Cars
Maksimovich became familiar with the MN12 platform because parting these cars out is how he paid for his schooling at the University of Missouri, Rolla. He says that at one point he had upward of 20 parts cars, stripping them of all their usable parts before sending their twisted hulks to the scrapper. Indeed, his first car was an ’89 Cougar LS that he fitted with a 3.8-liter V-6 from a ’98 Mustang. After time, he began looking for another shell to work on, and he decided his ’89 was structurally too far gone to consider for such a project. His sister, though, had a ’90 Cougar XR7 that recently had spun a bearing.
While cruising down an old Southern Virginia back road some 38 years ago, Ted Hayes, along with a couple of local friends, happened upon a well-worn ’37 Chevy Master Deluxe coupe. Now, mind you, it looked nothing like the gem here. It had original paint, and the interior had seen better days, but it was complete and running. At some time during its life, the Chevy had received a 327 and a four-speed trans, a familiar combination for a vintage car during the 1960s.
Gil Palmer just loves cars, trucks, and motorcycles. He’s owned more than 100 miscellaneous cars, ranging from ’40 Fords to ’55 Chevys to a ’70 Monte Carlo. He’s owned a few pickups, too, and this one originally came to him as the bonus gift, so to speak, in a trade of his ’32 Ford Cobo Hall winner for a motorcycle at the Detroit Autorama. The ’57 Cameo that he received in the trade had an entire ’55 front end on it, and because of that, everyone thinks it’s a ’55. But this truck was in pretty sad shape when it arrived at Palmer’s Southern California home. Just picture this one item in your mind for a minute, and you’ll get the gist of the kind of shape the truck was in: There was a hand-painted (we’re talking 4-inch-wide brush, here) Chevy Bow Tie on the tailgate. The 10:1 compression supercharged engine would overheat in a matter of a few blocks.
The guys at Detroit Locker (makers of the Detroit Locker, Tractech, Truetrac, and more) were looking for a contemporary vehicle to demonstrate the rugged durability and smooth power transfer of the company’s Detroit Truetrac helical gear limited-slip differential when it hit them: The Chevrolet SSR pickup would be the perfect vehicle for this purpose.
It all started when Jacky White found a basket case ’32 Chevrolet coupe. The old Chevy may have come home in pieces, but at least the pieces were very good. The coupe was complete, and for a 70-year-old body, it was in excellent condition. After getting all of the pieces back to his home shop, a quick inventory indicated that the car was complete, from the cowl lights and bumpers to all four steel fenders. In short, Jacky White had everything he needed to build a ’32 Chevy street rod.
Spraying flake isn’t a black art; it’s simply a slightly different medium. It’s no tougher to spray than anything else, although you do have to be meticulous, pay attention to the details and resist the urge to rush. Plus, unless you have a spray booth, it doesn’t matter how well you seal off your chosen spraying area: This stuff will escape and get everywhere.
The path old hot rods travel is often an amazing one; some hot rods saw a world of change in their many years of service, while others remained hidden from the saws and torches, thus saving them from mutilation and lackluster workmanship. The ’34 Ford on these pages is one such example of a car that maintained its integrity through nearly three quarters of a century. Finding this jewel was a dream come true for John Cox, when he bought the coupe as a driver and realized it had lived an easier life than most, even though its original chassis had been modified.
Bully Dog Technologies, located in Aberdeen, Idaho, was established in 1999 with the intent of designing and building diesel performance parts that both improved performance and truck reliability. In the past eight years, Bully Dog has hit its target and never looked back in the diesel world, and now has expanded its business with the same quality parts for both cars and trucks.
The very concept of a V-8-powered Ford Focus isn’t as new as it is novel. In fact, we introduced Jerry Kugel’s install kit some years ago and then followed it up with the mod-motor install. But that was then, and now ASE master technician Donny Seyfer, from Wheatridge, Colorado’s Seyfer Automotive, decided to tackle the building of such a hybrid.
Back in the early ’70s, a young car nut by the name of Terry Stinehelfer picked up a ’62 Skylark to terrorize the town in, though truth be known it wasn’t much. The $200 car was all that Terry needed, however; it was powered by a small 215 V-8, and after a few months of work Terry had a cool ride. He drove it around for about a month and had a blast, until one day some poor soul felt he needed the Buick a whole lot more than Terry did, and it was gone. While at the local shopping center in Columbus, the car was stolen and was never recovered. Terry thought it would be nice if someday he could own another.
