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PRO STREET ’61 OLDS POWER TOUR LONG HAULER

THE GREATEST DRAG RACING RIVALRY OF ★1966★

PURSUING

PERFECTION SCOTT SULLIVAN’S 1954 CHEVY IS A TESTAMENT TO DEDICATION AND PERSEVERANCE

HOWTO

TIMELESS

RESTOMOD

BUILD A SHOW-WINNING CAR

’50s THUNDERBIRD

FLAWLESS ’58 CORVETTE

APRIL 2022 PREP YOUR CAR FOR PAINT AND SAVE BIG

FLAT TAPPET VS ROLLER CAM: THE CONTINUING SAGA

DETAILING TIPS FROM THE PROS

0422

Contents HOTROD.COM EVERYDAY Q ON THE COVER: Scott Sullivan’s 1954 Chevy on Power Tour Photo by Renz Dimaandal

12 04

48

04

Starting Line with John McGann

08

48

HOT ROD Archives 20, 40, and 60 Years Ago

10

Optima’s Ultimate Street Car Pro Touring Muscle Cars Battle on the Track

12

Behind the Scenes Look 1969 Camaro RS/SS Street Machine of the Year

22

Bring Out Your Best Tricks, Techniques and Tools of Professional Detailers

Where It All Began The Greatest Drag Racing Rivalry of 1966

52

The Shape of Perseverance Scott Sullivan’s ’54 Chevy is More Than Meets the Eye

62

Barn Find: 1937 Ford Truck As Original as They Come

28

Historic ’55 Thunderbird This Custom Built in the ’50s Hasn't Changed Much

34

Corvette In Paradise ’58 Corvette Restomod Stays Nostalgic

42

68

The Debate Continues Hydraulic Flat Tappet or Roller Cam 96

76

Blown 605-Inch Big-block Over 1,000 hp and Nearly 1,000 lb-ft of Torque

80

DIY Prep and Save Preparing Your Car for Paint the Right Way

84

You’ve Got Clearance, Clarence How to Fit Big Brakes

90

Fashionable Accessories Stronger, Better-Looking LS-Swap Drive System

96

Project Car Update: It’s a Driver! Truck Norris Is Back on the Road

106

Finish Line With Steven Rupp

It’s Back: 1961 Olds 88 Pro Street Returns as 2021 HOT ROD Power Tour Long Hauler HOTROD.COM/2022/APRIL/ 3

STARTING LINE

By John Comfort Zones McGann Editor-in-Chief @john.mcgann

❱At the end of 2020, my career took an interesting divergence. In some ways, it wasn’t so far off from where I started, but in other ways, it was an entirely new experience for me. MotorTrend Group is bringing back the Car Craft name as a video build series, and I was, unwittingly at first, caught up in the movement. As many readers likely know, Car Craft is where I came from. I worked on that magazine from 2006 until 2018 when I slid over to HOT ROD.

Car Craft met an untimely demise late in 2019, along with 18 of our other print titles as the company shifted priorities to our digital properties and the MotorTrend App streaming service. As painful as that was, I understand the decision, ultimately.

The media landscape has been changing for a while, and those changes are happening much more rapidly these days.

Follow us @ hotrodmagazine 4 HOTROD.COM/2022/APRIL/

Part of our efforts to keep up with the evolving landscape is to bring back some of our “legacy” titles in video form, with Car Craft being the first.

At this point, I should make it clear that I’m not going anywhere. My job with HOT ROD will remain unchanged, it’s just that the wording in my job description (which has always been fluid and changeable to say the least) will be getting some more lines added to it. Our first Car Craft video build featured a 1972 Challenger, and we were working with Ian Johnson (formerly of RTM Productions and the Power Block series of shows on cable TV) and his production company, Digital Lug, in Mt. Pleasant, Tennessee.

Once the project was greenlit internally, it was decided that someone from the editorial side should be on-site to help represent the brand in short on-camera segments. For a variety of random reasons, that job fell to me. Flight and hotel booked, I made my way to Nashville for what I thought would be a relatively easy project where I’d have a couple short segments on camera introducing the build, describing the Car Craft ethos, and maybe hanging a part or two. No big deal. When I got there, I realized to my chagrin that I was the on-camera guy, sharing wrenching and talking duties with co-host Kevin Tetz, who you may remember from his time on Trucks! on the Power Block, and who also contributed many paint and body articles to Car Craft as a freelancer.

Well, crap. I’m not exactly “on-camera talent” and have generally avoided being put in that spot thus far in my career.

What was I to do, though, fly back home?

Nope, I put on a big grin and stumbled through my dialogue as best I could, and within a few days, I was having a blast. I spent nearly six weeks there over three separate trips to Tennessee working on the car. I thoroughly enjoyed working with Ian, Kevin, and videographer Jon Melton.

It was some of the most fun I had in years, and we got a lot of work done. I hope that shows through in the videos—we made a total of three on the Challenger, and you can find them now on MotorTrend’s

YouTube channel. I’m also pleased to hear that we’ve been given approval to do several more Car Craft videos this year, and I will likely be involved with most of them as well.

It’s an honor to be involved with the evolution of this brand that meant so much to me. I first appeared in Car Craft in the September 2005 issue, standing in the background of the cover picture, no less, and had authored a six-page article in that issue on how to bring a dead paintjob back to life. At the time, I was running the company’s off-site photo studio and occasionally helping the HOT ROD and Car Craft staff with their project cars housed in the shop next to the studio. Then-editor, David Freiburger, hired me to be the photo editor of HOT ROD and Car Craft right after that, and I appeared in the Car Craft masthead for the first time the following month.

As photo editor, I would contribute beyond the scope of my job, helping in the shop, assisting on photo shoots, and writing some departments such as the new product section. I was finally hired as a staff writer early in 2007, starting in the May 2007 issue. Through Car Craft I was able to travel the country, learn new skills, and meet some of the most incredible people. I would even say that the job saved my life at a time when things weren’t going so well for me personally, and for that, I’m eternally grateful. I would eventually be promoted to editor of Car Craft and held that position for a few years before switching to HOT ROD nearly four years ago. Interestingly enough, I also appeared on the cover of Car Craft in April 2018, and my last issue with CC was July ’18. That’s a pretty good bookend, if you ask me.

David Freiburger wrote an editorial column several years ago titled, “The CC in Me,” in which he succinctly described the roles the two titles fulfilled. Though you would think they would conflict with each other since the subject matter is similar, they in fact complement each other. HOT ROD shows the aspirational, and Car Craft shows how to get there.

Ever the wordsmith, DF described it, “HOT ROD is the must-read leader of the entire performance world; Car Craft is the reality of the streets and the glory of the garage.” Amen to that. Here’s to hoping the next chapter of Car Craft continues that tradition. Give the videos a watch and let me know what you think and what you’d like to see this year.

Some of that work will invariably end up in the pages of HOT ROD magazine, and on HOTROD.com, making us a true multimedia entity. Stay tuned. I think it’s going to be a good year!

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WHERE IT ALL BEGAN

The HOT ROD Archives 20 Years Ago April 2002, 124 pages, $3.99 Miss HOT ROD 2002, Lisa Lingon graced the cover in this picture shot by Wes Allison.

The car was Steve Sbelgio’s ’34 Ford coupe dubbed “The Millennium Kid” by author Ro McGonegal. Why? “It drives modern, smells modern, squeezes a computer-controlled automatic transmission clinging to an all-aluminum engine, and has amassed electronic cues and micro-processed LED fireflies up the ying-yang,” said Ro, and that’s reason enough for us. It must have been shocking to see an LS1 in the engine compartment of this car back then, in fact, it’s still a little shocking to me today. Nonetheless, this car sported an LS1/4L80E combination that had no problem lighting up the rear tires on a whim. Being a paint-and-body themed issue, there was the tried-and-true home paint job article done by Kevin Oeste on a rough-looking ’86 Mustang GT. Steve Magnante compared the range of connecting rods from cast to forged, and even up to uber-expensive aluminum and titanium rods. David Freiburger highlighted his 10 Best bargain project cars, the likes of which should still be relevant today. The list included GM’s G-body LT1 Caprice, S-10 pickup, and third-gen F-cars. The Fords listed were the Fox-body Thunderbirds and Cougars, as well as the Mustang. For Mopars, DF recommended the Turbo 2.2 cars, which included the Charger, Daytona, Shadow, and Lancer.

2002

40 Years Ago April 1982: 134 pages, $1.50 The ’80s Street Machine vibe was strong with this issue, thanks in part to photographer Randy Lorentzen’s cover image that captured the tableau perfectly. Graphics, flames, tunnel rams, and miles of braided steel hose are all hallmarks of the era. Staffer Dave Wallace penned the words to the feature inside, with the subhead, “A True Story of Cold Steel, Warm Lead, Hot Flames, & Hamburgers.” I’m hooked! Most of the pictures were taken at Angelo’s Hamburgers in Anaheim, California, and a quick search on Yelp shows the place is still in business. Maybe we should set up another of these shoots before electric golf carts take over our world. Anyway, the flamed ’32 Ford cover car was powered by a 302 backed by a Toploader four-speed. The Camaro was a little more radical, with a 427 big-block, 12.5:1 compression, a giant roller cam, and dual quads on a tunnel ram intake. This issue also provided solid advice on how to build a torquey 351 Windsor, how to limo-tint your windows, and the basics of engine blueprinting. C.J. Baker reviewed Chevy’s new S-10 Sport, calling it, “the most luxurious, highest quality, quietest, best riding, and quickest small truck we’ve ever driven.”

1982

April 1962: 124 pages, 50¢ Photographer Eric Rickman snapped the “lifestyle” shot of brothers Pat and Mike Germon sitting in their roadster, which was an amalgamation of Ford and Dodge parts.

The guy leaning on the windshield is bother-in-law Bob Ahlstrom, who painted the car.

The engine is a ’50 Ford flathead stroked to 274 inches and beefed up with an Engle camshaft, Jahns flat-top pistons, Weiand cylinder heads, and an Edelbrock intake. The “Roadsters in Roto” headline refers to an expanded rotogravure section in the middle of the magazine which was typically used at the time for the short two- to four-page features in each issue. Rotogravure is a press process that, at least in HOT ROD, was used to print the “newsprint” pages in the center of the magazine throughout the ’50s and ’60s.

In this issue, 24 pages were devoted to features on roadsters from around the country.

Other highlights this month included Ray Brock’s in-depth look at Ford’s new 406 engine.

More than a bored-out 390, the 406 featured an improved combustion chamber design, bigger valves, more compression, and thicker connecting rods. The combo was good for an impressive 405 horsepower and 444 lb-ft of torque. Right after that was a fascinating piece on aerodynamics in which the lead image was a Jaguar E-type.

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1962

HOT ROD Archives

60 Years Ago

WHERE IT ALL BEGAN

THE GREATEST DRAG RACING RIVALRY OF 1966 ❱Drag racing has had some famous rivalries. Long before Don “The Snake” Prudhomme mixed it up with Tom “The Mongoose” McEwen, years before “Big Daddy” Don Garlits called out Shirley “Cha Cha” Muldowney, there was Bill Jenkins versus Jere Stahl. In 1966, it was the greatest rivalry in drag racing.

The unlikely battlefield was Top Stock, an eliminator category chiefly populated by garishly painted production cars. The unlikely combatants were a pair of bookish engineer/racers. In comparison to the thundering Top Fuelers and nascent nitro-burning Funny Cars, Top Stock provided little sound and no fury.

Yet the season-long struggle between Bill Jenkins and Jere Stahl was a clash of the titans: Chevrolet versus Chrysler, small-block versus Hemi, privateer versus factory. In short, this was drag racing’s version of David and Goliath.

QStahl worked as a mechanic and service manager in Chevrolet dealerships before becoming a Hemi hero in 1966. He learned the rudiments of drag racing with a record-setting ’56 Chevrolet station wagon and a killer ’57 Chevy Junior Stocker. With his trademark sunglasses and cheap cigar, Bill Jenkins became a hero for legions of Chevrolet fans. His “Grumpy” persona was largely a façade that kept admirers at bay while he concentrated on the business of racing.

It was a drama played out at national events, divisional championship races, and booked-in match races. Although intense, their rivalry was never ruthless. In fact, Jenkins and Stahl were friends as well as competitors, colleagues as much as adversaries.

Jenkins and Stahl were the odd couple of Top Stock. Jenkins was short in stature and gruff in demeanor, and his favored trackside attire was a pair of loud Bermuda shorts and a T-shirt, accessorized with a cheap cigar. Stahl was tall, gregarious, and buttoned down, a luminous figure in white shirt and slacks, his pocket protector bulging with pens and mechanical pencils. Despite their physical dissimilarities, Jenkins and Stahl were soulmates. Both brought an engineering perspective to drag racing and were evangelists for a disciplined, scientific approach to quarter-mile racing that transformed the sport.

Jenkins and Stahl invented, refined, and popularized many of the technical innovations that are now commonplace in professional racing. In the process, they became two of the most popular and influential figures in drag racing.

Their feats were chronicled in detail in the drag racing press, and their faces were featured in endorsements for products ranging from shifters to spark plugs. Their cars were featured in four-color centerspreads in Drag Racing and Drag Strip magazines. Their improbable rise to stardom could be the story line for a real-life Revenge of the Nerds.

BY RICK VOEGELIN PHOTOGRAPHY HOT ROD ARCHIVES

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01

Point your phone camera here for more info and pictures of this epic rivalry.

01 Decked out in pristine white shirt and pants, his pockets filled with pencils and notes, Stahl was the antithesis of the greasy drag racer. He brought a disciplined, scientific approach to the quarter-mile as a racer and manufacturer.

