Innehållsförteckning för July 2022 från Hot Rod

Editor-in-Chief @john.mcgann I typed “pickup” in the search bar of our digital photo archives and was rewarded with more than 5,000 pictures to sift through as a result. The range of images seen through the decades left me with the notion that pickups may be more versatile than cars, at least from the perspective of the customizer or modifier. In other words, people seem to do a much wider variety of things with trucks than with cars. Case in point: I’ve personally heard the backlash over times we’ve run features on a vehicle that’s essentially a car body on a lifted 4x4 chassis. I think people find it more acceptable to do all kinds of crazy things to a pickup of any year, make, and model, than to a ’70…

Imagine spending more than $100,000 to build a truck, especially a truck from the ’90s. And that’s starting with a nice, low-mileage one. That just seems wrong, doesn’t it? That’s the world we live in now, however. In an era where a show-quality paintjob can cost $100,000, having a running, driving car for that same amount is a much better choice, especially if it’s one of these two Chevys built by Justin Keith, owner of Killer Performance in Kansas City, Missouri. While they may look relatively innocuous, you’d be sadly mistaken if you dismissed either one as just a lowered pickup with big wheels. You’d most likely be inhaling a cloud of tire smoke after getting absolutely destroyed by one of these pickups at the track or on the street.…

Sitting behind the wheel of Lucky Costa’s ’67 Chevy C10, the thought struck me like a bolt of lightning. I was surprised just how similar it felt to mine, but just how different at the same time. I’ve had my ’67 C10 project, Truck Norris, for more than eight years, and it has gone through several iterations and transformations from stock, worn-out farm truck to whatever adjectives you’d use to describe it now. Lucky has owned his ’67 C10 for a slightly shorter period, but it has gone through an even bigger transformation. It was literally a pile of parts when he started—I was there. It was assembled from parts that the previous owner/hoarder had squirreled away in one of those backyard shops and E-Z Up/tarpaulin structures so common here…

These days, when LS engines seem to dominate the performance world, it’s nice to see a cool Mopar get some deserved love. Engine Masters co-host and dyno wrangler at Westech Performance Group, Steve Brule, feels the same way. He was quick to shoot us the details on this 493-inch Mopar that he recently ran on Westech’s engine dyno. Sources Aeromotive; 913.647.7300; aeromotiveinc.com Comp Cams; 800.999.0853; compcams.com Edelbrock; 800.416.8628; edelbrock.com Holley; 866.464.6553; holley.com JE Pistons; 714.898.9763; jepistons.com Scat Crankshafts; 310.370.5501; scatcrankshafts.com Westech Performance Group; 951.685.4767; westechperformance.com The Verdict Once some tuning runs were made and a happy place of 37 degrees was found for the timing, Brule was ready to let the 493-inch Mopar rip. The best run ended up being 601 hp at 5,600 rpm and 604 lb-ft of twist…

With all the talk of soulless EVs and today’s youth not even being into cars, we sometimes worry about the future of hot rodding. Then we meet people like 20-year-old Cole Reynolds and we’re refilled with faith that there will be plenty of gas-burning rebels around in the future to annoy the greenies. The other thing we like about young hot rodders is that they’re not afraid to try something a bit outside the traditional box. With that in mind, let’s look at a very cool mid-engine LS-swapped 1974 Chevy LUV truck project we ran into at the 2021 Holley LSFest. We asked Cole about his project and how a 20-year-old came up with such a unique take on an offbeat truck. “I bought the 1974 Chevy LUV when I…

If we had done this five years ago, it would have been a flop,” stated Mark Oja in a serious tone. He’s not lying, either. The ’90s style and aesthetic has made a resurgence in the last couple of years, bolstered in part by car shows like Radwood that promote the aesthetic. It could also just be that things were simpler then, and people are longing for some of that carefree simplicity. No matter what the reason, Mark’s recreation of the Belltech truck was a resounding success when he debuted it at the SEMA show in 2019. The original Belltech truck was built specifically for the 1990 SEMA show. Jim Fairweather, owner of Belltech, purchased it new from Richard Hibbard Chevrolet in Claremont, California. It was finished in Tropical Turquoise,…

The concept is so simple, it’s brilliant. Want to go racing for cheap? Buy a retired police-package Crown Victoria and hit the track. For prospective racers, there aren’t too many ways to venture into track racing with a smaller buy-in. We stumbled on the Spec P71 Racing Series after some random internet searching, and liked the idea so much, we attended their first event of the year at Chuckwalla Raceway, camera in hand, to see these ex-police cruisers on track. In case you don’t know, P71 is Ford’s VIN-speak for the police-package option on the 1998 to 2011 Crown Victoria. San Diego native Brett Madsen is the organizer of Spec P71 Racing. An accountant by day, Brett is a racer at heart. He got into autocrossing in a big way…

