r67u ydt

THE PICKUP ISSUE

SASKATCHEWAN-BUILT FIRST GEN C10 SHORTBOX

FORD IN A ’40 FORD This beauty is a beast

Brent Fraser’s Coyote-swapped shortbox ’67 Ford F100 OCT/NOV 2021

A C10 for the street and strip

Display until Nov. 20/21

Volume 17/Iss 1

Laying low in a ’61 Mercury unibody

Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

EDITORIAL/SALES Publisher/Editor Terry Denomme

Office Manager Patty Denomme

CONTACT US Office — 250-753-2722 Toll Free — 1-888-753-2111 US Toll Free — 1-888-674-6757 Cell — 250-327-1383 Fax — 250-753-2721

info@canadianhotrods.com www.canadianhotrods.com CANADIAN SUBSCRIPTIONS 1 year — six issues — $40* 2 years — 12 issues — $70* *add applicable provincial tax

U.S SUBSCRIPTIONS

1 year — six issues — $40US 2 years — 12 issues — $76US Mail cheque or money order My Car Publications 978 Waddington Nanaimo, B.C., V9S 4T9 please allow 6 to 8 weeks for first issue Find us on social media @canadianhotrods on Instagram and Canadian Hot Rods Magazine on Facebook

24 Built on a Budget This slick 1951 Chevy pickup may look expensive but that’s only if you pay for labour

EVERY ISSUE

FEATURES

6

30 1967 Chevy C10 Shortbox

Blowin’ Smoke

18-year-old Haeley Christensen wins Miles of Mayhem Drag ’N Drive 8.0 class in her LS-powered pickup.

Publisher’s column

8 CHR Mailbag Readers share their thoughts and opinions

36 1967 Ford F100 shortbox Alberta-based Bumpside’s beauty is more than skin deep

10 Three on the Tree Lee Grant

46 1940 Ford pickup

12 Rearview Mirror

This Victoria, BC based street rod was once a battered wreck but it’s back in black and beautiful.

Photos from the past

74 Hot Rod Girl Nikki Bunn

54 1961 Mercury Unibody

FEATURES 18 1961 Chevy Apache Laying low in Saskatchewan

24 1951 Chevy Pickup Built on a budget

Slammed looks good on this integrated Ford MoCo pickup

62 Reader Rides Alberta-based 1958 Ford pickup rides on a Crown Vic chassis

PROJECT FED BUILD UPDATE: Our early ’60s era slingshot

’63 FORD FALCON Yep...it’s got a turbo!

TURBO

!

Copyright 2013 by My Car Publications. Printed in Canada Transcontinental Printing RBW Graphics, 2049 20th Street East, Owen Sound, Ont N4K 5R2.

All photos/stories are the property of My Car Publications and may not be reproduced or used for commercial purposes without the express written consent of the publisher.

Publications mail agreement No. 41156044 Return undeliverable Canadian Addresses to: My Car Publications, 978 Waddington Road, Nanaimo, BC, V9S 4T9

4

TURBO! $8* 6(37 Display until Sept 26/21

9ROXPH ,VV

Turbo LS-powered, Fox chassis wagons

MISSED!THE! PREVIOUS!ISSUE? IT!IS!STILL! AVAILABLE Call 1-888-753-2111 (Canada) or 1-888-674-6757 (US) to buy a print copy

Check out more features at

canadianhotrods.com Digital versions of Canadian Hot Rods are available via Pocketmags or iTunes

www.canadianhotrods.com

CHR Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

Got a prooject?

Lett us hellp.

1-800-567-8979 604-5 522-5 5599

604-5 522-5 5593 Since S ince 11983 983

kmstoo o ls.com kmscarparts.com Coquitlam . Langley . Abbotsford Chilliwack . Victoria . Kamloops Kelowna . Prince George . Calgary Red Deer . Edmonton . Grande Prairie

New 2 nd Locatio io in Edmontn in o NOW O n PE N

with Terry Denomme

info@canadianhotrods.com

At left, Donnie Vickers going to town on Project Strato Cheap. Above, the shelf is cut out and (inset) revealed that the passenger side body mount was also junk. A few light taps from a screwdriver turned it to dust.

ear of failure stops many of us from doing a lot of things in life. We imagine our fear will invite judgement, ridicule or rejection. We even fear success. Really, it’s a thing. It’s called success anxiety. I don’t have that. Maybe success envy or success inability. Maybe you can relate.

Fear was keeping me from starting necessary sheet metal repair on Project Strato Cheap, our project 2-door sedan 1962 Pontiac Strato Chief. It needed rear body mounts, trunk panel replacement and floor pan replacement. Not super hard stuff, but for the inexperienced not super easy either. I’ve built engines without fear and performed a variety of mechanical jobs without feeling anxious but this sheet metal repair had me spooked.

Thoughts of getting it wrong and compromising the structural integrity of the entire car were keeping me awake. Foolish really. It’s just metal. If you get it wrong cut it out and try again, right? Someone wise once told me that but contemplating cutting out the trunk’s upper shelf and replacing those body mounts was keeping me awake at night.

Then I called a friend. My buddy Donnie Vickers owns a cool 1939 Willys sedan which if you follow me on Instagram (@tinjunkiesgarage) you’ve seen. He’s less than a decade older than me but he’s been cutting up cars since he was a teenager. He has no fear. A replacement panel was sitting in the shop and I’d been contemplating whether to cut pieces from it and splice them to the old sheet metal. It seemed the less involved method and maybe a way to avoid the kind of catastrophic failure my brain kept pondering. I asked Donnie to come over and give me some advice. When he showed up in the shop, he contemplated the task at hand for about 10 minutes and said “let’s cut it all out..do you have a pair of coveralls I can borrow?” With said borrowed coveralls and grinder in hand he jumped in the trunk and cut out the offending trunk panel. In less than five or so hours over a couple days we had the trunk shelf cut out and the new one, complete with necessary body mounts, installed. We

glued it in actually. There is still some patches to install but the heavy lifting is done and my fear of failure, like so much rusty sheetmetal, has been mostly eliminated.

Pretty sure I could still really screw things up but Donnie’s actions reminded me that sometimes attacking a job is like removing a band aid — just grit you teeth and get it done. No use dwelling on how bad things could get because replacing a Pontiac’s rusty sheet metal is not brain surgery. It’s not going to die if I make a wrong cut with the cutoff wheel or sawzall.

There are super talented people — artists with a TIG welder or hammer and dolly — but because people are really good at what they do doesn’t mean I can’t do the same thing. I mean it’s highly likely I can’t but I might as well give it shot. What am I afraid of right? My work at this point will be imperfect but there is no possible way to get better at a task if you aren’t willing to give it a try first.

Those super skilled guys can judge me if they will. Donnie didn’t. He just jumped in and showed me the way because he too was once a beginner.

There is an entire Classic Industries floor pan somewhere in the world — it’s been “Arriving Soon” since May of this year — that will eventually need to be installed in my Pontiac. Pondering it still troubles me a little but I’m thinking about it in an entirely different way now. It’s practice for my 1962 Bel Air project. Mistakes made on the Strato Chief will in theory be eliminated on the Bel Air. So, don’t give into the fear of failure. Grab your cutoff wheel, don’t forget the faceshield, and go to town on your project.

If you get into trouble, don’t be afraid to call a friend who knows better. After that, keep trying and maybe one day you’ll be the guy a friend calls for help.

CHR decals by Jeff Norwell

*Decals are larger than shown in ad

POWERED BY ENTHUSIASTS! THE BRAND YOU TRUST.

Mini-Ductor Venom HP Portable Induction Heater Tool

Mark 4 Elegante Steering Wheels

Billet Battery Mount Kits

Maximum Power and Safety INI-MDV-787 $616.55 USD each INI Ductor Venom Case

The Perfect Look as low as $169.95 USD each LAC Mark 4 Elegante

Multipurpose Mini-Latches

Fuel Tanks

Polished Aluminum Filtered Breathers

Strong Hold with a Finished Look as low as $23.99 USD each QUL Mini-Latches

The Right Fit for Your Vehicle as low as $152.99 USD Each TNK Galvanized

Filtered Engine Protection as low as $78.99 USD each OFY Filtered

1:18 Scale GMP 1934 Indian Motorcycle Hot Rod Roadster Die-Cast Model

Street Series Power Steering Pumps

Floor Dimmer Switch Kits

1932 Ford 5-Window Coupe Quarter Panels

Great Vintage Design GLC-GMP-18958 $149.99 USD each GMP 1934 1901

True OEM Replacements as low as $275.00 USD each TN1 Street Steering Pump

Switch to a Stylish Dimmer as low as $35.90 USD kit NTH Dimmer Kit

Get Your Restoration Done as low as $1,259.99 USD each UPD 1932 Full Quarter

Fast-Five Wheels

Dress Up Your Engine Bay as low as $88.99 USD kit BSP Optima Kit

5-Spoke Star Design as low as $111.99 USD each SUM Fast-Five

Pro LS Drive-by-Wire Throttle Bodies

as low as $599.99 USD each SUM Pro LS Throttle

Low Cost, No Hassle, Landed Cost Shipping.

Landed Cost shipping includes all duties, taxes, and clearance fees. In-stock parts are shipped FAST, delivered to your door with no unexpected fees. Questions? Complete details available in the Customer Service section of SummitRacing.com, talk via Live Chat or Call.

GET MORE FOR LESS—WE DELIVER THE BEST BOTTOM LINE PRICE TO YOUR DOOR—GUARANTEED!

Int'l: 1.330.630.0230 • 1.800.230.3030 SCode: 2110HRC • Prices subject to change without notice. Visit SummitRacing.com for current pricing. Typographical, description, or photography errors are subject to correction. Some parts are not legal for use in California or other states with similar laws/regulations.

Please check your state and/or local laws/regulations. © 2021 AUTOSALES, INC.

CHR MAILBAG NO FAN OF THE TURBO ZEPHYR I received your latest issue (Aug/Sept 2021) in the mail this week.

I was disappointed when I saw the article on the ’78 Mercury Zephyr. To me that is not a collector car or a hot rod or anything I would ever give a second look at.

Then lo and behold further on another article on a different Mercury Zephyr, same thing not a collector car or hot rod.

I enjoyed the article about Paul Barber's 1932 Plymouth coupe though.

The name of the magazine is Canadian Hot Rods plus your magazine isn’t cheap but if you don’t improve your content I will definitely not be renewing my subscription.

Hans Boks via email Thanks Hans for the longtime support and certainly we appreciate you feel the term hot rod has a much stricter meaning than we do. Thing is we have thousands of readers every issue with thousands of different opinions, tastes and interests. There are hundreds of interpretations of what that term applies to. While we recognize a late ’70s Mercury Zephyr wagon is not everybody’s cup of hot rod tea anything that fast for that cheap strongly represents the spirit, if not the most strict interpretation, of the hot rod description and therefore deserves some recognition.

WHAT ABOUT THE FAST FORDS? I have been a big fan of your magazine for years and renew every year.

No More! LS swapped ’70s cars is NOT the thing people want to see who read your magazine! A Fox LS swap, I understand the draw of alledged “cheap” power in a chassis that works...but a Falcon. WTF? A turbo LS in a G-Body, C-10 or S10 is super cool but where’s the 150-thousand mile junkyard F150 Coyote swap Foxes? They run 10s without a turbo and cost less in the end because they’re not blown up every weekend.

I guess you are looking to go the way of other print by getting on the

EMAIL YOUR COMMENTS to info@canadianhotrods.com LS bandwagon?

Here is my Coyote-powered ’83 Thunderbird I put together. I did just sell it and it doesn’t have any 10-second time slips but has made over 60 passes without even opening the hood. It has run 11.38 and 122+ mph.

It is likely mid-10-seconds capable with a few tweaks and some slicks, but the car has all the comforts of a modern car: big brakes, 18" Michelin Super Sports, Maximum Motorsports suspension and working A/C. It is also a 6-Speed manual and yeah, it is a bit over budget from what I had planned. A basic street/suspension and light-weight package would have been way cheaper and made it faster at the drag strip but would have been not as comfortable on road trips.

Everyone has there own opinion and that’s fine but I think we all want to see more Ford-powered Fords and more LS powered GM cars, probably some Gen 3 Hemi Mopars for good mix too.

SVO Mike via email Hey Mike, first off I love those earlyto-late ’80s T-Birds so thanks for sharing the pic. I’ve always wanted to own one and put a 427ci FE motor in it. It would be a cool wolf in sheep’s clothing project. Secondly, thanks for the comments and this is just one issue so it’s no indication of a future trend in our magazine’s content. It’s hard to ignore the mighty LS but we are fans of all North American V8s. Hopefully the owner’s of the fast, cheap Coyoteswapped street cars come out of the wood work and we can have a future issue dedicated to them.

COVID RELIEF VIA READING Just wanted to thank you for keeping the faith and providing us with such a great magazine, especially in

In Canada call 1-888-753-2111 from the US call 1-888-674-6757

light of the demise of so many US car mags.

The last 18 months have been trying with Covid and restrictions Only this summer did I get out again with my 1928 Hennway pickup after two years parked.

Other life issues kept it parked. Your mag gives a great window into the car scene in Canada and helps soothe the need for us car nuts to see what’s going on around us. The Hennway is built on an air bagged 1978 F150 chas-

sis, 454 BBC, turbo 400 and 9” rear.

The entire body is my handmade creation, all steel.

Please keep your fine magazine going. We need you.

Charlie Titman Winfield, BC That’s high praise Charlie and thanks for that. That’s a killer truck you’ve built and thanks for the pics.

I’m happy to share it with our readers and hope I get to see it up close one day soon.

PICKUP TRUCK LOVE Great Reader Rides section, Vol. 16, Issue 6. Cool old trucks. I’m in!

Here’s my ’56 Merc getting kid Hayley to the church on time, back down the road a piece.

Bill Matheson Calgary, AB

with Lee Grant

info@canadianhotrods.com Larry Pfister photo

ell, here I am, back for a second article! Thanks for not firing me, Terry! In my last article I talked about my love of hot rods, so I thought in this article I’d write about the evolution of the hot rod, and how it morphed over the years from hot rods to street rods and rat rods.

Let us go back to the beginning. Many people believe hot rodding started after World War II, when many servicemen returned from the air force with a need for speed. And while this is partially true, hot rodding began way before that. People have been modifying cars for speed since day one, and auto racing has been an active sport since the late 19th century.

Muroc Dry Lake, in the Mojave Desert was ground zero for the birth of the “hot rod” as we know it. In the 1920s speed junkies would drive their home-built jalopies and gow jobs to the flat lakebed and run them flat out to speeds never before reached! Model T engines modified with overhead valve conversions from Frontenac, and Cragar (yes, the same Cragar that brought us the Cragar SS wheels in 1964). Fenders, hoods, lights all stripped for weight reduction.