02 Jenkins’ Chevy II was as basic as it gets: a bench seat, an aftermarket tachometer, a couple of gauges, and no rollbar. Grumpy used a three-speed shifter to change gears in the Muncie M22 four-speed, with an auxiliary lever to engage reverse.

03 Jenkins used asbestos-backed aluminum panels to insulate the carburetor from the heat of the fenderwell headers. Removing the plenum divider from the Edelbrock dual-plane intake manifold made it functionally a single-plane induction. Jenkins also removed the blades from the alternator fan to reduce parasitic power loss and painted the engine flat black to encourage heat radiation.

04The Stock rules required a battery in the original location, so Jenkins used the lightest, smallest import car battery he could find. A homebuilt “cool can”—a coffee can with coiled tubing—was filled with ice to chill the gasoline before it reached the carburetor. A thermostatically-controlled radiator fan minimized power loss.

05 Winning in Tulsa made Stahl the World Champion in Top Stock, a prize that brought both prestige and money. A young Linda Vaughn congratulated the engineer/racer.

02 03 04 05

THE SHAPE OF

PERSEVER There Is Much More to Scott Sullivan’s 1954 Chevy

12 HOTROD.COM/2022/APRIL/

ANCE Than Meets the Eye

T

his defies description. The longer you look at this ’54 Chevy, the more amorphous it becomes. It’s not Pro Street, but it does have big tires. It’s not Pro Touring, but it does have a six-speed manual and big brakes. And it’s most certainly not a custom, yet it offers some classic custom touches that you must search carefully to identify. With those items checked, this ride checks off all the above—and more.

Scott Sullivan built this ride. The HOT ROD faithful will instantly recognize his name: Someone who has long been associated with cars that set trends and have that magic stance, an indefinable look that one observer recounted, “As soon as that car rolled into the show, I instantly knew it was a Scott Sullivan car.”

Our narrative will take on a slightly different approach. This author has known Scott for close to 40 years, and our adventures have been recounted in multiple magazine stories including an epic Pro Street journey in 1988 across the country in his then-new Cheeze Whiz 496ci-powered ’55 Chevy that he still owns.

Accomplished car builders are often bestowed with legendary status, and people often attribute them with superhuman abilities, but when we sat down to go over the details of this ’54, one thing seemed to loom over the entire discussion—this was not an easy build. In fact, in many ways it was downright painful. Others would have surrendered, hoisted the white flag, admitted defeat, and walked away. Scott persevered and delivered what we now have come to expect from him. They say that it’s not the destination but rather the journey that is the reward. In this case, the voyage was more like a battle that was both costly and gratifying.

JEFF SMITH

RENZ DIMAANDAL

HOTROD.COM/2022/APRIL/ 13

PERSEVERANCE The project began simply. Scott had just been victimized by a customer to the tune of $32,000 and was looking to make some quick money. He bought the ’54 sometime back in 2002 with the intent to back half it, add an S-10 front subframe, drop in a drivetrain, and send it down the road. But some internal tug, an appreciation for lines that did not yet exist, prevented its sale. That began the process that Scott admits “went on for way too long.”

We thought it would be fun to reveal a few of the inside stories regarding the disasters that befell this car and that cannot now be traced by even the closest inspection. Like a movie that almost kills its star actor, it’s the backstage stories that are the most intriguing.

It’s that new way of doing something that often causes problems. The Sullivan stance demanded pulling the 2x3-inch fabricated framerails 5 inches up into the body, and that demanded coilover shocks from close friend Bret Voelkel from Ride Tech. The front suspension also evolved away from stock S-10 notions ending up with Ride Tech coilovers, tubular control arms, and all the other necessary accoutrements.

Scott also desired an interesting drivetrain and commissioned Scoggin-Dickey to build an LS3-based 427ci engine with Holley fuel injection, a Viper-based T-56 six-speed, and a Dyad dual-clutch assembly from Centerforce. All that promised power would be connected to a Ford 9-inch rear with 31-spline axles, 4.10 gears, and a limited slip. All of this has traditional markings, but the details revealed where the hidden lessons were learned.

“Hot rodders are backyard engineers, Scott says, “with an emphasis on ‘back yard’. You have to be creative and most of the time, you are successful.”

Like his ’55 Chevy Cheez Whiz car, there was only about 5 inches of original framerail left by the time the two ends met in the middle.

This required raising the floor pan and building new panels. That’s also classic Sullivan. “Hot rodders are backyard engineers, Scott says, “with an emphasis on ‘backyard’. You have to be creative and most of the time, you are successful.”

The frustration hatched from the creativity. Scott is one of those guys who enjoys disguising his work. He started by disguising the LS to look more like a 409 W-engine with ribbed covers over the coil packs and a custom lifter valley milled by his machinist buddy, Gary Mount. Scott’s good friend, Marty Miller, was responsible for the almost overwhelming task of wiring the entire car, especially the EFI system. Marty also did much of the troubleshooting and engine tuning too. On top of all that was the challenge of how to make all that wiring disappear. One solution was to use a non-terminated Holley wiring harness for the Dominator Holley EFI. The Dominator decision fell to the author, and looking back, it was a suggestion that added unnecessary complexity and eventually created a few miscues.

But that’s okay, Scott still takes my calls. A better choice would have been a less complex HP ECU, but that lesson had yet to be learned.

Because the engine had to look like it was born of the Sullivan bloodline, the engine’s fuel rails were sent out to be chromed, along with multiple other ’54 pieces. As the project came together, and it was time to fire the engine, it failed to start. It took days to discover the Chevrolet factory replacement front-mounted cam sensor harness was improperly wired. A freak of nature. That couldn’t possibly happen again, right? With that fixed, the engine still ran poorly.

After discovering plugged fuel injectors and incorrectly positioned fuel filters, the engine remained balky. Two sets of cleaned injectors still didn’t solve the problem. Then one day Scott pinged me during lunch from halfway across the country with a short video. The mini movie revealed his chromed fuel rail dumping a 2-inch-tall pile of debris into the palm of his hand! The chrome company failed to block off the ends of the rail during the acid etching process to remove the exterior anodizing. The acid corroded the inside of the fuel rails, which were never properly cleaned, and Scott didn’t inspect the lines before installing them. That damage devoured weeks of fuel system problem-solving. Once the issue was resolved, the engine ran much better, but now there was a clunking sound emanating from the engine.

HOTROD.COM/2022/APRIL/ 15

PERSEVERANCE The stroker crank was hitting the windage tray. This required pulling the engine back out of the car, which is no small feat maneuvering around those preciously painted components that you dare not scratch. The windage tray was repaired, the metal shavings were removed, and perhaps now there was light at the end of this long-suffering tunnel.

Nope, there was more drama to come. The ’54 was now painted, the drivetrain was in place and performing decently, so Scott deemed the car ready for its interior. He contacted his friend, Larry Sneed, and decided to trailer the car to Larry using a borrowed truck and enclosed race car trailer. The load became unstable on the highway, causing Scott to crash and nearly demolishing the ’54 in the process.

No one was hurt, but the same could not be said for the ’54. Scott said, “The passenger door had a beachball-sized dent, and both front fenders were caved in. The rear of the car was okay, but the damage was nearly overwhelming. I stored it for eight months and never looked at it. Then I brought it back to the shop and studied it for two more weeks while I decided how I was gonna fix it.” This project was not going to end in defeat.

Scott had originally reworked the body so diligently that replacing the damage with stock panels wasn’t an option, so each mangled piece was carefully massaged, sometimes with custom tools Scott built, in order to achieve oneness. He stripped the original paint down to the primer using a razor blade, straightened the body, and repainted the car with a custom-blended Ditzler two-stage paint. The girl who cuts Scott’s hair labeled the color Metallic Cardboard; a name Scott feels is more than appropriate.

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PERSEVERANCE The interior is nothing short of a masterpiece.

Despite all the damage to the exterior, the cockpit suffered only minor damage. The dash may look stock, but that’s an illusion. Scott cut out the entire welded-in dash and relocated it 1 inch to the left to accommodate a Vintage Air duct outlet on the passenger side.

The burlwood pattern in the dash is there because the interior needed to be elegant, with a nod toward the Duesenberg and Packard classics from a century before. The stock seats were recovered in a material similar to Mohair and inset with an English wool broadcloth. The perfect dye color quest protracted into an excruciating two-year search before finding the proper hue. Such is the pursuit of perfection. The steering wheel is one of many clever examples. The wheel is from a ’50 Chevy with a late model Corvette hub adapted to fit the column. The center of the wheel duplicates the dash speaker grille, while the horn ring is custom stainless tubing. Spend a little time looking at the wheel much like an art connoisseur might appreciate the effort of a painting by Tom Fritz or a sculpture from an artist like Stanley Wanlass.

Scott’s art was not limited to just the interior. Multiple paragraphs would have to be dedicated to all the exterior modifications, so we’ll limit our attention to just a few of the more notable additions. In 1954, Chevy stamped the hood from two separate pieces of steel that were riveted together and hidden with the hood ornament. Scott welded the hood and then added what he considers a much cleaner, swoopier ’53 Chevy hood bird and the nose detailed with ’53 head18 HOTROD.COM/2022/APRIL/

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PERSEVERANCE light rings. Ask Scott about the rear wheel openings in a stock ’54 and he’ll describe them as “frumpy”, because the rear rocker panels make an abrupt change that follows neither form nor function. Scott radiused the wheelwell openings and extended the rocker panel rearward to complement the position of the rear bumper. Frumpiness was suddenly lost. The front grille gained two teeth, and the bumper guards were shortened 2 inches in the front and 2 ½ inches in the rear. Insightful observers may notice that Scott filled the fuel filler

20 HOTROD.COM/2022/APRIL/

door on the left rear quarter-panel and built a custom hinge to place the fuel filler neck inside the left taillight, similar to a ’56 Chevy. The door handles were also a major labor of love. Says Scott, “Fifty-three Oldsmobile door handles are much sexier than the Chevy’s. I had to adapt two electric door poppers, then build a narrow pin and guide that actuates a solenoid to open the doors. This allowed me to make the button flush, because it only moves about 1⁄8 inch.” There’s no telling how much time all that took for something that even the most ardent observer would likely not discover.

Art, beauty, and minute details notwithstanding, Scott’s tribulations with his latest creation were not yet over. With a few hundred miles under its belt, the ’54 was running amazingly well, which meant, of course, that all was still not right. At idle and with no warning, the engine would suddenly rev to as much as 2,500 rpm. This clearly was cause for concern, and after weeks of tech calls to tuners, friends, and eventually Holley’s technical department, the solution came from an observant Holley tech who traced the problem to a single idle air speed motor connector pin that was not fully seated.

Scott had built a jumper harness for the idle air speed motor and throttle-position sensor hidden inside the cold air tube to the throttle body. One pin had not quite seated and took the car’s first few miles

to become unpinned. These are the kinds of issues that happen to all car builders that can be amazingly stressful.

Was it all worth it? Of course, it was. Scott says, “Once we had the car finished, and the engine running right, Marty and I took it out and jumped on it. Man, it runs good. I was screaming like a little girl.”

All of Scott’s cars are intended as drivers, not show queens, so it wasn’t much of a surprise to find the ’54 accompanied by Bob Florine and his amazing ’57 Ford wagon on the HOT ROD Power Tour in 2021. The pair put plenty of road miles on their hot rods and even staged an impromptu acceleration contest. Scott was taken aback when Bob’s 521ci Jon Kaase Boss Nine engine handily pulled away from the ’54 despite the wagon’s significant poundage. It was all in fun—at least that’s what Bob says.

All the setbacks, heartbreaks, damage, and frustration are now firmly lodged in the rearview mirror and become less of a burden with each mile Scott puts on the odometer. If you count success in terms of burdens overcome and frustration defeated, this might be his greatest effort yet. Most car builders start with a good-looking car and make it pretty. It’s a little more of a challenge to transform a dowdy old lady into a queen of the highway.

“Once we had the car finished, and the engine running right, Marty and I took it out and jumped on it.

Man, it runs good. I was screaming like a little girl.”

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CAPSULE PARKED AND STORED SINCE 1957, THIS 1937 FORD TRUCK IS AS ORIGINAL AS THEY COME

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here’s an old saying that goes something like, “They are only original once.” The implication is that being original is pretty special. Well, this 1937 Ford truck is about as original as you can expect for an 84-year-old ride. Even more amazing is that this ’37 has been owned by the same Kansas family since the day it was bought new from the Ford dealer!

The truck was purchased in July 1937, the same month and year the original owner’s daughter, the current owner, was born. The family grew wheat in Kansas, and needed a truck to haul the wheat to the market in town. Back then, trucks were

STEVEN RUPP

CHAD EHRLICH

HOTROD.COM/2022/APRIL/ 23

TIME CAPSULE tools to be used hard and replaced when they could no longer be fixed. The owner recalled growing up with the truck and her mom driving it to town, loaded with wheat, which explains the wooden bedsides.

She also remembers a wheat fire scorching one side of the truck a bit and how hard it was for her mom to find replacement tires during World War II. To find an all-original truck like this is rare; to find it still with the original family is even more unique. The truck was parked indoors in 1957, and aside from changing storage locations a few times, it hasn’t seen the light of day in 64 years!

TIME CAPSULE The original title was believed to have been lost, so the family got a new Kansas title. Now the truck has a current title using the serial number stamped on the frame. The original title was found and is included with the truck. It was initially titled using the engine number, so the original title wasn’t a good legal document, but it’s a great part of the truck’s history. We think seeing an 84-year-old title is pretty cool.

The Ford is still fitted with an 85-horsepower V8, but at some point, it was given a remanufactured engine.

Remember, these were work trucks, and back then buying a truck for the farm was a huge investment.

