Heller went to Billet City...
Heller went to Billet City for one of their 16-inch Starbase fan shrouds that is made from two milled pieces of 6061 billet aluminum. It uses a SPAL fan, which works with the polished aluminum radiator from Mattson’s Radiator to cool the small-block Chevy V-8. More aluminum is found on the motor, from the valve covers to the air cleaner, though the headers are coated steel and the exhaust is polished stainless steel, leading to twin Magnaflow mufflers. A single four-barrel carb feeds the Edelbrock manifold.
Along with the aforementioned factory body mods found on Brookville’s roadster pickup package (which includes a windshield kit that has a factory 2-inch chop already in place), Kugel’s also modified the rear framehorns (tucking them closer to the body). After the louvered three-piece Rootlieb hood was attached, Rodriguez painted the car its Rodriguez Root Beer Brown, and the owner, who used to build kitchen cabinets, stained the bed box wood its special shade. Chrome bumpers from Rock Valley were also added, as was a custom gold leaf lettering job on the tailgate by Jones Custom Lettering & Striping.
Ron Mangus got the call to supply the rod’s threads, and Dynamat insulation went down before the color-matched square-weave carpet went in. Magnus used pleated brown leather on the Glide Engineering bench seat as well as the door panels, and saved a little extra to wrap the banjo steering wheel that was bolted to a Flaming River column. Classic Instrument gauges were then fitted to an oval gauge insert, and controls and vents for the Vintage Air A/C system are located on a smaller sub dash that runs just below the factory dash.
Once completed, Jim was able to roll up 600 or so miles on the odometer, plus take it to a few local car shows. At night it’s parked next to the ’34 roadster Jim still owns, as well as a ’57 Chevy 210 and a ’67 Mustang. But Heller likes driving his cars, and says this roadster pickup drives as nice as it looks, and considering how the finished product appears that’s really saying something!
Heller went to Billet City...
Heller went to Billet City for one of their 16-inch Starbase fan shrouds that is made from two milled pieces of 6061 billet aluminum. It uses a SPAL fan, which works with the polished aluminum radiator from Mattson’s Radiator to cool the small-block Chevy V-8. More aluminum is found on the motor, from the valve covers to the air cleaner, though the headers are coated steel and the exhaust is polished stainless steel, leading to twin Magnaflow mufflers. A single four-barrel carb feeds the Edelbrock manifold.
Normally there is not a lot...
Normally there is not a lot of space in the cockpit of a roadster pickup (especially when the top is up), but Jim will be comfortable in this one as Brookville Roadsters designs their bodies as extended cabs, which offers a few more inches over a stock-bodied roadster pickup dimensions. Ron Mangus used Dynamat insulation under the square-weave carpet and pleated brown leather over the door panels and the Glide Engineering seat base. And though it’s a true roadster, Jim did want air conditioning, so a Vintage Air system was installed and its vents were added to a lower dash panel along with the controls. A simple layout of five Classic Instrument gauges (with wiring handled by both Kugel Komponents and Chris Smith) in an aluminum dash panel, complements the color-matched banjo steering wheel mounted to the Flaming River column.
Even though the body is a...
Even though the body is a little longer and the bed a little shorter than stock, Brookville Roadsters got the proportions right. Kugel Komponents set the roadster pickup up on one of their IFS/IRS chassis, and Cypress Auto Body covered everything in a custom-mixed Rodriguez Root Beer Brown.