In 1937 the Southern California Timing Association (SCTA) was formed and racing on the dry lakes became an organized sport. In 1938 the US military took over Muroc, and dry lakes racing was moved to El Mirage, where it still happens today.

As mentioned before, after WWII was when hot rodding really exploded. Young men returned from war with a taste of speed, and some mechanical as well as engineering experience behind them. The small, lightweight Ford Model A roadsters, and 1932 Ford roadsters could be had for next to nothing. Strip them down, and put a hot Flathead V8 in, and now you really got something!

Around this time, hot rods had really become a burden on society, with reckless drivers causing mayhem on the public roads. Many early motorsport enthusiasts wanted nothing to do with hot rodders, and preferred to be known as roadster enthusiasts to try and distance themselves from the now derogatory term “hot rod.” Almost all the early hot rods were roadsters, in those days showing up in a coupe or sedan was about as square as driving mom’s minivan today.

In 1948 Robert Peterson started Hot Rod magazine as a way of promoting safety and responsibility among the young car enthusiasts, as well as showing the general public that these kids are not so bad. It caught on like wildfire, and the hobby quickly grew to a nationwide level.

While dry lakes racing continued to grow, adding the Bonneville Salt Flats in 1949, another form of racing was growing: Drag Racing. Abandoned WWII air strips were all over the country, and it did not take long for hot rodders to start racing each other on these long, paved straights.

In 1955 Wally Parks founded the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) and drag racing was alongside dry lakes racing as an organized, sanctioned place for hot rods. By this time coupes, and even the odd sedan or pickup were

W

10

Model A pickup built by THEM car club at El Mirage Dry Lakes, May 2006.

becoming hot rodded, but the majority were still primarily early Fords.

Hot rodding continued to grow and evolve, but by the mid 1960s much like the rest of the world, things really started changing. In 1964 Sam Cooke sang “A change is gonna come”, and he could not be more right as 1964 was the year Pontiac released the GTO and the muscle car era was born. A new generation of performance cars were available and all you needed to become competitive at the racetrack was good credit. Racetracks were suddenly overtaken by these late model muscle cars, and the hot rod was history.

So, what happened to the people who built these early hot rods? Some of them had moved on to more serious performance and were now campaigning dragsters, or streamliners. But the others, now a bit older, often with young families, had decided they did not need to go fast anymore, and just cruising around to car shows could be just as enjoyable. Hot rodding morphed, becoming more civilized and the Street Rod was born. Based on cars built before 1948 the street rod was not built for speed, but more for comfort, touring and show. Six carburetor Drag Star intakes were replaced with reliable Rochester 4 barrels, and dropped axles swapped out for late model independent front suspensions. By 1970 the National Street Rod Association (NSRA) was formed and by 1972 Street Rodder magazine was on the newsstands.

As street rods evolved and the trend exploded in the 1980s and early ’90s the emphasis was mostly on adapting newer, late model technology to these pre-1948 cars and trucks. Fuel injected engines became ubiquitous, digital gauges filled the dashboards, and paint jobs became flamboyant and were often accented with over the top graphics. Boyd Coddington started building his ultra-modern, aerodynamic “Boydsters” and if you squinted exactly right, they looked kind of like an early Ford.

The aftermarket was manufacturing all sorts of billet accessories and fiberglass bodies. With most street rod enthusiasts at a comfortable point in their lives, disposable income was not much of an issue, and it became the norm to start buying parts rather than building them yourself.

Before long, all these fiberglass cars built with catalog parts started to look the same.

www.canadianhotrods.com

CONTINUED ON PAGE 16

CHR Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

REAR VIEW MIRROR

PART 2 D L O G K O O B P A SCR BC CAR SHOWS 1965 O

nce again thanks to Lee Grant and Richard Norton of Victoria, BC for passing on the pics you see in this issue’s Rear View Mirror feature. We do have an update though thanks to Norton, who contacted us after the August/September issue came out to let us know that the photos were taken by Brian Lewis who had “a super cool ’60s roadster. It was his brother who actually dropped the photos off with me,” wrote Norton. We don’t have any photos of Lewis’s roadster but thanks to him we do have some super cool photos from the May 1965 Push Rods Motorama hosted by the Push Rods of Hoquiam, WA. Hoquiam is about a 4-hour drive from Vancouver, BC but it was worth the drive. Enjoy the trip back in time and if you happen to have any photos of Brian Lewis’ roadster, we’d love to see them.

Acres of white tuck and roll upholstery in the bed and interior, chrome reverse wheels and what looks like SBC made this red pickup a real standout. Unfortunately it didn’t have any owner information written under the photo. At left, this tricked out Model A hailed from Tacoma, WA and was called Green Onions. The name was likely inspired by the exterior colour but also maybe by the Booker T and the MG’s 1962 hit song of the same name. It was owned by a fella named Jr. Nelson. Corvette small block. Where is this car now?

12

www.canadianhotrods.com

CHR Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

REAR VIEW MIRROR

At the top of the page is a ’26 Model T RPU built by Tacoma, WA’s Kit Canonica. Engine is a small block Chevy. Don’t know what the colour is but we like it. The 1954 Ford pickup above is listed as being owned by Warren Mott out of Portland, OR. He won Best Engine but no photos of it so we don’t know what it was. Pleated upholstery looks stellar though. Below, this Model A roadster pickup was built by Victoria, BC’s Barry Self and earned a Best Rod trophy.

CHR Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

www.canadianhotrods.com

13

REAR VIEW MIRROR

Len McKay brought his sweet ’30 Model A down from Victoria, BC and took the Best Paint award back home to Canada. The coupe was dubbed Vitamin A and was running a 1958 Buick V8. The big block 396ci V8 debuted in 1965 and of course was available beneath the hood of the ’65 Corvette. The emblems on the fender of the ’65 Vette pictured at left seem to indicate it came with the big block.

There is a Competition Plus online drag racing magazine these days and the Hurst Competition Plus shifter was fairly new in ’65 but maybe the Competition Plus here was a local speed shop. We googled though and couldn’t find any mention of it online. The rear slicks with fake smoke is a nice touch though we’re not sure why this mean Vette is floating in pink angel hair. Guess it was the ’60s. Below the 1965 Astra J-5, featured on the show program, was owned

by Raymond Goforth Jr of Seattle, WA. The car is a Kellison Fibreglass body and round tube Kellison chassis with Corvette running gear and engine with Halibrand knockoff wheels.

14

www.canadianhotrods.com

CHR Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

VISIT OUR SHOWROOM 348 Bronte St. S, Unit 21 Milton, ON, L9T 5B6

:R

6KLSSLQJ

ZZZ Z GDQGHGL GLVVWULLEEXWRUUVV FRP

CALL 604-861-4077 Lewis Thaw — Tgms@live.ca Vancouver Island rep Brian Mowatt —Brianccas@gmail.com

with Lee Grant

info@canadianhotrods.com

Larry Pfister photo

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10 Around the mid 1990s a bunch of young California car enthusiasts became bored with the street rod scene and started buying up old hot rod parts at swap meets, reading old hot rod magazines from the ’50s and started building cars to replicate the early hot rods featured in those magazines. They formed or revived hot rod clubs such as The Shifters, and Burbank Choppers, and started showing up at car shows with these “traditional” hot rods. It was exactly what the hobby needed. Much like what the Ramones and other bands did to rock and roll during the dull “KBilly’s Super Sounds of the ’70s” they brought hot rodding back to its roots, with these loud, aggressive, punk rock hot rods!

And much like the Ramones, young people loved it and some old people hated it. These homebuilt hot rods were often ridiculed for being rough around the edges and called dangerous for running bias ply tires and drum brakes. These cars came to be known as Rat Rods and it was one of the best things to happen to the old car hobby in years. Young people from all over the world started showing interest in early Fords. Once again 20-year-old kids were scrounging swap meets and junk yards buying up Model A bodies and dropped axles. Old hot rod parts could be had for next to nothing, and it was possible for a young hot rodder to build a cool old hot rod on a budget.

Young people started organizing their own car shows, catered towards these early hot rods, with rockabilly bands, and pin up girls. A new subculture was born, that is still going 25 years later. However, much like the hot rod history of the past, it is still evolving.

The rat rod took a turn at some point and morphed into its own thing. With early Ford bodies gaining popularity, they started to become more expensive and harder to find.

People eager to build a hot rod, started thinking outside of box and using bodies normally never seen at a hot rod show. Nineteen forties era grain truck cabs became a popular choice. And much like the early Ford

16

Model T Roadster built by Dan Sorenson, Edmonton AB. Photo from 1958 and taken by Bob Cantin. Hot rods like these inspired a younger generation to jump into the hot rod hobby.

I photographed this ’48-’50 Ford F1 based Rat Rod at Viva Las Vegas a few years back. May not be your thing but it certainly brought young people into the hobby.

bodies, old hot rod parts started becoming more expensive. The shift went from using vintage speed parts to whatever happened to be around and cheap. Engines and frames from 1970s and ’80s cars were easy to find and cheap to purchase and the goal changed from an old timehot rod to an art car that was purposely built crude, rusty, and ragged. License plate floors, saw blades for hood ornaments, cartoon looking headers. Rat rods today are all about shock factor.

Much like the roadster enthusiasts of the 1940s the original “rat rodders” of the late 1990s and 2000s wanted to distance themselves from the term. It had just changed too much and was no longer representing the old styled

www.canadianhotrods.com

hot rods they set out to build. So, a new term was coined, the traditional hot rod. Unfortunately for traditional hot rodders, “rat rod” has become a popular term amongst the masses, and many often confuse the two.

Some traditional hot rodders are cool about it, realizing that they are simply trying to pay a compliment.

However, some take great offense to the term, and will be quick to let you know!

While I am passionate about traditional hot rods, I usually just use the term hot rod to try and be inclusive of all styles of early Fords. They all have their role in the evolution of the hot rod, and all do their part to keep the hobby alive.

CHR Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

D I V CO If you’re Moose Jaw, SK’s Tyler Hadley you spell it Chevy C10...specifically the beige — yes beige — 1961 Apache pickup you see on these pages. Hadley bought the cab for this project in February of 2020 and a month later the world plunged into a world-wide pandemic that kept many of us at home and others looking for a way to tune out the daily bad news and stress associated with it.

18

www.canadianhotrods.com

CHR Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

Photos by Nick Pettigrew Story by Terry Denomme It took Hadley about 14 months to finish the truck, though his parts/service job at BNC Truck & Trailer and a house renovation competed for shop time throughout the build.

The 35-year-old gearhead wasn’t always a C10 devotee though he generally gravitated towards Bow Tie models.

“I had some S10 stuff and a couple of Chevy cars but I just wanted a bagged truck. About 10 years ago I bought a ’65 C10 and then came across an ’80s Squarebody Jimmy and it was a toss up but I ended up bagging the ’65 and selling the Jimmy,” says Hadley, who ended up selling the ’65 a few years after it was finished. A frame-off restoration of a ’62 GMC short box followed and it must have been nice because he didn’t own it long after it was done.

“I didn’t even have it done for a week before I was asked to sell, so I sold it as I already had the next one lined up,” he explains. The next one was a ’60 GMC Suburban panel truck but shortly after it was restored he got the chance to buy back his 1965 C10 so the panel went stateside to Virginia.

CHR Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

www.canadianhotrods.com

This cab and the chassis from the ’64 C10 below right ended up being the basis of the project.

19

“I rebuilt the ’65 a couple more times over a couple years but eventually sold it again for a decent profit.”

Now strongly addicted to the 1960-’66 C10 style, it wasn’t hard to find his next project, though Hadley bought the air ride suspension for it before he even found a truck.

“I based the whole truck off an Accuair setup that I bought,” he explains. “I go to Dino’s Git Down in Arizona every November and in 2019 I was down there and walked into Switch Suspension and dropped about four or five grand on just air ride stuff and I didn’t even have a truck yet.”

The setup included Air Lift Dominator 2600 bags for all four corners, Porterbilt 1” tubular narrowed control arms, an AccuAir ENDO-CVT tank that has built in valves, dual Viair 485c compressors and 3/8” air lines with a Switchspeed touchpad by Accuair to operate the system.

The ’61 Chevy Apache short box pickup to install all this trick equipment in was found a few months later. It was a stalled project and its poor condition was likely the main reason it had stalled. “The bed was full of filler, the hood was no good and there was a hole cut in the roof for a sunroof,” says Hadley. “There was this other cab sitting on a pallet beside it but I ended up leaving it there.” This was a decision he regretted once he got the other truck back to his shop. The cab was junk and so he went back to look at the other cab and though it had surface rust it turned out to be mint.

“It had been sandblasted, primed but then set on pallet and left in a field for about 15 years” says Hadley. “So I got that cab and basically sold the rest of the truck.” Doors, fenders and a hood came from another 1961 truck from the same guy. Hadley says they had been worked over and

20

primed when the project came to a halt. The bedsides, tailgate and some other panels are all new aftermarket pieces. “I replaced the cab’s dented up rocker panels and also the front and rear bumpers too,” adds Hadley, who mentions it also took three hoods to make one good one.

That’s a lot of effort for any hood, but C10 devotees can have a love/hate relationship with the distinctive ’60-’61 hood style. Hadley is mostly a hater. “The only time I like that hood is when the truck is slammed,” he admits. “I really don’t like it but I wanted to keep it original looking.”

Speaking of original equipment, from 1960-’62 C10 Chevy trucks had an x-frame crossmember built into the chassis which can be a difficult work-around when bagging a truck and getting it to lay frame. Hadley had already purchased an old service truck ’64 Chevy shortbox, mostly just for its chassis as the cab was too far gone to be used.

Modifications to that ’64 C10 chassis include a 10” step notch in the rear with bag brackets on the stock 12-bolt and to the bridge of the step notch. The 12 bolt contains 3:73 gears and an Eaton posi-traction unit and 30 spline axles. The trailing arm cross member is custom built and flat on the bottom to ensure the truck lays frame.

The front crossmember came from a Chevy Squarebody pickup which also donated its disk brakes and power steering set up. The stock C10 calipers were retained but aftermarket slotted rotors were installed along with 2.5” drop spindles. The crossmember was pancaked 1.5” and Hadley moved it forward 1” to center the wheels in the fenders. “I also moved the steering forward 1” and up 1.5” which meant I also needed to notch the front frame to clear the steering components,” says Hadley.

www.canadianhotrods.com

CHR Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

Wheels are 20x8 American Racing vn506 Rally Replicas wrapped in Kumho 245/45/20 tires front and rear. To ensure the ability to lay frame, a 10” step notch was spliced into the rear of the chassis.

Hadley and a friend built the custom 10" step notch for the rear chassis and mounted bag brackets to the stock 12-bolt rear differential and to the bridge of the step notch. Note there is no ’60-’62 X-frame portion because this is a 1964 C10 chassis. The trailing arm cross member is custom built and flat on the bottom to ensure the truck lays out flat on the bottom of the frame rails. The bed floor, at left, is pine and was cut, fitted, sanded and stained by the owner.

