Bonneville Salt Flats are a long way from Southern California, especially when towing an enclosed trailer, dealing with a blowout on said trailer, and stopping in Las Vegas to source the last few parts needed. That said, 14 hours after leaving Source Interlink’s Tech Center, we pulled into our hotel in Wendover on Sunday afternoon, ready for some decent sleep, knowing it’d be the calm before the storm. Custom Classic Trucks editor Ryan Manson had arrived ahead of us, and along with his dad, Gary, crewed on the car probably way more than they’d envisioned once we made it onto the salt on Monday morning.

There’s nothing like bringing your hot rod out to the desert and putting the pedal to the metal. For all you fans of the El Mirage Dry Lake racing, you’re in luck! The U.S. House Natural Resources Committee approved the Johnson Valley National Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV) Recreation Area Establishment Act (HR 1676). If this should pass, the Marines at the U.S. Marine Corps base at Twentynine Palms, California will be able to use the area for 60 days out of the year for training exercises, which leaves the other 305 days for motorized fun.

Production numbers of original ’32 Ford roadster pickups vary, depending on the source, but suffice it to say, they’ll all agree on one thing: this particular model in Ford’s ’32 lineup is rare. Uncommon when new, they’re akin to the proverbial hen’s teeth today. Houston, Texas–based hot rodder Bill Lindig found this one in a stall behind a house in San Diego, California, some years ago, and though complete, even his description of its “terrible” condition doesn’t describe how bad it was. You’ll hear shortly when we delve into Bobby Walden’s description of its resurrection just how bad it was. But it’s a rare old truck, and deserved to be saved.

Sometimes tech articles are where we find ’em. In this particular instance Mrs. Rotten and I just happened to be in the right place at the right time while visiting friends, Richard and Trish Wright, at their home/shop in Fallon, Nevada. “Hey Rich, what are you workin’ on there? Wait, that’s cool! Let me grab my new digital Brownie!”

In an era when mainstream drag racing is ever more corporate, and the little guy can’t hope to compete in the professional classes, interest in nostalgia racing continues to grow. Witness the increase in such events, from the original reunion, to the sister event at Bowling Green, Kentucky, the March Meet at Famoso, and the new for 2013 event at New England Dragway, New Hampshire.

While having a nice weekend ride is good, it’s always nice to wake up in the morning and have your good ol’ reliable daily driver at your side to get you from point A to B. Folks who have newer cars would have been able to appreciate Colorado’s new legislation that was approved by the appropriations committee and moved to the senate floor, however, bill S.B. 257 in Colorado failed in the House after the legislature adjourned for the year.

OPTIMA Batteries will be teaming up with Golden State Foods and partnering with ChumpCar race participants to give children the bike building experience of a lifetime. On May 26, 2013, Build-A-Bike will be taking place at the Daytona International Speedway, in Daytona Beach, Florida.

The Eastwood Company just celebrated 35 years of high performance DIY-auto restoration! Eastwood was started in 1978 and pioneered the DIY-auto restoration world, which allowed home-builders the accessibility they needed to get tools and chemicals.

Thinking about building a hot rod to cruise around town in? Searching local swap meets and the online classified ads for those hard-to-find oval tubing 1932-1934 radius rods can be a daunting task, especially considering they’re highly sought after.

What if? What if a Texan racer didn’t convince AC to sell him lightweight sports cars and Ford to sell him engines to power them? It almost happened, you know. At stake wasn’t whether AC and Ford would grant Carroll Shelby his request as much as whether he would’ve had to appeal to them in the first place. You see, if he had his first wish granted the legendary Anglo-American hybrid he created would’ve looked a lot like this, a Chevy-powered Austin Healey. That’s right, Cobra fans, the Ford-powered AC was Shelby’s Plan B.

The use of alternative fuel – like Ethanol - is on the rise and gaining popularity. However, if you’re current project is not equipped to handle this unconventional fuel, overtime; the fuel can corrode metals, plastics and even rubber fuel lines. Fuel systems and even internal components need to be upgraded in order to handle the different fuel efficiently. Currently, Florida is allowing an Ethanol-blend of fuel (9-10 percent) at a majority of pumps. To ease pain at the pumps, SEMA has announced its support of a new bill (H.B. 4001), which will help eliminate Ethanol and other alternatives from its pumped-fuel.

The Model T Ford is where it all began. Not just hot rodding, mind you, but pretty much automobiles altogether, as the general public has come to know them. While not the world’s first “horseless”, Model Ts were the first people’s car in America, affordable means of transportation that, unlike other luxury mobiles of the time, would be handed down from one generation to the next, often serving as many a teen’s first car (or that which he or she learned to drive in the first place) decades down the road. As well, some of the earliest forms of racing were done in stripped-down and souped-up Ts, which only naturally lead to the grassroots of hot rodding each and every one of us owe a debt of gratitude to. And when hot rodding morphed into street rodding, it wasn’t the venerable Deuce that propelled our hobby into the second half of the 20th century.