Chad Ehrlich, of Nobody Else’s Auto in Great Bend, Kansas, found this original survivor Ford and considered it special enough to send to auction. After all, with original paint, nearly zero rust, and the documentation, it’s just not something that comes up for sale very often. The truck was put up for auction last October in Great Bend, Kansas.

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TOP FLIGHT This Historic Custom Was Built in the ’50s and Hasn’t Changed Since 28 HOTROD.COM/2022/APRIL/

TIM BERNSAU

WES ALLISON

T

he incredible history of this 1955 Ford Thunderbird goes back 66 years, stretching from the West Coast to the East Coast, and includes a couple of legendary rod shops and a few famous hot rod builders.

Our first look at Dave Simard’s incredible custom came from the photos taken

by Chuck Vranas for an East Coast Custom shop tour story from a 2012 issue of Street Rodder Premium magazine. Dave is the owner of the Leominster, Massachusetts shop, and he’s owned the Thunderbird since 2000, when he bought it from the original owner and builder, Bob Hoshiko.

In the ’50s, Burbank, California, was hallowed ground in the hot rodding hobby, the site of some of the most prominent rod and custom shops. Bob Hoshiko, a customizer working at Colgan’s Auto Upholstery, was in the thick of it all. Bob’s best-known car is probably his 1946 Merc, built at Valley Custom, Neil Emory and Clayton Jensen’s famous shop, also in Burbank.

Bob took inspiration for his Thunderbird from the ’55 T-bird owned by his close friend, Doane Spencer. Spencer gained fame in the early ’50s for the 1932 Ford roadster that has since been recognized as one of the most popular hot rods of all time. The Thunderbird he built a few years later was well known to Los Angeles–area rodders and raced on the salt flats HOTROD.COM/2022/APRIL/ 29

TOP FLIGHT at Bonneville. Like Spencer, Hoshiko purchased his own ’55 Thunderbird new and started its custom modifications immediately.

“Bob delivered the new T-bird to Valley Custom, where it was nosed and decked,” Dave told us. “A custom tubular grille was fabricated to complement the hood scoop insert. The front bumper was split to allow the license plate to be mounted within a Chevy bumper guard. Two custom nerf bars were also added.

The original taillights were replaced with 1956 Merc wagon lights, and all emblems and side trim was removed. Bob had Valley Custom add Lincoln Mark II emblems to the lower fenders. He said the emblem looked like the letter H, making it the Hoshiko crest to complete the outside body modifications.

“On the interior, Bob put his upholstery skill to work and reupholstered the front seat in black leather—eliminating the black and white vinyl factory trim but keeping the stock pattern. He also added an Italian Nardi wooden sports car steering wheel.”

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TOP FLIGHT Underneath, the stock chassis was unmodified, except for the factory springs; the front coils were cut 2 inches and the rear leaf springs were de-arched the same amount.

In 1957, Bob updated the two-year-old Thunderbird, replacing the factory 292 with a new 312ci engine (introduced as a Thunderbird option in 1956) and upgrading from a 6-volt system to 12-volt. In the following decades, the car was repainted twice. The black patentleather finish was last refreshed in the late ’80s. Ford air conditioning was installed during that same period. The wheel and tire changes had been ongoing, with Bob switching back and forth between blackwall and whitewall rubber, and wheel choices that included steelies, dog dish caps, and Halibrands.

Dave Simard was introduced to Bob Hoshiko in the ’80s by Duane Kofoed, a mutual friend (and one-time owner of Dick Flint’s 1929 Ford roadster, another Valley Custom hot rod). In 2000, Duane

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notified Dave that Bob was looking to sell the historic Thunderbird that he’d owned for 45 years. Dave was very familiar with the car and didn’t let the opportunity pass. He bought the custom and hauled it home to East Coast Custom. For 21 years, he has faithfully retained the car’s appearance, apart from switching the steel wheels back to 16-inch Halibrand kidney bean mags, wrapped in classic Dunlop Racing bias-ply tires.

Bob Hoshiko passed away several years ago, but the good news is that his time-capsule custom T-bird is safe in the hands of a hot rodder who respects its heritage. The car has a valued spot in Dave Simard’s collection and gets out as often as possible. When Dave displayed the Thunderbird among many historic race cars at a vintage race event at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut, the timeless custom, virtually unchanged since its early years, was acknowledged as Best ’50s Vintage Sports Car.

IS A 1955 THUNDERBIRD A SPORTS CAR? ❱Ford said it wasn’t. There’s no doubt that the new removable-top two-seater Ford introduced for the 1955 model year was inspired by the sports cars that young American GIs had seen in Europe during World War II, but Ford chose to avoid the “sports car” label. Instead, they chose to market the Thunderbird as ambiguously as possible, as a “distinguished personal car.” And with roll-up windows, a well-appointed interior, and less curvy body lines, the Thunderbird did distinguish itself from European sports cars and Chevy’s Corvette. The T-bird could still identify as a sports car when it wanted to—as when the Fred Scherer/Don Davis team competed a Thunderbird in the 1955 12 Hours of Sebring endurance race in a sports car category.

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This Big-block 1958 Corvette Was Rebuilt Beyond Restomod but Stays Nostalgic TIM BERNSAU

JORGE NUÑEZ

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HOTROD.COM/2022/APRIL/ 35

PARADISE

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he good news about all the abandoned and forgotten cars out there is that they still exist. Whether it’s an out-ofsight barn find or a hiddenin-plain-sight field car (like this 1958 Corvette), these neglected treasures are still out there, and many of them are being found and resurrected back to their former glory—or beyond, and this big-block-powered C1 Corvette from Oahu, Hawaii, definitely delivers.

The Corvette was discovered in 2014. Car designer Samuel Kuaana from Nanakuli, Hawaii, had heard about an older man who had many Corvettes scattered around his property in the town of Wahiawa, Hawaii. When he visited, he saw eight or nine of them in various condition. “This was the only 1958 Corvette,” Samuel told us. “The car was all stock, complete, and in working condition, but it had been sitting under a tarp in a bush in his yard and needed a lot of work. The car sat so long that the brakes and engine were seized because of the moisture and rain.”

Samuel bought the car and towed it home on a flatbed, already planning the restoration process by the time he got it off the tow truck. The dilapidated body was the only part of the original car that would be retained. He shipped it to Brent and David Jackson, father and son hot rod builders in Grass Valley, California. Work continued as their shop moved to Chatsworth, California, and eventually to Boise, Idaho, under their shop name Idaho Muscle Cars.

The classic C1 now rides like a modern Corvette with the addition of one of Art Morrison Enterprises’ 1953-1962 Corvette GT Sport chassis with C6/C7 components. The AME independent front suspension system features C7 spindles, JRI coilover shocks, and rackand-pinion steering from Detroit Speed. JRI coilovers are mounted in the rear as well, where a triangulated four-bar locates the 9-inch axle with 3.73 gears and Strange 31-spline axles. Wilwood Aerolite 14-inch disc brakes, with six-piston front calipers and four-piston rears, are plumbed to an ABS Power Brake master cylinder and electric booster. Those brakes are visible through the 19- and 20-inch Schott Wheels. The fender-filling Tomahawk wheels are wrapped up in low-profile Nitto Invo radial tires, measuring 285/30R19 and 345/25R20.

“My dad is not a man of many words,” Francis said, “and when he saw the car, he just said ‘wow!’ about five or six times.”★★★★★ 36 HOTROD.COM/2022/APRIL/

The eye-catching rubber and rim combo is one of two obvious outward clues that this ’58 Corvette is much more than a nostalgic timepiece. The other clue is the hole in the hood, cut to make room for the Chevrolet Performance 572ci engine, taking up residence where a 283 used to live. This one, machined by David Ehrlich at Autotrend EFI in Diamond Springs, California, is fed by Holley’s Terminator electronic fuel injection on a Kinsler Cross Ram intake manifold. The 650-horsepower big-block packs the C1 engine compartment, leaving barely enough room for paint, but still looks like it was meant to live there. Exhaust is expelled via custom stainless headers and 3-inch mandrel-bent stainless pipes, corked by Magnaflow mufflers. A Lincoln Mark VIII electric fan pulls cool air through a custom Griffin aluminum radiator. A Tremec T56 Magnum six-speed backs up the big-block.

For all the up-to-date technology under the car and under the hood, the C1 body—cleaned up after many years of neglect—was preserved in its classic 1958 appearance with only a few modifications

by Idaho Muscle Cars. The “washboard” faux louvered hood panel (a one-year feature) was removed to create the previously mentioned opening. The chrome decklid spears (another 1958-only detail) were

HOTROD.COM/2022/APRIL/ 37

PARADISE also removed, cleaning up the rear of the car. Other modifications include the eliminated nose badge and front quarter crossed-flag emblems, and shaved door locks. The rear fenders were imperceptibly widened to fit the wide wheels and tires. Dapper Lighting 575 Halo headlights with OE-style glass replace the original quad headlights.

The taillights are factory replacements. The front and rear bumpers were shortened and tucked. The paint is PPG Deltron, sprayed at Idaho Muscle Cars. Instead of painting the side coves white, silver, or another contrasting color, they were shot with the same high-gloss black as the rest of the better-than-new body for a cleaner and slightly meaner appearance. Contrast is provided by all the retained body trim, perfectly replated at Ogden Chrome in Ogden, Utah.

The Corvette ended up back in California for upholstery at Gabe’s Custom Interiors in San Bernardino. They installed custom seats

38 HOTROD.COM/2022/APRIL/

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PARADISE finished in red textured leather, a combination of perforated and smooth, with a custom console added between them. The door panels were upholstered in a custom design, with chrome trim spears to resemble the exterior cove spears. The custom Evod Industries steering wheel was leather wrapped to match. Red square weave carpet covers the floor. The underdash center console was modified to house the Vintage Air Gen II Streamline A/C control panel and Arc Audio PSC controller. The full Arc Audio system was installed by Audio Shoppe in Riverside, California. Custom gauges from Classic Instruments are housed in the stock pods. The center tachometer pod was eliminated, with the CI speedometer and tach installed in the factory speedometer “bubble.” A Ron Francis wiring harness ensures that power gets to all the right places.

Throughout the build, the in-progress Corvette caught the atten40 HOTROD.COM/2022/APRIL/

tion of Samuel’s friend Francis Acupido of Waialua, Hawaii, on Oahu’s North Shore. “I’m not even a Corvette guy, but I really like the style of the ’58 to ’60 cars with the dual headlights and bubble curves,” Francis told us. He also liked the direction of the build, which he calls a combination of nostalgic and hot rod with class.

Francis ended up buying the car and following along with the build during its last few years.

Now that the Corvette is finished, Francis is in the “shakedown” process, test driving the car to reveal any potential tweaks that might need to be made. After that, it will be driven for the sole purpose of fun. He says that he has been eager for his father, Nico, to ride in it.

“My dad is not a man of many words,” Francis said, “and when he saw the car, he just said ‘wow!’ about five or six times.”

That’s the same thing we said.

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IT’S BACK! This Pro Street Olds From 1995 Returns as a Power Tour Long Hauler in 2021 TIM BERNSAU

WES ALLISON & TIM BERNSAU

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he ride started in Norwalk, Ohio, but for Rick Cox of Lansing, Michigan, it started 26 years earlier than for other participants at the HOT ROD Power Tour 2021 Presented by HP Tuners and Driven by Continental Tire. Twenty-six years after its remarkable 1995 appearance at Norwalk Raceway Park, Rick’s prize-winning Pro Street 1961 Oldsmobile Dynamic 88 was back at the renamed Summit Motorsports Park to make the Long Haul and relive days of past glories.

The ’80s and ’90s were the golden era of Pro Street, and events like the HOT ROD Power Festival and the Street Machine Nationals were the biggest and best showcases of these wildly modified muscle cars on steroids. Just about every type of car has been treated to Pro Street modifications, but when Rick Cox’s 1961 Oldsmobile made its impact on the hot rodding world in 1995, HOT ROD referred to the unusual body choice as a prime example of the “Dare to Be Different” trend. Despite being different, or maybe because of it, Rick’s Olds was one of the most successful Pro Street cars of 1995, winning the People’s Choice/Best in Show award at both the Power Fest in Norwalk and the Car Craft Summer Cruise in St. Paul, as well as the Grand Champion trophy at the Street Machine Nationals in DuQuoin, Illinois. The car appeared on the cover of HOT ROD in September and December of that year and was named one of HR’s Top 10 Hot Rods of 1995.

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“All that was so long ago, and yet when I was back at the track in Norwalk this summer it felt like yesterday,” Rick said. “I was hoping some folks might remember the car, and so many did, it surprised me. It was like 1995 all over again.”

Rick bought the Olds in 1991. By then, he had already built a few other Pro Street cars. The out-of-the-ordinary body style was chosen based on practicality— at least partially. “I had two young sons and needed a car big enough to be tubbed out and still have a back seat for my boys.

After seeing Troy Trepanier’s 1960 Chevy Impala, I knew I wanted something like that. I did a little research, and after finding a photo of a 1961 Olds bubbletop, I knew I had to build one.” Rick found what he was looking for in the pages of a local auto trader paper. It was a stock Olds Dynamic 88 in very used condition and with some rust issues, but it was great raw material for the family-sized Pro Streeter that he wanted to build.

In 1991, the Oldsmobile’s 30-year-old factory-stock body was hungry for some rust repairs to the quarters and floor. Custom bodywork was kept minimal— shaved door handles and trim, and that’s about it. Nyle Wing at Wing’s Auto Art in Ionia, Michigan, handled the final bodywork and sprayed the Calypso Green HOTROD.COM/2022/APRIL/ 43

IT’S BACK Metallic paint. It’s a ’92 Ford Probe color that looks great on a ’61 Olds, even after three decades. The only differences between the car’s outward appearance then and now are the tires and wheels, and the injector stacks rising through the hood.