The bed floor was raised up to make room for the step notch, air tank and compressors. The center section of the bed floor raises up with electric linear actuators. A Tanks Inc. 17 gallon tank with in-tank fuel pump feeds fuel to a stock 2001 Chevy 5.3L Vortec V8.

CHR Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

www.canadianhotrods.com

21

Not everyone is a fan of the ’60-’61 C10 hood but from this angle it looks pretty good to us. When you open the hood it’s held up by cowl mounted, gas assist hood hinges by Switch Suspension. Hadley hasn’t built inner front fenders yet but says he will this winter. All the headlights, marker and taillights are LED units.

In the Apache’s cabin is a 1992 Chevy truck bench seat with new foam and upholstery done

by Vadym Koval (Esterhazy, SK) with aftermarket sandlewood carpet. Column shift tilt column is a Helix 32” unit painted to match a custom gold interior paint Hadley mixed himself and also applied. The column is topped by a Forever Sharp Double Barrel steering wheel with custom half wrap. The door panels are stock but repainted by owner with new stock door handles and crank. Dash is stock with Dakota Digital RTX Gauges which are fully colour selectable and bluetooth adjustable with the Dakota Digital app. Gauges readings include speedometer, odometer, oil pressure, fuel, water temp, tach, gear indicator, voltage, intake temperature, transmission temp and bag and air tank pressures. A Kenwood KMM x704 receiver relays tunes to Focal PolyGlass 5.25" component speakers in custom kick panels built by owner using fiberglass. There is also a JL 500/1 Amp for the speakers and JL 1000/1 Amp for the Subwoofers and two Pioneer slim 10" subwoofers behind the seat.

22

www.canadianhotrods.com

CHR Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

When it came to wheel choice, Hadley says he struggled a little before choosing the 20x8 American Racing vn506 Rally Replicas. “I started out with 15x8 wheels with 275/55 Cooper Cobra tires and when I got the new bedsides they didn’t fit...they were actually a little too wide,” he says. “I didn’t want to notch the bedsides so I ended up going with GM transport 22s with like a 255/35 tire and they fit perfect.” The 22x9 wheels fit perfect but when he decided the truck was going to get a nice paint job the plain transit wheels weren’t going to cut it. “The Rally Replicas were actually what I wanted on my last truck but I just didn’t have the money for them...guess I had the money for them this time,” says Hadley. They look great wrapped in Kumho 245/45/20 tires.

The choice of the LS/4L60e drivetrain was a no-brainer says Hadley, adding it wasn’t always that way. His last truck had a stout small block Chevy he put “a ton” of money into. “I was driving it around one night and got to the mall and parked. It cooled off outside and then I got in it, fired it up and it ran kind of crappy. I had to tweak the carb. He phoned the friend who built him the motor and told him an LS swap was imminent. “I told him I shouldn’t have to tweak my carb just to drive it home.”

A 340hp Chevy Vortec 5.3L was sourced from a 2001 Chevy Silverado. The transmission came from another 2001 Chevy. The stock computer and harness was also utilized. “I just use all the stock stuff and weed out the harness myself,” says Hadley. “I’m a wiring guy so it’s easy that way. I used to do remote starter installs and stuff like that for years.” By using the Vortec setup this ’61 C10 has cruise control and air conditioning.

Modifications to the engine include swapping in a 1998 Camaro 5.7L oil pan and dipstick for clearance and using MSD coil wires. The stock exhaust manifolds were ditched in favour of 1 7/8” Speed Engineering short tube headers with 2.5” heat wrapped exhaust flowing into Flowmaster Super 44 mufflers. Doug Young at Minute Muffler in Moose Jaw did the install.

A new 12 circuit fuse panel along with all new wiring

CHR Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

and stand alone harness for the LS swap was installed by the owner.

When all the sheet metal work was completed it was time for colour and it wasn’t hard to choose one as Hadley had a pretty good idea of what he wanted. Soon after buying the original ’61 project some paint caught his eye. “It had this buff coloured primer on the bedsides, kind of like a beige-tan with a little bit of yellow in it. I actually just held a paint chip book up against that primer and matched it to a colour which was a Sherwin Williams base coat, clear coat,” explains Hadley. “It will play with your eyes. Under a different light it almost has a yellow to it.” The center of the roof was painted white with the idea of doing the whole roof white, but Hadley decided to be a little different and paint the top of the roof to match the body color. We aren’t surprised if you missed that upon first glance but it’s a cool touch. The paint and body work was done by Beattie’s Custom Paintworx in Moose Jaw, SK. “It’s flawless,” says Hadley. “I was going for a classy look and think it turned out just right.”

While he hasn’t been able to go to any car shows to get feedback on the truck he says everybody that sees it loves the colour. He’s already had interested buyers so who knows how long he’ll own it. He does love driving it though. “It drives so tight...everything’s nice and solid and it has some stuff I’ve never had before like posi rear diff,” says Hadley. “I’m used to long bed trucks and this short truck drives a little bit stiffer so it’s awesome to drive though I did notice that taking a corner or pulling into a parking lot it does lean a little so I ordered a sway bar from Poterbuilt.”

If the truck does sell, he likely won’t be without a project for too long and you can likely guess what brand and generation of C10 it will be. “I know exactly what to buy and where from and how it goes together,” says Hadley. “I know these trucks like the back of my hand and hopefully I can build a bunch more.”

We hope so, too.

www.canadianhotrods.com

23

Photos by Kenny Kroeker Story by Terry Denomme

ou don’t have to spend a lot of money to build an expensive custom pickup. All it takes is above average mechanical ability, a bloodhound’s nose for deals and Wall Street broker trading skills.

Luckily, Oshawa, ON’s Ricky Gunn is that triple threat. His labour was free but he spent less than $5,000 on the parts thanks to an old school build approach and a healthy disdain for shiny new parts.

24

www.canadianhotrods.com

CHR Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

Gunn picked up the cab for about $750, later added the fenders and hood for $250 then traded some labour for the rear fenders. The box was a $125 purchase, but he ended up selling the tailgate for $150 and getting another for free. It rides on a S10 chassis purchased for $100.

CHR Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

www.canadianhotrods.com

25

Thrifty interior touches include using a Mexican blanket on the original bench seat, painting the floor and using some cheap Rat Fink mats instead of carpet and eschewing a headliner. Home Depot-sourced hard board, painted white, was used for the door panels. The dash is out of a 1953 Chevy car...something Gunn already had in his vast parts stash. The gauge pod is custom made and filled with a ’53 Chevy speedo and Princess Auto gauges. Column is a spare from Gunn’s ’58 Chevy Impala project and steering wheel is a ’59 Impala unit that was in his parts stash.

“Bull malarkey,” we can you hear you uttering to yourself while reading that last line. Your skepticism is understandable because this truck is clearly worth more than $5,000. The key is Gunn, who builds hot rods for a living, works cheap, especially when he’s working for himself.

We know you can relate to that.

When you can do almost anything in a build yourself you’re going to save money, but Gunn says that’s not the only reason he didn’t spend a lot building this truck. “I took it all from how my dad used to build cars when I was growing up,” says Gunn. “It wasn’t a 1-800-buy-everything over the phone out of a catalog....it was make do with what you have and what your friends have you know.”

Over the years Gunn’s acquired the fabrication and mechanical skills necessary to build cool hot rods and he’s also formed a pretty vast network of similarly-minded friends. It means he and his friends are always searching for and finding parts and deals or trading parts and labour to help build each other’s hot rods.

The entire build actually started in 2016 with a 1984 S10 chassis Gunn dragged home from a friend’s yard. The cost was $100 and Gunn thought, “Now what?.”

“I was like, guess we’ll kind of see what comes up and then my friend Eric had a pair of front fenders for one of these trucks and he was selling them for $25 each. After that I was like ‘OK guess that’s it’ and then just kept buying crap,” says Gunn. Speaking of crap, Gunn spotted an early ’50s Chevy truck cab at a local scrap yard and the $300 asking price made it worth dragging home. “I was going to fix that but it turned out to be total junk,” says Gunn. He was able to sell pieces of it to recoup the $300 which helped in part to buy a $750 ’51 Chevy truck cab.

26

Originally a Royal Canadian Air Force truck, it turned out to be one of the most expensive items of the build but its condition made it worth the price. Gunn soon took 2.5” out of the top and pancaked the roof crown 1”.

“I never like the roof crown after the chop so the pancake kind of fixes that,” he explains. Other sheet metal work included replacing the cab corners and splicing in a ’53 Chevy car dash. A hood purchased for $200 was shaved and filled and he traded some work on another friend’s project for the rear fenders. For $125, Gunn purchased a complete box and sold the tailgate for $150, pocketing the $25 profit. After buying, then selling, a ’58 Impala project, he used the profit to buy a new tailgate, running boards and a grille.

Having a nose for bargains is key, says Gunn, but so is living with buying parts that are used or imperfect. For another $100 he sourced a 4x4 S10 Chevy 10-bolt with a posi and 4.11 gears. The chassis runs the original S10 brakes — drum out back, disc brakes up front — and suspension and was simply cleaned up and given a few coats of Tremclad semi-gloss black paint. Gunn daily drives a locally famous mild custom, chopped 1953 Chevy Bel Air (look for a future feature on it) so he didn’t have to search for the wheels and tires for the truck project. He had an old set of 15x5” ’53 Chevy passenger car wheels wrapped in 205/75/R15 Diamond Back white walls. Dressed out with 1948 Caddy sombrero hubcaps — also in the parts stash — they look great on the truck. “They are perfect but good enough,” says Gunn of the tires condition.

When it came to sourcing a drivetrain for the project, he found a 1986 GMC van and paid $1,000 to own it. He promptly sold the wheels and tires for $1,000, some other

www.canadianhotrods.com

CHR Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

WE ARE PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE OUR 7,000 SQFT EXPANSION, WHICH BRINGS THE SHOP TO 14,000 SQFT IN TOTAL

We build award winning cars, including this ’61 Chevy Biscayne and 1954 Studebaker Champion

The possibilities are endless

For all your performance, mechanical and service needs Call (604) 427-4167

jellybeanautocrafters@telus.net

#208 - 19425 Langley Bypass, Surrey, BC

www.jellybeanhotrods.com

RR 1 Tilly, AB

CALL DALE at 403-377-2484 flatlaautowrecking@gmail.com

www.flatlaautowrecking.ca CHR Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

www.canadianhotrods.com

27

parts for $600 and scrapped the carcass for $350. Yep, he made $950 bucks and came away with a free engine. After some detailing it looks great under the ’51 Chevy’s hood.

When a friend decided to swap out his used but perfectly fine Turbo 350 trans in favour of a GM 700R overdrive unit, Gunn was there to scoop up the Chevy 3-speed.

“He’s the kind of guy who just wanted it gone so he donated it to the project,” says Gunn.

A similar donation led to the green paint you see on the truck. “I was going to paint it flat black but a friend said there are already too many flat black cars out there,” says Gunn, who then decided to go with green. “When I told people I was going to paint the truck green they told me not to paint it green...so I painted it green.” His friend Mark purchased inventory, including gallons of leftover automotive paint, from a defunct business.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 61

THE BREAKDOWN PARTS PURCHASED $800 — clear/filler/materials $750 — truck cab $400 — radiator $400 — brakes $300 — gas tank and lines $200 — hood $200 — glass $200 — plugs/wires/cap/rotor $150 — shocks $150 — chrome 1-wire alt $100 — posi rear end $100 — c-channel rear frame $100 — 1984 S10 chassis $90 — exhaust pipe/hangers $75 — finished plywood $50 — front fenders $40 — wiring harness $40 — rust paint $17 — panel board TOTAL: $4,162.00*

PARTS STASH/FREE Turbo 350 automatic trans hubcaps/rims/tires 1959 Chevy steering wheel 1953 Chevy car dash electric cooling fan 1958 Chevy steering column Brake booster/pedal stock S10 Gas pedal Shifter handle/knob Painted Hedman Hedders headlight pots free paint

BOUGHT/SOLD/MADE $ 1986 GMC van bought for $1,000 provided the tricked out 350 SBC used in the truck.

Wheels and tires from the van were sold for $1,000 and other parts were sold for $600 and what was left for sold for $350.

PROFIT: $950 + free engine Bought the box for $125, sold the tailgate for $150.

PROFIT: $25 Bought a 1958 Impala project, sold if for a profit and used the funds to purchase the running boards, tailgate and grille.

*some smaller purchases may have been forgotten but they wouldn’t dramatically change the bottom line.

The SBC was sourced from an ’86 GMC van. It has 202 “double hump” 302 Camaro heads with roller rockers and has a Crane Cam of unknown specs. The rotating assembly is all stock. The 4bbl carb and aluminum intake are both Edelbrock products. A ’68 Mustang radiator fit perfectly though did cost $400. Gunn already had a Cyclone electric fan in his parts stash. The bed floor is raised up as the box was lowered over the frame and the bed floor is a $75 sheet of finished plywood with three coats of urethane varnish.

28

www.canadianhotrods.com

CHR Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

Photos: Cam Hutchins/Story Cam Hutchins & Terry Denomme

Kaotic Kustoms shop owner Jan Christensen wanted to build a double duty shop truck — one that could both haul parts and haul ass at the drag strip. Boy did he succeed with this ’67 Chevy C10 shortbox.

A nitrous-fed LS resides under the hood of this street and strip 1967 Chevy C10 shortbox pickup. Christensen’s daughter Haeley drove the truck to the 8.0 Bracket Class win during the this summer’s inaugural Miles to Mayhem Drag ’N Drive event that took place over five days in Alberta and Saskatchewan.

30

www.canadianhotrods.com

CHR Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

Haeley Christensen, Jan’s daughter, smokes the ’67 C10’s hides at SIR in Saskatoon, SK during Miles of Mayhem event.

PHOTO COURTESY MILES OF MAYHEM

CHR Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

www.canadianhotrods.com

31

Haeley Christensen was all smiles after dominating the 8.0 (or slower) Bracket Class in the 1/8th mile Miles to Mayhem Drag ’N Drive. Haeley’s lightening quick reaction times — she recorded two .002 reaction times on one day of racing — made her tough to beat. At right, the truck loaded and ready to leave for the next track. It was a grind to deal with all the driving and logistics each day but ultimately very rewarding and fun.

Just ask his 18-year-old daughter Haeley. With her at the wheel of this LS-powered pickup, she won the 8.0 Bracket Class in the inaugural Alberta-based Miles to Mayhem Drag ’N Drive event held in July 2021. The 5-day, 1,700 mile event is the brainchild of Red Deer, AB’s Dustin Watts. (See side bar at end of story for a bit more detail).

It began at Central Alberta Raceway in Rimby AB, then onto the Medicine Hat Drag Racing Association track in Medicine Hat,AB, then SIR in Saskatoon, then Area 53 Raceway in Forrestburg, AB and finally back to Rimby, for approximately 1,700 kms of driving.

