Indholdsfortegnelse for August 2008 i Hot Rod

COP RODDER As an avid reader, for longer than I care to remember, of the finest automobile magazine in the industry, I thought I’d get the guts to finally send in a letter. For years I’ve read them all cover to cover and back again. I’ve seen the fruits of others’ labors. I’ve heard many times the arguments of true street cars, Pro Street, and what have you, and also how certain cars couldn’t be built by the Average Joe on a budget. I’ve been that Average Joe since birth. Now, I can finally join the elite ranks of car builder, sort of. Included are photos of my Magnum police car that I’ve been building on for a year now. It’s my actual patrol car (lights, sirens, etc) that I…

1974 The ’70s started off strong for HOT ROD. Most of our cover stories focused on hard-core drag racing. Pro Stock and Funny Cars were the new wild kids on the block, and we were all over it. It was also the height of the musclecar era, so those road tests were throughout the book, and what became known as street machines began to appear in big numbers. Many consider it the glory days. But what most don’t remember is during this time we also featured go-carts, motorcycles, VWs, and boats, most notably Jack Cayer’s Satan’s Toy ski/drag boat on the Sept. ’66 cover. The main cover blurb was “Ski Boats,” and the stories included a buyer’s guide to marine equipment, salt versus freshwater cooling, V-8 installations into boats, and…

WILLYS SRT8 There’s something about the classic styling of old postwar Jeeps that seems to work no matter what route is taken. Tavis Highlander agrees and pur-chased a much used and abused ’53 Willys from an old overall-clad gent for his hot rod build. The plan is for the exterior to look like a well-restored but slightly lowered Willys station wagon with wood panels added to the body. But as you’ve likely guessed from the title, it won’t be a small four- or six-banger under the hood. It will stay true to the family, though, with a 450hp Mopar Performance 6.1L crate Hemi backed by a Viper-spec T56 six-speed. To handle the newfound power, the frame will be fully boxed with a custom X-member and the rearend will be swapped…

Nearly every year, and as recently as in the May ’08 issue, HOT ROD tells you the basics as well as the latest tips and tricks in paint and bodywork. So by now you should have a pretty good handle on how to get the sheetmetal straight. One thing we haven’t covered in more than 20 years is what to paint your hot rod or custom car to make it stand out from the crowd. Way back, HOT ROD presented bold, new, dynamic custom color schemes to get us back on track, graphically, after the mixed-up miasma of the van-crazed ’70s. We started with new designs in candies, pearls, stripes, and flames, emphasizing creative tape lay-outs, bright candy colors, and blended fades and overlays. But later, we announced a bold…

We’re so into the Ford Racing Mustang Challenge for the Miller Cup that we worked with Ford Racing to provide an FR500S for HOT ROD to run the eight-race series this year. Car No. 523 is ours and as we go to press is being prepped by Chris Kaufmann at Kaufmann Racing in Oxnard, California. The plan is for Editor Kinnan to race the car once he gets his Grand Am license, with Kaufmann driving the first and second races (the second, at Mosport International Raceway in Toronto, Canada, happens during the HOT ROD Power Tour®). Watch for more coverage throughout the season.…

Tom Hoover didn’t invent the Hemi, but he was a key player in making the 426 variety a winner on drag-strips from Pomona to Englishtown. A native of Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, he served in the Korean War before heading off to Chrysler in 1955 with a graduate degree in physics. His first major engineering assignment was the Bendix Electrojector program, the first production electronic fuel-injection system in history—it was offered as an option on ’58 Chryslers and DeSotos. Tom also worked on the Hyper-Pak performance package for the Slant Six before Chrysler president Lynn Townsend drafted him to lead the 426 Max Wedge program. But it is the 426 Hemi for which Tom is most commonly remembered—and also for his role as the founding member of the Ram-chargers, the factory-based car…

