Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2012 i Hot Rod

Brace yourself for glaring hypocrisy in 3, 2, 1: I’m not into naming cars. This from a magazine guy who does just that for a living. I pick and choose what’s cool or not based on nuance that only exists in my own head. Mostly, I can’t stand using people names for cars. My parents do it. Their MG is Monte, their Grand Cherokee is Elliot, and the flatfender Jeep is Eugene. The latter is somewhat tolerable with its connection to Popeye’s Eugene the Jeep character, which is likely where the vehicles got their brand name. But typically, the anthropomorphizing of cars gets under my skin. I can’t even stand it when people refer to cars as she or her and he or him. Everyone these days wants a project-car…

SEND YOUR PHOTOS To be included in Scene by Readers, send low-rez photos and some information about them to HOTROD@HotRod.com. If we elect to use your photo, we will email back with instructions on how to send us a high-rez photo for publication.…

Gil Coraine // Manchester, New Hampshire Gil said, “Bonneville was one place I’ve never been.” He had been to Bonneville before, but by plane, and it isn’t truly “going to Bonneville” unless it’s in a homebuilt ’32 Ford. Art Limbaugh // Bel Air, California This ’64 Chevelle is powered by a blown Nelson Racing Engines 572 with Lemons headers and Borla mufflers. In between the 15x14 rear wheels is a narrowed 12-bolt and a four-link. Steve Karch // Binghamton, New York Steve has owned this Canadian ’65 Pontiac Beaumont Sport Deluxe since 1995. It has a 406, obviously with a tunnel-ram, and puts out 540 hp and 535 lb-ft. Paul Teigrob // Bellingham, Washington Paul built this ’68 Cadillac by piecing together the best stuff from two different cars. The…

I was about to head home from a car show in Indianapolis when a friend told me about a Dodge Travco motorhome (my secret obsession) sitting a few hours north. I hit the scenic route to see if there was more than just corn in Indiana. In one of the first towns, I discovered a ’67 Firebird convertible next to a dilapidated mobile home. Next, I noticed a muscle car tucked behind a church and turned around for a closer look. I could see the Buick GS badge on the grille but was shocked to see the Stage 1 badge on the fender. It was a ’72, making it one of around 700 Stage 1 cars that year. No one was around to tell the car’s story. Finally, I came…

We spilled some of our favorite keychains from our collection onto the table to show off. There are some recent ones in here that we’ve picked up at SEMA shows, but most of them are vintage. FIND IT: // Tools for spark plugs, gas mileage, maps, and scraping ice // Nine dead automotive brands: Hudson, International Harvester, Mercury, Nash, Oldsmobile, Plymouth, Pontiac, Rambler, and Studebaker // Five gasoline brands: Citgo, Esso, Phillips 66, Shell, and Texaco // Two car parts: a valve cover and a brake caliper/rotor // Three Mopar model-specific key fobs // A Disabled American Veteran license plate // A fake telephone number // A three-digit phone number // Two calendars // A stubby Bowtie…

It’s dark. It’s dark and it’s cold and I’m on a mountain 11,000 feet in the air, if you can still call the oxygen-starved atmosphere “air.” I am covering the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb at the invitation of Jess Neal, driver of the No. 42 ’71 Plymouth ’Cuda and member of the Rocky Mountain Vintage Racing (RMVR) group. Jess plans to make his third attempt to take away the Vintage title from fellow RMVR racer Keith Davidson, and he offered to let me work on the team. That was my first indication that these people might be crazy. I’m squeezed in the back seat of Jess’ Dodge Crew Cab, between his wife, Lisa, and sister, Shaun. There’s a racing steering wheel at my feet. Jess is driving, and his…

Quick, who wins? We’re talking road-course times for the ultimate hot rodded, old ponycar versus a top-of-the-line, new ponycar. The time has come when it’s a legit question. Today’s hardcore Pro Touring old muscle cars have matured into serious performers without being rowdy race cars, and late-models are finally making horsepower like they really mean it. It’s not like 1982, when the all-new Z28 out-cornered any old muscle car (no matter how stiff the springs or how new the KYB Gas-a-Just shocks), and the older muscle cars dominated on the straightaways (no matter how many bolt-ons you tried on your new Z28’s anemic 305). Let’s see if hot rodding ingenuity can finally outcorner serious late-model muscle. PLAYER: ’69 Ever since its debut in 2010, this has been the most vaunted…

