The Great 8 was dominated with wagons this year, and Gordon Peters' '56 Chevy, built by Neil Lea and his crew at Rods & Restos in Centre, AL, deserved its place in the elite group. They started with a bare-bones Handyman wagon, and, after massaging every panel with 112 body mods and 1,340 handmade parts, they ended with a Nomad-esque custom wagon with a C5 LS1 and transaxle for motivation. | 
On the opposite end of the early '70s hot rodding spectrum to the Ice Truck was R&C's own Bud Bryan's Model A roadster, built using parts that were considered traditional, even at that time. Bud's roadster left quite an impression on Garnet Rhame, who has built this beautiful tribute using just about as many vintage parts. A quick look at the undercarriage, though, shows it hasn't made any of the cross-country trips Bud did-at least not yet, let's hope. |  |
Packard convertibles are pretty rare, a street-rodded one even more so. It looks like Ed and Kathy Micol built this one with cruising in mind. Power comes from a Chevy ZZ4 small-block backed by a 700-R4 overdrive and 9-inch Ford rear. A Fatman Fabrications front subframe gets the front end down and provides power steering and brakes. | 
One of the main events at the Autorama has become the Pinstriper's Jamboree, organized by "Yosemite Sam" Radoff. A couple hundred pinstripers come through at various times during the show and apply their craft to just about anything you can think of. Line-puller extraordinaire Fritz added some 'stripes to a 15-gallon drum, which was auctioned off later in the day. All the money raised (every dime) goes to Rescue One Fire Safety for Kids. |  |
Howard Kelly's '32 roadster, Bill Towers' '29 Model A coupe, and Bob Perreault's '28 phone-booth pickup were a few of the more traditional rods downstairs that caught my eye. |  |  |
These days, it seems to be anything goes when it comes time to select a grille to lead the way on a hot rod. Todd and Gary Buehler chose a '47 Dodge pickup grille for their '31 Model A Tudor-turned-tub. | 
Greg and Jeramey Pitman picked an unusual platform to build a custom, but the results speak for themselves. They also proved their commitment by driving the '47 Chrysler out from Colorado to enjoy the lovely snow in Detroit. | 
Thanks, Thom. |
R&C Top Tin Pick
I had a tough time narrowing it down when it came time for me to pick a car out of the crowd for the Rod & Custom Award, but I knew I had a winner once I got the full story on Charlie Gould's '26 T roadster pickup.
Charlie started gathering parts for his hot rod in the early 1990s, collecting the little Chevy four-banger, trans, and front suspension, but hadn't decided on the body style until he bought a '26 roadster pickup body in mid-1999. He ran across a photo of a track-style rpu in an old magazine and immediately dug out every magazine with a track roadster in his 50-year collection, finally settling on that style with a 109-inch wheelbase.
Charlie built the frame from C-channel, bent to his specs by a local sheetmetal shop. The engine was beefed up with 10:1 forged pistons, a Sig Erson cam, and a modified Weber intake from Clifford Research. An S-10 pickup gave up its rearend, which ended up with GM disc brakes, thanks to some careful swap meet searching.
The clutch and brake pedals swing from a sideways hanging Kugel unit. Charlie moved the clutch fork to the passenger side to free up some room in the driver-side footwell. A steel '32-style dash designed for a Model A was narrowed and filled with Classic Instruments gauges. The seat bottoms are late-model Camaro buckets sitting in custom tin buckets. Charlie built the pickup bed 2 inches taller than an original and somewhat shorter in length. The nose and insert started as a Superior Glass unit but was narrowed about 1 1/2 inches. The hood, hood sides, bellypans, and most of the flooring are custom-built from aluminum. Charlie wanted lots of louvers, so he ponied up and bought a louver press and punched the louvers himself. He says it was well-worth the purchase price. The wheels are 15x5s and 15x7s with '40 'caps and Coker 5.00s and 8.20s. The headlights are '35-37 commercial units and the taillights are '50s F-100s.
For a little piece of mind, Charlie borrowed a tubing bender from a pal and built the bolt-in rollbar to fit. Charlie told us, "This car is crotch high at the cowl and bellybutton high at the windshield, and could easily be stuffed under a semi trailer. Whether it would hold up or not is moot. I just feel better about it."