Let’s face it; satisfying this hobby can come at a cost, literally. When it comes to saving where you can, builders are left prioritizing parts and components until it’s absolutely necessary. Whether you’re pulling your project out of storage or simply in the market for upgrading the charging system on your current build, OPTIMA has a deal you can’t refuse.

OK, I have a confession to make, though it probably won’t come as much of a surprise to the observant amongst you who noticed the engine in the Notso Special in the last issue. One of the worst kept secrets around here, especially if you frequent our Facebook page, is that while I made it to Bonneville with the car, it wasn’t with the turbocharged four-cylinder engine as planned. That will still happen for next year, but circumstances, not to mention my ridiculously short self-imposed deadline, meant it wasn’t ready in time for August. If I’m honest, I think I was the only person who never doubted the car would make it!

If there was one indoor car show we would love to go back in time and visit, it would have to be the Motoramas that were held inside L.A.’s beautiful ’30s Streamline Moderne Pan Pacific Auditorium. The massive light greenish/blueish facade was so impressive. Upon walking indoor our breath would have been taken away by a giant room full of what we love the most: hot rods and custom cars displayed during the beginning of the heyday of the indoor car show. Unfortunately, the Pan Pacific Auditorium burned to the ground in the late ’80s, ending its decades-long reign, so an indoor car show will never be held there again. They erected a building on the site that loosely resembles the old beauty, but if you want to get an idea of what it was really like visit Disney’s California Adventure. The new entrance is a good replica.

Far beyond his achievement of providing economical V-8 power to an impoverished nation, the last thing on the minds of Henry Ford’s newest customers in 1932, owners of his one-year-only Model B, was what profound impact those very automobiles would soon have—worldwide. Not even the visionary Henry himself could’ve predicted what a phenomenon that single vehicle was about to create. Much like the fabled AC Cobra, it’s safe to say that there are more “aftermarket” ’32 Fords on the road today than there are genuine FoMoCo ones! In the eyes of everyone, save for the restorative purists, that’s indeed a good thing.

Seems like whatever facet of the automobile hobby you’re into, whether it be restoration, hot rodding, race cars, or whatever, everyone has a “body and paint” story to tell. Jim Portelny is no different, with the extended build time of his ’37 Chevy owing mainly to his experience with a nameless bodyman. Unlike some others though, his project did make it to fruition. This is said with some experience, too. As an ex-body and paint shop owner, I was guilty of having a couple of, ahem, “long-term” customer projects over the years, though they did get finished. Why does almost every body shop seem to have such a project in the corner?

Randy Keenan writes: “I had the pleasure of tagging along with you guys on the Bonneville trip of 2008. I was with my friend and neighbor, Jim Angier, in his ’48 Ford coupe. I have been very fortunate to own some great cars over the years. I grew up in the true American Graffiti era in San Francisco. In those days, fun cars were available at unbelievable prices, and we always had two or three projects going.

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.

When building a custom, a certain sense of style is required. When building an early custom, even more so, given the less-is-more credo that almost always works best when dealing with ’30s and ’40s body styles. Indianapolis resident Kevin Anderson clearly gets it, if his “Goldtop” Buick Riviera and ’50 Merc are anything to judge by. This 1936 Ford custom, is his latest, its earlier body style having two things in common with his other customs, namely a roof chop and that sense of style.

If circumstances had played out differently, Harry Hibler, of Shadow Hills, California (born in 1935), wouldn’t have been managing San Fernando Drag Strip to turn a blind eye when the Fueler guys showed up during the nitro ban, or at the helm as publisher of Hot Rod magazine, because he’d have been busting some organized crime crook for the Bureau.

Sometimes you just have to face the facts and realize that even a played-out cliché is hand’s-down still the best way to describe a situation. Exactly what string of words was being preluded to—none other than Sir Isaac Newton’s “Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.” That simple phrase is in a constant state of motion in all aspects of this world, including the rod and custom world.

For all those assuming that assembling a suspension system is just that—assembling suspension—think again. While that may be the case in some situations, let me tell you, when you’re building a chassis from scratch, it definitely ain’t one of those situations. Blueprints, diagrams, and jigs may indeed go a long way toward reaching that cherished point of actual parts assembly. When it comes to initially setting everything up, the two important factors that really matter are time and patience. That last one is something my maker forgot to equip me with at birth, because anything that doesn’t happen immediately, usually doesn’t happen. That said, Jimmy White must’ve inherited my share of the fortitude, not to mention extreme tolerance of annoying factors … like me!

Last month Charley Hutton, at Charley Hutton’s Color Studio, gave us a working tour of Envirobase High Performance, PPG’s line of waterborne basecoats. Though the information applied specifically to the paint, every so often he’d interrupt himself to reveal handy methods and potential pitfalls that escape most enthusiasts. “You could probably do a story about nothing but these little things,” he observed at one point. That inspired us. So here we are.

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