Last month we followed along as Chopit Kustom installed a March Performance serpentine belt kit on the 460 Ford in Robbie Freeman’s ’57 Ranchero in preparation for fitting a Vintage Air A/C system—which means this month we’ll show you just that! While Vintage Air offers many kits that are vehicle-specific, with hoses already crimped or hard lines ready to install, the major components can be made to fit any vehicle; it just takes a little more work and planning.

Street Demon

Peter Hischier

I’ve been very pleased with the gas mileage the 305ci Chevy small-block in my ’46 roadster pickup has returned, but over the course of the past few months it’s been increasingly obvious that it’s getting tired. This culminated in a nice knocking from the bottom end of late. Rather than rebuild the 305 again, I thought it’d be a neat idea to show what can be accomplished by sourcing both an engine and all the ancillaries and dress-up items from a single source.

When’s a traditional hot rod show not typically traditional? When it’s not the typical traditional cars we’re traditionally used to, traditionally speaking. More precisely, when it’s a show aptly named The Hot Rod Revolution.

Let’s face it, when it comes to the debate between corded and cordless tools, more often than not the argument is won on personal preference just as much as it is on performance. Now, while all the hand tool companies are racing to build a better battery-powered device, others, such as JET, have remained grounded, kept their cords plugged in, and simply perfected what they know best. At the end of the day, the majority of our tools that we can always rely on will require an electrical outlet—and not for recharging dead batteries.

One thing I’ve never really considered myself to be is a “truck” guy. However, the majority of daily drivers carrying my name on their pink slips have been trucks; a number of past hot rod/mild custom projects were trucks; and for five years I was the editor of Classic Trucks magazine. Still, while I love trucks of all shapes, sizes, and guises, I’m not real truck guy, per se—more like a car guy with a finicky fondness for pickups. There’s just something very alluring about having a cool-looking vehicle that you can haul stuff in.

Every now and then, I wax nostalgic and thumb through the volumes of old magazines I’ve amassed over the years—not so much to take a trip down memory lane, rather, to gauge how the hobby has progressed as well as the magazines themselves. The various trends are obvious, but what really stood out in particular was how important the collaborators are to the look and feel of each individual issue. I realize that the editor is often solely credited with that, but without the people he or she relies on month in and month out, there’d be nothing more than a pile of words.

As long as people chop tops they’ll always brag about how much they lowered a lid on a car. But when was the last time you heard anyone even mention how much they raised a roof?

These days, any pre-war Ford tin is highly cherished hot rod material. No matter if it’s a prized roadster, Fordor sedan, or even a closed-cab pickup—if it’s real steel, it’s the genuine deal. But that hasn’t always been the case, has it?

When Justin Hartman first called Star Kustom Shop, I had no clue what to expect. As I best know how to put it, you could say that after tallying the notes of that phone call, an episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians had more direction! Yet when Justin and I first sat down face-to-face to discuss his ’55 Chevy he had a plan … sort of. Ten years before our meeting he had an artist pen a rendering of what would best be described as a turn-of-the-millennium mini-truck! Not exactly what either of us was after! But his initial rendering did have a few ideas that suited our likes—a molded tailgate, custom tonneau, frenched headlights, and everything shaved. From there I intertwined my thoughts with Justin’s styling cues and came up with a design that could only be described as a Star Kustom Shop original.

It’s not unusual for hot rodders to have an affinity for a particular make and model of base vehicle on which to focus their creative talents. That is certainly the case with Bob Booth. His previous two projects have been Model A Fords. Build number one was a ’50s-style ’31 closed-cab pickup, completed over a five-year period. Following a fair few miles racked up with Bob at the wheel, it was exported to Italy, with ownership passing to superbike racer Loris Capirossi. The money from the sale funded the start of Model A number two, this time a ’30 coupe. The completed project was out on the road in 2005. Its fenderless body, metallic gold paintwork, and whitewall-shod Radirs gave it a distinctive look. Add a white diamond-pleated interior and tri-power small-block, and the whole package placed the car firmly in the ’60s era.

The prospect of replacing old parts with newly designed ones has great appeal, I’ll grant you that. It’s probably the easiest way to improve a car’s performance. But that doesn’t always make it the best way.

