One advantage to building a rod or custom from a late-'40s or early '50s vehicle is that most American automakers had developed and fitted their cars with independent front suspensions by this time. The downside is that many of those early IFS arrangements wer
more
|
|
|
Elsewhere in this issue, we explore some interesting alternatives for building a cool custom '50s ride. Whether your preferences run tastefully traditional or sleek and contemporary, mid-'50s passenger cars are an incredibly...
more
|
When guys like Norm Gabrowski and Andy Brizio kicked off the "Fad T" craze back in the '60s and '70s, the little fiberglass buckets with giant rear meats and oversized...
more
|
A technical article from Hot Rod magazine providing advice from experts on improving the performance of your car.
more
|
There's more to car shows than gawking at polished chrome and glistening paint. If you keep your eyes open, you'll find an unending supply of great ideas you can take home to your own ride. And while some of us may be prejudiced against garish Pro Street cars,
more
|
If you're working with a small-displacement engine, it can be tough to achieve compression ratios even as high as 10:0:1. If you're working for every little point of compression you can get, it can be beneficial to order your pistons with no valve
more
|
Frankly we’re tired of hearing it. Rodders with prize-winning high-tech cars explaining why they can’t drive them, and guys with low-budget street weaponry belly-aching that the high-end cars are unstreetable. Both arguments are equally bogus, and we
more
|
Chrysler’s first hemispherical-headed V-8 engines seemed light-years ahead of the competition when introduced for the ’51 models, and stayed on the leading edge of performance into the ’60s. But by the mid-’60s, the new 426 Hemi made the ea
more
|
Quick, make a mental list of famous Ford V-8s. The flathead’s a no-brainer, and so are the side-oiler 427 and Cammer. Then there’s the Cleveland, FE big-blocks, Boss 302…. The list goes on. But we’ll guess only the most die-hard Blue Oval f
more
|
When you hear the word customizing, you probably imagine a chopped and channeled ’50 Merc or an overdone Monte Carlo with hydraulics and way too much gold trim. But customizing can also be used sparingly to make a hot rod just a little bit different from
more
|
Pinstriping has been around longer than most of us realize. It’s a decorative art form that dates back beyond the horse-drawn buggy days. Ornamental hand-striping was last factory-applied on an American car in the late ’30s. By the mid-’40s it w
more
|
We recently attended an engine-building school at the Reher-Morrison race plant in Arlington, Texas. What's the big deal with a school? Simple–Reher-Morrison peeled open the doors of its professional engine building vault, and laid out virtually eve
more
|
Rough Riders Bottoming out is not only aggravating and jarring, it’s a not-too-subtle sign of an improperly set up coilover suspension. According to Gary Heidt at Heidt’s Hot Rod Shop, who knows a few things about independent front suspension, botto
more
|
Click on the sidebars below for tips and tricks.
more
|
No matter how much power your car has, no matter how beautiful the paint, no matter how efficient the engine, and no matter how comfortable the interior, it’s nothing if the foundation isn’t sound (kind of sounds like a house, doesn’t it?). It&#
more
|
Practically by definition, hot rods are prone to overheating. (After all, they’re not lukewarm rods, right?) Of course, to prevent the occasional boil-over, you can do the obvious, such as turn on the heater (to dissipate heat from the block) or drive at
more
|
What separates the neighborhood mechanical hero from the hack with a hammer and an adjustable wrench? Tools. How many times have you been presented with a baffling situation and wondered how in the world you were going to handle it when one of your pals whips
more
|
Talk about an exercise in frustration. Go into any mass merchandiser, walk down the car care product isle and try to pick out the proper cleaning supplies for your hot rod. You’ll find dozens of companies each offering two or three polishes and the same n
more
|
Power is what hot rodding is all about. The classic approach is to take a stock or near-stock engine and tweak it until it thumps. But what should you do first? There are literally hundreds of roads to choose from, but a little forethought and planning will cr
more
|
Driving hot rods should always be fun, especially when you’re young. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work out that way. Many first-timer hot rods end up being powered by small-block engines that’ve been loaded with a 750 double-pumper carb, an
more
|
Every now and then, HOT ROD does a special section on tech tips. Problem is, there are times when we’re just flat stumped and can’t come up with any new tips. Sure, we could rehash old tips, but that’s a cop-out. You see, your faithful HOT ROD s
more
|
Fastest Street Car (FSC) racing is one of the hottest forms of heads-up drag racing in the country. The Pro Street boys and girls get most of the attention, but Super Street has quickly become the place to go racing because its rules make it more accessible to
more
|
The Super Street class of Fastest Street Car racing is one of the most exciting and challenging classes because the rules are so limiting. Running 8.60s on a 10.5-inch rear tire, with engines restricted to a single-four-barrel and plate-type nitrous systems, d
more
|
Customizing your hot rod is a great way to differentiate your ride from every other car in the world. While some customizing can dramatically change the way a car looks, such as swapping wheels and tires, it can also be a subtle art. Contained in the sidebars
more
|