Indholdsfortegnelse for October 2015 i Hot Rod

It’s not an engine size, vehicle spec, or racetrack length, but 308 square feet is the one dimension we all share (and need) for each of our hot rods. It’s a footprint that takes many forms—be it a climate-controlled showroom, a piece of oil-laced dirt behind a barn, or even the parking space in front of an apartment building. I’m talking about the physical space offered by a single-car garage. To some, it’s just a parking space; to us, it’s far more. As real estate goes, there’s no plot more versatile than the 14x22 feet of a hot rodder’s garage. People like us use them to store cars, keep tools, and collect parts. We transform these spaces into fab shops, assembly rooms, and even paint booths.…

Look, let’s just get this out of the way right up front. What Tom McGilton did to his brand-new ZL1 Camaro is crazy. When the local Kansas City Chevy dealer, Van Chevrolet, told Tom it was getting a 2013 ZL1, he bought it. Says Tom, “When I told the salesman what my plan was for the car, he wanted me to give [it back].” But Tom didn’t. He drove it to Larson Race Cars in Oak Grove, Missouri (LarsonRaceCars.net). Once there, he proceeded with his plan, which was to tear it completely apart. He took out the entire interior, windows, suspension—everything. He gutted a brand-new ZL1. Then he and Larry Larson schemed to build a twin-turbo, 2,500hp Drag Week™ Unlimited-class cruiser. Why call it a cruiser? Because all of the…

Who doesn’t love an underdog? We HOT ROD editors tend to flock to the oddballs, the quirky body styles that were ahead of their time and weren’t truly appreciated until they were long canceled by their makers. Many AMCs fit the bill, especially the Rambler Marlin, a three-year-only model that helped steer muscle-car styling for years to come. Bob Bruhn’s 1965 Rambler Marlin was on display in the House of Kolor booth at the 2014 SEMA show in Las Vegas because of its amazing, custommixed, black-cherry paint, but the canvas it was sprayed on is deserving in its own right. Perhaps the most impressive thing about the Marlin is that Bob did all of the custom body modifications, chassis work, and final assembly in his home garage. Because we didn’t…

BUYER’S GUIDE Chris Alston’s Chassisworks // 888.388.0297 // CAChassisWorks.com Chassisworks’ g-Bars and g-Links are the most adjustable and configurable performance rearsuspension systems available for popular 1960s and 1970s muscle cars. A broad range of components enables customization of the canted-4-bar suspension to perfectly suit your performance application, whether that’s cruising slow and low to the car show on air suspension or hot lapping at an open-track or autocross event with high-end coil-overs. Component options include: polybushed or pivotball arms in tubular steel or billet aluminum; sliding-link or billet-arm antiroll bar; stock or narrowed width for mini-tubbed cars; and factory-preset single-, double-, or fourway-adjustable shocks. In addition to shock and antiroll bar adjustments, multiple mounting positions for control arms and shocks allow optimal setting of suspension geometry and ride height. Complete…

The camshaft is the heart of your engine. Assuming your engine is otherwise sound and correctly tuned—but doesn’t perform as expected—it may be because the cam is mismatched to the overall engine and drivetrain combination. The experts at Comp Cams developed this handy troubleshooting list. Based on typical engine symptoms, it includes the probable cause, as well as solutions for each problem. Contact COMP CAMS; Memphis, TN; 800.999.0853 or 901.795.2400; CompCams.com…

These are the “good old days” of the muscle car all over again—as performance, handling, and technology have vastly improved since the 1960s. The 707hp Dodge Challenger and Charger Hellcats have raised enthusiasts’ hearts and minds to new excitement levels, and rightly so. You’ll be hard pressed to replicate this performance, technology, and adrenaline rush wrapped in a new-car smell, warranty, and level of parts compatibility and package development. So if you’ve got the cash, go out and buy one now—you’d be crazy not to. But we understand many hot rodders are looking for the heightened performance and brutal horsepower of a Hellcat—at a more affordable price. Being hot rodders, we have the ability to make that a reality, so before you is our framework for building a Hellcat killer…

Built entirely in a detached garage in the backyard of his Northridge, California, home, Larry Van Zyl’s Hemi-powered 1971 Challenger has been 10 years in the making. From the engine and suspension to the bodywork and paint, all the work on the car was done within 20 feet of Larry’s back porch and was optioned just the way he would have ordered it in 1971 (had he been a car-buying adult back then). Even the headliner and vinyl top, the only two pieces of the car that Larry and his friends didn’t do themselves, were completed on site and amounted to a day’s work and $300 in labor. Larry’s history with the car started 10 years ago, when Larry and his friend, Bryan Bulbow, were looking for a car to…

