With this month’s installment we wrap up the interior of our Project Shop Truck. The ’47 pickup is still in the capable hands of Glenn Kramer at Hot Rod Interiors by Glenn, where it’s getting decked out with door cards, a headliner, and floor mats. Then it’s back to Hot Rods by Dean to sort out the last few details before hitting the road to be displayed at various car events around the country.

Don’t let the name fool you. While the Atomic Age was actually ushered in around 1945, this new electronic fuel injection from MSD packs explosive power, reliability, and fuel economy all wrapped up in one compact system, and it’s driven by the latest technology the 21st century has to offer.

In the last installment, I built a wooden buck to help make a ’27 Ford roadster body. This time, I’ll make the rear section of the body, the turtle deck.

Anyone reading this magazine knows full well building a street rod is a tricky deal. Until you have that body down to bare metal you are never certain exactly what you are working on. In our last installment Flintstone Media Blasting removed all the paint, dirt, grime, and rust from our AMSOIL/STREET RODDER Road Tour ’51 Ford and what was uncovered was daunting. Not only did this old Ford have a lot of rust, it even had rusted-out patch panels that had been installed many years ago.

Yes, this story is about wiggly rearends for Tri-Five Chevys but the reality is Heidts’ Pro-G IRS will fit neatly under many hot rods. Independent rear suspensions aren’t new in our world of modified cars (and trucks); remember the surge of the Jag and Vette IRS back in the ’70s? The acceptance of the IRS for something other than good looks or the dare to-be-different approach has changed. Nowadays rodders appreciate the added value of ride, handling, and braking that’s inherent to an IRS system.

A custom Merc without fender skirts is like a sundae without a cherry. The ’51 Mercury project underway at Hollywood Hot Rods (HHR) in Burbank rolled in wearing a set of stock skirts, but will roll out with fabricated flush-fit skirts.

Q. Most of the work I’ve done with aluminum has been either on my own projects, or just experimenting with processes. All of this was with brand-new metal, 3003 alloy. I have two customer cars coming in: a ’36 and ’40, both made in Italy. I assume these are made from 1100 alloy. Does 1100 start out fully soft and then work-harden from there?

Q. A couple of months ago you wrote an article on rear suspensions, which included truck arms. I would like to have a little more information about them.

When Jeff Holt bought this 1967 Chevrolet Impala (from a little old lady in Pasadena-no lie!) the car had only 36,000 original miles on it. Having a freeway cruiser like this was a dream for Holt, and he really liked the fact the original paint was still on the car, and didn't mind that it was of the "no power anything" variety.

For most street rodders the mechanical aspects of our vehicles are easy to understand; they can be seen, held, even heard. The same can’t always be said for electricity; it’s not something you can point to and say “There it is.” But while the concept of electricity may be difficult to grasp, anyone who has made contact with the business end of a spark plug wire with an engine running will testify to its existence.

How often do you walk through a swap meet gazing at immeasurable piles of vintage parts trying to imagine a perfect fit for something you are currently working on? The Rolling Bones Hot Rod Shop in Greenfield Center, New York, is well known for reworking vintage Ford parts into their builds to bring new life to old, long-forgotten bits originally born at Henry’s factory.

AccuAir’s “iLevel” iPhone App

As is often the case with any of our personal projects, they take longer than we would like them to. Such is the case with our Project Shop Truck build. It's a '47 Chevy pickup based on brand-new sheetmetal that we obtained from Chevs of the 40's and dropped onto a Fatman chassis under the direction of Dean Livermore of Hot Rods by Dean (Phoenix). From here our five-window pickup was destined to be a work truck. The idea was to build a truck using new pieces showing that you can start with nothing or you can start with an assortment of pieces and fill in the gaps. What we have ended up with is a daily driver that can also be used as a shop truck, a push truck, or a tow truck. In other words, it's a great truck.

Gas Pains

In the ’50s and ’60s the search for high-performance parts usually meant a trip to the wrecking yard to rob components, engines, out of big, powerful cars of the day—Chryslers, Fords, Cadillacs, Olds, Pontiacs, and W-Chevys were all used. But when it came to rearends, the overwhelming favorites were those our of ’57-64 Pontiacs and Oldsmobiles.

All of us can stand and admire a beautiful paintjob. But how many of us can appreciate the prep required to make the primer work just perfect? Then what about all the bodywork leading up to the primer? Keep following the trail and at some point you get to the basics of having to move metal around.

Q. The picture of a dial caliper being abused by using its points as a scriber caught my eye in the Nov. ’12 issue. Measuring tools will lose their accuracy if used for anything other than measuring (don’t use a micrometer for a C-clamp, for example). Use the caliper to set the blade of a combination square and use that to scribe lines. This will also be more accurate.

The thing that makes hot rodding so much fun is the lack of rules combined with great engineering and fabrication. Take the subject of this story; at first glance it appears to be another nice ’61 Bel Air bubbletop, but things take a dramatically different approach when you pop the hood.

If the phrase old-school modular seems like an oxymoron (much the same way the phrase jumbo shrimp doesnt really make any sense), then let us explain.

Independent rear suspension (IRS) has been around for a long time and has been used under everything from every Volkswagen Beetle ever made to the latest and greatest supercars.

Owners of classic ’47-53 Chevrolet trucks can now obtain a contemporary ride, improved handling, and exciting performance by swapping out their old frame for an Art Morrison GT-Sport Chassis. It is a bolt-on proposition, with little or no fabrication required. The extra-strong chassis utilizes 2x6-inch framerails and incorporates body, bumper, and running board mounts, plus core support, front and rear suspension, and power rack-and-pinion steering. The computer-engineered AME Sport IFS incorporates heavy-duty control arms, adjustable coilover shocks, forged spindles, and an adjustable antisway bar. A reinforced 9-inch rearend housing is fitted with a performance four-bar suspension, center-mounted Panhard bar, adjustable coilovers, and an adjustable antisway bar.

Street Gassers are a “gas” to look at and to drive; the straight-axle variety being by far the coolest look but not all that practical for lengthy drives. Let’s say you want to make a 300-mile run, or jump in and be part of a STREET RODDER Road Tour leg or any number of extended seat times. Without question a straight-axle Gasser is a very cool looking ride but at the same time can leave you with a very “uncool” feeling in the seat of your pants. (And, we won’t even get into the handling characteristics of a “nosebleed” hot rod.)

In the 40 years STREET RODDER has been around, the magazine has reported on all sorts of innovations—from how to get more power from an engine to improved tire technology. Gone are the days when rodders had to make-do with only old parts that had somehow survived the ’60s because, as more and more manufacturers started springing up in the ’70s, ’80s, and beyond, they were able to supply people with what they wanted to make cool rods out of their old rides.