Though a diehard car guy and drag racer, Jan Christensen admits he didn’t really want to participate in the event at first. “Haeley convinced me to because I just wasn’t looking forward to that much driving,” says Jan, revealing they actually travelled just over 2,100 kms during the event. That didn’t include trailering the truck from Langley, BC to Rimbey and back after the event, which added another 2,100 kms to the trip.

“I’ve always heard so much about Hot Rod Drag Week

and seen so many videos where it just looks like an amazing and fun trip to go on,” says Haeley. “As soon as I heard about Canada’s first ever drag week-style event taking place in Alberta I knew it was something I needed to be a part of.”

It’s not surprising Haeley loves racing and cars in general as she’s been surrounded by it since she was a toddler. “They have always been something that I have deeply enjoyed and I knew racing was something that both my dad and uncle did together from a young age but they did stop when they started to have families.”

When she was 12 years old, her dad and uncle returned to racing and Haeley naturally followed them to nearby Mission Raceway.

“When they started racing again I was given the chance to start racing a Junior Dragster but it was never something that I was super interested in doing,” she admits.

She changed her mind when the NHRA introduced a class called Junior Street. Kids from the ages of 13-16 could race a full-size vehicle with a parent in the passenger

The all aluminum 5.3 LS was salvaged from a wrecked 2011 Tahoe. It has stock bottom end but the heads have been off and it has a Comp Cams cam upgrade with upgraded valve springs, rockers and trunnion kit. A Holley Hi-Ram EFI intake, with forward facing throttle body, replaced the stock items and its run by a Holley Dominator ECU. Long tube headers are ceramic coated and flow into a 3” mandrel bent dual exhaust system fabricated by Jim at Accurate Brake and Muffler in Langley, BC. A bed-mounted nitrous bottle is so far just for show, but the LS is plumbed to receive a 200hp shot if the driver is feeling frisky.

32

www.canadianhotrods.com

CHR Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

The all red interior is a beautiful contrast to the truck’s blue exterior. You might miss it at first glance but there’s a roll cage built into the cab and it’s both well hidden and removable.

Super rare, though heavily modified, GM Buddy Bucket seats are wrapped in Napa Red leather with vintage NOS 1950s BMW Isetta red plaid material. The Buddy Buckets were available as options in 1967-68 C10s. The Dakota Digital RTX gauges, in stock C10 bezel, are upgrades that look stock but work with the modern LS and also feature color-changing LED backlighting. Below right, Haeley Christensen in the C10 in the pits with the US Mags and Mickey Thompson drag racing boots swapped on. The truck’s patina is manufactured.

seat. “That was an opportunity I jumped on,” she says.

She soon was campaigning a dual quad, 409-powered 1962 Chevrolet Impala, a car that interested her “10 times more than any junior dragster.” She says it was shortly after she made her first 1/8th mile pass that she knew drag racing was a sport she wanted to continue participating in.

Haeley’s love of cars and the sport of drag racing maybe wasn’t inevitable, but thanks to her dad Jan very probable. Jan started his gearhead journey in the competitive custom car stereo scene and then moved to Los Angeles, CA to learn everything there was to know about the Low Rider car culture. When he moved back to Langley he eventually opened Kaotic Kustoms and though the shop builds a variety of hot rods and customs it builds some of the best Low Rider custom cars in North America.

About five years ago, when Haeley was just 13, Jan decided the shop needed a shop truck which could also double as something Haeley could drive at the track and, when she was old enough, on the street.

He found this 1967 Chevrolet C10 factory shortbox at another local shop which had been building it for a customer who decided they wanted out of the project. Not only was the truck rust free — it retains all its factory original sheet metal — it also was a factory big back window, A/C truck. Rare. It came with a bare frame and made the perfect starting point for what Jan had in mind.

The first steps of the build began with the chassis and since a lowered stance was desired a rear frame C-notch was the first modification. Once that work was done the frame was powder coated black. The stock suspension was swapped out in favour of CPP coilovers and Viking double adjustable shocks on all four corners. Up front tubular control arms replaced the chunky factory A-arms and out back the truck’s stock 12 bolt was replaced by a Strange Engineering Fab 9 Ford-style sheetmetal housing

CHR Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

with a Strange differential with Eaton Posi and 4.10 gears.

The housing is still located with stock GM trailing arms.

Baer 15” rotors with 6-piston calipers are on all four corners. A Wilwood master cylinder, aided by a power booster, feeds juice to the grippy calipers. The wheels are Intro Bonneville-style (22x12 back and 22x9 front) wrapped in Pirelli P Zero rubber for the street. On the track they swap to US Mags Roadster series wheels (18x8 up front, 20x10 rear) wrapped in Mickey Thompson ET Street S/S drag radials.

The stock steering linkage was retained though the old, sloppy factory steering box was upgraded with a CPP 500 series power steering unit for better road feel and feedback. The column is a tilt unit from a 1972 C10 and the column shifter works with the heavy duty 4L65 transmission.

Bolted to the transmission is an all aluminum Chevy LS engine out of a 2011 Chevy Tahoe. It retains its stock bottom end and 9.6:1 compression ratio but received a Comp Cams valvetrain upgrade that included a more aggressive cam, new valve springs and a rocker arm trunnion upgrade. The stock intake and fuel injection was swapped out in favour of a Holley Hi-Ram EFI unit controlled by a Holley Dominator ECU, though they built the

www.canadianhotrods.com

33

Those 22x12 Intro rear wheels are wrapped in 315/25/22 Pirelli P Zero tires and to accomodate rollers of that size the inner wheel tubes were widened 4” on each side. (The front tires are 245/30/22). The stock bed depth remains. In anticipation of manufacturing a patina style paint job, the sheet metal received coats of two different primers, a red oxide and black then a few coats of VW Aquarius Blue and white were laid on. The exterior received some flat clear but under the hood and in the bed area the Aquarius Blue is glossy. The door logos bedside logos are vinyl graphics. The stock cab-mounted tank was scrapped in favour of a Boyd Welding ’63-’72 C10 aluminum tank with intank Aeromotive Stealth 340 fuel pump.

rest of the truck’s wiring harness from scratch.

A 200hp shot of nitrous is available if deemed necessary but without it the engine is capable of producing 480hp to the rear wheels. The LS makes the truck almost bullet proof and during Miles to Mayhem gave them a competitive advantage over any competition running with small block Chevys or other less modern V8 setups.

We’ll explain the advantage later.

With racing and street comfort in mind, Diversified Metal Works built a removeable, very stealthy but functional chromoly role cage that hugs the seats, A& B pillars and goes under and behind the dash. The interior also has modified Buddy Bucket bucket seats that have a middle seat with a flip down armrest. These seats were factory options in 1967-’68 and are fairly rare.

“I took all the springs and panned the seats,” explains Jan. “On these trucks there’s not a lot of leg room so I tried to get the seats as far down and back as possible to get more leg room.” The seats are trimmed in Napa leather with 1950s NOS BMW Isetta red plaid material inserts. The door panels are stock reproduction C10 piecesThe interior metal parts and cage were finished in a satin red finish which helps hide the roll cage. A Dakota Digital RTX C10 gauge package fits the stock bezel but has the benefit of looking stock while being compatable with the LS and the modern harness. A 1972 C10 tilt, column shift column is topped with a stock ’67 C10 steering wheel.

Of course with Jan’s early history in the competitive auto stereo scene, there is a full sound system starting with the stock radio being modified to a Bluetooth unit.

Music flows through JL Audio Amps and sub woofers and the custom made kick panels house more more JL speakers.

Almost every thing was done in house at Kaotic Kus-

34

toms, including most of the paint, and all the patina paint. Darryl Tippe helped with the patina paint. The main colour is VW Aquarius Blue, with flat clear on the exterior but inside the box and under the hood are glossy.

Stephen Kohls painted under the hood and the red interior. The truck’s stainless and aluminum trim is all NOS and is the way it came out of the packaging, no polishing needed. The front and rear bumpers are reproduction units.

Haeley was involved throughout the build and was 15 when it was completed. “I have always been a truck girl and I have absolutely loved the C10s for years,” she says.

“I only like the ’67 body style and the simple design of the grille on the ’67 C10 compared to all the other years. The body style on that truck has always appealed to me. When I started racing it I absolutely fell in love with the sport even more,” she says. “As I kept growing and racing on my own I knew it was going to become a great passion of mine.”

It helps that she turned out to be pretty good at this drag racing thing. She’s deadly quick at the tree and as any diehard racer knows, many races are won and lost due to reaction time. Good strategy and those quick reflexes were the keys to winning her class at the envent.

Jan has been drag racing for decades and currently campaigns a couple cars, including a Jerry Haas-built 2017 Camaro formely campaigned by Ray Skillman. Behind the wheel of that car Jan has run the quartermile in 8.03 seconds at 169.07. He knows a thing or two about the sport and one of the first things he and Haeley decided was they were going to detune the ’67 C10 pickup for the Miles of Mayhem event.

“We detuned it to run slow the first run of the first day because if the weather conditions changed we could add

www.canadianhotrods.com

CHR Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

power to get it to run,” he explains, adding there would also be constant elevation changes to deal with. “One day we were at 1,200 feet (above sea level) and the next day was 5,000 feet elevation.”

Only 87 octane pump gas was used, as Alberta doesn’t have 94 octane gas and the father/daughter duo didn’t want to have to hunt around for gas during the day-to-day driving. The LS’s high operating temperature, anything under 210° is considered normal, was also an advantage explains Jan. “We made our very first pass on the first day with the engine at 200° because I knew we might not be able to let the truck cool down between passes,” says Jan. “We could hot lap it at 195-200 but anybody running a SBC would often make about five runs and they would have to stop running for an hour and half to cool down.”

More passes meant more chances to get your package — your reaction time plus the difference from what you ran to what you dialed — right.

Haeley settled on a 9.46ET dial for the 1/8 mile event and had to keep that dial for the rest of the week.

“And every time you would make a pass and cut a killer light you would be way off your time and vice versa which is why some days I did 15 passes just to get the best package I could get,” Haeley explains.

The event also differed from most Bracket events in that there were no delayed starts for slower cars. You could line up against a faster car but both left on the same light so you were running “blind” so to speak when trying to gauge if you were running close to your dial.

“The most difficult aspect of the event for me was trying to keep the

CHR Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

truck consistent with my time,” says Haeley. “Bracket racing is a difficult sport as it is but not having a delayed start meant having to know the exact point I had to hit the brakes to slow the car down (or to speed up) and having to repeat that until you get the exact time you are looking for,” she says, adding every track’s different conditions, for instance traction, made it even more challenging.

She was up for it and so was her dad. Jan said the event was both mentally and physically challenging.

“You get up in the morning at about 6 am, take the stuff from the hotel room and put it back in the truck, drive to the track, unload it all, switch wheels for the drag radials and then racing would start at about 8 am until 3 pm,” he says. When racing was done for the day the street wheels were swapped back on, the bed loaded up and they hit the road. With breaks and stopping at designated checkpoints it could mean as much as 7.5 hours behind the wheel before reaching the next destination. “Then we’d get to the hotel, pack everything into the room and the next morning do it all over again. It was quite involved so not only was it mentally draining it was physically draining for sure,” says Jan. They never expected to win but by Day 2 knew they had a chance to do just that.

At the Medicine Hat track Haeley, footbraking the truck, cut two almost perfect lights, recording .002 reaction times while running near her dial.

“On that second day of racing, I made 15 passes in my truck and about 10 of them were back-to-back within an hour,” she says.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 60

www.canadianhotrods.com

35

Photos by Mike McConnel/Story by Terry Denomme o answer your first question, no, Brent Fraser’s Alberta-based 1967 Ford F100 Ranger Shortbox is not related in any way to Wile E Coyote. We can’t blame you for going there though, but there’s nothing cartoonish about this kick ass Bumpside Ford.

T

The title is a magazine publisher’s attempt to put into play the name its builder gave the F100 early in what turned out to be a 9-month build. The OT tag — as in overtime — was applied by Sam Hutchinson of Calgary’s Epic Rod & Custom. Fraser found the truck in St. Catherine’s, ON while on vacation in 2020 and dropped it off at Epic on

36

Nov 1, 2020. It was completed in July of 2021.

A build of this calibre doesn’t happen that fast without a lot of long days. The Coyote part? It’s under the hood of this low slung ’67 F100. To be more specific, it’s a Third Gen Ford Coyote 5.0L salvaged from a 2019 Mustang GT. Building a high calibre resto mod in a condensed period certainly takes a lot of overtime, but it also doesn’t happen if the owner doesn’t have a solid plan and a clear vision. Fraser builds homes for a living so he’s used to the logistics of complex builds. He’s also admits to being a super impatient person. “It’s all about scheduling for me and being organized and two steps ahead of what the next thing is,” says Fraser, adding he was already buying parts before the truck arrived in Alberta to be built.

www.canadianhotrods.com

CHR Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

Tavis Highlander of Highlander Concept Rendering in Washington State helped owner Brent Fraser dial in the vision he had for this 1967 Ford F100 Ranger shortbox pickup. The front spoiler and red emblems didn’t make the cut. Below right, this is the truck as purchased out of St. Catherines, ON last summer.

The chassis on this truck is a thing of beauty thanks to the efforts of Sam Hutchinson and his team at Epic Rod & Custom in Calgary, AB. It starts with the original Ford F100 frame rails that were straightened, excess holes filled and then it was sanded and all weld joints were hand filed for a perfectly smooth finish. Custom designed inner frame stiffeners are cut and formed 1/8” plate, shaped and welded together, inners follow the bottom shape of the chassis for perfect contour of stock frame. Custom designed and fabricated frame rails from 8” frame notch all the way back, plasma cut and bent and fully welded. No square tube or round tube anywhere, all custom made plate metal parts. Custom designed notch crossmember and rear frame crossmember, follows design of interior dash and bench seat.

CHR Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

www.canadianhotrods.com

37

Epic is proud of the chassis and should be. A lot of planning and CAD design went into fabricating mounting brackets, crossmembers, etc. To fit around the motor and account for the desired suspension height, Epic custom designed and fabricated the front crossmember. The front suspension is fully custom though is based on a typical upper and lower A-arm design using QA1 single adjustable coil overs set up for requested low ride height. Wilwood C10 Pro forged aluminum spindles, with seal hub bearing assembly, and C10 upper and lower Moog ball joints were used. A spline drive solid 7/8” front antirock sway bar was installed with the support tube fabricated into chassis. Out back a custom designed and fabricated parallel 4-link set up keeps the rear axle in place combined and QA1 single adjustable coil overs were used along with a spline drive, solid 3/4” antirock sway bar with support tube and backets integrated into the chassis.The rear end is a Dutchman Ford 9” narrowed 4” on each side to accomodate deep dish wheels. It houses a Detroit Tru Trac differential with 3.89 gears and Dutchman 35-spline axles. Brakes are Wilwood: 13” drilled and slotted rotors all around with 6-piston black calipers up front and 4-piston calipers out back. A Wilwood 1” bore brushed aluminum master cylinder, with dual diaphragm booster, gets the stop-juice to the calipers. A E-Stopp electric park brake was installed. Steering is provided by a Fox body Mustang rack and pinion unit with custom outer tierod ends and adjuster sleeves. Frame features fabricated webbing from outer rails to inner stiffener and webbing to join inner stiffener rails. It’s all bolted together with stainless button head fasteners. The chassis powder coated semi gloss black, and all bolt on accents in high gloss black. Note how an integrated exhaust system passes through into inner stiffeners.