The “Grand Daddy Of Them All”, as the Grand National Roadster Show is billed, has seen plenty of venue changes in its 63-year history. And though now firmly established at the Fairplex in Pomona, California, as of last year we saw some changes to the judging process—at least for the contenders for America’s Most Beautiful Roadster, which is probably what the show is best known for.

We ran across Robbie Freeman’s ’57 Ranchero at Chopit Kustom, not long after their doors opened, following the company’s move cross-country from Florida to California. The Ford was in the shop for the addition of air conditioning, but having a 460 Ford engine under the hood ought to make things difficult, with custom brackets required for the compressor at the very least, right?

Spread ’Em

The word “tradition” gets tossed around pretty frequently in hot rodding these days. There’s a lot of conversation about “traditional” cars and “nostalgic” parts and accessories. That’s a good thing—it’s important to know the roots from which hot rodding grew. But how many people—or companies—have truly been around long enough to remember when all this “traditional” stuff was new?

Jim Patric

John Bailey grew up in and around his father’s GM restoration parts business, spending his early years hustling parts at shows and working in the shop. With a father who was strictly a Chevrolet guy, it’s perhaps not surprising that John would go on to build Chevys for himself as he grew older.

No matter what our particular taste in cars, there’s one thing we all share in common: tools. Whether it’s as basic as a ratcheting screw driver or something more elaborate, such as a bench-top belt sander, each one of us has at least one tool—but many of us have, well, many tools in our garage arsenal. And it’s for those of you in that latter group to whom this new column, Tool Time, is devoted … for the guy/gal who loves and appreciates good tools and related equipment. What will set this apart from just regurgitated and elaborated press releases, you may wonder? Simple: hands-on testing and real feedback. That said, don’t expect to read about any so-so stuff, so to speak, because if it’s not up to snuff in the first place, we won’t bother reviewing and wasting our time writing about it!

Ever since I first put my roadster pickup together some 12 years ago I’ve always been aware that the rearend was the weak link. I had the TH350 rebuilt, and the small-block was fresh, but the 10-bolt was straight out of a junker ’82 Caprice, complete with the stock triangulated four-link. The axle bearings run directly on the driveshafts on these axles, and mine always leaked, even after the fitment of “axle-saver” bearings a few years ago. When I had the bed off to prep it for paint, I figured the time had come to swap the axle for a better version. I acquired a 1-inch narrower 10-bolt from a later model wagon and intended to swap my brackets over, but ultimately opted to install a Currie Enterprises 9-inch Ford-based rearend and fit my GM brackets to that, especially after I found that Currie manufactures adjustable tubular arms exactly for my application. A no-brainer, right?

Last month we explained how we corrected a goof. If you haven’t read the story, someone along the order chain assumed that all ’39 Chevrolets rode on the same front suspensions. They don’t, and as luck would have it the wrong crossmember showed up at Thun Field Rod & Custom. It turned out a blessing in disguise, for Marshall Woolery took what would’ve amounted to a repeat of the installation instructions and transformed it into an exercise in creative problem solving. He also revealed a few solid measuring and installation techniques along the way.

Between the SEMA Show last November and the recent MPMC media conference (another SEMA-related function) this past month, I’ve found myself answering one particular question regarding “trends” more than anything else: Where is R&C headed in terms of technology? At first, I’d feared that my response might not be too well received, but each time I stated my assumed position, most everyone seemed to be in agreement.

As long as there are high-performance enthusiasts who feel strongly that an internal combustion engine is more than just the means of propelling a vehicle from A to B, the name Arias will be remembered long after he, and we, are gone.

Tom Pekel has owned hot rods since high school, when he drove a Model A, and 40 years ago became an original member of Cincy Street Rods in Ohio. A while back he ran a ’glass ’33 roadster, had a blast in it for about nine years, but decided to sell it, telling himself he and his wife, Barb, were tired of being cold, or hot, or getting rained on. They bought a nice ’33 Tudor and drove the heck out of it, but started to miss the roadster. For 27 years a very good friend, Ken Reynolds, had owned a ’33 roadster, just what Tom was after. They worked out a deal, and home it came.