These days, it's hard to argue the merits of modern conveniences like independent suspension, fuel injection, power steering, and air conditioning without someone mentioning how it's not traditional. And while I typically agree with these naysayers, there are conditions that I'll grant a guy amnesty. As a hot rodder who's more akin to the postwar build style than the contemporary, swoopy designs, I cringe just the same as other so-called traditionalists when I see things like clunky EFI setups atop a flathead or a roadster with independent suspension jutting out from the framerails. Unlike some of those "old-timers," I can be partial and give guys who want those modern conveniences some slack; all within reason of course.

Throughout the history of SRM, we've built just about everything under the sun; from roadsters to coupes to sedans to phaetons, hell we've even built a school bus (see SRM August 1993), but classic trucks never seemed to get the same amount of attention. A good part of that could be due to the fact that we share offices with the two largest truck books on the market: Classic Trucks and Custom Classic Trucks. But as we mentioned last month, there isn't a genuine, dyed-in-the-wool hot rodder out there who couldn't benefit from having a truck at their disposal. And it should go without saying that if you were to ask a hot rodder what kind of shop truck they'd like to have, the answer would not be a lifted Toyota Tacoma. No, we're thinking it'd be something more akin to an early '50s pickup with the perfect lowered stance and a nice set of wheels. Adorn the door with a graphic declaring the shop name and you've got yourself one helluva neat little parts hauler. Bolt on a pushbar for the dry lake or dragstrip and all of a sudden you just added a sport factor to the utilitarian vehicle for a most traditional SUV! That was our thinking anyway when we approached Josh Shaw and had him whip up a sketch for our latest project: a '47 Chevy 3100 Thriftmaster pickup.

Fabricating, or building, goes hand in hand when building a hot rod. But for many of us, we don't have welding skills, nor do we have a shop full of fabrication equipment to actually construct complex pieces. If that fits your skill and equipment set, how do you fabricate the simple little bits? What we're talking about are flat-mounting brackets, block-off plates, backing plates or "doublers," and so on. These are pieces typically fabbed from aluminum, and they're things the average guy can build himself in his own garage with a minimum of specialized tooling or shop equipment.

Recently a company called RCD Classics figured out a way to install a conventional cover on a Bilstein shock. It's actually a noteworthy achievement. Though a Bilstein looks like most other shocks, its construction doesn't lend itself to a metal cover. Instead, they usually feature a plastic shroud, which most people in the hot rod world forego altogether. The bare look doesn't exactly turn everybody on though-the vintage/traditional crowd in particular loves that OEM look, and OEM shocks almost always have that metal cover.

When asked to describe the Chrysler Corporation in the '50s we've always characterized it as the company that produced cars engineered by experts, designed by lunatics, and assembled by amateurs. Our hunch is that while the guys with the slide rules were coming up with the Hemi, Torqflite, and torsion bars, the stylists were involved with the government's psychedelic drug research and the quality control staff was working their way through a school for the blind.

Second Time Around
One of the best ways to build an attention-getting street rod is to start with something out of the ordinary and finish with something out of the ordinary. Kind of what Crawford Byxbee did by building this '32 Ford roadster pickup.inline_mediumwraptextright25950101/tech/1001sr_1932_ford_roadster_pickup1001sr_01_o+1932_ford_roadster_pickup+crawford.jpgTrue

Brake and suspension upgrades are usually one of the first things to be done to a newly acquired old car and oftentimes one of the most needed. Big heavy drum brake systems that were antiquated when new don't perform like a modern disc brake system and fail to offer the safety that contemporary brake packages do. But simply slapping on a new pair of binders is not that simple. Many of the existing brake and suspension components need to be addressed as well.inline_mediumwraptextright31320492/tech/1001sr_1963_chevy_impala1001sr_01_o+1963_chevy_impala+front_fender.jpgTrue

If you've ever driven your hot rod for an extended period, that heavy-footed feeling you get from constantly mashing down the 'go' pedal can certainly be fatiguing. Combine that with some of the rather confining positions many of us are limited to due to space constraints in our hot rods and it becomes painfully obvious that something like a cruise control unit would be a god send. Well dream no more, because Dakota Digital has the answer to your gas pedal woes for both carbureted and injected cars alike.

In the earliest days of automobile it was a given that motorists had to be a hearty lot. Travelers venturing near or far expected to be hot in the summer, cold and wet in the winter. In the '30s and '40s automobiles became more civilized, although sizzling interior temperatures in the summer with drafts and drips in the winter remained standard equipment. By the time 1949 rolled around American automobiles had improved dramatically in the area of passenger comfort, and a part of that had to do with better weatherstripping that kept the elements out and the heat (and now the cool) in.

During the course of building a street rod there are a number of memorable points where you can stop and appreciate the progress that's been made. For us it's when our project is up on four wheels and becomes a roller-that's where we are with RamRodder.

Putting together a neat homebuilt hot rod is a heck of a lot of fun, but being able to do so without spending a king's ransom makes it an even more enjoyable endeavor to say the least.

In the last couple of years, I've met three people who are experimenting with a process that is so new that it doesn't have an "official" name yet. I'm calling it Low Pressure Press Forming until a better term is developed. For years, production sheetmetal parts have been made by various processes, including stretch forming, stamping, deep drawing, and some others, but all these processes require a huge machine, usually exerting hundreds of tons of force, and the Kirksite or tool steel dies most often used in these machines can cost $10,000 for even a small die, or millions for one large enough to make a car fender or roof skin. Obviously, this is beyond what a home hobbyist or small shop owner can afford. Recently, some clever people have discovered how to use the same principles, but they scale the process down so it can be done on relatively inexpensive presses using simple, shop-built tooling.