I often wonder how many hot rodders close their eyes, mumble screw it under their breath, squeeze the trigger, and start cutting on a project, even if they aren’t sure of the outcome. In my youth, I did it often because I had no money and no guidance other than magazines and a shop teacher who was more interested in football than my Camaro. I ported my first tunnel-ram using a small, 1.5-amp Dremel Moto-Tool. I nuked three of them and about 30 grinding stones before the job was done and didn’t find out until later in life that there are much larger grinders and bits made specifically for the job. Ignorance can be expensive. I still say screw it every now and again—I just try to be a bit…

THE COMBO Engineer Marcus Simmons has been involved with hot rods, the Detroit automotive industry, and racing his entire adult life. He’s owned his ’70 Mustang Boss 302 almost as long, ordering it brand-new from the dealer back in 1970. Since then, the car has gone from a street cruiser (having done a cross-country jaunt to California back in 1972 and several 140-mph-plus Banzai runs down the freeway), to a fullon, pure drag racer, to its present incarnation as a Pro Street car and occasional weekend dragstrip warrior. Currently, the car runs a 560hp 460 Ford big-block crate motor, C6 automatic trans, and 4.57:1-geared 9-inch Ford rearend with a Detroit Locker diff and 31-spline axles. THE PROBLEM Even under the best of conditions, transforming a gutted race car back into…

Caption Contest Believe it or not, this is pretty normal for the SoCal high desert. Not for sale. I’m gonna restore them some day.— Nicky Flores We have received the first photos from Mars.— Kevin Bailey A collision between Idiocracy and Mad Max.— Matthew Amason War of the Worlds… if Ed Roth wrote it.— Eli Dutton There’s ozone to kill, and we’re on a mission.— Anthony Mackay Year? Make? Model? A: It’s the grille of a ’71 Pontiac Grandville. This one is owned by Ashley Gruberman, whose parents bought the ’73 Catalina from the first episode of our Roadkill original YouTube series. HOT ROD TRIVIA Q: 1 How many camshafts are used in a SOHC (single overhead-cam) V8? 2 What kind of car is a “shoebox”? 3 Zora Arkus-Duntov—father of…

Andrew McClelland is a New Zealander who moved to Huntington Beach, California, to maintain a large, private car collection. The collection is housed in a narrow, multilevel building, which makes it difficult to move cars around to work on them. Andrew reasoned that it would be much easier to make his tools mobile, so he built this amazing cart to ensure he’d never have to walk very far from a project car to build a bracket for it. He began assembling the cart in 2002 out of 0.500-inch-thick aluminum plate and 0.120-wall, rectangular mild-steel tubing and some heavy-duty casters. He’s been adding to it ever since. We found the fabricator and cart deep into sheetmetal repair at Hot Rods and Hobbies in Signal Hill, California, where Andrew now works. Let’s…

In 1961, the state of Arizona allowed Mel Larson to open a dragstrip near Highway 60 in Whitman, just west of Phoenix. He dubbed it Phoenix Dragway. For 50-plus years, the strip has lured thousands of racers from the streets to the track, kept hundreds of folks employed, and funneled millions of dollars into the local economy through hotels and restaurants. The track has changed hands several times and been expanded to include racing tracks for motocross, BMX, radio-controlled cars, and off-road vehicles; a paintball arena; and a radio-controlled airplane flying area. It’s the ultimate gearhead playground and currently operates under the name Speedworld. For now. The track is located in the middle of the desert next to a wash, several miles from downtown Whitman and is in imminent danger…

When the topic of powerful pickup trucks comes up, auto pundits are quick to point out that they’re heavy, have ancient ladder frames, and massive, thirsty engines. Right on all counts, but the same can be said about some of our favorite muscle cars from the ’60s. Trucks remain the last bastion of body-on-frame, chrome-bumper, V8-powered, RWD transportation, so why not embrace the vehicular dinosaurs, especially those that bring extra power to the table? We scanned our memory banks to come up with our favorite factory muscle trucks. For the sake of purity, we’re not including anything car-based, so you won’t find an El Camino, Ranchero, or Rampage, although we’re pretty sure that last one wouldn’t have made the list anyway. Here they are in chronological order.…

