ecently, we introduced you to Marcus “Shaky” Sullivan and his legacy project, a Square Bird custom that painter Bill Carter started. For those of you who just joined us, Carter set out to build a tribute to his mentor, Larry Watson. He had some friends drop and shave a survivor car before he painted it. Only the car remained unfinished upon his death in 2019. So, Sullivan took it upon himself to sort out his hero’s unfinished business. He bought the car and set out to replicate the paint design that Carter’s longtime pal Steve Stanford rendered.

By Brian Brennan Photography by THE AUTHOR

he Barrett-Jackson auctions are well known for their automotive venues. In an attempt to become more inclusive of all parts of the automotive world, they initiated the Barrett-Jackson Cup a few years back. Initiated to recognize more than cars that are just auctioned, the Barrett-Jackson Cup brought out 50 of some of the finest hot rod builds in the country to compete for one significant award and a cash prize. Initially it was the late Pete Chapouris, of SO-CAL Speed Shop fame; Bobby Alloway, of Alloway’s Hot Rods; and Bob Millard, a lifelong indoor car show judge, who were the three-person team who determined the overall “Cup” winner.

oilover shocks have been around for a long time. It’s been so long that several unnamed Modern Rodding editors had a full head of hair when they first began to find favor with chassis builders. Initially, coilovers were only found on race cars, but it was our good friend, the late LeRoi “Tex” Smith, who has been credited with first installing them on a street rod. He hung a pair on the rear of his America’s Most Beautiful Roadster trophy–winning XR-6 in 1962 and coilovers have been with us ever since.

While coilovers have been popular on sports cars and smaller, prewar hot rods, they have also become popular for use on larger, heavier postwar cars, like Colin and Sue Radford’s ’57 Ford station wagon shown here. And why shouldn’t they be? It’s simply a matter of selecting the correct combination of shock absorber and spring to make them work as they should, and with help from Strange Engineering (SE) that’s what we did.

By Ron Covell
Photography By Ron Covell & Rodger Lee
Videography By Rodger Lee
Artwork By e.Black Design

s work nears completion on Greg Heinrich’s cutting-edge ’35 Chevrolet coupe, we wanted to show how some of the outstanding details were handled. (In previous months, Modern Rodding has brought you chassis and sheetmetal work.) Ironworks Speed & Kustom has made a commitment to use the latest technology to design and build these parts. In most cases, the portion of the car where the parts will fit is scanned, so when the parts are designed in CAD they will fit precisely. Once the CAD model is completed, a plastic part is printed and then this part is checked for fit and appearance before machining the final part from billet aluminum. Opportunities for improvement often become apparent after the printed part is made, and frequently parts go through several revisions before the design is finalized.

By Brian Brennan Photography by THE AUTHOR

n our world of hot rods, especially early cars, the lack of a heater and/or A/C used to be the norm. Nowadays there’s a simple solution to solving heating and A/C needs. Well, it’s much easier for the closed cars, but for open roadsters (and the like) the use of A/C, while occurring more frequently, the real need is for heat. A small heater only is more affordable than an entire A/C system, and sometimes more practical. So, with this in mind, we came up with the Vintage Air (VA) Streamline Heater (PN 660066) ideally suited for open hot rods. It is designed to sit separately below the dash.

Next stop was at Hot Rods by Dean in Phoenix to check out the installation of one of the VA Streamline Heaters in (what else?) an open Model A roadster. While this is the starting point for our story, the fact is you can use this in any hot rod project where you have a front-area-only to maintain warmth.

any hot rodders tend to prioritize performance and cool looks before ever thinking about things like steering improvements. Making the move from manual steering to power assists is obviously a night and day difference, but you may be surprised to learn that even updating a stock power steering box with a modern unit can make a huge difference in the way your old classic drives.

Our case in point is a ’64 Chevelle that still sports the factory power steering. The turning action was easy, almost too easy, and felt unbalanced at highway driving speeds. We recently heard about Borgeson Universal’s all-new quick ratio steering box that bolts in place of the factory Saginaw 800 series box used in most ’64 and up GM classics.

t will be this summer on July 20th when longtime hot rodder and well-known designer of Hot Wheels for Mattel Larry R. Wood will be inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame (AHF). The AHF itself is in Dearborn, Michigan, and is open to the public.

To those of us who have spent our lives building, driving, and thoroughly enjoying hot rods, Wood is one of us. He is a member of the Early Times Street Rod Club and is a constant sight in the Long Beach, California, area. His builds have graced the cover of many car magazines over the years. I’m also willing to bet there isn’t a hot rodder alive who hasn’t picked up a Hot Wheels car at one time or another.