You may remember that last month I installed a Vintage Air evaporator under the dash (almost!) in my project '49 Chevy, converted the stock heater controls to operate the air conditioning, and fabricated a bulkhead fitting to route the plumbing from the interior to the engine bay. Well, it's been a busy month, as not only did I plumb the brakes (see page 40), but also plumbed the air and heater hoses, and wired the air conditioning.inline_mediumwraptextright31246989/techarticles/1001rc_1949_chevy_heating_and_air_conditioning1001rc_01_o+1949_chevy_heating_and_air_conditioning+hoses.jpgTrue

You want to talk about traditional hot rods? Let's talk about four-bangers.

Up until this past summer, if you wanted to wire your car the old-fashioned way-with a quality (insulated) cloth-wrapped wire, that is-you literally had to do it the old-fashioned way, meaning individual wire by individual wire, as there weren't any full-vehicle harnesses previously available. (You could, however, have an automotive electrician scratch-wire your car, but it's getting harder and harder to find skilled individuals still willing to perform this.)inline_mediumwraptextright31282461/techarticles/1001rc_american_autowire_nostalgia_wiring_kit1001rc_01_o+american_autowire_nostalgia_wiring_kit+trans.jpgTrue

With all the major mechanical components installed in our '49 Chevy project Purple Pig, it's time to get down to all the little jobs that seemingly take forever in order to make the car road worthy. One of the larger of these "little" jobs is the time-consuming task of running brake lines. We already installed the ABS Power Brakes master cylinder (July '09 issue), and used a Straight Brake Line kit from Inline Tube to hook everything up. While Inline Tube offers pre-bent kits for many applications, they don't have patterns for every combination, and suggest using their Straight Line kits for custom setups like ours.inline_mediumwraptextright31248012/techarticles/1001rc_1949_chevy_brake_lines1001rc_02_o+1949_chevy_brake_lines+underbody.jpgTrue

Tooling along taking in the bouquet of the landscape, the wind coursing through your hair, nothing beats a roadster for the full experience. But sometimes the experience can be just a little bit too...full. Like when the overnight cloudburst fills your car with water. Or when someone takes a criminal liking to something they just happened to see as they were checking out your car. Sometimes it helps to have just a little bit of protection.inline_mediumwraptextright24941405/techarticles/0911rc_1929_ford_tonneau_cover0911rc_02_z+1929_ford_tonneau_cover+covered.jpgTrue

We moan about the rising cost of gasoline, but we keep putting it in our cars as, without it, they're expensive garage ornaments. But until you build a project, or have to replace parts, the fuel system goes largely ignored. As with most things in life, times change, and products improve. Not to mention the big shift towards fuel injection means components that worked with carbureted engines will no longer work. With these thoughts in mind, let's take a look at how the precious lifeblood gets from your gas cap to the combustion chamber.inline_mediumwraptextright25814590/techarticles/0911rc_modern_fuel_systems0911rc_01_z+modern_fuel_systems+chevron.jpgTrue

There are many components of a custom or street rod that have to be integrated into the build, such as gas and brake pedals, a shifter, and a steering column. There are others that aren't as important to the operation of your car but are just as important, such as seat belts and an emergency brake. But just because you need an emergency brake doesn't mean it needs to be out in the open in the interior. In many cases the factory e-brake handle or foot pedal is now competing for space in the kick panel or under the dash with other custom components. Relocating it is often a better solution and with parts from Lokar it doesn't have to take up much space or be an eyesore.inline_mediumwraptextright30851025/techarticles/0912rc_floor_mount_emergency_brake0912rc_01_o+floor_mount_emergency_brake+mounted.jpgTrue

Despite its appearance now, I actually used the Purple Pig as my daily driver when I first moved to California, commuting 70 miles a day. With nothing more than a seat inside the car, and temperatures where I lived at the time too much for me to bear on my afternoon drive home, I realized for the first time why installing air conditioning was so popular in hot rods and customs! Bear in mind I'd just moved from a country where heaters and demisters are requirements, not cold air!

Let's face it, unless you're building a gasser, any car looks cooler lowered. Back in the day when suspensions moved on from beam axles and buggy springs this was achieved by using lowering blocks, cutting or torching coil springs, removing leaves from springs or reversing the spring eyes. These days the aftermarket offers up any number of lowering kits for most popular vehicles, making the job easier and definitely safer if it eliminates torched coils!inline_mediumwraptextright30814515/techarticles/0912rc_1949_chevy_suspension0912rc_02_o+1949_chevy_suspension+grille.jpgTrue

It seems everyone's love of music has been rejuvenated by the iPod and other digital music players (DMP). Everyone's got one. And increasingly, every new car also seems to have one connected to the vehicle's audio system. Automobile manufacturers are finding ways to help you connect your Apple DMP, MP3 player or even thumb drives via USB to your factory radio. What usually takes 7 years to integrate into an automobile assembly line has taken as little as two. That is how important the iPod has become. It's not just a gadget, it's a lifestyle. So great, I have to purchase a new automobile to get it to work in the car right? Of course not. And if you own a hot rod or custom many decades old, you can still get music in the vehicle without sacrificing the classic interior look. The success of the iPod has brought about thousands of accessories to help you integrate your iPod or other music options into your vehicle.