The frame is stock in front but was “back-halved”

by Rich Gebhardt at Gebhardt Pro Cars, using 2x3-inch rectangular tubing to replace the original framerails. The Ford 9-inch rearend is located by a Chassis Engineering four-link system with Koni coilovers to smooth out the ride. The front suspension was upgraded with RideTech ShockWave air springs.

The 15x7 and 15x14 Salt Flat wheels from American Racing have replaced the shiny rims that filled the wheelwells in the ’90s. Hankook Kinergy ST front tires measure 215/75R15. Those Mickey Thompson S/Rs filling the rear tubs are a massive 31.5x18.5-15, leaving a footprint in the neighborhood of 15 inches!

Rick originally powered the Olds with a chromed and polished Chevy 454 big-block fed by a modified 750 Dominator carburetor. The current engine is the third big-block to power the car, built for the Olds to make the Long Haul on the 2020 HOT ROD Power Tour. The engine got finished, but the trip was cancelled due to the pandemic. Engine Technology in Potterville, Michigan, handled the machine work on the recent Rat motor, boring the block to 462 cubic inches. Rick swapped carburetion for fuel injection this time, choosing an Enderle eight-stack EFI system by Fuel Injection Enterprises. Moroso valve covers featuring a fiber-style design dress up things.

Custom headers draw exhaust, and 2 1⁄2-inch exhaust pipes are corked with Magnaflow Turbo mufflers. A TCI-built TH350 transmission and a 3.50:1 geared Ford 9-inch with traction lock get torque to the rear 31-spline axles.

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IT’S BACK The only recent change to the interior of the car is the addition of a Holley controller for the EFI. The tweed and vinyl upholstery and carpet, both installed

by Fine Line Interiors in the early ’90s, have held up great. The Auto Meter gauges fill a custom dash insert, with a speedometer/tach combo mounted on the transmission hump in front of the B&M floor shifter.

Rick installed the audio system, which combines a RetroSound head unit with Kenwood amps and speakers.

We were surprised to find out that Rick’s famous Oldsmobile was gone for 13 years. After earning so many honors with the car, but with other project cars to build, Rick sold the Olds in 1999. “The day I sold it, I started to wonder why,” he told us. After going from Lansing to Alabama, it bounced from state to state and owner to owner, as Rick tried to keep track of its whereabouts. In 2013, he spotted the car, “his” car, for sale by a consignment dealer and was able to buy it and bring it home. Amazingly, the car came back looking just like it did in the ’90s.

“The summer of 1995 was one I will never forget,” Rick told us. “Now, 26 years after all the accolades in the past, I finally took my Pro Street Oldsmobile on the HOT ROD Power Tour. It was the most fun I’ve ever had with the car. It feels good to know that something you built yourself can go out and perform so well. I guess it really is a Pro Street car.”

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“IT FEELS GOOD TO KNOW THAT SOME

THING YOU BUILT YOURSELF CAN GO OUT AND PERFORM SO WELL.”

MUSCLE CAR FIGHT Modern and classic Pro Touring muscle battle on the track at Optima’s Ultimate STEVEN RUPP JIM MCILVAINE Street Car race. ptima’s Search for the Ultimate Street Car, presented by Advance Auto Parts, lives up to its name every time it runs. This series is more than just great drivers, showstopping paintjobs, and 1,000-horsepower track freaks. It’s all of that and more wrapped up into a whirlwind weekend at some of the world’s best tracks. Stop number six in this series was iconic Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, and the first event out of the gate was the Falken Tire Road Course Time Trial on the big track.

If you’ve never run at Road America before, know that it requires your complete respect and attention. There are elevation changes galore, technical turns, and three high-speed straightaways, each one with a progressively hairier braking zone. It will test every aspect of 48 HOTROD.COM/2022/APRIL/

your car, and mechanical attrition surprises no one. If that wasn’t tough enough, competitors leave the big track and head straight for the Peak Performance Challenge, which involves a hard launch, hard brake into a hairpin turn, another hard launch, and a hard stop inside a 40-foot box.

By the end of the day, a dozen of the 70 entrants failed to make the Lucas Oil Road Rally, worth 100 of 500 available points on the weekend. Among the mechanical casualties was Chris Smith’s ’70 Camaro, which was poised to contend for the Classic Car Liquidators GTV Class championship. The series gives you seven chances to come up with your three best finishes to count toward your season-long point total. Smith put together a magical combination en route to a class championship in 2019, but only running three events leaves no margin for error.

Smith spent much of 2021 thrashing to get his son’s third-gen Camaro ready for competition and didn’t make his first

appearance of the season until the fourth event at Atlanta Motorsports Park. The 2019 champ easily took home the class win with the second-highest GTV point total (476) of the season so far. He didn’t make the long haul from Ohio out to Utah for stop five, which meant he needed to piece together two solid finishes in the final two events to win the title again. While the younger Smith successfully debuted in the series by winning the TCI First Timer’s Award, the elder Smith’s weekend and hopes for another class championship went away at the same time as his crankshaft.

Road America did mark a milestone for Holley EFI GTL Class competitor Mike Rovere. It was his 20th event in the series, and it was also his first win in his class.

Rovere spectated at the Las Vegas qualifier in 2016, before entering later that year at Pikes Peak International Raceway. “I got my ass handed to me at that July event,” Rovere admits. “I got to try humble pie for the first time in my life, and I didn’t like it.

Fast-forward five years and 20 events, and I am finally getting that trophy!” Rovere’s win moves him from fourth to second in the GTL Class points chase. The math won’t allow him to catch Jake Rozelle’s ’03 Corvette in the season finale, but the same math won’t allow anyone to catch Rovere for the runnerup spot, either.

2021 Optima Road Atlanta Results: GT Class (post-1989, 3,200+ pounds, 2WD sedans, 4-seater coupes, trucks, etc...)

1. Sam Tennessen, 1994 Toyota Supra 2. Kong Chang, 2017 Ford Mustang 3. Anthony Grace, 2017 Chevrolet Camaro

No Limit Engineering GTT Class (trucks & SUVs over 3,200 pounds) 1. Preston Folkestad, 1984 Chevrolet C10 2. Scott Maeyaert, 1972 Chevrolet C10 3. Jesse Vaughn, 1978 Chevrolet C10

Classic Car Liquidators GTV Class (pre-1990, 3,200+ pounds) 1. Larry Woo, 1968 Chevrolet Camaro 2. Jason Bottenfield, 1969 Chevrolet Camaro 3. Jim Stehlin, 1973 Chevrolet Camaro

GTC Class (2WD compacts, 107-inch wheelbase or less) 1. John Laughlin, 2007 Honda S2000 2. Dayton de la Houssaye, 2009 Mazda MX-5 3. Doug Wind, 2004 Dodge SRT-4

GTS Class (post-1989, 3,200+ pounds, two-seaters & AWD vehicles) 1. Michael Levitas, 2014 Porsche GT2RS 2. Ryan Mathews, 2002 Chevrolet Corvette 3. Todd Mayer, 2000 Chevrolet Corvette

Outlaw Class (relaxed aero rules, pro drivers allowed) 1. Chris King, 2002 Chevrolet Corvette 2. Anthony Palladino, 1969 Datsun Roadster 3. Jeremy Salenius, 1965 Ford Mustang

Holley EFI GTL Class (non-compacts under 3,200 pounds) 1. Mike Rovere, 2008 Chevrolet Corvette 2. Chad Sage, 2016 Porsche GT3RS 3. Jeff Van Buren, 1999 Mazda Miata

Summit Racing Spirit of the Event Award: Andrew Scott, 1987 Buick Grand National

MUSCLE CAR FIGHT In the Outlaw Class for pro drivers and tubeframe chassis with relaxed aero rules, Chris King’s ’02 Corvette took on the largest field of the year and dominated every segment to take home the class win. In the newly formed No-Limit Engineering GTT Class for trucks, Preston Folkestad’s ’84 C10 notched its third win in four starts and cemented the regular season championship.

The math in the GTS Class shows Bob Sobey’s ’13 Nissan GT-R could still lose the championship to either Ryan Mathews’ ’02 Corvette or Michael Levitas’ ’14 Porsche GT2RS in the final event in Bowling Green, Kentucky, but it’s really just math at this point. While Levitas and Mathews are two of the top competitors in the series, they would need a world-beating performance to run down Sobey, and the chances of that happening in a stacked field at NCM Motorsports Park are extremely slim.

The same can’t be said for the GTC Class for compact cars. John Laughlin’s ’07 Honda S2000 took home the class win at Road America, but Doug Wind’s ’04 Dodge SRT-4 moved into the top spot in points. Both are scheduled to run at Bowling Green, and if Wind can’t add to his point total there, Laughlin will need a 404-point finish to pass him for the championship. There’s also a chance Dayton de la Houssaye’s ’09 MX-5 or James Garfield’s ’19 Civic Type R could catch Wind’s Neon, but Laughlin has the best shot of the bunch.

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The biggest question mark at this point is in the Classic Car Liquidators GTV Class for vintage rides, where it’s a four-way race to the finish. Larry Woo’s ’68 Camaro hasn’t run in the series since 2018, but it looked like it didn’t miss a beat when it swooped into Road America and picked up the class win. If Woo had two events left, he could easily be in contention for the championship, but there’s only one remaining. That leaves it to be decided by a quartet of Camaros, with Nick Relampagos’ ’70 Camaro leading Jason Bottenfield’s ’69 Camaro by just two points after Road America (each position on the track is worth one point).

Relampagos is West Coast based and not registered to run at Bowling Green… for now. If he doesn’t run in Kentucky and add to his point total, Bottenfield needs a 423-point performance to get past him, which he has easily done twice this season already.

Wayne Atkins’ ’85 Camaro would need a 443-point performance to pass Relampagos and with a 464 under his belt at NOLA earlier this season, his car is capable. The longest odds would be on Jim Stehlin’s ’73 Camaro, which posted a 454 at NOLA but would need a 462 to pass Relampagos.

The chance that two or more cars could end up in a tie in this class is very real, so how does it get decided?

All four would be invited to Las Vegas for the SEMA Show and Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational (OUSCI), where the top finisher among those tied would be crowned champion. It looks like the regular season finale in Bowling Green will be one to watch and could build even more anticipation for the invitational. For more info on the series, be sure to visit www.driveoptima.com for details on how to get in on the action!

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Labor Intensive A behind-the-scenes look at the build of Mercury Rising, winner of Goodguys Street Machine of The Year and one incredible 1969 RS/SS Camaro. ❱When you see a top-shelf show car, it’s easy to forget that at one point, it was just an idea, a dream that someone had envisioned as the ultimate ride. We see the perfect body gaps, custom one-off parts, and other changes without comprehending that it was a project just like your build at home. Well, this is the story of Chad Farischon’s 1969 RS/SS Camaro that recently won the coveted Street Machine of The Year (SMOTY) award at the 2021 Goodguys show in Columbus, Ohio. Sure, the car is a star now, with everyone trying to snag a feature of it, but the path from conception to building a show-winning Camaro, to us at least, is way more interesting.

The starting car for this build was already really nice. In fact, it was nice enough to get a full feature in Chevy High Performance magazine a few years ago. We asked Chad why he didn’t just sell that car and buy a shell for this project. Well, just like the rest of us, this project sort of snowballed and didn’t start off as a full build at Mountain Home Street Rods.

A few things added here, a few revisions to the plan there, and soon they were down the proverbial rabbit hole. “For as long as I remember I always wanted a 1969 Camaro and in 2012 I found one that I liked. The plan was to enjoy it and make some changes to my liking down the road. It wasn’t long before I was doing some upgrades and fixing some issues from when the car was last built in 2009. The Camaro was a complete build and appeared in CHP, but I soon went down a path in 2013 where we were starting over.”

STEVEN RUPP CHAD FARISCHON AND BRETT SCHMESKI

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“I was motivated to make this a non-ordinary Pro Touring build and somehow be a little different with a 1969 RS/SS Camaro, which is so difficult without going too far. Mountain Home Street Rods was up to the task of putting it all together and making a track beast look like a show car.” recalled Chad. Oh yeah, we forgot to mention, this wasn’t just going to be a show car, it was also being built to be beat on the track. To make that happen they needed a plan, and that plan

QWith a solid visual plan established, attention was turned to several subtle body modifications including flush glass, extended rockers, flush bumpers, along with modified quarters and tail pan to name just a few.

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started with some renderings by artist Ben Hermance of Hermance Designs.

“Upon tear down, we discovered the car had nearly all its original sheetmetal, but after nearly 50 years, there was evidence of patches and corrosion in places we didn’t expect,” Chad told us. New AMD quarter-panels, outer wheelwells, and door shells were installed while ensuring the substructure would be solid for another 50 years.

QEven something like the sideview mirrors, often just a bolted-on afterthought, were given dozens of man-hours of extra attention. Here you can see how the bases were recessed into the doors. All these extra steps are how the Mercury Rising Camaro took home the SMOTY trophy.

QCars at this level are built, taken apart, reworked, and built again before being blown apart for paint and then reassembled the last time. All that costs man-hours and, as they say, time is money. Here you can see the process for creating the car’s seamless rockers. That’s a lot of work for a part of the car you would have to get onto your knees to see. But again, this build is all about the details.

QWhy just mount your Optima battery in the trunk when you can create a recessed spot for it?

QWe would argue that the front end of a 1969 RS/SS Camaro must be the bestlooking nose of any muscle car ever made. But that mix of metal, plastic, and rubber almost never fits together nicely. For this car, all the various bits were worked over until they were a unified, perfectly-gapped showpiece.