When the covid parts shortages started to hit hard late in 2020, and so far throughout 2021, the build was essentially unaffected.

He was able to start ordering the parts so soon because of the aforementioned vision he already had in his head for the truck. While he’s a big custom Harley guy, he’s also into resto mod old pickups and had owned two previous to this truck. Funny thing is they were both Chevys with LS motors and air ride suspensions. “I had a ’49 Chevy with an LS3 and a ’59 Apache with an LSA and had a lot of fun with them ,” says Fraser, adding those were trucks he bought mostly complete and made a few changes to throughout his ownership. When those trucks

40

found new homes he had a hankering to do a full build and wanted a ’67 Ford F100 shortbox. “I always liked them and looked for a couple of years but never came across anything that was any good and I just stumbled across this one in Ontario September of last year.”

As soon as he bought the truck he knew Hutchinson and the boys at Epic would be building it as they’d worked together before. Through friends, Fraser had heard of US-based artist Travis Highlander of Highlander Concept Rendering and contacting him made sense.

“We do renderings for customers so they can get a real visual for the final product,” says Fraser. “So I paid a little money to get the rendering done, I picked out my wheels

www.canadianhotrods.com

CHR Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

The custom interior was designed by Tavis Highlander working with Fraser to fine tune the vision. The stock bench seat was heavily customized with springs removed and replaced by custom woven mesh with the upper back rest also receiving the custom touch. Seats are moulded for comfort and upholstery perforated. Gary at Auto Marine in Calgary gets credit for installing the red with black inserts leather upholstery, leather wrapped headliner and leather wrapped door panels. The dash pad is an aftermarket item reshaped and covered in red leather. All interior sheet metal, including dash, received a splash of satin red paint. Exterior and interior door handles and window handles are brushed aluminum units by Fat Fender Garage. The black carpet is an aftermarket item stitched and formed to fit perfectly. The tilt, column-shift column is a brushed aluminum Ididit piece topped by a Billet Specialties Formula D-shaped, leather wrapped steering wheel using a Lecarra hub adapter. Stock gauges are replaced by a Dakota Digital HDX unit for 1967-72 Ford pickups with KM/H speedometer. It looks stock but all the gauges are digital and will work with the 2019 Ford ECU. Truck starts via pushbutton with a proximity fob. A Vintage Air unit is controled with dash-mount Vintage Air controls. Hot or cold flows out of colour-matched Vintage Air vents mounted below the dash. Tunes flow via a JL Audio Bluetooth module mounted behind the seat along with a 10” sub woofer. Additional JL speakers were installed in custom fabricated kick panels. Windows are power.

and he dropped them in and I had two colour options in my head, black with a red interior or white with red interior and Tavis flipped back and forth and did renderings.

It just gives you that end goal right then and there and you’re not second guessing your decisions because it’s easier to change the colour on the bumper on the computer than it is to spray it and decide it doesn’t look right.”

Highlander designed the interior too, which Fraser says really helped speed up the project. “It meant I could just hand Gary (Auto Marine Upholstery) a picture of the interior and say here’s the concept, run with it.” Very early in the project Gary was able to come by and start measuring and fabricating necessary items to bring the vision to life.

Fraser wouldn’t have to worry about waiting months to get an otherwise finished truck upholstered because as

CHR Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

soon as the cab was painted the interior was essentially ready to be installed. It also meant he knew exactly what he was going to get which took a lot of stress out the upholstery process.

If he does have any stress, Fraser gets rid of it behind the wheel (or handlebars) of his toys and Hutchinson was well aware of his client’s hard driving proclivities. For that reason, they both decided to forgo the air ride in favour of a static drop, performance coilover setup. To that end all of the truck’s original suspension was tossed and only the side frame rails were used. All the crossmembers, a rear section of the frame rails, suspension mounts, etc were all CAD designed, CNC cut and fabricated with performance and strength in mind. You can read all about it on the opposite page.

You don’t need a V8 to have fun and Fraser considered

www.canadianhotrods.com

41

Ford 3rd Gen Coyote 5.0L came out of a wrecked 2019 Mustang GT and is stock though an aftermarket hydraulic power steering system was added. A Ford Performance control pack and ECU is the brain for the Coyote and it has a HP Tuners street tune. Epic custom fabricated an aluminum 3.5” intake tube and K&N air filter placed in a custom fabricated air box. Fuel from the custom stainless rear-mounted tank is pumped to the engine via a Boost Works PWM fuel pump featuring a returnless controller. Fat Fender Garage stainless tube headers feature 1¾” primaries a flow into a custom fabricated 2.5” stainless steel dual exhaust system with 1.25” crossover pipe and Magnaflow offset 14” mufflers. Stock Coyote wiring works with a Ford performance control pack. Wiring includes a complete American Auto Wire retro fit harness and all wiring was run through the boxed frame rails. Throttle is controlled by a fly-by-wire electric pedal.

an EcoBoost V6 but really wanted to do a Coyote transplant. He ended up finding a 2019 Mustang GT written off with just 2,800kms on the odometer and it came with the added bonus of a 10R80 10-speed automatic transmission.

Knowing what drivetrain he was going to use definitely sped up the build process but so did the old Bumpside’s as-purchased condition. Hutchinson says the Ford’s sheet metal was in excellent condition despite its Ontario heritage. It need floor pans and cab corners and some minor repairs to the box sides but that was it.

Hutchinson and his crew,custom made a transmission/driveshaft tunnel to accomodate the low stance and large 10-speed transmission. They also filled all the holes in the firewall and inner fenders and tubbed the front inner fenders to accomodate for lowered ride and height and larger rolling stock. The exterior seam for the top and bottom box sides was welded to smooth things out and the stake pockets were filled.

The front bumper was narrowed 3” and the rear bumper was raised, narrowed 3” and tucked in tight to the box. The grille, headlight bezels and taillight trim were give the brushed treatment.

Once all the sheet metal work was done, Mark Ross at Mark Ross Custom Paint in Calgary, AB applied the Porsche Carrera Metallic White paint.

The truck definitely catches your attention and the red interior just pops in contrast to the white exterior.

While Fraser has owned several hot rods and custom bikes over the years, he says this Ford build was particularly rewarding. “I’ve never done a project from start to finish like this,” he says. “This is the first truck that I

42

picked out absolutely everything that I wanted to go on it so it was kind of nice to have that vision from the beginning and see it come alive.”

Now that the vision is real, Fraser hasn’t wasted any time testing the Ford’s 430hp Coyote drivetrain.

“It just drives so awesome,” he gushes. “It’s very driveable.” His penchant for driving his builds hard has certainly been rewarded with this truck but he’s already planning on some winter upgrades, including a supercharger. Rocky Mountain Motorsports started building a new road course near Carstairs, AB at the end of 2020 and Fraser says he definitely plans to test the Ford on its proposed 3.5 km, 16-turn circuit when its completed.

With the supercharger’s added boost, this OT Coyote will be a road runner to be reckoned with.

www.canadianhotrods.com

CHR Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

The original steel bed floor was removed and replaced by a custom ebony stained oak bed floor which was raised 4” to accomodate the lowered stance and required custom cross braces and side mounting brackets. Wood is held in place by stainless steel bed strips with hidden fasteners. Hand made rear wheel tubs are 14” wide and dimple died for character.

Wheels are Forgeline GA3C concave 3-piece forged aluminum. The fronts are shallow concave 20x9 with a 5” backspace and polished 6061 outer barrel wrapped in 225/35/20 Michelin Pilot Super Sports. Out back measurements are 20x12.5 deep concave with 3.5” backspace (3.5 negative offset) wrapped in 335/30/20 Michelin Pilot Super Sports. Below, rear bumper was cut for tighter fit and modified to accomodate dual 1st Gen Camaro exhaust tips. The Redrum script replaces the stock Ranger script and is a tribute to just how killer the truck is. (Redrum is murder spelled backwards).

Waterford,ON

Find us on Instagram/Facebook

csn58@bell.net

CHR Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

www.canadianhotrods.com

slipperybeaverspeedandcustom.ca

43

BACK ISSUES AVAILABLE

STILL HERE AFTER MORE THAN 50 YEARS: Hall of fame drag racer Jim Rini’s ode to Ivo’s T

Bagged ’51 Pontiac Fleetleader, ’61 Pontiac Ventura Low rider ONTARIO GEORGE’S 21st centu

Rollin’ on the Rockers Gasboy Customs debuts a killer ’62 Chevy pickup

1923 Model T Roadster p/u

CANADIAN ORDERS CALL 1-888-753-2111

$

This ’40 Pontiac is the perfect combination of classic style and new school attitude -81( -8/< $35,/ 0$< Display until July 25/21

Old school suspension low ering tricks on a 1947 Ford Tudor

9ROXPH ,VV

plus tax and shipping

Transformed into a hot rod in the 1950s, this ’32 Ford eventuall made its w ay back into the family and back on the road

9ROXPH ,VV

9ROXPH ,VV

Volume 16/Iss 5

Volume 16/Iss 4

Volume 16/Issue 3

GRAND NAATTION NAL ROADSTER SHOW: S AMBR winner w and moree

RMD Garage-built ’55 Che evy at GNRS 2020

BUT WAIT...

A . THERE’S MORE! Calgary World o o Wheels of Pro Street: BC beginnings b ’34 Coupe trunk k floor/ /tail panel build

Kenny Kroeker shot ou our ur ’36 36 Ford cover car at the Dairee e Delite in Brantford, ON N. See full story on page 64.

Display until May 26/2020

This killer ’57 Cadd dy y has a surprise underr the e hood

Pro Street, Pro Touring, Resto Mod? Killer whatever you call it.

Volume 15/Iss 4

9ROXPH ,VV

Volume 16/Issue 2

Volume 16/Iss 1

Volume 15/Iss 6

Volume 15/Issue 5

Volume 15/Issue 4 Volume 15/Issue 3

Volume 15/Issue 2

SPECIAL SHOW COVERAGE ISSUE: TORONTO MOTORAMA, CALGARY WORLD OF WHEELS, BC CLASSIC & CUSTOM CAR SHOW

NICKEL N ICKEL C ICKE CITY IT Y COUPE COUP CO PE

Summer of ’69

PART 2: ’34 Fordor to 3W-coupe

KEN SERVOS’ PRIMO ’56 LINCOLN CUSTOM

GM’s C serie es pickups have always been n a hot rod favourite

On of just 760 produced

Ken Bayko’s ’34 Ford

Dave Heykants’ 1930 Model A coupe

10

7

VOLUME 15/ISSUE 1

VOLUME 14/ISSUE 6

VOLUME 14/ISSUE 5

VOLUME 14/ISSUE 4

VOLUME 14/ISSUE 3

VOLUME 14/ISSUE 2

25274 70981

6

VOLUME 14/ISSUE 1

VOLUME 13/ISSUE 6

VOLUME 13/ISSUE 5

A STROKER FE BUILD FOR OUR ’62 RANCH WAGON USING SCAT & EDELBROCK PARTS

While most of our print back issues are sold out they are available in digital form for $3.99C per issue all the way back to Volume 6/Issue 4 via Pocketmags at https://pocketmags.com/us/canadian-hotrods-magazine

’57 Buick

’31 Model A

’69 AMC

Brent Welta, Regina, SK

1936 Chevy 2-d door Sedan

KRYPTONITE ’28 MODEL A

Early ’60s built ’49 Meteor cus stom is a road war rior once more

02

Crru uising or o g ffo under $ $5,000 7

25274 70981

6

Ford’s Model A was a hit upon its debut in late 1927 and 9 decades later hot rodders, such as Steve March with his oval track inspired 1929 Model A sedan, are still showing it love

VOLUME 13/ISSUE 4

VOLUME 13/ISSUE 3

VOLUME 11/ISSUE 4

VOLUME 8/ISSUE 6

VOLUME 8/ISSUE 2

o you’re out cruising in your Flathead V8-powered Model A when a Roushpowered Mustang pulls up beside you. Nice car right? The driver downshifts and hits the throttle. Instantly the rear tires go up in smoke which envelopes you’re old Model A as you watch the Mustang’s taillights dissappear in the distance. You just experienced the automotive equivalent of having sand kicked in your face by the big dude at the beach. Never again you say to yourself. So what did Victoria, BC’s Robin Hood do about it? He built this ’40 Ford pickup.

S 46

www.canadianhotrods.com

CHR Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

This tailgate is the only non-original piece of sheet metal on the truck.

The pinstriping is courtesy George Apted of Victoria, BC. Taillights are 1937 Ford units with custom “sprint car wing” inspired mounts.

CHR Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

www.canadianhotrods.com

47

This isn’t a Roush Performance-built engine but is a Ford 351 Windsor though it’s now stroked to 383 cubic inches and sports 9.5 to 1 compression ratio. Hood bought the used, but fully balanced and SFI-spec’d aftermarket rotating assembly from his neighbour Bob Baird. Baird is a drag racer and runs a Windsor V8-powered Mustang II drag car. Another Victoria drag racer, Grant Klohn, built the engine. It’s never been dyno’d but it’s easily 430hp and in a 2,700lb pickup that’s plenty to make it get up and go. It’s running a “lumpy” Comp Cams Thumpr cam, sports World Performance heads with a Edelbrock Victor Jr intake and 700cfm Holley 4-barrel carburetor.

Hood has always been a pickup guy and his start in the automotive hobby included an early ’50s Chevy pickup and a ’55 Mercury pickup. He had a few hot rods after those, including a highboy style 1932 Ford and the aforementioned flathead-powered hot rod, which was a 1929 Model A Tudor sedan. After selling the Model A he had a hankering to build another hot rod and was pretty sure it was going to be a 1940 Ford pickup.

He worked in the bodyshop of BC Transit for most of his life so Hood has skills, but the truck he ended up purchasing presented challenges he couldn’t face alone.

Luckily he has a lot of friends in the hot rod hobby and during the build met a few others who helped him transform the truck from basket case to beautiful. It took about five years, but the struggle was worth it.

Below left, you can see the only photo Hood has of the truck shortly after purchase. The photo actually makes it

48

look pretty good, his description of the actual condition proves otherwise.