We first heard the rumors about fresh Edelbrock aluminum heads for the Chevy 348 and 409 W-motor a year ago. To be frank, our ears perked up big time, but we honestly didn’t believe the rumblings and chalked them up to wishful thinking. After all, why would Vic and the boys tool up for an engine family that’s been dormant since 1965? But when a semifinished aluminum 409 cylinder head casting was spotted at the ’07 SEMA show, we knew this was no fairy tale. It’s true—the new Edelbrock Performer RPM 348/409 Chevy heads are on sale right now. These new heads are fabulous news for hot rodders, street cruisers, and drag racers looking for a break from the same old, same old. The horse for this saddle—the Chevy W-series…

Back when our car builds required snapping plastic wheels onto the axle and trying not to get gluey fingerprints on the windshield, our shelves were stocked full of Testors rattle cans and their tiny little paint bottles. Once we started building cars requiring tools that could do more damage than a fresh X-Acto knife, it should have been time to step away from paint that’s mixed with a little steel ball. That’s all well and good to say, but the reality is our spray bomb collection is still huge. When it comes time to refresh an instrument cluster or trim piece, more often than not those rattle cans come out of the cabinet—always with predictable results. Even if we get the main background color to come out right, all the…

Probably the single biggest makeover to a car’s interior is a set of custom door panels, but who except master upholsterers can create one? We’ve often stared at the one-off panels in high-end street rods and customs, with their complex shapes and designs, and wondered how they came together and if we could possibly build a pair ourselves. So to find out, we visited Bill Dunn One Stop Shop in Huntington Beach, California, to follow along as they crafted a custom door panel from a stack of wood, foam, and vinyl for Bob and Wanda Youngsma’s ’40 Ford. The guys at Bill Dunn are experts at crafting custom interiors and were tapped to do many of the interiors on the Overhaulin’ cars, so we figured we’d be in and out.…

HOT ROD celebrates its 60th anniversary throughout 2008, and one of the best parties so far happened at the Wally Parks NHRA Museum in Pomona, California, on April 2. A HOT ROD 60th display was set up and will stay in the museum until after the World Finals in October, and to kick it off we had a party with a long list of industry heroes, racers, and fans. Included in the mix were a bunch of current and former HOT ROD magazine staffers, so we herded them all outside to pose for a group photo. From left to right are Drew Hardin, Steve Campbell, Greg Smith, Jerry Pitt, Jeff Smith, Tom Donchez, Will Handzel, Pat Ganahl (aka Stretch), Rob Kinnan, Bob D’Olivo, Dave Wallace Jr., Michelle Turczyn, Bernice Sanders,…

Steve Stanford has really shaken up the pages of HOT ROD in the last few months. First came his brilliant “Return of AMC” spoof in the Apr. ’08 issue, and that was followed up by his renderings of common cars done in an uncommon style (“Sketch Pad,” June ’08). Both elicited tons of comments, and this month we’ll show some of the responses to the “Sketchpad” ideas. As we said before, these concepts are penned to spark imagination and kick people’s sense of creativity so they get out there and do something. Are you? HOPE HE IS WELL Regarding the Dan Woods Milk Truck (main image) in the June issue (“Sketch Pad,” page 88), Dan and I attended Paramount High School and then Compton College in California, taking many auto…

SOLSTICE GROWS A ROOF As expected for some time now, Pontiac recently announced that the Solstice, its popular two-seat Miata fighter, will soon be available as a coupe. Through the extensive use of aluminum in the roof’s super-structure, the coupe weighs only 31 pounds more than the convertible, according to General Motors. Powertrain choices are identical to the ragtop’s: A 2.4L Ecotec I4 with 173 hp is standard, while the GXP 2.0L turbocharged mill with 260 hp is also available. Although the rear portion of the roof is fixed, a lift-out targa panel allows for open-air motoring, and the rear glass is hinged for easy access to the cargo area. As yet no prices have been announced, but sources suggest they will be very close to the convertible’s. Pontiac says…

HOT ROD’S DRAG WEEK™ 2008! Think you have a fast street car? Then prove it on HOT ROD’s Drag Week™, presented by MSD Ignition. We’re back for the fourth running of the ultimate test of streetability and raw performance, and this year’s event is set to be bigger and better than ever. In case you’re not familiar with Drag Week™, here’s the scoop. Designed to determine the fastest, legitimate, streetable hot rod in the country, Drag Week™ is a five-day journey that requires each car to make a quarter-mile pass on four dragstrips in five days and drive to each track with no support vehicles whatsoever. That means no trailers, no buddies following in trucks loaded with tools or spare parts, and nothing else that could be construed as support.…