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Q“I had the direction I wanted to go, including an idea of having a subtle design difference other than a solid hockey stripe. Choosing the colors is always the hard part, and as much as I tried to go away from red, something kept pulling me back towards it,” recalled Chad.

QChad continued, “Which red was the tough part. I knew I didn’t want to go back with Guards Red with its underlying orange hues. It had to look red in all lighting but still have subtle changes in tones under different lighting. I landed on Jupiter Red with accents of bronze and carbon flash, both having metallic accents. The wheels, tail pan, and engine bay would have the same accent color but with satin sheens.”

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QIt didn’t just have to look good, it also had to handle like a track car and yet be comfortable to cruise. Detroit Speed supplied the subframe, subframe connectors, and Quadralink rear suspension. Just the standard rear wasn’t good enough though, so Strange provided the floating 9-inch axle with their Pro HD aluminum centersection and S-Trak differential with 4.11 gears.

QHere you can get an idea of the amount of work that went into the engine bay from the smoothed and contoured firewall to the one-off billet bits, Ring Brothers hinges, and fabricated down bars. Carbon fiber was used throughout the build—some you can see, and some was hidden under paint.

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QThe shocks and Wilwood brakes were specified by JJ Furillo of Ultimate Performance (UP) utilizing his expertise with first-gen DSE-equipped Camaros in the Optima Ultimate Street Car Challenge. The JRi doubleadjustable dampeners were custom tuned by UP specifically for the car.

UP also suggested the Wilwood Racing Aero6/Aero4 calipers and the 14.25-inch floating hat Spec-37 rotors.

QNothing ordinary would suffice for the powerplant either. The dualoverhead-cam LS7-based Mercury Racing SB4 32-valve V8 makes 750 hp with an 8,000 rpm redline and is as far away from being an LS engine as it can be. As a bonus, it has a sound unlike any other.

QThe Mercury SB4 mill required custom headers, but with a build like this, very few off-the-shelf parts work anyway. Again, everything was fabricated and built once before being disassembled for paint.

The old saying is “They come out nice because we build them twice.”

The Interior ❱The Camaro’s details are carried into the interior as well. As Chad explained, “Distinct Customs of Norman, Oklahoma, turned to Relicate for the black Italian Napa leather and suede with red stitching for a modern cockpit, while still retaining some of the 1969 Camaro styling cues. They even wrapped the roll bar in red-stitched leather. The Motec 12-inch digital dash provides all the telemetry one would need and was custom configurable to fit the build. The Recaro Sportster GT seats were shortened to fit the proportions of the Camaro’s interior while the rear seat delete provides functionality with storage. The rear seat area also brings in cues of the geometric shapes seen in other parts of the build. The custom-built center console with carbon-fiber inlays houses the iPad mini control center. The Infinitybox power distribution management system controls the lights, windows, locks, as well as the A/C system. Hidden in the center console is the control switch for the Memphis Audio system that’s controlled via a Bluetooth device, and because dead smart phones are no fun there’s a hidden wireless phone charger built into the console access lid.”

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QSubtle and straightforward design aspects make for a clean, yet functional, engine bay complete with engine oil, trans, and power steering coolers to survive hard track duties. The Tremec Magnum six-speed transmission was built for road course and cruising duties with a short 2.29 first gear ratio and overbuilt internals along with an integrated cooler pump.

The power is delivered through a custom 3.25-inch carbon-fiber driveshaft by Dynamic Drivelines.

QYou don’t win prizes like SMOTY using only off-the-shelf parts. It takes creativity and things such as computer modeling, 3D printing, and CNC machining. Here you can see just one of Mercury Rising’s many one-off parts. First, the idea is rendered in a computer, then 3D printed to make sure it fits as wanted. Once perfect, it’s sent to the CNC machine to be whittled out of aluminum.

Q The Camaro is covered in one-off billet and custom parts like these coil covers for the SB4 Mercury engine. Finding all the custom parts and subtle changes is one of the fun aspects of checking out a car like this in person.

QDirt Road Customs handled the heavy fabrication such as the 6-point rollbar, firewall down bars, custom headers and more.

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Total It Up ❱What do you get when you combine a massive stack of high-end parts, a solid plan, and 4,500 man-hours of labor? You get what could be considered the perfect blend of then and now. It’s a Camaro that could win any car show and still be capable of holding it’s own on a road course. The design by Ben Hermance should hold up over time because it kept all the styling cues unique to a 1969 RS/SS Camaro. The design didn’t try to do things just to say they did them; the design lifted up and highlighted what was already there. This car personifies power and technology with modern conveniences in a 1969 Camaro that can run extended sessions on a racetrack or comfortably go for a long cruise. It’s everything a Pro Touring ride should be.

Winning the SMOTY award is no easy task. The top builders from around the country bring the best-of-thebest to Columbus each year and the judging is brutal. As part of the competition each contender has run autocross laps to show they aren’t just show ponies. In the end Mercury Rising nabbed the top prize.

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At first glance, from a distance, this 1969 Camaro looks like just another super-clean Pro Touring style 1969 Camaro. But when you get up close you notice all the subtle changes, perfect panel alignment, and unique touches that earned it the top prize in Columbus.

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BRING OUT YOUR BEST The Tricks, Techniques, and Tools of Professional Detailers ❱The famous hot rod shops building cars that win the top-level awards know that a car isn’t ready to show until it’s been perfected.

They know that show judges at the Grand National Roadster Show, the Detroit Autorama, or Pebble Beach are going to be fanatically scrutinizing their work, looking for the slightest flaw as closely as a crime scene detective looks for a fingerprint or a strand of hair. Professional builders rely on professional detailers to eliminate any hint of imperfection in the paint, interior, engine compartment, and tires and wheels of the cars they submit for judging.

Claude Harris Jr. is one of the people builders call to make sure those judges don’t find any flaws. He began his career almost 30 years ago as a mobile detailer—essentially a traveling car washer—with a trunk full of wash buckets and brushes, a car vacuum, and a homemade T-shirt with his logo on it. Today, he is the owner of Final Appearance Auto Detailing in Santa Fe Springs, California, a member of the International Detailers’ Association, and the 2020 Detailer of the Year.

TIM BERNSAU

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He has participated on the Competition Ready TV show on Velocity (now MotorTrend TV), and he works with elite-level shops and personal collectors, taking cars to their ultimate level.

HOT ROD visited Claude at his shop where he showed us some of the tools, told us some of the techniques, and described some of the terms that pro detailers use. Your car might not be competing at the highest levels, but much of the information that Claude shared in this basic overview can be adopted by hot rodders at any level.

“Show judges are looking for how flawless the finish is,” Claude noted. Flaws include the clarity of the paint and any imperfections such as swirl marks. “It’s a two-stage process,” Claude explained. Paint correction is the term that detailers use for removing scratches, and jewelling is the term for enhancing the shine.

Removing dirt and eliminating scratches is the first stage, but that alone won’t increase shine. Polishing and finessing the paint is the second stage, which results in the amazing mirror finishes we see at shows.

QChamois like the one on the lower left in the photo above have always been popular for drying cars, but microfiber towels are softer and better for the finish. “They are the best thing to happen in detailing,” Claude said. They are available in a wide variety of piles and shapes. GSM (grams per square meter) is a weight and pile rating for microfiber towels, generally ranging from 200 to 1,200 GSM. Many general-purpose car towels are in the 300 GSM range. Higher GSM towels are heavier with a more plush pile. They are more absorbent and less aggressive than the lower GSM towels. Lower GSM towels are better at preventing surface streaks.

QFor many car enthusiasts, microfiber mitts are an easierto-use alternative to standard microfiber towels. These three products show the variety of piles and designs (and colors) available. The best product is ultimately a matter of personal preference.

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\Cleaning

Before attacking scratches or polishing, contaminants need to be removed from the surface with traditional washing. For many people, the idea of washing a car conjures up images of a vehicle covered in suds. “It shouldn’t,” Claude says.

“Gone are the days of foam,” he told us. Lubricity, the soap’s ability to reduce friction and loosen up the dirt, is more important. Modern high-end products like Double Black Renny Doyle Collection Auto Shampoo from P&S, was developed by a professional detailer, and “It won’t foam up when I put on a mitt and start cleaning. Then, it rinses away clear without leaving residue.”

Brand new show cars are not likely to pick up tougher contaminants, but street cars are. These often can’t be removed by a basic wash and require stronger cleaners and degreasers. In addition, dust, dirt, and many other airborne particles can harm the surface of a car. Brake dust is a very common contaminant that settles on the surface and discolors the paint if not washed off. The industry has products designed specifically for this situation, such as Iron Decon from Meguiar’s.

QEven wash buckets have been improved. The Grit Guard and similar dirt trap inserts are available from many retailers or packaged with a professional bucket, such as this 3 1⁄2-gallon bucket from Meguiar’s.

The dirt trap prevents the wash towel or mitt from picking up dirt when submerged into the water. Some detailers use the two-bucket washing method with one bucket of soapy water and one bucket of clean water.

\What Is Clay?

The use of clay bars and pads for cleaning paint surfaces is familiar and popular among enthusiasts and the public in general. Detailers frequently get requests for “claying” from customers who may have a misunderstanding about what it can accomplish. It is not for the purpose of removing scratches and swirls or to enhance the shine.

Clay bars and pads, used with lubricants, provide a stronger method of removing tough contaminants before paint correction and polishing. “Products like Iron Decon is the chemical decontamination and clay is mechanical,” Claude explained. “Sometimes it takes both.”

QPro-level compounds and polishes are made in varying levels of abrasion. Note the scales and arrows on the Meguiar’s labels pictured above. This is a small sample of the various degrees of compounds and polishes that Claude and detailers like him regularly use: (left to right) Aero Revolution Brilliance finishing compound, Rupes D-A Fine polishing compound, Meguiar’s Mirror Glaze polish, Meguiar’s Mirror Glaze compound, TLD The Last Cut compound, and Sonax Profiline Cutmax compound. “The Last Cut is another product developed by a detailer and happens to be one that I use a lot,” Claude told us. Some modern compounds contain softer micro abrasives that break down, becoming smoother and less aggressive with use.

\Understanding Shine

Rubbing compounds are the chemical products used to eliminate heavy defects in the paint and are available in different levels of abrasion. The same is true of pads, which have different levels of density. “We learn to start with the least aggressive compounds and pads first,” Claude says

Polishing enhances shine. Scratches inhibit shine. “It all has to do with light,” Claude explained. “Shine is when light is reflected off the surface. Scratches break up the light, so you don’t have that reflection. Making the surface smooth brings back reflection and restores the shine.”

The idea behind the two-stage approach to detailing is that polishing the paint won’t result in the best shine if the scratches aren’t eliminated. “You’re putting scratches in to take scratches out—mowing down those scratches to make the surface as level as possible.”

This stage in the process has specific and varied tools, chemical and mechanical, for doing the job.

\Compounds

\Polishes After the scratches that prevent shine have been eliminated, the painted surfaces still won’t be shiny.

That’s where the second stage, polishing, comes in: to eliminate the finer scratches and enhance the light reflection that produces shine. This is the fine-tuning step that Claude calls “finessing the paint” or “jeweling”. As

with compounds, pro-level polishes come in different abrasion levels, indicated on the packaging. And as with compounds, Claude recommends starting with the lowest abrasion level for the protection of the finish. It’s easy to move to more aggressive levels if needed, but not so easy to move in the other direction if you’ve started too high.

Any procedure for removing scratches and swirls involves removing a portion of the finish. The goal is to not remove any more than is necessary. Different paints have different characteristics, and pro detailers need to know what they are. The hardness or softness of paints, as well as the thickness, are all factors detailers need to know when planning paint

correction to prevent damage caused by removing too much material.

For example, OEM paint is generally cheaper and thinner, using less material than multi-coat custom paint jobs.

Claude cautions, “Degrading the paint can hurt the finish and reduce its value.

Cutting down the scratches removes the paint, only microns at a time, but over time it adds up.”

That’s the reason pro detailers like Claude recommend using the least aggressive chemicals and pads first.

“My job is to make the car look as good as possible with taking as little paint as possible,” he explained. He also suggests selecting an out-of-sight test spot to see how a procedure will affect the finish. “Before you put a machine on the car, you should know how much

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paint is on it,” Claude emphasized. Pro detailers use coating thickness gauges to determine the precise thickness, in millimeters, of the finish on the sheetmetal.

\Application Tools

Rotary polishers were once the standard in the detailing industry just as rotary sanders were in the bodywork business. In both cases, these have been replaced by dual action (DA) polishers, which offer a lot of advantages over the previous tools.

“The rotary polishers, which spin one way, were harder to learn and, if not used carefully, could burn the paint off the car,” Claude said. “Over the years, technology has changed. High performance DA polishers spin and oscillate.

With a combination of machine pads and liquids, they are safer and easier to use for removing scratches.”

QClaude used this Nicety coating thickness gauge to measure the finish on the ’40 Ford coupe in his shop. The gauge registered a reading of 49.2mm.

QLeft: The DeWalt is a high-speed rotary polisher. The dual action Griot next to it has an 8mm throw for fine tuning: better for feathering in smaller areas. Claude uses the Rupes (center) with 3-inch pads for curves and small spots.

The two Flex models (center right) are cord and cordless models.

Finally, the small Rupes (far right) is the ideal choice for reaching nooks and crannies.

QBelow: ScanGrip and other manufacturers offer lights in various sizes and configurations, starting with pocket-sized lights (shown), which feature bright and warm settings, as well as a magnet for hands-free use.

\Pro Lighting

Shop or garage lighting is not very good for seeing surface defects, so detailers rely on professional-level LED lights to spot swirls and scratches. “Color matching lights came out of the paint industry,” Claude told us. “They are useful to detailers when looking at paint finishes. This is like matching sunlight. We can see scratches that might not be visible by just looking.”

