Modern Rodding is dedicated to early and late hot rodes - from Model Ts to GTOs and everything in-between. It features the latest in custom builds, technical articles, new products, and special features.
I’m thinking that we all have similar stories on how we began our love affair with cars. The most popular routes to our lifelong passion likely started from one or more of the following three popular methods. The magazine. It presented monthly to each of us new dreams to aspire to. Then comes family, where Dad or older brother liked cars. This provided a great influence on our early likes and dislikes. Lastly, the hidden treasure. We would come upon a cool-looking hot rod, in any one of a thousand configurations, sitting behind a barn, gas station, or at the corner across from us. For me it was family adjacent–my best friend and his neighbor who served as a surrogate father to the two of us. His love of all…
Art Morrison Enterprises Surpasses Chassis Milestone The team at Art Morrison Enterprises (AME) just turned a milestone page as they celebrated a major chassis milestone. We here at Modern Rodding can remember the original phone call and email when Art Morrison first revealed they were thinking about doing the C1 chassis. As of August, they have shipped their 500th C1 GT Sport chassis. Nearly 70 years later, the sleek lines have withstood the sands of time, but the chassis technology that helped propel the Corvette to new heights handles more like a bus than a sports car, which is where AME engineering and development comes in. Recognizing that combining beauty, brawn, and performance is the foremost goal of most hot rodders, AME’s engineering team developed a true bolt-on C1 chassis…
1. SLIM-FITTING UNDER DASH LOUVER KIT Vintage Air now offers its all-new Under Dash Slimline Universal Louver Panel with Brushed Aluminum Trim Kit. The kit includes a two-piece louver panel, all four louvers, and 2.5-inch hose adaptors. The louver panel comes with brushed aluminum trim and can be painted to match the dash and interior. The underdash panel was designed to minimize intrusion into the occupancy space, with the louver bezel only protruding 3-1/2 inches below the dash. Engineered for installation on any vehicle with a flat underdash area, the Under Dash Slimline Universal Louver Panel Kit includes four louvers with 2-1/2-inch hose adaptors to easily pair with Gen IV or Gen II evaporator systems. The passenger-side panel is 34 inches wide and incorporates two 3.8x1-1/2-inch louvers and a 2-1/2-inch…
When scanning classified ads, seasoned hot rodders can usually sniff out untruths, like “ready to paint” or “90 percent complete” or, the old standby, “Corvette engine.” It’s almost always a red flag when these statements are presented in the ad, but sometimes curiosity gets the best of us. Such is the case with Todd Nelson, a longtime car guy from Land O’ Lakes, Florida. He’s bought and sold quite a few cars and trucks through the years, and that list of previously owned vehicles includes a ’58 Chevy Biscayne. He sold that car to his brother-in-law, Doug Peterson, and that car created a new appreciation for the one-year-only body design for both Todd and Peterson. Todd’s hankering for another ’58 led him to the Internet where he stumbled across an…
Dealing with the hot rods from the ’50s and ’60s is a lot easier nowadays given there is so much reproduction sheetmetal. This month we are going to look at a ’64 Ford Galaxie and the replacement of its firewall using an Auto Metal Direct (AMD) firewall (PN 370-8964). The work for this project was done at The Installation Center (TIC). It should be noted that while our installation of our OE-style firewall (factory firewall is PN C4AZ-6201610-A) is on a ’64 Ford Galaxie, the AMD firewall shown here will fit the ’64 Ford Galaxie and the ’64 Mercury Marauder and Monterey. AMD stamps the firewalls, and other sheetmetal, from a high-quality 19-gauge steel. The firewall itself weighs 65 pounds. According to AMD, each firewall features the correct shape, size,…
Exclusivity can create something very iconic. When GM’s chief designer, Harley Earle, introduced the Nomad as one of his very special Dream Cars for the 1954 General Motors Motorama in New York, it created an incredible buzz among the public with its ’53 Corvette nose artfully melded to a sleek sport wagon body capable of carrying six passengers. Its success on the show circuit led to the design being massaged for introduction into the freshly revamped ’55 Chevrolet passenger car lineup. The sleek ’56 Chevy Nomad laid out across our pages belonging to Jeff Calley of Franklin, New Hampshire, has a perfect balance of performance and handling. With the Nomad’s style evoking that of a hardtop sedan rather than that of a standard station wagon, its two-door body featured a…