Times change. It wasn't that long ago that if you owned a set of oxy-acetylene gas bottles for welding and cutting you would be considered to have a pretty well-equipped home shop. Maybe you progressed to a stick welder, and most likely moved on from that to a basic MIG welder. I know that's the progression I followed, having possessed a MIG welder at home for the past 20 years now.

You'd have to be new to this hobby, or a little inattentive, to not be aware of the excellent choice and availability of aftermarket air conditioning and heating systems we enjoy today. In fact we have just such an install coming up on the project '49 Chevy in the not-too-distant future. But what if you have a Fifties or Sixties car and don't want to go to the expense of ripping out the factory air conditioning to replace it with a modern aftermarket version? Is your old A/C system viable nowadays? Can it be upgraded? What's this about Freon becoming unavailable?

For the longest time, if you ran a Ford small-block or Windsor engine and wanted to run an automatic, your transmission of choice would likely be a C4. For heavier duty applications you'd likely opt for a C6. As with everything, time and technology move on and today many overdrive automatics are available, mostly computer-controlled. With internals loosely based on the FMX, the four-speed overdrive AOD which was offered from 1981-93 is the only non-computer controlled overdrive Ford transmission that will work with a V-8.inline_mediumwraptextright30400440/techarticles/0911rc_ford_automatic_transmission0911rc_02_z+ford_automatic_transmission+building.jpgTrue

If there's one thing hot rodders have, it's a lot of options. Which options you choose depends a lot on your priorities. Are looks more important than comfort? Is performance more important than budget?inline_mediumwraptextright25811686/techarticles/0911rc_ford_wishbone_suspension0911rc_02_z+ford_wishbone_suspension+position.jpgTrue

When's the last time you looked underneath an early hot rod with a tube axle or I-beam axle and found rack-and-pinion steering? More likely, you saw a Vega box or Mustang box-but rack-and-pinion is now an option for rodders.

The project is a '27 Model T coupe, unchopped and full-fendered. It is currently a work in progress, but will be something genuinely unique by the time it is finished-definitely a hot rod, but probably with elements of elegance.

You probably thought I'd forgotten all about the project '49 Chevy huh? Unfortunately a combination of work schedules, the start of the show season and the fact that I have been doing a few jobs on my '46 roadster pickup meant the Purple Pig has sat unloved down in the basement for a while. When I finally dragged it over to our Tech Center it had repaid me by going rusty on all the bare metal parts, so you'll have to excuse the less-than-new appearance until I get around to acid washing the rust. When I originally planned the project, it didn't include an engine with as much horsepower as the Smeding 383 stroker motor it now has, and the Level 2 200-4R transmission from Gearstar was perfect for my plans.

If your car overheats or gets very hot in traffic or while cruising fairgrounds, but is fine out on the highway, you probably don't have a cooling problem, but an airflow problem. You're simply not getting enough air passing through the radiator and likely not able to let hot air escape from the engine compartment either. Engine-driven fans are great at their job, but when the motor is idling, the fan simply isn't turning fast enough to keep the radiator cool. Options here include an improved mechanical fan, electric fan or fans, or a combination of both.

You wouldn't think that Richard Bellgardt's request was that unusual. Richard drives a '49 Ford F1 pickup, mostly stock, and Flathead powered. He isn't interested in wild modifications. He just wanted to add a power steering system to make the truck a little easier to maneuver through city traffic.

Improving the lighting on a highboy can generally be accomplished by just bolting on any number of the upgraded set of headlights available these days. Unfortunately, the same can't always be done if you're working on something a little different like a mid-Thirties full-fendered rod with headlight buckets incorporated into the car's design.

I don't know about you but I'm perfectly happy fabricating chassis, welding and doing body and paintwork, and physically putting a car together, but I've always left the wiring in my projects to someone else. Of course, having a good friend who owned an auto-electrical company, and who was always happy to trade bodywork favors for wiring, meant I never really had to worry much, but he's on the other side of the planet now and so when it came time to wire my '46 I decided to bite the bullet and tackle the job myself. My cars are usually pretty basic with not much in the way of accessories-- not even a radio--so I figured a simple wiring harness with the minimum of circuits would work best for someone who'd never wired a car before.

Whenever a brake upgrade is made, usually incorporating discs brakes at the front or even all around, most builders will upgrade to power-assisted brakes. The number of kits available in the aftermarket makes installing vacuum power boosted brakes relatively simple in any number of applications, but of course this does rely on the engine providing enough vacuum to operate the booster. Using a high-performance motor, high-lift camshaft, or a supercharger can see vacuum levels that are marginal or insufficient to operate a vacuum booster, though using dual diaphragm or large diameter boosters can help.

When chopping the top on a car with factory vent windows, one of the many considerations to take into account is whether or not to retain the wing windows. Of course, those who want to achieve an old school look might want to keep the wing windows as most customizers did in the '50s. For those of you that want to go with this option, you can check out Kev Elliott's article "Vent Frustration" in the May 2009 issue. Modern customs, however, might benefit from the cleaner lines of one-piece door glass.