The wait for the ’08 Dodge Challenger release has been long not just for Mopar fans, but for all car freaks. We were teased with the concept car two and a half years ago at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit (coincidentally, the same show we first laid eyes on the new Camaro concept), and over the past 30 months, select folks have gotten to drive the concept, spy shots have been seen, and insider rumors have run rampant. Finally, we were allowed to see the real deal and reveal it four months ago, in the Apr. ’08 issue. But that was the show car headed straight for the Chicago Auto Show, and we were barely allowed to touch it. The car you see here is an actual…

Location: Mike Fennel’s Junkyard 5 MOST POPULAR CAMS PG.82 We wanted to know what camshafts were the most popular in the hot rodding world, so we called Comp Cams and asked. Turns out the top five are all for the first-generation small-block Chevy, so we ran them in a typical 350 to show which one is best for you. RETURN OF THE 409 PG.94 It’s been out of service for more than 40 years, but the 409 Chevy W-motor might be making a comeback, thanks to Edelbrock’s brand-new aluminum heads. We go inside a set and show what they’re all about. SPECIAL SECTION: INTERIOR TIPS & TRICKS SEAT COVER RE-DO PG.98 DASHPAD RESTO PG.100 PLASTIC CHROME THE RIGHT WAY PG.102 MAKE YOUR OWN TRICK HEADLINER PG.104 THE LATEST IN SOUND…

As you all know, the HOT ROD staff was quite smitten with the Dynacorn-bodied ’67 Mustang built by George Huisman and his crew at Classic Design Concepts in Novi, Michigan. (“Road Thrash,” June ’08.) This little jewel, which Huisman calls Flashback, is a rolling showcase of neat building tricks. One is the headliner, which looks like a factory-tooled OEM piece for an ’08 model. “We could have stretched a stock-type cloth headliner for this car, but that’s old school,” Huisman says. “And it takes a lot of time and effort to keep the seams straight and even to make it look nice.” On Mustangs of this vintage there is an added hassle: The front and rear glass actually retain the headliner in place. (Who thought that up?) So Huisman took…

550HP TURBO SYSTEM FOR MUSTANG GT Turbonetics 805/581-0333 www.turboneticsinc.com and www.eturbochargers.com At 8.5 psi of boost from the T4 Custom Ceramic Ball Bearing Turbo, Turbonetics claims a 250hp kick to the 300hp Mustang GT, bringing the total to 550 hp. The Turbonetics R& D team conquered the Mustang’s complex ECU and the fly-by-wire throttle control to bring power early in the rpm range yet retain stock GT manners under normal driving. According to Turbonetics, the kit has everything needed to complete the install in roughly a day. It retains all factory accessories and sensors, and there’s no modification to the chassis necessary. 10TH ANNIVERSARY NHRA WALLY PARKS LEATHER JACKET Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum 909/622-2133 www.museum.nhra.com In memoriam of the passing of the father of HOT ROD and the NHRA…

GO SPEED RACER. GO!! Mach 5 Speedster • Doug Saunders • Grand Rapids, MI Doug said he wanted to take the opportunity to submit his version of the Mach 5 before others start flooding us with their pictures because of the upcoming movie debut. “My version was started in my mind sometime in 1973 while sitting in front of the TV watching my favorite hero race his fantastic car in great adventures; I was 4 at the time. Six years ago, I finally had the opportunity to design and build my version of this inspiring vehicle. I chose a C4 Corvette for the base and spent almost a year taking panel dimensions and entering them into drawing software, then designed the new panels to fit the chassis. All of the…

KEEPING IT SAFE AND LEGAL Throughout the history of hot rodding, the challenge to keep young enthusiasts safely participating at sanctioned dragstrips has been an ongoing effort. Thanks to Wally Parks’ direction from the editor’s chair at HOT ROD to establish the NHRA, grassroots drag racing remains an affordable entry-level style of automotive competition. Today, American dragstrips are dedicated to not only providing competitive racing programs for locals, but also a way of showing high school kids the proper and safe place to race—rather than on the street. Over the years, many tracks have successfully created and promoted youth racing programs. Flowmaster mufflers has made a commitment to help keep those programs going by creating its first ever Flowmaster Safe Streets High School Drag Racing Program. The Flowmaster High School…