That’s right, this build uses GM’s soon-to-be-legendary LT-series Gen V L8T engine block and forged crankshaft found in the gasoline version of the 2020-2022 3500HD Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra. After reading the spec sheet of the new engine, the guys at the Scoggin Dickey Parts Center (SDPC) Raceshop decided to source a block and crank, add a set of forged pistons and monster rods, port the heads, and see what it would do with 32 pounds of boost from a pair of turbos. The idea was to make a “reliable” 2,000 hp using goodies from SDPC. To prove a point, the engine made more than 2,000 hp from 5,900-7,300 rpm with a peak of 2,077 hp at 6,500. If you read between the lines, you can do this too…

LED lighting is one of those modern pieces of technology that people are looking to adapt to their older cars. In addition to brighter illumination, LED lights draw less amperage and operate at cooler temperatures than traditional filament-style bulbs. And, they last a lot longer, which is also a plus. LED taillight conversions are available for a wide variety of popular muscle cars, and we’ve shown a few of those conversions in the past. Headlights are a different matter, however. Source Holley; 866.464.6553; holley.com…

Whatever you call them—C/K trucks, OBS, or GMT400s—the 1988-1998 Chevy and GMC pickups are red-hot right now. We are fortunate enough to have one as a staff project car, and it has a long history with the magazines. This is Project Jake, first purchased by former HRM editor Jeff Smith. In 2004, when he was Senior Tech Editor with Car Craft, he and his friend Tim Moore purchased identical GMC C1500 pickups at a Los Angeles County vehicle auction. Both trucks had been owned by Caltrans and had racked up just north of 200,000 miles by the time LA County put them out to pasture. Shortly thereafter, each truck was featured in a series of articles. Jeff’s ran in Car Craft, while Tim’s ran in Chevy High Performance, with the…

It began life as a very plain-looking 1950 Chevrolet ½-ton pickup, but this truck underwent major transformation after Spencer Murray bought it. The customization began in earnest in 1953 when Spencer began working for Rod & Custom magazine. Over the next several years, legendary names such as Gene Winfield, George Barris, and Dean Jeffries all performed custom work on the pickup—work that was thoroughly documented in the pages of Rod & Custom from 1953 to 1957. During that time, it went through several iterations, each with different paint schemes and body restyling. It even had fins reminiscent of a 1958 Cadillac Eldorado toward the end of its run in the magazine. On the show circuit, the truck collected numerous awards and was nominated one of the Top Customs of the…

Vintage F-Series Ford trucks have never been the first choice for a restomod. The Chevy C10 has a larger catalog for engine, body, and suspension parts, and the small-block Chevy is cheaper and more common than Ford’s early V8 engines. Times are changing as builders and manufacturers discover ’67-’72 fifth-generation Ford F-100 and F-250 trucks. Like the Chevy, these trucks were equipped with nice things like A/C, trim and interior packages, and the speed-friendly 390 FE and 302 V8 engines added later in the production run. Trucks were becoming more car-like, and because they were rear-wheel-drive and V8 powered, they were also becoming muscle-car-like. Jim Nygard knew this in 1976 when he was driving by a field in northern Minnesota and spotted a Rangoon Red 1968 F-250 4x4 parked outside.…

The hot rod industry is always searching for something different. While the quest for horsepower is never-ending, not everyone is interested in the quest for that last ounce of power. Sometimes the search is aimed at recreating the past, and induction systems have always been right at the top of that list of must-have items. Among the more desirable induction systems for any engine, but especially an early small-block Chevy, is the classic three two-barrel system. Back before the dawn of big cfm carburetors, the 3x2 (or even a 4x2) system was highly desirable and often employed the small-base Rochester two-barrel carburetors. An entire 3x2 system barely flowed 600 cfm (using the more common four-barrel rating system) but despite its small size, this little Rochester has become a tradition that…

For many home builders, their car’s interior is one of the last areas to be restored or rebuilt, if it ever gets done at all. Why? Speaking from experience, we tend to spend the money we have on performance or engine and suspension parts first, then get to the inside of the car whenever we have the time and money. Also, if quality used or restoration parts aren’t readily available for your particular make and model, making those components from scratch is difficult and requires specialized skill and experience. Source TMI Products; 888.460.0640; tmiproducts.com…

A Camaro retiring to ore in a barnyard will cost $25,000, and that new Vette is well over $100k. Instead of getting depressed about the price of your project car dreams, look at the 1967-1972 Chevy C10 truck instead. They are essentially muscle cars with big V8s under the hood, stick-shift transmissions, and rear-wheel drive. If you scan Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, or even eBay, you will find one for less than $5k, or if you were lucky like we were, a 1968 283ci, four-speed C10 in factory light green paint for $2,500. It needs work, but it was a running, driving truck with all the fun bits in place.…

Email us at hotrod@motortrend.com Everybody dreams of a barn find. Mine turned up last summer after I’d put the word out that I was looking for something funky, when my friend Willi Boelcke responded saying he had just the thing. He did. I grew up in England and got into hot rods in 1962 when somebody on my paper route took HOT ROD magazine. I wasn’t sharp enough to ask who or why, but I’d sit on the curb under gray skies surrounded by gray cars and gray people reading about red and yellow cars under blue California skies. I was hooked. When I was old enough I owned a few modified cars and motorcycles, but it was difficult to get anything done in England back then. You could get…