TRUCKIN’: 500 HP FROM 214 CI? For a gearhead magazine editor, October is full of ups and downs. I’m trying to get my staff prepared for the Mecca of automotive customization: the SEMA show in Las Vegas. As an enthusiast, I’m giddy to see what the world’s top customizers are bringing to the show. As a truck builder/liaison, I’m trying to get my own projects ready for hundreds of thousands of detail-oriented eyeballs. One project is Truckin’s own ’13 Ford F-150. Building an F-150 for SEMA isn’t groundbreaking, but we’re trying to make 500 hp from a V6. Got your attention? Ford’s new twin-turbo, 3.5L, EcoBoost V6 engine has taken the truck world by storm because it churns out 365 hp and 420 lb-ft from a mere 214 ci. We’re…

Most dragsters in the ’60s had direct drive with no transmissions. But with the rash of clutch explosions, one of the options racers weighed was changing gears to help reduce engine rpm. When Don Garlits was told about the Lenco transmission in the spring of 1969, he ordered one. The unit, designed by Leonard Abbott, used manually activated planetary gearsets like those in automatic transmissions. Though Garlits became a believer and had some success with the transmission, breakage was a problem. He eventually created a beefed-up version of a Lenco trans he called Garlitsdrive—a two-speed transmission he marketed in late 1969. The key to marketing a race product was to use it and win. Garlits won the AHRA Grand American in January 1970, but a few weeks later, he broke…

You remember this pile? Way back in the Sept. ’11 issue (“Bring ’Em Back Alive”), we shared our adventure of unearthing this ’66 Buick Special from an Arizona backyard where it had sat untouched for 33 years, then making it run and hitting the road for a 500-mile trip home to Los Angeles. It was fantastic—lifetime memory kind of stuff. You can see a bunch of videos about it by searching “HOT ROD Buick Rescue” on YouTube. THE STORY After we got home, the car sat for almost a year before we decided it was a keeper. It had so much style, such a great story, and the emotional connection of it having been bought when it was nearly new by the mother of our friend Rick Pewe (editor of…

This madness involved everything we like: competition, contests, eBay Motors, good causes, and cool old vans. Well, maybe not the last part, but HOT ROD aimed to change your idea of what a cool project van should be, with the help of eBay and Mackey’s Hot Rod Shop in Huntington Beach, California. HOT ROD and three sister publications each purchased vehicles from eBay’s auction site to reimagine using parts purchased mostly from eBay Motors. The magazine with the winning project, as voted on at BuiltFromEbay.com back in August 2012, got to choose where the proceeds from the auction of all four vehicles on eBay would be donated. The magazines and projects were: European Car (’80s Porsche), Four Wheeler (Jeepster), Lowrider (’66 El Camino), and HOT ROD (’68 Chevy van). The…

When you find yourself without a rearview mirror, it becomes obvious how helpful one is for, oh you know, changing lanes without hitting cars to your right. Magically—scientists call it entropy and engineers mumble about vibrational forces, but I think it’s pure voodoo—both my ’70 Challenger and ’69 Polara had loose rearview mirrors this month, which means I didn’t have a single vehicle in which I could change lanes without first adjusting the mirror and then holding it in place. It’s the kind of nagging annoyance that can bring about an all-out, Dodge-powered killing spree of frustration…or at least act as supporting evidence as to why you shouldn’t be driving an old car, when passengers find themselves asked to “hold the mirror for a sec while I take this exit.”…

Remember our Project E-Rod ’79 Camaro Z28? Diversified Creations (DiversifiedCreations.com) in Michigan built it for us using the 6.2L, 430hp Chevrolet Racing E-Rod crate engine and a Tremec T56 Magnum six-speed from Hurst Driveline Conversions (Hurst-Drivelines.com). Twice on the dragstrip with Mickey Thompson ET Street radials, the car has disintegrated the front U-joint in the driveshaft. It happened once back in Detroit and was fixed, then the car ran 13.02 at 107 mph naturally aspirated and 11.77 at 118 mph on 100 hp of Zex nitrous. Of course, it needed to be quicker, so months later we upped the nitrous hit—big surprise—and it sprinkled U-joint needle bearings all over the track like rice at a wedding and turned the slip-yoke to glitter. It seems the problem was that we’d been…