He uses a variety of Scangrip Colour Match lights in his shop, as well as to larger lights on stands. In addition to revealing surface defects, these lights are useful when determining paint color under less-than-ideal indoor lighting.

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QThe Husky and Utilitech Pro are two larger, professional LED lights also used by Final Appearance Auto Detailing. Lights like these provide the closest thing to sunlight inside the shop.

QEven slight paint imperfections that can’t be seen by the naked eye are visible under the lights, just like they would be outdoors or under a show judge’s light.

\Detailer’s Little Black Book Claude introduced us to Detailers Dictionary by Christopher Evans. This 92-page guide provides definitions of the terms and explanations of the procedures used by pro detailers, including the ones referred to here. The book is available online, and the information inside valuable to anyone: professional automotive detailers, car owners who rely on pro detailers, or do-it-yourself hot rodders who want to understand how to care for the finish of their car and improve their own skills.

Detailing goes beyond finessing the paint.

Wheels and tires, glass, interior surfaces, and upholstery are a few of the other areas where the right detailing procedures will perfect the appearance—and where common mistakes can hurt it. We’ll be exploring some of those areas in upcoming issues.

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CAM CONUNDRUM Revisiting the Age-Old Debate: Hydraulic Flat Tappet or Roller Cam? ❱While we all may want the latest and greatest performance crate engine, the reality for most of us is that we need to figure out how to do more with less cash. However, the least expensive route isn’t always the best one. Sometimes you need to spend just a bit more to get a much better outcome. This time we’re going to look at the popular 350-cubic-inch Chevy small-block. While the LS swap may seem ubiquitous, in the real world, the 350 small-block outnumbers LS mills by far. Why? Simple: they are affordable, easy to work on, make great power on the cheap, have huge aftermarket support, and require very little in terms of electronics.

When building a budget small-block Chevy, the first decision you’re going to need to make is if you’re going to run a hydraulic roller or flat tappet cam. If price was the only consideration, then the less expensive flat tappet would always win, but in today’s world, and with today’s oils, going the less expensive route can be more expensive in the long run. With most oils available today, you need to add friction modifiers at every oil change if you’re running a flat tappet cam. That extra expense adds up over time.

If something does go wrong and you flatten a cam lobe, any savings that the flat tappet system had will evaporate faster than a politician’s promise. So, spending an extra $600 for the roller setup may end up being the right way to go. Again, it’s more about spending your money the right way and in the right places.

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Sources ARP; 800.826.3054; arp-bolts.com Comp Cams; 800.999.0853; compcams.com Don Lee Auto Service; 909.989.1573; donleeauto.com Eagle Specialty Products; 662.796.7373; eaglerod.com Holley Performance Products; 866.464.6553; holley.com Racing Head Service; 877.776.4323; racingheadservice.com

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01 Finding a good early block these days can be a challenge since most are just worn out. The better route is to go with a newer block like this one from AA Midwest. This one is from 1986 and has some desirable features. This four-bolt main block set us back $450 and included the seal retainer needed for later one-piece main-seal blocks. They also offer an adaptor so you can run a two-piece seal crank in a newer block if that’s what you need. Here you see our “new” block after we cleaned it and had it rough honed.

02

02The 350 block was finish honed to 0.030-inch using a torque plate during this process so that the cylinders will be true after the heads are torqued in place. Spending a few extra dollars on quality machine work will result in a better, longer-lasting engine, which in the long run will save you money.

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MASTER THE

MESS 03 03 With our block back from the machine shop, we went to Tim Lee’s shop, Don Lee Auto in Rancho Cucamonga, California, to put it all together. First up was installing cam bearings from Summit Racing (PN SUM-173000). Installing cam bearings takes a special tool, so if you want to go the easy route just have the machine shop install them. Expect to pay just under $100 bucks for the labor.

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04

04 To keep the costs down on this mild street engine we used a cast crank and rods with forged pistons. Eagle’s cast crankshaft is rated for over 500 hp at 6,500 rpm. The ESP Armor process results in a better bearing surface, stronger parts, and the slick surface sheds oil better. The crank was installed and secured with ARP main bolts (PN 134-5202).

05

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05 To save time and hassle we had Eagle balance the rotating kit on their Hines equipment. Here you can see the forged 6.000-inch 5140 SIR I-beam rods with the ESP process. They came bushed to work with full floating piston pins and utilize ARP wave-lock fasteners and have alignment sleeves for easier assembly. The forged pistons are from Mahle and came fully coated right out of the box.

The choice to run forged pistons means we have options if we want to run nitrous or some other power adder later on down the road.

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06

06 Next up was sliding in the Comp Extreme Energy hydraulic flat tappet cam (PN 12-2463). The cam spec’d out at 230/236 duration at 0.050-inch and 0.490 lift with an LSA of 110. It can’t be overstated how important assembly lube is for this install if you want to avoid ending up with a flat lobe on your shiny new cam.

With the cam in place, we installed the rods and pistons.

07

07 No matter which way you go you will need a quality timing chain to keep everything happy, so we opted for the Comp Magnum doubleroller (PN 2100) and fastened it with ARP bolts (PN 234-1001). The newer block meant we had to clearance the metal just a bit so the chain wouldn’t rub. With this done, we could tape off the short-block and give it a few coats of orange paint.

08 Next, we bolted on the Racing Head Service (RHS) 180 Chevy heads (PN 12022-0). These Pro-Action 23-degree heads feature 64cc chambers and showed up fully assembled. If you need to save a few bucks, and don’t mind the extra weight, RHS also offers these heads in an iron version (PN 12317-01).

09 For head bolts, we went with a pack from ARP (PN 134-3601). We then added the Summit oil pump (PN SES-2-60-08-005) which included the pump driveshaft. For added insurance, we dumped half of a bottle of assembly lube into the oil pump before installing the pan and flipping the engine back over so we could torque down the head bolts. Remember, lubrication is rule number one with a flat tappet cam.

08

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09

10 It was then time to drop in the Comp High-Energy hydraulic flat tappet lifters (PN 812-16). As before, we made sure to used tons of assembly lube. You can also spy one of the benefits of the newer block, it has the bosses in the center of the valley necessary to easily run hydraulic roller parts when we swap over after the first dyno session.

10 11 11 This is a mild street engine, so we really wanted to focus on low- and mid-range torque.

To get there, we went with a dual plane aluminum intake from Weiand. The high-rise isolated runner design of this intake will help keep the intake charge temps down.

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12 12 These Comp Magnum roller-tip rockers (PN 1416-16) are a great balance between budget and performance. The 1.6 ratio will give us a bit more lift and the roller tip will let the valvetrain work a bit more efficiently. With the rockers installed, we were able to check what pushrod length we needed, which turned out to be 7.800-inches.

13 Once mounted on Westech’s Superflow 902 dyno, we installed an MSD Street Fire billet HEI distributor (PN 8362) with a matching set of their plug wires. Topping the Weiand intake is a Holley 650 cfm carburetor. Chrome Holley valve covers (PN HLY-241-80) seal up the valvetrain, and a set of dyno long-tube headers will ditch the gases. After breaking in the cam and setting the timing, we made a few pulls and managed to get 375 hp at 5,500 rpm and 409 lb-ft of torque at 3,800 rpm from the little 350. The cam profile was lumpy and had less than 11 inches of vacuum at 1,000 RPM. 14 We then pulled the flat tappet parts out of the small-block and slid in a roller cam. The new cam came in at 218/224 duration with 0.570 lift and an LSA of 113. It was smaller than the flat-tappet cam we removed, but it did have more lift.

15 Of course, this meant we also had to change the lifters, and this is where having the later roller block really paid off. Since our ’86 block was already set for roller parts the swap was a snap. We also needed to change to a shorter, 7.200-inch pushrod, but we were able to reuse the same Comp rockers. Westech’s Steve Brule also installed the stiffer valvesprings for the increased lift of the new cam. These are the springs that would have come from RHS if we had ordered them that way.

14

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13

15

16 We once again fired up the dyno, broke everything in again, and found the engine’s happy place in terms of timing.

17 With the smaller, smoother-idle hydraulic roller cam, our 350 small-block laid down 387 hp and 416 lb-ft of torque, which is more than our lumpier, larger, flat tappet cam made! More importantly, the roller cam has much better street manners with over 17 inches of vacuum at 1,000 rpm. This equates to an improved idle quality and a more reliable engine for a ride that sees lots of street time and has options such as power brakes. We’ll also never have to worry about the roller cam going flat due to running the wrong oil or no additive. The downside to the hydraulic roller setup is cost since the parts will add an extra $600 to $800. But, if you’re spending thousands of your hard-earned dollars on a new engine, the extra coin spent now will more than likely pay off in the long run.

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Earth Mover

Sources

Blown 605-Inch Big-Block Chevy Makes Over 1,000 hp and Nearly 1,000 lb-ft of Torque!

Dart Machinery; 248.362.1188; dartheads.com

❱By now, we all know that Steve Brule is a co-host on MotorTrend’s Engine Masters show, but when he isn’t in front of our cameras, he’s running Westech Performance Group in Southern California. This means he sees a lot of engines roll through his doors, and when he sees something extra cool, he gives us a shout. This time around, it’s a very big, big-block with an equally big blower on top.

Lucas Oil Products; 800.342.2512; lucasoil.com

STEVEN RUPP

STEVE BRULE

Aeromotive Fuel Systems; 913.647.7300; aeromotiveinc.com ARP; 800.826.3045; arp-bolts.com Callies; 419.435.2711; callies.com

Littlefield Blowers; 714.992.9292; littlefieldblowers.com

JE Pistons; 714.898.9763; jepistons.com Jesel Valvetrain; 732.901.1800; jesel.com MSD Performance Products; 866.464.6553; holley.com Westech Performance Group; 951.685.4767; westechperformance.com

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01 There’s an old saying: “Horsepower sells cars, but torque wins races.” With that in mind, this extrabig, big-block’s goal was lots and lots of torque. To get there, B&G Racing started with a Merlin block, punching and stroking it out to an impressive 605 cubic inches. Forged internals include a Callies crank and rods, and JE blower pistons.

02 Topping the short-block is a pair of Canfield rectangle-port heads secured with ARP fasteners. These massaged 310cc heads featured 118cc combustion chambers, which, when combined with the JE blower pistons, yield an 8.8:1 static compression ratio.

06 07

03 They also wanted a rock-solid valvetrain, and that meant a solid roller setup including these Jesel rockers combined with Comp lifters. The camshaft isn’t huge, with duration numbers of 254/262 at 0.50 inch and just over 0.700 lift.

04 To keep everything properly timed there’s a Jesel belt drive system on the front of the 605 big-block.

05 And now for the good stuff. Topping the longblock is a Littlefield 10-71 roots blower. These days, Roots blowers are considered a bit old-school, but nobody can argue the torque potential, especially down low, of these positive-displacement blowers.

The blower is fed by a pair of four-barrel, referenced, Quick Fuel blower carbs.

06 Once on the Superflow 902 dyno, the 605 was fitted with a pair of large-tube Schoenfeld dyno headers. You can also spy the custom oil pan, which is filled with 20w/50 Lucas oil.

07 An MSD distributor, MSD wires, and NGK plugs will ensure adequate spark during the pulls. This is also a great view of that glorious 10-71 blower.

08 09 08-09 Big cubes with a big blower in search of big power needs a robust fuel supply, so an Aeromotive 3000 pump was used along with a tank of Sunoco 110-octane gas. This is a pump gas engine, but they will often use race gas during the tuning and break-in runs as a safety measure on the dyno. And with that, the 605 big-block was ready for its break-in runs and some quality tuning time. The blower is being spun at 5 percent over.

10

10 After tuning we have the poster child for “area under the curve.” Nearly 1,000 lb-ft of torque is nuts, but what impressed Brule was that it was making 996 lb-ft at just 4,100 rpm. Let’s see a turbo do that! Even at 6,100 rpm, the 605 is still making 872 lb-ft to go along with its 1,012 horsepower, and this was at only 9 pounds of boost. It just goes to show there’s no replacement for displacement, especially when a little boost is invited to the party.

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Sources The Eastwood Company; 800.343.9353; eastwood.com Mick’s Paint; 310.947.6727; mickspaint.com PPG Automotive; us.ppgrefinish.com

DIY PREP AND SAVE How To Prep Your Car for Paint the Right Way ❱The most expensive thing you can do to your automotive project is to paint it. Yes, you can certainly come up with ways to do this job on the cheap, but the results will generally reflect the amount of time you spent on the work and the amount of money you spent on materials—or lack thereof. Paintjobs are expensive, not only because of the cost of materials, but also because of the amount of labor involved, and that’s for something we would generally consider “driver quality”. If winning major car shows is your goal, prepare to shell out some serious coin. At that level, it’s not uncommon for a paintjob to cost more than $100,000.

We’re not talking about those kinds of paintjobs here. For this article, we’re focusing on a nice paintjob for your daily driver, or weekend cruiser. The good news is that, if you have the time and talent, or the willingness to learn, you can cut the costs of a paintjob significantly by doing some of the work yourself and farming out the rest.

For more info, we spoke with Mick Jenkins, owner of Mick’s Paint in Pomona, California. Though he may not be a household name, we guarantee you’ve seen his work before. Many show-winning paintjobs have come out of his shop, and he has done work for the likes of So-Cal Speed Shop and Pure Vision Design, as well as dozens of cars for private individuals.

Mick says the average person can get a nice-looking and durable paintjob from places like Maaco, and you can save a ton of money by doing much of the prep work yourself. Here are a few ways your own elbow grease adds up to dollars saved at the paint shop.