He found the truck in Port Alberni, BC in 2014 and it was then owned by Vancouver Island hot rod legend Ed Put. Originally the truck had come out of California, we don’t know what year, but had been sitting in a dilapidated Canadian Tire shelter at Put’s place for who knows how long. It looked sad, or using Hood’s description — it was a POS. “It was covered in green algae, the fenders were completely a mess, they looked like they’d been pick and filed with a backhoe,” he said. “The cab, the kids had been jumping off the cab and onto the hood a number of times. The cab is done, the hood is done but there is no rust in the truck.” The asking price was $7,000 which Hood initially balked at until his friend Dave Williams convinced him it was worth the ask. So Hood dragged it home and then stared at it for a few days. Now what?

www.canadianhotrods.com

CHR Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

Hood credits his neighbour Grant Newburg for finding, milling and fitting the figured Western Maple in the truck bed. Hood calls Newburg, a Camosun College instructor, a wood guru. “We went to a yard in Chemainus and went through a couple of pallets of wood to find what we wanted. I didn’t have a clue,” says Hood, who says the wood dried for a year in his garage before they milled, cut and then varathaned it. Hood purchased aluminum extrusions and milled them to fit between the bed wood.

The flush-mounted gas cap is a nice touch. At left, the Ford script is actually vinyl graphics on a Baby Moon cap. The western maple theme was carried into the interior via veneer panels and airbrushing.

While the sheet metal damage may have been intimidating Hood had purchased an original factory black pickup with Flathead V8, 4-speed that had retained its original closed-driveshaft rearend. There was nothing to do but get at it so he moved it over to friend’s place for disassembly. Without too much effort they actually were able to fire the old Flathead V8, which was exciting but of course a Flathead wasn’t going to due in this project so it found a new home.

Gauging by the generous use of acetylene and brute force the truck hadn’t been apart in a very, very long time but Hood was pleased with the lack of rot. He would be more so when it came to the truck’s original chassis.

From 1935 to 1940, Ford chassis had a X-frame “doubler” riveted inside the chassis. It is often rotten where it’s riveted to the chassis and often just gets discarded in favour of boxing the frame. On Hood’s ’40 Ford it was still in place but from the middle of the cab back the chassis was literally cocooned in asphalt. Hood figured the truck at some point in its life must have been owned by an asphalt company. He wasn’t sure what condition the frame would be in but sent it off to the media blaster and crossed his fingers. “It came back mint, not even a pock mark in the metal it was like shiny new,” says Hood. “It was absolutely frickin’ cherry and I’m celebrating like a fool on some weird homemade booze because I knew how much money and time that saved me.”

Hood sprayed some primer on the chassis and then sent it to Wayne Hamblin at Wayne’s Toybox in Coombs, BC to get a TCI IFS installed. The TCI setup is based on the Mustang II but the crossmember and components are

50

more heavy duty for the pickup. Hamblin also fabricated a x-member for a T-5 manually shifted transmission and out back also hung a 1999 Ford Explorer 8.8 rear end off a set of Chassis Engineering parallel leaf springs. The 8.8 came with disc brakes, a Traction-Lok assembly and 3.73 gear ratio. Wilwood disc brakes are up front.

While the chassis work was being done, Hood started thinking about what engine he was going to put under the hood. In his early days of building hot rods the Small Block Chevy was always the go-to but he wanted a Ford in his Ford. Of course his encounter with that Roush-powered Mustang made using the truck’s Flathead V8 a nonstarter. A friend had a stock 351 Windsor V8 for sale which had originally powered a 1969 Ford Mustang. The car had been written off and Hood says the engine had less than 80,000 miles on it and had never been rebuilt. It was a good place to start but he had no experience with small block Fords. Lucky for him his neighbour Bob Baird was an expert on 351W engines. Baird was a drag racer who campaigned a 1970s Mustang II with a big horsepower small block. Says Hood, “I used to hang around when he brought the race car home because I enjoyed hearing it run.”

Baird recommend Hood contact Victoria’s Grant Klohn, famous on the west coast for his wheelstanding ’67 Fairlaine, about building his engine. Hood took that advice but had another question for Baird. “Where do I buy parts for these engines?” Baird’s answer was “Oh for god sakes don’t buy any parts. I’ve got a couple of engines against the wall here full of rotating assemblies, heads, the works so please don’t buy anything.”

www.canadianhotrods.com

CHR Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

Paul Junker at Styles Upholstery in Victoria, BC stitched the modified Glide bench seat and installed the carpet. Hood restored the ’40 Ford dash and used Classic Instruments ’40 Ford style modern 12-volt gauges to replace the original units. Jim Blackwood airbrushed the wood grain on the dash to match the maple vaneer door and kick panels. The column is stock but modified to work with a manual rack and pinion unit . Hood restored the original ’40 Ford steering wheel. The headliner, installed by Hood and his wife, is a Bob Drake piece. The shifter is the stock piece bent to work with the T-5 manual transmission and topped with the classic muscle car type shifter knob.

What Baird meant was don’t buy anything new. Though the parts he had for Hood’s engine had been used on the track they were plenty good enough for a street truck.

Hood ended up purchasing a set of World Performance heads, Victor Jr intake and a complete, balanced stroker rotating assembly for a good neighbour deal. Klohn asked Hood if he liked a lumpy cam and Hood confirmed he did “but it didn’t mean anything to me until I heard this one,” says Hood. It’s a Comp Cams Thumpr cam and though the specs weren’t available the sound of it indicates it has a tight lobe separation angle and plenty of overlap.

The engine now sports 383 cubic inches and puts out about 430hp, which in a 2,700lb pickup means Hood won’t have to endure the type of dustings he would often get in his Flathead V8-powered Model A. When the engine was completed it was shipped up to Hamblin’s Toybox to be installed and have the driveline and pinion angle setup. At this point they also played with ride height a bit to get the right look — which for this build means a bit of a nose-down rake that gives the truck a hint of menace to go with the gnarly engine sound.

For wheels, Hood was inspired by a photo of Junior Johnson’s 1940 Ford Moonshiner coupe. The photo hung in his office for about 15 years and the coupe, captured racing down a back road, sports black painted steel wheels with Ford-style poverty caps. Hood wanted the same look. “I wanted something sort of sporty but also utilitarian because it’s a pickup,” says Hood, adding he quickly decided police car style rally wheels were the ticket. He found the wheels he needed at his buddy Terry

CHR Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

Stenberg’s Cobble Hill, BC shop. Stenberg showed him some 1976 Chrysler cop car wheels and Hood knew they were perfect. They are 15x7 front and 15x8 rear and Hood already knew what tires he was going to use. “I’m a big George Poteet fan and he has a Fast Lane Hot Rods built ’40 Ford I like and I loved the rake and I stole the tire sizes from that car.” The tire sizes are 265/70/15 out back and 205/70/15 up front. To get the right offset, Hood cut the centres of the wheels out and bolted them to the front and back of the pickup. Then, with a tire mounted on the outer rims he pushed them over the centre section to get the perfect placement. Once he was happy, he marked the location and a gentleman in Errington, BC welded the outer rings back to the centres. The wheels were then powder coated black. For poverty caps, Hood had to get creative because he wasn’t a Mopar fan. He didn’t want anything to do with a Chrysler dog dish cap so instead bought some Baby Moons. He then contacted Kirby Moorehouse at Douglas signs in Victoria to create Ford style hubcap lettering using graphic art software. Once the design was complete they were printed on frosted vinyl and applied to the hubcaps. “Hasn’t been anybody that says it looks like vinyl,” says Hood. “They think I chemically etched or sandblasted the logo.”

Early in our story Hood mentioned the badly mangled condition of the Ford’s original sheet metal. Thanks to a career in the BC Transit body shop, Hood is good at finish body work and skilled with a paint gun but admits he’s far from a magician when it comes to sheet metal repair.

As luck would have it he was able to find the type of craftsman who could and they all lived on the Island.

www.canadianhotrods.com

51

All the glass is new and cut by Ian Walton in Victoria, BC. The truck sports a ’39 Ford Deluxe passenger car grille and ’39 Ford Standard headlights. The truck was essentially finished in early 2020 and he’s put 4,000kms on it since.

Three of the fenders were garbage as far as Hood was concerned. The problem was they didn’t reproduce ’40 Ford pickup fenders so it was either find better ones, a near impossible task, or make do with what he had. A chance meeting with fellow BC Transit bodyshop worker John Derksen of Shirley, BC changed his mind on trying to source better ones. Derksen was into Morgan sports cars. Morgans are — and continue to be — handcrafted in Britain and with replacement sheet metal hard to come

by Derksen became very good at repairing or building his own. Hood asked him if he ever worked on American cars.

Hood says, “I told him I had these three throw-away fenders on my ’40 Ford and he says ‘there’s no such thing as throw-away fenders.’” Those words had Hood swearing he heard angels singing. He gave Derksen the three fenders and within three months they were returned “over the top mint.”

“So there the three fenders are back on the truck sitting all happy face but I’ve got this pancaked hood,” says Hood, who says cowl to hood fitment is notoriously difficult to achieve on ’40 Fords. “They were never done right from the factory and most have shitty gaps.” Mike Mandin at Wayne’s Toybox was more than up to the task.

He straightened out the hood and got a perfect fit with the cowl, but he also hit it out of the park on the trashed cab drip rails. Mandin also got the original cab doors into shape, repairing portions of the outer door skins and replacing the inner structure of one original door with a piece from a donor door.

Once the cab work was completed, Hood took the truck back to his home shop and started doing the finish body work. In part that included dismantling the original pickup box and bed. Once done about 15 or 16 pieces were sent to the media blaster, who sadly warped the bed sides.

Another friend came to the rescue. Rick Hall is a bodyman by trade and he worked his shrinking and hammer and dolly magic and got the bed sides back in shape. Hood then did the finish body work which included hours and hours of block sanding and putty application.

One of Hood’s least favourite aspects of these old

52

trucks is the lack of a tail panel out back. It’s no surprise then that the custom made tail panel on this truck is one of his favourites pieces. “It drives me crazy when I see roll pans with square edges on them,” says Hood, explaining there is a reverse curve on the corner of roll panels that is very difficult to achieve. Princess Auto and Wayne Hamblin came to the rescue here. “I was in the utility trailer section and spotted these $10 fenders that had the reverse curve I wanted.” He cut about eight inches out of each fender and then used two inch tape/cardboard to mock up the rest of the pan he envisioned. “I took it to Wayne and he at first looked at me like I had four eyes but then he got it and went to work fabricating it,” says Hood who installed it and performed the necessary finish body work.

Once he fixed up and heat shrunk the original running boards into shape, an aftermarket tailgate ended up being the only major piece of non-original sheet metal. The bright stuff on the outside of the truck, door handles and such, are Bob Drake items but he wanted to use as much of the original truck as he could. Even the original window regulators and interior door and window handles were refurbished and reused.

He did decide to class up the front of his ’40 Ford pickup by using a 1939 Ford Deluxe passenger car grille and ’39 Ford standard headlights. He got the grille from his friend Vern Walleen.

Hood has high standards for his builds and says he screwed up on this truck in only one way: the paint colour. The truck was black from the factory and he knew he was going to repaint it black though he says he sprayed the wrong colour. “I picked a single stage PPG Ford black that has a brown hue to it. I didn’t do my homework...you know guys like Chip Foose or Charlie Hutton they go black as black and I learned they add a fair amount of blue to the mix which makes it look blacker. I see a brown tone which I don’t like but that’s what it is.”

This Ford pickup looks beautiful to us just the way it is and with that 383 Ford under its hood it can be a beast if tough guys want to start something on the street.

www.canadianhotrods.com

CHR Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

GASSER 1957 Chevy $25 : $28 L: XX $27 XXXL

logo is on back of shirt $25 XXL: $27 XXXL: $28

Front logo

$25* for S-XL $27* for XXL

$28* XXXL *plus tax & shipping

.

s-xl $25+tax, XXL $27, XXXL $28 & $4.50 shipping

Canadian Hot Rods hats are available in black, blue, sand, taupe, grey and red

*Shipping for hats within Canada is miniumum $16 and up to $22. Tax is determined by which province the merchindise is being ordered from.

LAYING LOW IN A MERCURY YAN NEYS WAS LOOKING FOR A PICKUP. TREVOR DYKSTRA HAD A PICKUP. ONE DAY’S HESITATION AND THE DEAL WOULD BE DEAD. Neys, of Abbotsford, BC, had owned a number of raised or lowered customs, and was on the hunt for a low-down pickup in 2018. “I like that early ’60s styling,” said Neys, adding that any brand would do: Ford, Chevy or Dodge.

“If it’s cool, it’s cool.”

After returning home “bummed out” when a ’61 Chevy

54

Apache pickup wasn’t what was expected, he jumped back online and started searching again. “And this unibody popped up,” Neys said. That day he contacted the seller, Dykstra, and the next day he owned this bitchin’ 1961 Mercury unibody pickup.

The second the shop door opened Neys knew he was

www.canadianhotrods.com

CHR Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

Photos and Story by Dan Wells

The low profile of this ’61 Mercury M-100 is courtesy air bags but is further enhanced by the subtraction of 1.75” of roof height. Believe it or not, the colour is actually green — BMW Tannen Green metallic to be specific.

Mercury trucks were built and sold only in Canada from 1946 to 1968, allowing the LincolnMercury franchises to have a line of trucks to sell. The Mercury truck models were basically Fords but with Mercury identification, badges and trim. The 1961 to 1963 Mercury and Ford pickups have come to be known as “unibody,” though they were originally marketed as “integrated.” as the cab and box are one unit.

CHR Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

www.canadianhotrods.com

55

going to own the Merc. “It was one of those things I just had to have,” he said. “I lost my mind ’cause it caught me off guard.”

He had found and purchased the Mercury just in the nick of time. Had Neys not bought it that day, it was scheduled to take a flat deck ride from Langley, BC to Kamloops, BC, where Dykstra was moving.

For Dykstra the money from the Mercury’s sale contributed to a house purchase. “Everything just kind of worked out,” said Neys.

Dykstra built the 1961 Mercury M-100 shortbox, big back window pickup in his home garage. It was his third full custom build after a 1934 Ford truck and a 1949 Shoebox Ford. Presently his efforts are focused on a 1932 Ford roadster/pickup re-do.

The truck was a bit of a basket case old farm truck Dykstra dragged home in 2014. Someone had mounted it upon a late-’70s Ford shortbox pickup frame, which Dykstra

56

ditched in favour of a proper original frame. He had a pretty clear picture in his mind of what he wanted to build. He also had all the necessary components required and had the talents to put it all together. In four years time, the old Merc no longer looked like a basket case.

Dykstra shaved the door handles and deleted all emblems and the gas filler door. He cut the roof down 1.75” and trimmed the windshield to fit. The original cab, box and hood were retained, while new doors and fenders were purchased. He also filled the cowl to continued the smooth theme.