With enough money, you can build exactly what you see in your perfect imaginary garage, but who ever has enough money? Part of hot rodding is knowing when to compromise. Sometimes if you don’t settle, you’ll never get back on the road. We recently redid the seats in my 1969 Dodge C-body. Thanks to a fellow Polara owner, I was able to replace the front bench seat with a set of “500” buckets. Way sportier, plus the separate seat arrangement means I can be up against the wheel while my passenger can sit back and enjoy all the fullsize Dodge legroom. The seats needed to be recovered, which led to compromise number one: There was only enough money to do the front. The back, which was still in…

Atomic Transmission Controller Atomic EFI // 915.856.2480 // AtomicEFI.com Atomic EFI’s transmission control module (TCM) now fits the GM 4L60/70/80E series and Ford’s OEDE/4R70W, 4R100, and E4OD four-speed automatic transmissions. The TCM allows you to set up your transmission’s shift points, firmness, and converter clutch without needing a laptop—it’s a fully self-contained unit. The TCM uses one part number (2670), just make sure to get the right harness for your application and it will plug right into the factory connectors on your transmission. Price: $750 including harness Power-Adder Pistons CP-Carrillo // 949.567.9000 CP-Carrillo.com For serious drag-racing power-adder applications, CP-Carillo has developed a new line of X-Style pistons that include the advanced features and improvements CP-Carrillo has developed through rigorous testing and R&D. Forged from 2618 T-61 with an “X” added…

While in Detroit visiting friends, I convinced two buddies to go for a drive in search of forgotten cars. We took the scenic route north out of the city and cruised around until we spotted a 1968 Road Runner being pulled from a garage by an old Ford farm tractor. Naturally, we had to stop and check it out. The car’s owner was happy to talk with us about the bird. The Mopar had been sitting for decades, and a guy had just offered to buy the car from him. With no immediate plans for the Road Runner himself, he sold it. The car was a pretty neat piece, a 1968 Road Runner hardtop with a 383 and automatic shifter on the column— 1 of 8,480 produced with that combo…

Dave Baur of northeastern Pennsylvania arrives in his paleyellow 1930, the hot rod that he’s logged more than 70,000 miles in since he built it under a temporary tent structure on his graded dirt driveway. It’s also the rod he’s driven down the East Coast and back more times than he can remember, and the same one that he consistently drives to hot rod festivities across the country. Dave usually pulls up in one of his two custom-made roadsters: the W-motored 1930 or a flathead-fueled 1929 phaeton he’s been wrenching on for the last few years. Both cars were skillfully made from the spare and unwanted parts discarded by others. Dave built every inch of both of these asphalt eaters by himself at his personal country home and fab shop,…

Imagine a wide-eyed kid, brimming with enthusiasm, with his nose pressed against the wide, expansive glass of the local Cadillac dealership. An easy walk from where he lives, this place is a dream factory for a kid who is years away from a driver’s license. But at least he can pick up a few brochures and literature and pore over the glossy images of the automotive good life depicted within. And nothing can top a shiny, new Cadillac as a symbol of worldwide success—“the standard of the world,” as its motto used to boast. It’s the late-1960s and that young kid is me. The Cadillac brand left as lasting an impression on me as big-block muscle cars left on others. While I like high performance, too, I’m more of a…

There’s only one place to consistently get a feel for the look and style of a car. It’s not on a turntable or displayed inside with colored lights. The best place to view a car is on the road, and I would add, specifically, on the highway. A highway is the only place to see a car moving and be able to drive around it. You can speed up or slow down to view it from all angles. The car is in its natural environment and you get the true sense of vehicle proportions and stance with sunlight dancing around picking up highlights and surface developments. Car shows, on the other hand, display a car statically—parked, raised on a turntable, or jacked up on one side with the wheels off,…

Q: I rebuilt a 1966 396 Chevy big-block, and then a 1977 454. Each engine had the blocks bored for new forged pistons. Both used the stock crank and rods, standard main and rod bearings, new cam bearings, and refurbished stock heads with stock valvesprings. They had a new Edelbrock Performer-Plus cam and lifters, a new high-volume oil pump, a Performer intake manifold, and a stock HEI distributor. After starting the first 396 fresh engine and letting it run to break in, the lifters kept making noise as if they never pumped up. I pulled the valve covers off and noticed the oil coming out of the rocker arms was only trickling out. then pulled that engine out of the car and started fresh with the 454 and had the…

Power Tour: Finally, a Vacation I was part of the magazine team that created HOT ROD Power Tour 20 years ago. I have a vague recollection that I might have named it, though the whole thing must be credited to a collaboration of the staffers of the time: Jim Savas, Steve Campbell, Drew Hardin, Gray Baskerville, Jeff Smith, Cole Quinnell, Rob Kinnan, and Will Handzel. As the oft-told story goes, Power Tour germinated as a cross-country trip for the staff, with readers invited to tag along. I took my Cheap Thrills Dart on the first one, making it from LA to Cedar City, Utah, before the transmission gave up, then I hitched rides with the other HOT ROD project cars on the trip: the Crusher Camaro…