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JOHN MCGANN 01

01 The best way to guarantee a long-lasting paintjob is to start with bare metal. The bad news here means that you’ll be spending many, many hours becoming intimately familiar with paint thinner, scrapers, sanding boards, and sandpaper. The upside—you’ll get a good workout! Keep a “Wax on, wax off” attitude, and you might become quite jacked by the time you’re done.

02 Stripping paint involves much more finesse than slapping a 40-grit sanding disc on your rotary grinder and going to town. That’s what happened to the entire body of this ’59 Cadillac in Mick’s shop. A rotary grinder will put deep gouges in the metal of your car that, in some cases, will ruin the entire panel. In the case of this Caddy, that’s a huge amount of surface area that will need to be repaired.

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03 When using a grinder, it’s too easy to dig the edge of the abrasive disc into the surface of the panel.

Doing so will leave those deep gouges in the metal that need to be sanded and filled later. Using a flap disc (foreground) is a little better because it has a softer edge, but it can still gouge the panel.

04 To fix the Cadillac, Mick’s guys will have to sand every panel smooth with increasingly finer sanding discs on a dual-action sander to the point where the surface imperfections will be shallow enough to be hidden by high-build primer and body filler. Imagine what that will cost at current shop labor rates.

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05 This picture further illustrates that point. The Cadillac’s fender has been sanded smooth, while the hood, seen in the upper left portion of the frame, has not. You can see how much smoother and uniform the surface of the fender is compared to the hood.

06 A dual-action sander is much less aggressive than a high-speed rotary grinder. It spins slower and is meant to be used perfectly flat against the panel, where a rotary grinder works best at a slight angle. Also, the abrasive sticks to a soft pad that prevents gouging the panel. This may lead you to wonder why not just strip the car with the DA? You could do that, but it would take many more hours and cost a lot of money. The sanding discs don’t have a lot of abrasive material on them, so they wear out quickly. You will go through a whole lot of discs trying to strip a car.

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07 Mick says the best way for the home enthusiast to strip a car’s paint is to use Aircraft stripper or a similar product.

Over time, the chemistry in these products has changed to become more environmentally friendly, which is synonymous with less effective. Speaking from personal experience, Aircraft stripper will remove about one layer of paint at a time. If your car has had more than one paintjob, each layer: clear, color coat, primer, and so on, expect to apply a coating of chemical stripper to remove each layer of material.

08 Using a chemical stripper is a messy job. Put drop cloths or painter’s plastic on the floor and wear crappy clothes because the stuff gets everywhere. Wear gloves, too.

It will seriously irritate your skin after a while. Ironically, the stripper did a better job disintegrating this foam paint brush than it did removing the paint. Pro tip: use a cheap bristle brush instead.

09 For best results, Mick says to scuff the surface with 80- or 150-grit sandpaper prior to brushing on the chemical stripper. This allows it to penetrate that layer of paint a little more quickly.

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10 As an alternative, your author has had good luck using these fibrous abrasive pads, which can be purchased from The Eastwood Company.

Called “cleaning pads,” they can be purchased as a kit with the Velcro backing pad that attaches to your rotary grinder.

The fibrous discs remove a lot of paint in a short amount of time, but they don’t damage the metal beneath.

11 Ultimately, you’ll have to use a combination of chemical strippers and sanding to remove the paint from your car. Once down to bare steel, Mick recommends cleaning any residue with lacquer thinner before proceeding.

12 There will often be small scratches or pitted areas you may not be able to reach with sandpaper. Mick sandblasts those spots to ensure all rust and corrosion is removed. If not, it will reappear at some inopportune time. The sandblasted areas appear duller than the surrounding metal in this picture.

13 With the paint stripped and any corrosion blasted away, Mick immediately sprays the entire car with an epoxy primer. He prefers PPG’s DP90, though all the major paint manufacturers have a similar product.

13

14 With the epoxy primer as a base, Mick’s crew will then perform any metalwork that is required, such as the dent in this C10’s door, which will be flattened out with some hammer and dolly work.

15 After all the metal finishing work is done, filler is applied to all the repair areas to ensure a smooth-as-glass surface. From there, it’s back to the booth for a round of polyester primer-filler and many hours of block sanding prior to color and clear coats.

14 15

16 Depending on your skill level, you can decide at which point you want to turn your car over to the paint shop. For some, you may wish to deliver it in bare steel and let them handle the metalwork. If your skills are not up to snuff, that may be the best option, especially if rust repair or panel replacement is required. Mick showed us some very poorly executed patch panel work to the floor of this Mustang.

Sometimes it’s best to leave things to the pros.

16 17 Epoxy primer is easy to spray, however, so consider 17 taking that step prior to dropping your car off at the paint shop. If nothing else, it protects the bare metal from corrosion, should the car have to sit for a period of time. Here we are spraying epoxy primer on our project Truck Norris C10 several years ago. Just getting the car to this point will save a lot of money in the long and potentially arduous journey of getting your car painted.

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You’ve Got Clearance, Clarence How To Fit Big Brakes ❱We love big brakes, and we cannot lie. After all, stopping fast is a big part of going fast around a track, and larger brakes, with their increased mass and piston area, can slow down your hot rod and hold up to repetitive hard use.

But if you’re looking at installing bigger brakes and don’t have the desire or budget to buy new wheels, then you need a way to figure out what will fit inside your current wheels before you shell out the big bucks for new binders.

In our case, we were looking to upgrade the disc brakes on our 1969 Camaro project called Tri-Tip. Back in the day, which would be the mid-’90s, these Corvette ZR1 brakes were the hot ticket, however 25 years later there are more capable options. But would they fit inside our current 18-inch Forgeline wheels?

STEVEN RUPP

Sources Baer Brakes; 602.233.1411; baer.com Forgeline; 800.886.0093; forgeline.com

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01 Why go big when you can go really big? Baer offers a ton of brake options, with these new Extreme+ XTR calipers being the biggest.

With heat-resistant titanium piston caps and massive 14-inch rotors, these super-rigid calipers will easily stop our Camaro. Our plan was that if the XTR calipers weren’t going to clear our wheels, we would move down a notch to Baer’s track-capable 6P calipers.

02 Of course, the template is only useful if it’s true to scale. We checked ours and it was nearly dead-on perfect.

03 Figuring out if the rotors will fit is easy but knowing if a larger caliper will fit gets complicated due to the complex shape of a caliper and the fact that they only have to hit the wheel in one spot to create a headache. Baer’s solution is to offer dimensional caliper templates for all their kits. Back in the day, they would fax them to you; today, it’s a PDF.

03

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04 Here’s our front Forgeline wheel off the car. It looks like tons of room, but everything from the curve of the spokes to the ARP bolts holding the three-piece wheel together can cause clearance issues.

04

05 Before you start cutting, you need to measure the diameter of your wheel’s hub opening. This will let you choose the right size to cut your template so it will properly index, and give you an accurate idea if things are going to clear.

06 We have the template cut out with the right hub diameter for indexing. First up, we will try a Baer 6P with a 14-inch rotor template.

07 The paper was way too flimsy to work with, so we glued it to a slab of cardboard and cut it out.

08 Using some sockets to keep the template from falling over, we put the template in place and spun it inside the wheel to check for any clearance issues.

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09 We had good clearance around the edges of the caliper. We did the same on the rear wheel and had even more clearance.

11 We also decided not to make the cardboard part such an arts and crafts project. Just a simple slab to help stiffen up the paper.

10 What about the larger XTR caliper? There’s a template for that too. This time, we didn’t cut out the template facing away from the wheel face.

12 It was easy to see that the XTR caliper was much larger than the earlier 6P caliper.

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13 Though larger, the XTR caliper did clear our wheel!

Not by much. If your caliper is very close, or jus touches, Baer offers thin spacers to move your wheel out a smidge.

14

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16 14 Time to find out if the templates were telling us the truth. When installing wheels where we’re not sure they are going to hit, we use spacers (or some big washers, as shown here) to work our way down to the wheel sitting against the brake rotor hat. This prevents scratches and tells us if we will need a thin wheel spacer.

15 Turns out we didn’t need any spacers or shims for the Forgeline wheels to clear the new Baer XTR brakes! Yeah, it’s close, but as they say, “If it clears, it clears.”

16 Typically, clearance issues will be on the front wheels, but it’s important to check your rears as well, especially with a kit like this where the rear calipers are dimensionally the same as the fronts. Like the front, our rear calipers cleared, but with a larger margin between the wheel spokes and the caliper.

17 All top-shelf brake companies will offer dimensional brake drawings and/or templates, so be sure to contact them and ask before you shell out big bucks for your new big brakes.

While we were working with massive brakes and expensive track wheels, the same methods used here would work with smaller disc brakes and factory rollers.

17

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Fashionable Accessories Drive Junky’s LS-Swap drive system looks great and is built to stand up to highperformance hard driving. ❱Swapping an LS engine into your hot rod is about a lot of things besides the actual LS engine. You need to figure out headers, engine mounts, cooling lines, and oil-pan-to-frame clearance in addition to the electronic choices. One big piece of the LS-swap puzzle is coming up with the right serpentine accessory drive system for your car or truck.

Many times you can get away with using a new or used GM drive system, but there are issues going this route. For example, many GM drive systems mount the A/C compressor (which won’t even work with most aftermarket A/C systems) low on the engine, not a good place for most factory frames. Aside from packaging issues, the GM systems are also less than good-looking. For a guy building a track car, this might not be a big deal, but some people want to go fast and look good doing it. This is where the aftermarket comes in. There are a wide array of LS drive systems to fit just about any budget. For this install, we’ll take a look at a drive system from Drive Junky. Cheapest option? Nope. But for those that want a rock-solid, beautiful system, it’s a kit worth checking out. Besides, we all know LS engines need all the help they can get in the looks department.

Zach Schary, owner of Drive Junky, didn’t want to just make a GM-style drive system; instead, he wanted to make a stronger, better-looking system that would eclipse what the factory offered in every way possible. The brackets are all 6061 billet aluminum and polished before being hard anodized. As Zach told us, “We utilize heavier stock and machine away more material than our competition. This minimizes additional parts (spacers) needed and results in a better, stronger fitment. It’s more expensive and labor intensive than the ‘plate and spacer’ design you see elsewhere, but our goal is to have the highest-quality drive system possible.”

So, let’s check out what’s involved by installing their kit on a spare 6L LS engine we had at the shop. The good news here is that due to some brilliant engineer at GM, the procedure for installing this kit on any LS (or LS truck variant) is just about identical.

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Source Drive Junky; 323.363.6070; drivejunky.com

WRENCHIN’ @ RANDOM

01 02 03 04

05 01 This installation starts with a water pump—but not just any stock GM pump. Instead, the kit came with an Edelbrock Victor (PN 8896) pump. It’s a nearly $400 pump that’s designed for maximum cooling. Heavy-duty roller bearings; billet steel hubs; and larger, CNC-machined impellers with cavitation-killing curved vanes are just a few of the benefits this pump brings to the party.

02 Since the Drive Junky LS-swap drive system uses many monoblock brackets, there’s actually very little to assemble, which is nice compared to stacking up shims and spacers in “just the right way.” First up was attaching the power steering mount to the main support truss using the two stainless Allen bolts in the kit.

03 We then installed the alternator support brace, which will further tie the main truss to the block.

As Drive Junky’s Zach Schary told

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us, “We package the fasteners with our associated brackets to eliminate guesswork and make the install go faster. When the pulleys and brackets are cut the way we do, it allows greater accuracy; fewer parts; better, more consistent belt alignment; and long-term reliability.”

04 Here’s the fully assembled main support truss for the LS drive system. The main bracket is cut from a solid piece of 1.5-inch 6061 aluminum for a custom fit. They also use a rigid idler and custom tensioner pulley, with stainless axles and twin 20,000-rpm bearings for the idler and tensioner.

05 The support truss is bolted in place using the six bolts for the water pump. As luck would have it, Drive Junky supplies these stainless bolts as well. We made sure to use a few dabs of antiseize on all the stainless bolts before spinning them into the engine.

06 Here you can see how that support bracket we installed earlier attaches to the side of the block, which is the same for almost every LS engine out there. Using this bracket is recommended but not mandatory if you have a clearance issue due to something such as headers.

06 07

07 Four stainless Allen head bolts secured the water pump pulley to the water pump. Here we used some red thread locker to keep anything from loosening up.

08 A bonus we really appreciated was that the Sanden A/C compressor came fully assembled and ready to bolt to our LS engine.

For frame clearance, we went with their high-mount A/C kit, but they do offer a low-mount A/C system as well.

09 The kit included this billet A/C line manifold, but since we’re just mocking all of this up, we wanted to leave the A/C compressor

sealed. Drive Junky LS drive kits can be had like ours or with the A/C and/or power steering deleted.

10 We were happy when we found that the GM type-II power steering pump already had the billet pulley pressed on. This saved us a time-consuming step that would have required an installation tool.

The pump bolted to the bracket using three stainless fasteners.

The holes in the pump pulley made bolting the pump to the bracket painless.

11 Of course, it’s not just a stock GM pump, but instead a higher-end Jones Racing custom aluminum power steering pump along with a tig-welded tank and billet vented cap. If you are going to do any hard driving (road course or autocross), this pump will hold up to that sort of torment. They also enhanced the belt wrap on the power steering for Pro Touring and competition builds running late-model boxes, racks, and larger front tires.

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12 The 170-amp single-wire Powermaster alternator is mounted to the high driverside location on the Drive Junky truss.

It’s a good-looking, heavy-duty unit with an internal fan setup. Again, since the bracket came already installed on the alternator, installation was a breeze.