Q: I am building a ’49 Chevy panel truck with mostly junkyard parts. What do I have to do to use a 700-R4 trans with a carbureted 350 engine? The trans is new enough that it has a lot of wires going to it. I put an older one set up for a mechanical speedo in my ’47 Ford and made believe it was a Turbo 350 (no electrical to it at all). It works well. This time, I will use an electronic speedo. A: You need to distinguish between the 700-R4 trans (which can be set up to run without a computer) and its later descendent, the 4L60E family (which is a fully electronic, totally computer-controlled transmission). The ’82–’93 700-R4 (later models may be designated “4L60,” without the “E”)…

Four-Speed Auto With Serious Strength Sun Coast Diesel Transmissions // 850.864.2361 // SunCoastConverters.com Sun Coast Diesel Converters offers some serious transmissions and converters that are capable of withstanding the power of 5,000-pound diesel trucks that make as much as 2,000 lb-ft to the wheels. That’s strength! Sun Coast’s Dodge-based 47RH transmission has been proven to hold up to 1,500 lb-ft of torque in Dodge diesels, but the bellhousing pattern is the same as those on the Viper V10s and small-block Chryslers, and some companies make adapter plates to make a small-block Chrysler bellhousing bolt to a big-block. Sun Coast offers adapter plates for Duramax diesels (same bolt pattern as that of a small-block Chevy) and 6.4L Ford diesels (same as on the Ford 4.6L and 5.4L). The 47RH only needs…

The Specialty Equipment Marketing Association (SEMA) has been the performance aftermarket’s trade organization since 1963. From promoting the aftermarket while fighting damaging legislation to its lavish yearly trade show in Las Vegas, SEMA is the godmother of hot rod businesses. But as you can imagine, its beginnings were made up of both serious businesses and manufacturers, and not-so-serious carnies and hustlers who inevitably fill out the demographics of any trade group. Though Charles Edward Card, Jr., also known as Honest Charley Hisself, was neither a carny nor a hustler, he did add a bit of that flavor to the proceedings, as these outtakes from the 1968 show demonstrate. (By the way, the “Honest” moniker came not from selling parts but from his previous gig as a restaurateur, when he would…

Did you know there’s a White House Garage? Since there’s no reality show starring some tattooed guy who wrenches with his crotchety dad as they recount their wacky experiences with bulletproof limos, chances are you may not. But if reality TV existed in the early 1900s, trust us, you’d have set your DVR for a show like that, if DVRs existed in the early 1900s. The White House Garage was birthed by Congress during the William Howard Taft years. You could say Taft was First Gearhead: In 1909, he had a garage added to the White House in a section of the quartermaster stables, making him kind of a ballsy, pro-auto president for taking the leap from four-leg horsepower to four-wheel horsepower. Eventually, the White House Garage became a military…

“Every pursuit is going to be different. You have an adrenaline rush. There’s always an anxiousness.” We sort of cut to the chase there (pun intended), didn’t we? So let’s first throw this thing in Reverse as Sergeant Robin Johnson, instructor and supervisor of the California Highway Patrol’s (CHP) emergency vehicle operations course, brings us up to speed (there we go again) on what happens during a police pursuit. The first part of a pursuit actually lasts at least 44 hours. What? It’s about classroom time (24 hours mainly about departmental policies, laws that are applicable to the to-be officer, and info about how to safely operate a patrol car in various driving conditions) as well as track driving (a minimum of 20 hours, where they learn about everyday patrol…

Forget the fact there are more than 5,000 man-hours in this ’32 Ford Roadster, and that it’s almost entirely scratch-built. Ignore the utterly insane details like the 2,000-plus, hand-tailored, stainless ARP fasteners individually modified for length, head height, and shoulder diameter, and hand-polished at both ends. You can even disregard the wickedly intricate, one-off torsion-bar suspension that was completely handmade. In fact, you’d even be forgiven for discounting the intricate finish work on the engine and undercarriage that’s as detailed as the real estate above ground. Why? Because the story behind this forgotten relic turned America’s Most Beautiful Roadster contender is as colorful as the car itself. As with most biographies, this one isn’t without tragedy, irony, or, ultimately, a happy ending. Let’s start where the good guy gets the…