Dykstra meticulously made sure the panel gaps and fitment was perfect before shooting primer. He laid on three coats and block sanded between each coat until all the high spots were gone. Then he sent the Mercury over to Steve at Boyd Auto Body in Surrey, BC. Steve applied three coats of BMW Tannen Green metallic on the truck and topped it with a few coats of clear.

www.canadianhotrods.com

CHR Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

The low rider bicycle is a prop Ryan acquired as it fits with the truck. He used to build them but this one was built by Mike Fudali. The frame is Firebikes made by Sam McKay of Saskatchewan, painted and pinstriped by Cory of Sinister Finishes with the bars made by Mark of Vicious Cycles. A stock 1991 Mustang 5.0 puts out about 225hp. Neys plans to improve that by adding a Paxton supercharger to it over the winter.

CHR Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

www.canadianhotrods.com

57

The original grille and rear bumper were rechromed and a new chrome front bumper was added. Originally the 15” wheels were chrome as well and it rolled on black wall tires.

In the Mercury’s cabin, Dykstra lowered the bench seat cushion height to account for the top chop and fabricated kick panels and a centre console. All of the soft surfaces were covered and stitched with specially-imported caramel-coloured Italian leather by Gee at Neighborhood Auto in Langley, BC. Electric solenoids pop the doors open via hidden switches.

The dash was smoothed out, eliminating the glove box door, and all metal interior surfaces got sprayed in the exterior colour. Dykstra installed and wired the sound system. It includes a JL Audio 5-channel bluetooth amp, JL Audio 10” shallow-mount sub and 5 1/4” coaxial, all mounted behind the seat. Additionally an iPhone head unit was mounted in the console and Hertz 6 1/2” tweeters

58

were installed in the kick panels. Power windows, heated seat and Vintage Air a/c completed the in-cab mods.

Dykstra chose to fill the engine bay with a low-mileage 5.0 litre mill from a 1991 Mustang Cobra, adding fresh air intake. Exhaust flows into custom stainless shorty headers and pipes, and then through twin Magnaflow mufflers.

Bolted to the block is a rebuilt Ford AOD automatic with shift kit.

The engine cradle is a grafted-on front clip from a 1986 Jaguar S-Type, with big 12” vented discs and four-piston callipers. Dykstra custom fabricated a cross member to make it work. Out back a Ford Explorer 8.8 rear end assembly with 3.73 posi is linked to a triangulated 4-link suspension. The frame was C-notched to make sure the truck could lay frame when bagged out. Said frame and all its attachments were powdercoated black.

In order to drop it Dykstra went with Slam Specialties 6” air bags at each corner, with remote controlled air

www.canadianhotrods.com

CHR Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

management by AccuAir E-Level. ViAir dual 400 compressors, dual batteries and a 5-gallon air tank float this Mercury’s boat. The custom bed floor has a raised forward portion with a hatch door to gain access to these components.

How low can the truck go? “It sits so low, you can literally put out a cigarette with it,” said Neys.

Even though this M-100 was very cool when Neys purchased it, like any car guy he wanted to make it his own.

Harold from California Rod & Custom brought in some 15” wheel blanks, beauty rings and hubcaps and Neys had the rims powder coated a contrasting, complimentary cream colour by Brian Bird. Fresh rubber came in the form of Diamond Backs with 2 1/2” wide white walls: 215/70 front, 255/45 rear.

Bird applied that same cream colour to the tailgate block letters, both on the backside, and cleverly, the inside indentations in which the letters are backwards. Mint

CHR Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

green forms a line around the letters, as well as the instrument panel edges. Tommy Franke of Frankenstein Speed & Custom re-configured the exhaust system for an x-pipe, Flow Master mufflers, and exit points just ahead of the rear wheels. Neys installed Venetian blinds behind that big back window as an ode to old school custom low riders.

There’s more on Neys’ to-do list: he wants to change the shocks, mount a small Paxton blower on top of the 5.0, and reattach the “Mercury 100” side spears on the hood, to break up the vast colour canvas. They won’t be chrome, however, they’ll be, you guessed it, cream.

The miracle Mercury rides and handles like no vintage truck has the right to. Neys takes it to the places that other cool machines hang out. Whether it’s parked or mobile, it’s sure something to see. “It’s a head turner wherever I go,” said Neys. “There’s always somebody drooling on it.”

www.canadianhotrods.com

59

1967 C10 CHEVY CONTINUED FROM PAGE 35 “But on my last two passes I had a .002 reaction time and on the very last pass I ran a 9.477 on my 9.46 dial which gave me a 19 package which was one of the best packages throughout the whole event. I knew at that point that I was in first place and I knew I had a chance to win the event.”

That’s exactly what she did, beating out the 20+ cars in her class, including veteran Canadian Super Stock racer Darcy Clarke out of Spruce Grove, AB. At Saskatoon’s SIR, Clarke reportedly made 21 passes in his ’69 Road Runner to try to take the lead but in the end finished second to Haeley.

While the truck was running a 9.46 dial (at about 75 miles per hour) at Miles of Mayhem it is capable of much better times. Haeley’s best run in the truck was a quartermile run at Mission of 13.80 at 94.40 mph which works out to about an 8.82 in the eighth mile. That run was made without the aid of the 200hp shot of nitrous.

She also now races a 9-second Super Pro Nova and has made a 1/4-mile pass of 9.80 at 135+ but she explains, “It was detuned for my first year of racing so I could get used to it but it does normally run 8s.”

Would she do an event like Miles of Mayhem again? “I would 100% compete in an event like this again,” says Haeley. “It was an amazing experience and was a lot of fun. It did for sure teach me lots of things about racing and cars in general.”

One of the things it taught her was how much she loves her Kaotic Kustoms shop truck. “I do not think there is a single thing I would change about the ’67 C10,” she says.

We don’t blame her.

Miles of Mayhem Drag ’N Drive Around Christmas 2020, Red Deer, AB’s Dustin Watts was sitting around with buddies bemoaning the fact that with the border closed, they missed going south for drag racing. Watts started drag racing in Junior Dragsters at age 8 at Edmonton’s Castrol Raceway and once he turned 16 he raced a 1969 Z/28 Camaro for about seven years before selling it. In the years after he raced a variety of street cars and in 2020 was in the middle of building a couple of new cars. He had recently sold his business and while he ws looking forward to some time off he began wondering if he could do a Canadian version of the Hot Rod Drag Week.

After a lot of research and planning with friends the Miles to Mayhen Drag ’N Drive event was soon born. Organizing became almost a full time job but it was a passion project so it was worth it. Watt wouldn’t have time to compete himself but plenty did race. Throughout the 5day event an average of 95 cars per day showed up to race.

Entrants ranged from a 2,500 hp, 1967 Chevelle to a new Red Eye Hellcat to a junk yard Dodge truck. Promoting the event was done entirely via Facebook, Instagram and via their milesofmayhemdnd.ca web page. The success of the 2021 assured a 2022 event so follow them on Facebook, Instagram and start making plans for the 2nd annual Miles to Mayhem race.

60

*Decals are larger than shown in ad

www.canadianhotrods.com

CHR decals by

CHR Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

The truck’s rake, chrome running boards and skinny ’53 Chevy rims give off an old school vibe we dig. L8D Luck (Lady Luck) is a license plate Gunn’s dad used to have on one of his cars. Gunn installed a dual exhaust system himself which started with some used Hedman Hedders headers which flow into 2.5” pipe and Cherry Bomb mufflers.

BUDGET PICKUP CONTINUED FROM PAGE 28 Much of the paint, gallons of it, ended up donated to Gunn. He and his buddy Eric Thomas, who owns Eric’s Custom Auto Body in Utica, ON, used a variety of greens to come up with enough paint to cover the truck — then dumped most of a bottle of pearl into it. Two coats of silver, two coats of the custom green followed by three coats of clear make this truck a dazzler, especially in the sun.

Thomas sprayed the color and supplied many of the donated parts on the project. “Special thanks to Eric for all the help,” says Gunn.

The interior retains the stock bench seat and a cheap Mexican blanket acts as upholstery. To save money the floors were simply painted instead of carpeted. A set of flea market Rat Fink rubber mats protect the paint. The truck doesn’t have a headliner and the door panels were constructed from cheap Home Depot panel board, then painted white. The stock door handles were reused. The 1953 Chevy passenger car dash came out of Gunn’s ’53 Chevy parts stash, as did the 1958 Impala steering column and ’59 Impala steering wheel. The Lokar shifter came out of Gunn’s vast parts pile, as did the vintage metalflake shifter knob and throttle pedal.

He worked on the truck off and on for three years and in 2019, during one of the project’s prolonged hiatuses, contemplated selling it. His dad Rick Sr, who passed away that same year, convinced him to hold on to it. “He said, ‘Keep it, make memories, have fun because memories are the only thing you take with you’.” The death of his dad hit hard and with a young family Gunn’s home and work responsibilities took up a lot of time. Work on the truck ground almost to a halt, but he picked at it when he could

CHR Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

and the truck is now finally almost ready to hit the streets. He still needs to register and insure it and once that happens he’s somewhat conflicted on what will happen to it. He will drive it and have some fun for sure but for how long is another question. His dad’s advice to keep it and make memories still echos so he wants to honour them in some way but he’s also realistic.

Over the years Gunn acquired two of his dad’s old hot rods, including a ’58 Chevy Delray he tracked down just before Rick Sr. passed away in 2019. A treasure trove of great childhood memories are attached to the Del Ray and also to a ’55 Ford Sedan Delivery his dad owned when Gunn was a toddler. He found the Delivery in Manitoba many years ago and still owns it today. Along with those cars the Gunn personal stable includes the aforementioned ’53 Bel Air and a few other personal in-progress projects.

“It all escalated and I don’t even know how or why or anything,” says Gunn of the ’51 Chevy pickup. “I actually like these trucks but didn’t think I wanted to build one but everything was there and it was so cheap that it just kept getting built.”

If he does eventually decide to sell it, don’t try to low ball him because of the article. Gunn reminds skeptical friends that over the five years of this project he spent hundreds of hours on it. Exactly how many hundreds he doesn’t know, but conservatively let’s say he has 400 hours into it. At just $50 an hour — a lower than average shop rate — that’s $20,000 before taxes.

So, unless you can build your own, in the immortal words of Jesse James if you want this truck “Pay Up Sucker.”

www.canadianhotrods.com

61

READER RIDES

Photos by Kevin Roberts Text by Terry Denomme

FRIDGE F-100 n 1957 Ford introduced a dramatically new styled F-100 with integrated fenders and a StyleSide bed — the first such full-width steel pickup bed from the big three. The design was obviously more angular than earlier models and sooned gained the Fridge moniker due to styling cues somewhat similar to appliances of the day.

It was well received and continued essentially unchanged to the 1960 model year.

One major change was the edition of quad headlights for the 1958 F-100 and that is the year Dave Brisson’s pickup was built. The Edmonton, AB resident built this truck to drive and the key change to his old Ford is that it now sports a 2003 Crown Victoria driveline and suspension.

“It was home built with friends in my small garage,” writes Brisson. “It was built on a $3,000 budget before air ride was added years later.”

The truck has its original body and frame and the cross member, drivetrain, electrical, engine and trans are from the Crown Victoria.

“It has been driven through two provinces and six States multiple times,” says Brisson. “I have put over 50,000 kms on it in five years.”

When Brisson found the ’58 Ford F-100 it had been sitting in a field since 1985. The 223ci 6cylinder engine block had a hole in it and the-

I

62

www.canadianhotrods.com

CHR Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

READER RIDES

The rustic looking tool box in the Ford’s bed was built by Brisson using 1x4 wood. To get the old barn look he put steel wool and vinegar in a spray bottle and left it in the sun for a few days. The steel wool devolved and became rusted color vinegar which was then sprayed on the wood.

floors and cab corners had rotted away. His wife, Jamie Durina, paid $900 for it and gave it to him for Christmas. He never touched the paint, though he had Edmonton artist Anne Cornelson add the door signage.

The stock 4.6L Ford Mod motor received a new intake and EGR delete but is otherwise stock.

WE’D LOVE TO SHARE YOUR RIDE WITH CHR READERS If you’d like to share pics of your car simply email them to info@canadianhotrods.com. You can also mail the pics to My Car Publications at 978 Waddington Road, Nanaimo, BC V9S 4T9 though also include return postage if you’d like the photos returned. Each image should be minimum 2MB file size. Most newer cell phones are capable of taking this quality of image.

CHR Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

www.canadianhotrods.com

63

with Performance Improvements founder Bob McJannett

info@canadianhotrods.com

What to think about when choosing an alternator ince you are reading Canadian Hot Rods it’s safe to assume that you are either working on your project or planning a project. There are a few areas that require some careful thought to ensure all things work efficiently. No matter if you are upgrading an engine with a generator or an early alternator, the more changes you make the more amps you will need.

If your car has a 6-volt system you will be changing to 12 volt, also from generator to alternator. In the early days a GM generator most commonly produced 35 amps.

Less at idle. But those cars contained minimum electric devices and 35 amps would do. Today you have to calculate the number of amps everything electrical will require. So how can I do that? First the basics that most vehicles will have.

LOW TO HIGH REQUIREMENTS Headlights each require about 6-10 amps, signals 4-8, brakes 3-8 amps, CD/normal radio 3-7 amps, electronic ignition (HEI) 6-10 amps and normal dash instruments 2-4 amps. Based on these numbers even at the minimum you need 31 amps, maximum 57. What else will you add to your project? Twin electric fans can take up 50 amps, electric fuel pump 15 and if you are into music an audio amplifier where the sky’s the limit, let’s say100 amps but it could be three times that.

Now you have a number of choices but you should also consider whether you need a V-belt or serpentine friendly alternator. Do you want original looking or performance options? Finish wise here are the most popular ones: chrome, polished, black chrome or Single Groove Pulley, cast factory steel finish. Features both cast. internal and external cooling There is fans. 6G groove pulley, polished even coloured aluminum finish, side post battery powder coat availterminal able on special order alternators. Numerous OE designs are available.

If you are trying to make your engine compartment look as it came from the factory these should be the ones you research. Finish and plug style are important. Factory cast would be correct. When we look for alternators to fit factory brackets we look at Tuff Stuff, they have a wide variety of models for most popular early performance cars. However if you are starting from scratch or dressing up the engine, first up should be a one wire alternator as it offers simpler wiring and a cleaner look.

There are a number of features available in one wire alternator First would be amp output. One wire alternators are available from as low as 50 amps to 260 amps but most

S

64

Proform’s GM10si style for ’73-’86 model years with internal regulator and pulley included.

common sizes put out 120 amps. When you choose an alternator the more amperage the better. If you can fit it in your application you can install any size. The voltage regulator will control the amount of amperage that the battery needs to run your accessories. Should you decide to add more things, such as air conditioning you will be covered.

For modified engines both Tuff Stuff and Proform offer all the interesting finishes and even some small versions if space will be a problem.

