Tabla de contenidos para Volume 5, Issue 43 - April 2024 en Modern Rodding

There is a story behind every hot rod, and many times there’s more than one. Don Granata of Ventura, California, has spent a lifetime with the ocean as his life’s backdrop. Living next to the ocean has led to him enjoying surfing and being a collector of vintage surfboards. At age 5 Don took an interest in beach movies and surfing. Mike Granata, his cousin, took 7-year-old Don to the 1965 Grand National Roadster Show. Next up were model cars and a budding interest in hot rods. Given these life topics, it should come as no surprise that his ’29 Ford highboy roadster plays an important role. The copper-colored Model A is an excellent example of an early ’60s-era hot rod. Based on the original Model A sheetmetal and frame…

There are many reasons why any of us build the hot rod project we do. It can be that it reminds us of something very cool from our youth, maybe we had something similar, or just maybe it brings back an old memory lifted from the magazine pages of a vintage car magazine. There are as many reasons as there are hot rods. Such is the case for Lyle Milliman of Arizona and his latest project, this ’26 Ford Model T sedan. Lyle will not hide the fact he was looking for a Model A sedan but then one day came across this ’26 Ford sedan. He had seen plenty of Model As but hadn’t seen many of the Model T varieties. This one caught his attention and he felt…

When it comes to building a traditional-style highboy roadster, picking a time frame to build around sets the stage for what parts will be used and how. Everything from tires and wheels to powerplant decisions can be made once that era is decided upon. A build based on the ’40s will vary from one based on the ’50s. A build based on the ’60s will vary even more. It can create a hard line drawn in the sand or it can serve as a baseline that can be deviated from. When Jason Scudellari started laying out his plans for his ’29 Ford roadster, he knew he had to pick an era that would allow him to build what he had pictured in his head, while still allowing him the freedom…

Some of you may remember “G-Force One,” which was an active project car that began life in 2010 based on artwork by Thom Taylor. It was an ’87 Pontiac Grand Prix that began its life as the first car to roll off the assembly line in production year 1987, VIN 2G2GJ11Z7H2200001. This ’87 Grand Prix lived in the GM Heritage Collection for several decades and amassed a whopping 63 miles on its odometer. Next up in 2011, Holley began turning this ’87 Grand Prix into a Pro Touring project. As happens with any of us and our best laid plans things can, and do, go awry. However, not before a great deal was accomplished. Currently, this ride is sitting in a warehouse with a great deal completed and in need…

Let’s take a step back to a time when the ’57 Ford Del Rio station wagon shown here rolled off the end of the assembly line. Because it was 1 of 46,105 examples of a Deluxe two-door Ranch Wagon with Fairlane trim that was built that year, it had a base price of around $2,500. To put things in perspective, the average family income that year was $5,000 and the average price for a home was $12,220. We can only imagine how happy the beautiful, new, shiny station wagon made its original owners. But eventually, the Ford’s useful life was over; the stylish yet practical family hauler lost its luster, eventually becoming what most people considered to be just another old used car. And like most old cars of its…

The old car experience is often an exercise in nostalgia, causing memories to flood in and take us back to a simpler time. Sometimes, it’s a visual trigger, while many times it’s a particular sound that takes us back. Music certainly creates those nostalgic moments, but one of the most sinful acts in the old car world is hacking out a car’s dash to install a modern head unit for a stereo system. Sure, there are tasteful ways to give your car high-tech audio, and there are even ways to hide it altogether, but in our case, we wanted something that looked close to the original and provided an update in technology. Our subject is a mostly original ’63 Chevy Impala Super Sport. The car is mechanically sound and has…

In the performance world, some cars come from the factory with cachet, and others, as hard as one may try, it just isn’t going to happen. The Corvette is one of the factory hot rods that have “cachet” in droves, specifically the ’67 Corvette with big-block power. Andy Nowka of Washington knew rebuilding his ’67 Corvette convertible was a no-brainer. Big-block Corvettes are cool, really cool, but he saw an opportunity to go one giant step further by installing an LS and have it outfitted with an LS Classics Series big-block makeover from Lokar. Andy teamed with another Andy, this time Andy Leach of CAL Automotive Creations out of Omaha, to produce this flawless-looking piece of Americana hot rod “kool.” Let’s stay with the “kool factor” and get into the…

https://youtu.be/18qiT1rAHQ4 Each year, February is the time to visit the Pomona Fairplex in SoCal for the annual O’Reilly Auto Parts Grand National Roadster Show (GNRS) Presented by Meguiar’s. The 74th annual show this year gave hot rodders all they could wish for, with 450 cars under the roof competing for such awards as the America’s Most Beautiful Roadster (AMBR) trophy and the Al Slonaker Memorial Award, along with many other prizes and awards. The show focuses on these two significant awards representing the pinnacle of building within our hobby, but there is much more to the tune of 500 individual awards. Both major winners received smaller versions of the perpetual trophies with their names engraved. The iconic 9-foot AMBR trophy has been around since 1950, and the Slonaker Award, which…

When stepping into the world of hot rodding there are plenty of exits to follow off the interstate depending on what styles and marques grab your attention. Many times, this influence follows you from an early age, blazing a path to the promised land and never letting you go. Such is the case for Paul Barber of Milton, Ontario, Canada, who spent plenty of time growing up as a helper at his dad’s auto parts store surrounded by plenty of hot rods, customs, and muscle cars as well as their owners. With a family dedicated to Chrysler products, it’s no wonder that he followed suit through the decades with his latest efforts, a ’32 Plymouth PB coupe, laid out across our pages with an amazing story to tell. Before he…

Atremendous amount of work goes into building a car from the ground up. In past installments we followed the Rad Rides by Troy team through the construction of the frame and major body components for this fenderless ’36 Ford roadster being built for Ross Myers. With those components largely completed, it was time to fit the engine and drivetrain and to design and fabricate the suspension system. A Ford Y-block engine was selected and fitted with vintage-looking components that were cleverly updated to provide the functionality of a modern car. A McCulloch VS57 supercharger was used, but Pat Fleischman from Lubbock, Texas, was called on to equip it with the internal components from a Paxton supercharger. The engine will have fuel injection but the Autotrend EFI throttle bodies look very…