13 We could then install the six-rib alternator pulley.

14 The Drive Junky kit included this SFIrated ATI Super Damper. We installed it at the beginning and secured it with an ARP bolt.

15 The billet crank pulley was then bolted to the ATI damper using three stainless fasteners included with the kit.

16 Last, we put the Gates six-rib serpentine belt on as shown. This also shows you the extreme belt wrap around the power steering pulley. Due to the lack of spacers and pre-assembly of many of the sections, this kit was simple to install.

We went with black, but the kit is also offered in hand polished, or a unique brushed finish.

17 Being a smaller company, Drive Junky can offer solutions for all sorts of situations. Have a Magnacharger on an LT1?

Yep, they have a system like the one pictured here. Decided you need the latest and greatest LT4 or LT5? Well, they have a drive system for that LT swap as well as one for the Gen 5 L83/L86 engines.

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WRENCHIN’ @ RANDOM

It’s a Driver!

With a new engine and suspension, HOT ROD’s C10 project truck is back on the road! See how it happened. ❱It’s been a long time coming, but our 1967 Chevy C10 project vehicle is back on the road after a twoyear hiatus. What started as a simple suspension change took more time than we anticipated, and that’s something nearly anyone reading this can understand. Along the way, we encountered many more obstacles, such as broken valve springs, supply chain delays, sunken carburetor floats, and wanton engine destruction. Let’s try to summarize the last couple years in the life of Project Truck Norris.

JOHN MCGANN

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01 While we call it a simple suspension change, this was still major surgery to the truck. Total Cost Involved provided the components for our coilover conversion, and as such, the entire front suspension, including the engine crossmember, went away. The same was true for the rear suspension, with the stock trailing arms and Panhard bar arrangement replaced with tubular trailing arms, a torque arm, and new full-width Panhard bar.

Coilovers replaced the stock coil springs and shocks at all four corners, and the steering gearbox was replaced with a new rack-and-pinion unit.

01

Sources AEM Performance Electronics; 310.484.2322; aemelectronics.com American Powertrain; 931.646.4836; americanpowertrain.com BluePrint Engines; 308.236.1010; blueprintengines.com Borgeson Universal Company; 860.482.8283; borgeson.com Classic Performance Products; 714.522.2000; classicperform.com Earl’s Performance Plumbing; 866.464.6553; holley.com Holley; 866.464.6553; holley.com

WRENCHIN’ @ RANDOM

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02 The easiest way to accomplish the work was to remove most of the truck’s body, starting with the front clip, plus the engine and transmission. Likewise, the bed was removed for easier access to the rear suspension components.

03 In a moment of inspiration, I used a block and tackle to lift the bed from the body. It would dangle from my ceiling like the Sword of Damocles for almost two years.

04 TCI’s coilover conversion eliminates all of the C10’s stock suspension components and replaces them with tubular A-arms, trailing arms, and torque arm. You can read about the front and rear suspension installs online at HOTROD.com.

05 It is a lot of work to do the conversion, but it’s not a difficult job. Be sure you have a good drill and sharp drill bits, because there

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are a lot of rivets that need to be removed. Other tools you’ll need are an air hammer with a punch and chisel, a set of transfer punches to mark holes to drill, and sockets and wrenches large enough for some of the rear suspension fasteners.

06 I sent the engine to a machine shop to be freshened up, which seemed prudent after discovering a broken valvespring when we took the valve covers off. There was also some excessive carbon build-up on the pistons, so a good cleaning, honing, and new rings and valveguides were in order.

07 Unfortunately, I sent the engine out right at the beginning of all the parts shortages we are currently experiencing. With many of the parts we needed on back-order, I decided to put a small-block back between the framerails of our C10 for the time being.

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08 The engine I had ready to go was a BluePrint Engines 350 that I had previously used for a dyno test. I put a Holley single-plane intake on it because that’s what I had, topped it with Holley’s Brawler 650 cfm carburetor, and dropped it on the motor mounts.

09 For an accessory drive, I eschewed the typical V-belt arrangement for Concept One’s serpentine belt system for smallblock Chevys. The headers are a pair of Flowtech long tubes for ’67-’72 C10s. Lucky Costa and I had to smash them a bit at the collectors to get them to fit closer to the floor, but that was only because the new ride height is so low. For a stock or moderately lowered truck, they would fit perfectly.

10 I also needed to install a shorter steering column so we could connect to the steering rack in one straight shot. The stock column was about 33 inches long, so I got a new, 30-inch column from CPP. Being 3 inches shorter made the angle to the steering rack less severe, falling within the realm of movement of Borgeson’s DD universal steering joints.

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11 I used Earl’s power steering hose to make the necessary connections between the pump reservoir and steering rack. Earl’s also got the nod when plumbing the front brakes. The routing of the stock steel lines obviously didn’t match the shape of TCI’s engine crossmember, so I used Earl’s easy-to-bend copper-nickel tubing to plumb the front brakes. I did, however, reuse the stock steel lines to the rear brakes.

12 It was very satisfying to see Truck Norris back on the ground with its front sheetmetal and bed back on. It was shocking to see how low the ride height was, and I mean that in a good way. I had to fix a couple broken and damaged wiring connections, but soon, the lights, horn, and wipers were all working properly.

13 The triumph I experienced when we fired the engine and took a few tentative trips around the block were quickly dashed when I destroyed the small-block by launching the accelerator pump check valve down the intake manifold while changing the accelerator pump nozzle. My shame was on painful display as we documented that experience in an editorial column and an article online.

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WRENCHIN’ @ RANDOM

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14 Faced with the decision of rebuilding the damaged smallblock or replacing it outright, I decided on the latter. BluePrint Engines kindly knocked a couple hundred dollars off the price of a service replacement engine, but this was still a painful hit to the bank account and reinforced the lesson learned from my mistake.

The new engine arrived within three days of placing the order.

test stand to check for leaks and get the carburetor and timing set before installation.

15 After installing the clutch and checking the bellhousing alignment, I put the replacement smallblock on the Easy-Run engine

17 Again, we began with tentative trips around the block, before venturing out on longer drives.

Each trip revealed small issues

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16 Then it was just a matter of dropping the new engine onto the mounts and bolting up the American Powertrain T56 Magnum. Everything else carried over—headers, carb, and intake— and once again, Truck Norris was on the road.

that needed to be addressed. I had a slight power steering leak at one of our fittings and a fender bolt fell out and caused an annoying rattle. Otherwise, the engine ran strong, the transmission shifted smoothly, and the ride felt firm but not harsh.

18 The front tires were worn enough to need replacement, so I purchased a set of 255/50-R17 Riken Raptor tires from Tire Rack.

At 27 inches, they are the same height as the 305/45-17 Mickey Thompson ET Street tires on the rear, and they look better than

the 24.5-inch tall 245/45-17 tires that were on the front. I did need to raise the front end ride height by almost half an inch because the tires were rubbing the inside of the fenders over larger bumps.

19 After driving Truck Norris every day for a couple weeks, I threw caution to the wind and drove it to Las Vegas for the SEMA Show. The 500-mile round trip was the farthest from home I had ventured to that point. Fortunately, the only thing I had to fix on the side of the road was a loose taillight lens.

20 The day after I returned from Las Vegas, the engine wouldn’t start. I was both mystified by the situation and grateful that, whatever the problem was, it had waited until after I made it home. It didn’t take too long to see that a bad carburetor float was causing the engine to flood. The float had partially filled with gasoline, keeping the needle off the seat, and overfilling the fuel bowl.

20 21 22

21 I pirated a float from another carburetor and got the situation fixed in short order. Apart from that issue, Truck Norris has had no problems handling dailydriver duty. The engine idles with about 13 inches of vacuum, the timing is set at 34 degrees total ignition advance and 14 degrees of initial advance. It runs fine on California’s crappy 91-octane gasoline, with no evidence of detonation and clean-looking spark plugs. The big-block sized radiator keeps the engine cool, and with a 175-degree thermostat installed, if the fans do switch on, they only need to run for a few seconds to drop the coolant temperature below the 180-degree switch-off point of the sensor. On the freeway, I’ve calculated a rough estimate of 15 mpg, a number that can likely be improved with a chassis dyno tuning session at Westech Performance.

22 One thing I get asked about a lot when I post to my Instagram account (@ john.mcgann) is whether a big-block will ever go back into the C10. The answer is yes, eventually, whenever that engine is done. For now, I’m in no hurry. I’m really enjoying driving it as is.

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23 What’s in the immediate future for Truck Norris? I’ll be working with AEM Electronics on a sensor package to get their CD7 digital dash working with the carbureted engine. I’ll also be making the interior a little more civilized by adding more heat and noise insulation and fixing the misaligned panel gaps, especially around the front clip. I’m also contemplating converting it to a shortbed and possibly even giving Truck Norris a coat of paint! What say you? Is that blasphemous? No matter what the opinion on shortening longbed trucks, at least I’m not putting an electric motor in it, right? Email hotrod@motortrend.com or message me on Instagram to share your thoughts.

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FINISH LINE

Being Realistic When Having Your Hot Rod Painted ❱We’ve all heard the phrase “Champaign tastes on a beer budget”, well it’s almost like that phrase was coined with hot rodders in mind. It especially applies to show-quality paintjobs and hiring a shop to do the job. Now I’m not a painter, but I’ve spent decades hanging around custom car shops, and the stories I’ve heard from shop owners and the things I’ve seen have given me some real head-scratching moments.

Steven Rupp Email us at hotrod@motortrend.com

Follow us @ hotrodmagazine

There was a shop I spent a lot of time at called Best of Show Coachworks in Southern California. They built cars, but their main gig was higher-end paint. Many times, potential customers would come in off the street and ask, “How much to paint my car?” The shop would ask them what sort of paintjob they wanted, and nearly every time they would say “show quality”. Well, first that’s a wide avenue that ranges from million-dollar Riddler cars to your local show-and-shine type of event. To weed out the tire-kickers, the shop would toss out “$15,000 to $20,000 plus” and explain they would have to see the car to determine how much bodywork it needed. Sometimes the person would nod, and other times, they would get that deer in the headlights look. “That much?

The shop down the street said they could do it all for under $5,000!” Good luck with that. To be fair, you can easily paint a car for $5,000, but a high-end, show-quality paintjob takes two things: time and materials. The cheaper the paintjob, the more that has to be cut from either the cost of the materials or the time spent on the car. It’s just math. Earl Scheib used to advertise that they could paint your car for under $100, but you weren’t winning any shows with that. I’ve seen showwinning paintjobs surpass $50,000 without even breaking a sweat.

Quality materials have skyrocketed in cost over the last 10 years. A gallon of top-shelf clear can set you back $1,000 easily, and that’s not even talking about reducers, hardeners, the actual color, and the shop supplies to make it happen.

Not all paint supplies are created equally, and the materials for a “show-quality” paintjob can easily add up to well over $5,000 without even trying. The guy that tells you he can paint and bodywork your car for $5,000 isn’t doing it as charity work, so he’s going to have to cut corners someplace, and materials is one of them. Cheaper materials might even look pretty good when the car is first done, but how will it look in five years? A shop can cut their costs by going thinner on the clear or using lower-shelf materials, but this may not be what you wanted in the end, or maybe the car is just a nice driver and that’s all you really need.

The other area that raises the price is labor. Time is money, and if a shop spends an hour on your car, then they need to bill you accordingly. Common shop rates are around

$100 per hour, and that can add up fast. Keep in mind that a higher-end, show-quality paintjob is all about the details.

The big flat areas are easy; it’s the nooks and crannies that take the time to prep and will make the car stand out from the crowd. With a show-quality paintjob, the finish on the rocker panels or inside the fuel door needs to be as nice as the roof or hood. This detail work takes time that can easily add up to 100 hours or more, and that doesn’t even account for the cut and buff.

The cut and buff are what separate the good paintjobs from the showstoppers. After the paint and clear are laid down, the clear needs to have any imperfections carefully sanded out. These could include debris that found its way into the booth, orange peel, and even small runs or thick spots. On a 1968 Camaro we painted recently, there were more than 60 hours in the cut and buff process, but it was stunning when done. When we are judging a car’s paintjob, we don’t look at the big, relatively-flat areas like the quarters, roof, and hood, we get on our knees to see if they went the extra mile and color sanded the rockers and hard to reach (and see) areas like the underside of the hood. A quality cut and buff can make a so-so paintjob look tons better provided they laid down enough clear. So, with 60 to 100 hours for the cutting and buffing process, you just added $6,000 to $10,000 to the price tag. Are you sure you need a show-quality paintjob, or just a nice “I’m going to drive the wheels off of it” paintjob?

Having realistic expectations of what things will cost as well as digging down deep in your soul to see how high-end of a paintjob you REALLY need for your project will do a lot to make this process less painful. There are a ton of paint and body shops out there, and many are suspect at best. So, ask for references and recommendations. Also, when you’re out at a car show, ask car owners how much their paintjobs set them back. People lie, either to brag or out of shame, but it should still give you an idea of what to expect when you start shopping for a show-winning paintjob.

Hot Rod (ISSN 0018-6031), April 2022 Vol. 75, No. 4. Copyright 2022 by Motor Trend Group, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Published monthly by Motor Trend Group, LLC, 831 South Douglas Street, El Segundo, CA 90245. Periodicals postage paid at Los Angeles, CA and at additional mailing offices. Subscription rates for 1 year (12 issues): U.S., APO, FPO and U.S. Possessions $20.00. Canada $32.00. All other countries $44.00 (for surface mail postage). Payment in advance, U.S. funds only. *Trademark registered.

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Make CPP your LS headquarters when converting your ride! We carry all the components to help finish installing an engine that requires no maintenance, is super lightweight, puts out unbelievable horsepower and torque, giving you all you need to get it on the road.

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