Ill is where you will find Raven's Grin Inn, a 19th-century mansion that's been turned into a wacky house of horrors by Jim Warfield which just happens to be located a block away from a cemetery.

Warfield rescued the house from being demolished about 20 years ago and then went on to fill it
with all kinds of freaky art projects  like the "the last Elvis impersonator" that sits decaying in a wheelchair and of course plenty of creaky, spooky and secret passages. If you are feeling up to it you can get a group of 10 and go on a tour for $10 per person per hour but you must call in advance for reservations.

What got Jim a post here on art car central was one three spooky cars, a  87 Olds station Art Car wagon, "Custom cruiser" with arms that go up and down via a 79 T-Bird Vacuum /headlight door lifter device and a reptile hood with doll trapped in its bloody teeth. I think traveling cross country in one of these with the whole family is scary enough even without the skulls, but that's just me.

It took Jim about 5 years to rebuild his spooky art car to the point were felt comfortable taking it down to the local drag strip that allows anyone to race any car for $10. If speed doesn't kill then definitely a spooky induced heart attack would be enough to beat the competition. Go get em Jim:)

Spooky Art Car Scares Customers at Raven's Grin Inn - Jim Warfield

Spooky Art Car Scares Customers at Raven's Grin Inn - Jim Warfield

Spooky Art Car Scares Customers at Raven's Grin Inn - Jim Warfield

8 Reasons Why Stealing an Art car is a Bad Idea - Stolen Art Car ALERT

This is a stolen art car ALERT - Dennis Dillow from Fort Bend County, Texas has his station wagon art car covered in comic strips stolen right in front of his house Easter morning. First of all who would steal and art car and secondly who would steal one on Easter morning? For the most part stealing art cars is not a very good idea and here is why:

1. REAL easy to spot
2. Not reliable
3. Most people know who the owners are
4. Not a good get away car.
5. Resale value is lousy
6. Gas millage is poor
7. Everyone stares at you
8. The art car community looks out for each others cars

So if you are a bad guy reading this blog and you stole this car or are considering stealing an art car in the future think again. My advise to you is just keep walking!!! Anyone with information on the art car’s whereabouts is asked to call police. Here is a link to the video.

Volvo Art Car Splattered to Perfection

Volvo Art Car Splattered to Perfection. I don't know maybe they missed a spot:)

The Sauna - Riding the Alps in Style

The Sauna was built from a Volvo 240 and taken on CzechWrecks 2009, a 1500 mile 4 day journey starting from Calais, France through Swiss and Italian Alps all the way to Prague, Czech Republic.

What we have here is about 1/3rd of a ton of wood paneling being applied to the Volvo.

If you are wondering whether this wood had any impact on performance, I am assured it did. What performance they had to start with, remember that Volvo 240 are agricultural at best, that performance was soon zeroed.

Chris and Tom and their team built this car to raise money for charity and an opportunity to travel in their bath towels riding the sauna over some of the highest passes in Europe.

StreetSafari Rally Art Cars from the UK Now a Regular Feature!!!

StreetSafari, organizer of the world's best banger rallies, has teamed with Art Car Central to showcase some of the countless creations of our teams over the years.

For those unfamiliar with banger rallies, here is a quick introduction: buy a car on a budget (£250 or $500), repair it, make it legal for the road, take it on a journey across Europe or the States with other like minded people. Whether the car will end up in a foreign scrap yard or be taken back home is up to the team and is usually anybody's guess.

As one might imagine, part of the challenge is simply getting the car to the finish line. For most teams, the challenge starts much earlier. What seems to happen between buying the car and getting it ready for the start line is subject to paint, imagination and -- probably -- alcohol.

We get to see everything. You name it, we've seen it. If there was ever a famous car on television or cinema, we've seen at least five examples of it on our events. General Lee, Starsky & Hutch, the A Team, Ghostbusters, all done to death. We see rally themes from Audi, Skoda, Martini, Pink Pig, and just about any other you can think of. The quality of the theme seems to vary with the quantity of what the team has drunk, as much as with their creative ability.