It’s called The Great One. What’s so great about it? Well, there’s a rather small consortium that would like to provide a history lesson and have you know that it was this very car, or at least one similarly optioned, that truly launched the musclecar era. Because it’s a stick-shifted ’65 Tri-power GTO? Not exactly. More precisely it’s because it’s a ’65 GTO with a 376hp, 421ci big-block borrowed from a Catalina—just like the one in the controversial 1963 Car and Driver cover story featuring a watercolor by artist Tom Quinn depicting the new Pontiac 250 GTO being run against its namesake, the Ferrari GTO, on a road course. But don’t take our word for that, Pontiac PR guru Jim Wagner finally fessed up that the ringer was put together…

The full title of this deal is (deep breath) the Ford Racing Mustang Challenge for the Miller Cup presented by BFGoodrich. That’s a bit long to be truly catchy, but it does give a shout out to all the parties that made it possible. So what is it? The Miller Cup—you’ll forgive the shorthand—is a brand-new road-racing series using modified Mustang GTs that anyone can buy. Here’s the deal: These are genuine factory-built and supported race cars—the first Fords to truly have that honor, the company says. The car Ford has prepared for this new series is called the FR500S. In preparation and performance, this nifty spec racer slots in nicely between an SCC A Touring 2–style Mustang and the FR500C Grand Am car. The FR500S uses a nearly stock…

The camshaft is one of the most important factors in determining an engine’s torque and powerbands, able to make or break an overall engine combination. On the street, hot rodders must tread a fine line in balancing performance improvement with overall driveability and reliability. For a variety of reasons—a proven track record, familiarity, word of mouth, or just plain tradition (“My Dad used that cam and it worked great.”), hot rodders tend to stick with what worked well in the past. Although a major cam com-pany like Comp Cams may offer dozens (if not hundreds) of potential cams for a particular engine family, a relatively small number of profiles accounts for the vast majority of sales. But how well do they actually perform in the average engine? To find out,…

One of the most difficult aspects of rebuilding or restoring any musclecar is the vinyl dashpad. There are a variety of aftermarket replacements available for the more popular models, but what do you do if you have a car that’s not heavily supported by these companies? Cheap fixes like vinyl repair paste might work in the most minor cracks but are extremely difficult to get good results with and are not going to last. Fabric dashpads only cover the problem like a Band-Aid. There are plastic dash caps, but many are poorly formed and often require serious modification for the detailed areas to look right. The only real solution to restoring an original vinyl dashpad is to have it done the same way it was originally made: through thermal vacuum-forming.…

One of the first things a hot rodder does to a car is make it louder. It’s great to have that melodious rumble on the outside, but when it’s road trip or Power Tour®; time, it’s nice to be able to roll up the windows and lock out the noise. With all the technology that’s gone into sound deadening in the past couple of decades, it’s child’s play to get your vintage tin to rival the peace and quiet available in the new stuff. And there are the added benefits of vibration control, which dampens parts that have met their internal resonance, and heat deflection, which helps the air conditioning function more efficiently. Steve Strope, owner of Pure Vision Design, is a huge fan of wall-to-wall and roof-to-floor sound deadening…

Hot rods and guitars naturally go together. They represent self-expression, keep you young, impress your friends, get you the girls, and make you cool. Gibson Custom has teamed up with HOT ROD®, a publication of Source Interlink Media™, LLC, to create a limited-edition HOT ROD ’58 Les Paul that will soon be available to distinguished collectors and guitar aficionados. The guitar is a historic reissue of an original ’58 Les Paul with spe-cial HOT ROD–inspired flames over a figured maple top. The guitar also has anodized, heat-treated pickup covers and a special HOT ROD–engraved pick guard with a ’58 truss rod cover. The guitar is historically accurate back to the same features in 1958 that made this one of the most sought after and valuable guitars in the world. The…