Another thing to watch is the charge wire. If you have moved to higher amperage than OE, change the charge wire. That’s the wire from the alternator to either the positive terminal of the battery or main lug of the starter solenoid. Higher amps and small wire creates heat which means the possibility of a fire.

The length of the charge wire should also be considered. At 120 amps a 5-foot Proform 66448.12N wire should be 4 black crinkle finish 120 AMP Model,GM AWG; 10 foot 2 AWG, and 15 feet 0 AWG. AWG (American Wire Gauge) is the 10si 1-Wire Style with internal regulator maU.S. standard for diameter of electrical chined pulley. conductors and siimply the longer the charge wire the bigger the wire size required.

Finally the last choice will be the finish, for the OE look factory cast would be right, for a more interesting look chrome, polished or black chrome are all available.

Take the time to be sure you get the alternator that will do the best job. You will be glad you did.

www.canadianhotrods.com

CHR Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

PANTHER PINK PRAIRIE RAISED ’70 Swinger 340

Oldsmobile engineers designed this 1969 W31 Cutlass S to be a potent weekend warrior and a stylish, comfortable daily driver during the week. 50 years later it’s still doing its thing.

WINTER 19/20

1969 Cougar Super Cobra Jet ordered by Canadian Drag Racing legend Barrie Poole.

$8.99 for current issues + applicable taxes & shipping

FROM COAST TO COAST CANADA’S OWN HOT ROD MAGAZINE

$40+tax for 1 year (6 issues) subscription Find us on newsstands in Chapters, WalMarts, SaveOns and more SPECIAL SHOW COVERAGE ISSUE: TORON TO MOTO

PART 2: ’34

RAMA, CALGA

RY WORLD

OF WHEELS,

BC CLASSIC

& CUSTOM

CAR SHOW

upe Fordor to 3W-co

Summer

of ’69

Street Rod

ess: Goodnes

’377 Chevy

KEN SERVOS ’ PRIMO ’56

have es pickups GM’s C serie favourite n a hot rod always been

On of just 760

LINCOLN CUSTOM

produced

Al Dixon’s

hero ’58 Ranc

Project Super

odge Stock Do

Rear View

Mirrror

Caddy in a

0 Model A 1930

Sedan

Dave Heykan ts’ 1930 Model A coupe

10

7

25274 70981 6

Call 1-888-753-2111 to subscribe by phone or go to www.canadianhotrods.com

The publishers of Canadian Hot Rods now have a new magazine, BONE

STOCK for enthusiasts who prefer their muscle cars stock or near stock

Call 1-888-753-2111 in Canada or 1-888-674-6757 if calling from the U.S. Download a digital edition for $2.99 at canadianhotrods.com by clicking on the Bone Stock cover

CHR decals by Jeff Norwell

GASSER 1957 Chevy $25 : $28 XXL: $27 XXXL

logo is on back of shirt $25 XXL: $27 XXXL: $28

Front logo

$25* for S-XL $27* for XXL

$28* XXXL *plus tax & shipping

.

s-xl $25+tax, XXL $27, XXXL $28 & $4.50 shipping

Canadian Hot Rods hats are available in black, blue, sand, taupe, grey and red

*Shipping for hats within Canada is miniumum $16 and up to $22. Tax is determined by which province the merchindise is being ordered from.

ADVERTISING INDEX BC Classic & Custom Car Show Burnout’s Garage T-shirts Canadian Classic Auto Supply CHEV’S OF THE ’40s D&E Distributors LTD Flatla Autowrecking Golden Leaf Automotive Hagerty Collector Car Insurance Hagerty Commercial Insurance Hot Nights Hot Rods Horton’s Hot Rod Parts KMS Car Parts/KMS Tools LMC Trucks Jellybean Autocrafters Old Car Centre car lifts Old Car Centre Old Time Speed Performance Distributors Performance Improvements Preston Chev Buick GMC Smart Parts Summit Racing Western Corvette Services Wilwood Disc Brakes

IT’S LIKE ADDING A SUPERCHARGER TO YOUR HOT ROD MARKETING STRATEGY.

*Decals are larger than shown in ad

68

page 17 page 72 page 15 page 75 page 15 page 27 page 2 page 3 page 45 page 61 page 15 page 5 page 49 page 27 page 29 page 76 page 69 page 35 page 9 page 44 page 15 page 7 page 68 page 11

www.canadianhotrods.com

CHR Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

Darryl Loose Calgary, AB

(403) 547-0605 1-866-547-0605 wheelmasterclassics.com email:wheelmaster@shaw.ca

DEAL

ER

Reg Krutow Associate Broker

(250) 469-3195 reg@kelowna.remax.ca

Buying or selling in the Kelowna/Okanagan area with room for the toys.

RE/MAX Kelowna - An independent member broker.

IT COSTS0JUST0$100 PER0ISSUE TO ADVERTISE0IN0THE0HOT0ROD0BIZ0SECTION

CHR Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

www.canadianhotrods.com

69

CALL 647-546-4364

70

www.canadianhotrods.com

161 Westney Rd South Ajax, ON

CHR Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

Now available through Slippery Beaver Speed & Custom

120 Middleton Cres Saskatoon, SK S7J 2W4

csn58@bell.net

To make your order call 1-519-732-6771 Waterford,ON

eBay store: http://www.ebaystores.ca/showcarsrob Picture site:http://showcarsrob.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SHOWCARS-FIBERGLASS-AND-STEEL-BODYPARTS-5904297271

beechsantiquecars.com Tel: 250-897-0436

slipperybeaverspeedandcustom.ca

Cell: 250-897-2567

YOU COULD ADVERTISE HERE FOR JUST $100 per issue FIND OUT HOW AT 1-888-753-2111

CHR Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

www.canadianhotrods.com

71

each plus tax and $1 postage

CHR decals by Jeff Norwell Decals larger than pictured

*+tax & $1 shipping

1-888-753-2111 in Canada 1-888-674-6757 from the US

72

www.canadianhotrods.com

CHR Volume 17, Issue 1, 2021

One owner ’62 Impala a conver tible

This Manitoba-based 1970 426 HEMI Coronet R/T IS ONE OF 14 produced but it’s the only one that came to Canada!

MUSCLE ON DISPLAY: Spied at the show & shine BLOWIN’ SMOKE: The musings of a chronic gearhead

((=SEP90D: O,)5 )Q/ EP8 /M8 )99%' J9* \E $)D21 /8 (01 ], 0MF 2' YFP XG* 35 , (07$X1 $ 1 POX=8 ], $$ $, 0$0[ [S

$7.95

ISSUE #5

ISSUE #6

ISSUE #13

ISSUE #14

ISSUE #8

ISSUE #11

ISSUE #12

ISSUE #15

ISSUE #16

ISSUE #17

ISSUE #20

ISSUE #21

ISSUE #22

Oshawa-built, Calgary-based ’70 Pontiac is loaded with options

A look back at marketing ’60s & ’70s Buick Muscle

FALL 2019

EAST & WEST Mopar Show Coverage

ISSUE #18

ISSUE #19

SHOW COVERAGE: Automobile Driving Museum’s Muscle Car meet

One of only 289 shipped to Canada, this ’71 T/A also led a short, glamorous life before being sold

SPRING 2021

Display until July 26/21

ISSUE #23

ISSUE #24

1970 SS/DA HEMI ’CUDA

ISSUE #25

$7.95 per copy. Call for bulk order rates. Canadian orders tax must be added (13% for Ontario, 5% for BC, AB, SK, MB, QC, NWT, YK, NU, 15% for all Atlantic provinces). SHIPPING in CANADA is $3.60 for one copy, $5.50 for two copies. U.S. SHIPPING is $5.60C for one copy, $11.20C for two copies. Call for shipping prices on bulk orders.

with Nikki Bunn

info@canadianhotrods.com

know most of you will understand, but I feel the need to say this before we get into my article. Because I work on the water with a highly unpredictable schedule, I may not be able to think of and write an article in time for the next magazine. In this case, I have time to write one, but it’s short and sweet. This doesn’t mean I am no longer writing for this amazing magazine. I will never quit. I just may not always be in the issue. With that being said, let’s get to it.

If you’re reading this magazine, you probably love motor vehicles and likely even own something modified to look good, go fast or both. Some of us love all types of vehicles but it appears to me that’s not always the case.

I’ve noticed this while out cruising my ’56 Chevy pickup.

Some of you only wave at certain type of builds. When I’m driving my truck and giving thumbs up to passing vehicles of interest it’s mostly hot rods and muscle car owners who’ll give me a wave back. Very rarely do the owners of modified imports or classic cars wave back. I realize some of them maybe have just been in the zone and don’t see me and my bright yellow truck roaring down the road.

Still, it’s hard not to take it a little personally when my enthusiasm isn’t reciprocated.

So this brings me to my point. Why not wave? Why do most just wave at builds that are in the same category as their own? To me, the wave shows a sign of respect to the others. It’s a tip of the cap to all the blood sweat, tears and late nights that have gone into building their project just to get it back on the road. I personally will wave at any vehicle driven by an owner who clearly has taken time and money to get the vehicle to where it’s at now. Whether it’s a full blown street truck, numbers matching classic, stanced-out newer import or a lifted 4x4. It may not be your cup of tea or shot of whiskey but they clearly love it

I

PANTHER PINK PRAIRIE

and I can appreciate and relate to that feeling.

I will sometimes take my non-car loving friends out for a drive. Yes, I am trying to get them to come to the dark side. Whenever I wave, they would ask “who was that, Nikki?” I live in a small town where everyone knows everyone so it’s actually a good question. They have never owned a cool car or truck, so I wouldn’t ever expect them to understand. But I almost always say, “Honestly, I have no “truckin” idea who that is. They may have just gotten off the ferry for all I know. However, we clearly both have one thing in common, our love for our projects.”

This build style bias may be the reason why the younger generation are flocking to car shows to show off their projects. Maybe they just don’t feel welcome and that would be a shame. I have tried to convince many of my younger gearhead friends to bring their cars to some of the meets and shows but they all ask “don’t you have to have a certain type of car or truck to participate?”

Many car shows are open but sadly many aren’t so I can’t blame them for thinking they are sometimes not welcome.

Understandably most gearheads end up leaning into one genre but the basics..the mechanics of the hobby if you will...are relatable across genres. We all have fuel running through our veins. Our life is our builds, weather new or old. So next time you see someone smiling ear to ear, driving down the road in a cool rig, give them a respectful wave or return it if you get one. You never know, you might just change their perspective on the rest of the gear head world.

As always, keep safe and cruise on! This is Nikki Bunn, “peelin out!”

RAISED ’70 Swinger 340

PART 2: ’34 Fordor

to 3W-coupe

Calgary-based Oshawa-built, loaded with options ’70 Pontiac is

this 1969 W31 Oldsmobile engineers designed warrior and weekend Cutlass S to be a potent driver during the a stylish, comfortable daily still doing its thing. week. 50 years later it’s

GM’s C serie es pickups have always been n a hot rod favourite

marketing A look back at Muscle ’60s & ’70s Buick

WINTER 19/20

1969 Cougar Super Cobra Jet ordered by Canadian Drag Racing legend Barrie Poole.

ption 1-year (4 issues) subscri

$30+tax

FALL 2019

EAST & WEST

Mopar Show

Coverage

CANADIAN CONTENT CANADIAN OWNED

1-year (6 issu es) subscriptio n

$40+tax

Subscribe or buy merchandise at canadianhotrods.com or pick up a copy at Chapters/Indigo stores, Wal Mart, Shoppers Drug Mart and other retailers or call 1-888-753-2111 (1-888-674-6757 from the US)

CHEVS 40’’s s OF O T THE

1937 Grille With Billet Aluminum Bars Fits Tr Truck 1/4" or 3'8" bar spacing Polished face, fully polished or fully chromed.

37 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $850–$1,826

Woorrlld’s M W Moost Complete Supplliier of 1937 7––54 Chevrroolleet Carrss

53 Grille 1947-5

Grille 1938 Billet Alum minum

Bare or Polished, With or Without "Che Chevrolet" lettering.

Chevs oof the 40s EXCLUSIVE!!!

Fits Car 1/4" or 3/8" Bar Spacing Polished Face

47-53 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1,499.50–$1,800

38 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $2,195

Grille 1937 1 Billet Aluminum Bars

Grille 1941 Billet Aluminum

Fits Car 1/4" or 3'8" bar spacing Polishedd face, fully polished or fully chromedd.

No need for expensive surround r mouldings.

This grille replaces it all.

Chevs of the 40s Exclusive!

41 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Coming Soon!

37 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $850–$1,79 90

FFR REE C CA ATTA ALOG W WIITH YYO OUR UR ORDEER R! SIGN UP FO R O U UR R NE W WS SLET TTEER AND FOLLOW U US S ON

CALL US TOD CA TODA AYY!! 877 7--735-0586 WWW W..CHEVVS SOF TTH HEE4 40S.COM NE E D T O RE T UR N P PA A R T S PURCH A SE D E L SE W HE RE ? C A LL US! A L L P R I C E S , P R O D U C T I M AG E S A N D AVA I L A B I L I T Y A R E S U B J E C T T O C H A N G E W I T H O U T N O T I C E . P L E A S E C A L L F O R C U R R E N T AVA I L A B I L I T Y A N D P R I C E S

YOUR SINGLE-SOURCE STR REE T ROD PA PARTS PROVIDER! 800,000+ P PA ARTS IN STOCK! Briz 5 Rib R Contoured Alloy Front Bumpeer Briz 5 Rib Allooyy Bum mper Available for many ma makkes and models Front or Rearr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $308

SIVE!!!

EXCLUS 1947-1 1947 1954 Chevrolet . . . . . . . . . . . $426 $42 26

Custom Cor vette Grilles Universal Fit 17 TTeeeth 50" wide . . . . . . . . . . . . . $825 19 TTeeeth 55.5" wide . . . . . . . . . . . . $875

Reproduction Cor vette Grille 1953-1957 with universal brackets. . . . . . . . . . . $569

Briz 5 Rib R Shoebox Alloy Bumpers Briz 3 Rib Allooyy Bumper Available for many makes and models Front or Rearr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $285

FFR REE C CA ATTA ALOG W WIITH YYO OUR ORDEER R! SIGN UP FO R OU R N E W WS SLE T TEER R AND FOLLOW U US S ON

Available for many makes and models Front or Rearr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $308 08

CALL US TTO CA OD DA AYY!! 866-681-7 74 428 WWW W..STTR REEEETTR RODHQ.COM N E E D T O R E T U R N P A R T S P U R C H A S E D E L S E W H E R E ? C A L L U S! A L L PRICE S, PRODUC T IM AGE S A ND AVVA A IL A BIL I T Y A RE SUB JEC T T O CH A NGE W I T HOU T NO T ICE . PL E A SE C A L L F OR CURRE N T AVVA A IL A BIL I TTYY A ND PRICE S