There isn't a hot rodder worth his tool box that doesn't own or wishes he owned a pickup truck. There are two ways to go about solving this dilemma. There is the late-model Cowboy Cadillac that serves double duty as daily driver and weekend parts chaser or your latest project is your pickup. We prefer the latter!

Buying a crate drivetrain package off the showroom floor and slipping it between the framerails of your hot rod in an afternoon with the result being a 300hp, dead-reliable, factory-proven combination is something most hot rodders would have a very hard time scoffing at. Getting that same result by way of the local salvage yard via a wrecked Camaro or Chevy truck is even more inspiring. But that's exactly what one can expect with GM's Gen III LS1 engine packages. Available in a number of configurations, one of the most common is that of the 5.7L (345ci) throttle body injected version mated to a 4L60E commonly found in Corvettes and Camaros. Yet while the availability, reliability, and performance of the Gen III family of small block Chevy engines is arguably the best combination ever developed, to say that it is the simplest would be doing a huge disservice to the hot rodding community in general.

When we decided to build a street gasser there were only a few things we knew for sure: The car would have a straight axle, a blown Hemi, and fenderwell headers. Granted that wasn't much of an initial plan, but after finding our '50 Plymouth three-windowv, the concept of RamRodder-a car loosely based on the Ram Chargers altered from long ago- started to come together.

Over the past few issues we have followed the complete build of Factory Five Racing's '33 Hot Rod by Dave Perewitz and his crew, who have added their own personal touches along the way. With the gloss finally laid down, the team was now ready to enter final assembly stages.

All in all buildin' a hot rod at home is a great experience-it may not be all fun and games, but there's nothing like transforming a junker or a big pile of parts into a cool hot rod on your own.

At one time finding the parts to build what is described today as a traditional hot rod was easy enough-early Fords were cheap and plentiful and the junkyards were full of the parts and pieces needed. But things have changed and some components, like early Ford banjo rearends, are getting hard to find. As a result it's often necessary to salvage axle housings that once would have been considered junk.

With the fabulous cars we're all used to seeing on a regular basis it takes something very special to get a reaction from most street rodders today, but the crew at Woody's has done it with this year's AMSOIL/STREET RODDER Road Tour Chevy. Our Bel Air impacts all the senses, it looks great thanks to flawless fit and finish, has a killer exhaust note from a Smeding small-block under the hood, and it even smells good thanks to the Wise Guys leather seats. Of course, for those who rely on the seat of their pants for sensory input, with a Morrison chassis the '52 is like a slot car real people can fit into.

A touch of talent, an abundance of free time, a can or two of striping enamel, a few assorted brushes, and the wish to embellish just about anything that doesn't run away is about all one needs to learn how to pinstripe-eventually, that is. Once the basics have been learned, one can then begin to utilize more of the wide variety of specialized brushes, enamels, and techniques needed to expand from short straight lines to a combination of long lines and stylized designs that'll set your hot rod, street rod, classic truck, or motorcycle aside from the rest.

Just think of the engine bays that have been occupied by the Ford FE: fastback Galaxies screaming to victory in fender-to-fender NASCAR competition, beating the Ferraris at the 24 hours of LeMans in the Ford GTs, the race boats powered by Holman & Moody engines, the '64 Fairlane Thunderbolts in drag racing, the Stroppe trucks that took Parnelli and others to victories in Baja, and of course the powerplant of the kick-ass Shelby Cobras. If you look at the vibrant history of the Ford FE motors over their long production period, even fans of other marques would have to admit this is an engine design with an unmatched pedigree in every form of motorsports. For the true Blue Oval guys, just hearing a 427 with open exhaust is a heart-starter.

There's no question that using air suspension under a street rod offers a number of advantages when compared to leaf or coil springs. However one of it's major strong points, adjustable ride height, can also be a source of frustration.

There are three words in the hot rod vocabulary that can remove all doubt as to whether or not a car is worth a second look: quick-change axle. We've made every part of the car extreme so many times that we're pretty much inured to it. But for some reason a weird-looking casting that uses obsolete components and makes noise that would ordinarily annoy the hell out of us still gets us all giddy inside. Never mind the fact that 99 percent of us would never ever change the gears in it. It's cool just sitting there.

An unfortunate aspect of building a hot rod that's seen more than 50 years worth of abuse is the fact that Mother Nature, teamed up with the good ol' common man, has probably taken quite a toll on the state of the sheetmetal. Fenders littered with fist-sized dents, extra holes, skewered sides, and damaged edges. Bumpers bent, broken, or missing completely. Given the fact these old cars weren't built to last 50 years, it's no surprise to see many areas have succumbed to rust, wear, and tear. Areas where two panels meet can often function as a pocket to collect debris, dirt, and mud that eventually rusts these areas out. Wear and tear from standing on the running boards or loading and unloading items can cause the sheetmetal to rip and tear and the hardware to fail.

If you've been following STREET RODDER for the past year, you've undoubtedly taken notice of some of the work coming out of The Garage--Jason Grimes' shop in Lebanon Junction, Kentucky. We've covered some of his customer builds as features, plus we've followed along as he's created some interesting suspension setups. Well, he's at it again.