Sometimes a team will just paint or decorate the car to a theme they made up. That's where we get the stand out cars.

Today's fabulous art car is a 1992 Volvo 480, with possibly the most intricate design we have ever seen in all the years and events that we've done. Its nickname on the event was simply "the Rorschach car" and everyone knew which that meant. When we first saw this car we made enquiries that it was being brought back to the UK after event, as it would be a crying shame to send this car to the crusher before it had enough time to be appreciated for the masterpiece that it was.

The story behind this art car is that two friends had bought it but had no idea what to do for a theme until they bumped into a rather talented artist friend. He then proceeded to draw all over the car and took about three weeks to do it. We believe the car was then sealed in a lacquer to give it a lasting finish, and we think the car is now in Glasgow somewhere.

From a distance, the drawing appears as one giant doodle. The closer you look, however, the more diverse and detailed the images become. A real piece of car art if ever we saw one.

By Justin Clements of StreetSafari
 

HMS Uranus Art Car - Boldy Going Were Few Dare To Go

The HMS Uranus Art Car is boldly going were few dare to go. Oregon watch out!!!

The Telstar of Whangamata Sticker Art Car Highly Contagious

This Sticker Art car was sent in by Murray McKenzie from Whangamata, a beach town in New Zealand. The art car is a 1995 Ford Telstar hatchback covered in free stickers from a local surf shop that took about 6 months to complete. I think this sticker art car might be contagious by the looks of the developing sticker rash on car parked next to it.
I believe now might the time to put Whangamata under quarantine until this thing sticker infection passes.

Chicken Coupe 1971 Morris Traveler Art Car

Chicken Coup Art Car - After

Michael Thompson is the creator of this Chicken Coupe Art Car made from a beat up old 1971 Morris Traveler in the heart of Norfolk Broads.

He went looking for something a little more unusual to make into a hen house and asked a friend of his who owned a body-repair shop to keep his eyes peeled for an interesting vehicle that he could use.
Weeks went by when one day this beat up old Morris showed up on its way to the scrap yard and Michael took about thirty seconds to decide that this was what he was looking for in chicken coupe art car. 100 quid (bucks) later and a pint of beer it was delivered to Michael's House.

The front end was a total loss so he chopped it up and used the back end that went on to become this really cool chicken coupe art car for Michael's four hens complete with ramp and bumper sticker.

His final words on the matter were... "Re-use, Recycle... one planet - to the max!" via

Chicken Coupe Art Car - Before

Fileteado Renault Art Car by Alfredo Genovese

This 1981 Renault Hatchback Art Car was painted by artist Alfredo Genovese in Fileteado art work and submitted by Martin. It was on sale for about $6,000 back in 2007 from Argentina, but I don't know now who owns it.via
Here is also a video by the same artis working on a Fiat 600.

The Fruit Mobile by Jackie Harris

The Fruit Mobile, originally uploaded by Boptimist.

The Fruit Mobile a 1967 Ford station wagon has been around for many years and was created by artist Jackie Harris. The Fruit Mobile is also available for gigs through the Art Car Agency. Full Story

"Aqua Mobile" by Don Ehlen - Art Car Fest

photo by Bagel!

The AQUA MOBILE is the creation of Don Ehlen, a Seattle-based entomologist and educator. The car is a great example of a simple concept art car, basically just a great paint job, although 3-D features have begun to creep in: a fully inflated plastic blowfish atop the radio antenna, a crab creeping out over the rear license plate, and a red plastic lobster at the front. Also at this years Art Car Fest.via

Battle Wagon Art Car - Another one for the Apocalypse

Battle Wagon Art Car

Haz-Mat Hatch Art Car

Battle Wagon and Haz-Mat Hatch is another couple of those futuristic apocalypse mad-max art cars created by Todd up in there in Washington State. They might look ugly but they got it were it counts, two high-octane hi-carb Subaru wagons that hall out in a hurry when the mutants come chasing the day after. Todd said "this is the extent of my mid life crises" and "everyday is a parade in this car". Nice work Todd.