Any Power Tour® or HOT ROD TV aficionado will recognize this ’70 Chevelle. It was built at the request of Mothers’ Jim Halloway to show off the capabilities of propane and prove that a hot rod can be green. And this was before E-rod crate engines! Jim was active in HOT ROD TV and built the Chevelle to debut at the ’07 HOT ROD Power Tour®. As with any build with a firm deadline, it came down to the wire, and there was a bit of drama. Jim didn’t seem to have any gray hairs after the stress of the first build, so when new propane technology debuted, he chose to update the Chevelle. When Jim was first planning the car, Mothers’ marketing partner, based in New Zealand, suggested going…

The inaugural 1916 Pikes Peak race was won by an unknown named Rea Lentz in a homebuilt machine, but until recently, most PPIHC racers piloted cars built for other racing disciplines. The most popular class in the early years was the open wheel division, which was dominated by Indy Cars until 1962, when rules changed to allow shorter-wheelbase Sprint Cars—like Bobby Unser’s winning machine seen here. Sprint Cars ruled until the development of a Pikes Peak specific car—the Wells Coyote—in 1979. It looks like electric vehicles may be the next big change to the scenery, but we hope there will always be a place for the roaring V8s.…

“My dad had magic, he could wave his wand over any engine, and it would run better—put out more power. When he died, I was done racing, I was going to quit,” says Mike Cook. His father was Doug “Cookie” Cook, driver of arguably the most famous and popular drag cars ever, the series of legendary Stone, Woods & Cook (SWC) Willys that dominated the Gasser ranks in the ’60s with on- and off-track antics. When you talk to Mike about his dad, there’s a ton of reverence in his tone, in the air—you almost feel like Doug’s in the room with you. The same holds true when Cookie’s best friend, Joe Bartlett, talks about their drag racing days in the ’50s—racing twin ’37 Chevy coupes at Lions, Santa Ana,…

Crash-and-burn images have evaded the pages of HOT ROD for the most part since its inception. Both HRM founder Robert Petersen and first editor Wally Parks made a point of telling staff members that sensationalist images did not do HOT ROD or racing any favors, and felt they only publicized the dark side of automotive pursuits. Since the magazine’s mandate under NHRA founder Wally Parks was to promote the safe endeavors of the hot rod fraternity, depicting how racing could be unsafe didn’t jibe. Drag racing was swathed in squeaky-clean wholesomeness without the slightest hint of anything but a clean script in the pages of HRM. That’s why much of what is shown here has never been in print. These scenes of racing mishaps are amazing when you consider that…

Next Month: Plastic Repair WANT CARBON FIBER? Marine-supply stores often carry West-System, a two-part epoxy. For larger quantities of materials, try Fibre Glast. Expect a yard of plain-weave carbon to run about $60. Call 800.330.6365, FibreGlast.com. Carbon comes in many patterns for various uses. The most common are plain-weave and twill. Contact TAYLORMADE RACING; Van Nuys, CA; 818.781.8123; RaceTaylorMade.com…

// Do not rush it. There is no shame in taking a long time to sand the car correctly.— Eliot Erlandson // It’s one of those things that beer can ruin while you’re doing it but fix once you’re done.— Christian Knauer // Every scratch—no matter how small—will be magnified by a coat of paint.— Lynn Chitty // Do not paint your car at home in an attached garage.— Ron Ward // Clean, clean, clean, then clean again. You can’t clean too much before you spray.— OutlawRodn Restorations // Spend the money on a proper respirator. If you can’t afford that, you can’t afford to paint.— James Clark Davidson // Use a single-stage so if you have any runs you can sand them out without worrying about sanding through the…

Piston compression height is the distance between the centerline of the pin to the flat part of the top of the piston. It’s important to know this number when ordering pistons—especially custom ones—so that the piston falls in the right place in relation to the deck surface of the block (where the cylinder head bolts on). To figure out the best compression height, you need to know your block’s deck height, the length of your connecting rods, and your crank stroke. Block deck height is the distance from the centerline of the main journals to the block deck surface. For example, the small-block Chevys we tested last month were delivered at 9.020 inches, though this is commonly machined to 9.00—and giving or taking that 0.020 really makes a difference. So…