
THE AUTO BUILDER
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Totally Awesome Elky
“I started building this car a little over 15 years ago after completing a Pro Street ’70 Camaro RS for my then-16-year-old son, Brad,” says overhead door installation specialist Jim Meltzer of Ventura, California. “I always had the urge to build a ’59 Pro Street Chevrolet El Camino (hence the nickname “U.S. Pro-1”), having owned one of those cars when I was just 21 years old,” he says. “Forty years later, the ’60 came along, and I figured that was close enough. The El Camino project was a joint collaboration with my sons Brad and Rod, and it got off to a great start. We made plans for a big motor and even built a full rollcage for that huge hunk of steel with the intentions of actually racing it.”

Rad Win by Rad Rides
We knew this one was special the moment we first spotted it at the 2024 Grand National Roadster Show. Now it’s official—the 2025 SEMA Battle of the Builders Presented by Mothers Polish has crowned Troy Trepanier of Rad Rides by Troy as the best overall builder of the year with his jaw-dropping Fenderless ’36 Ford Roadster.

BAD BOWTIE
Some guys love their Chevys so much that they’ll go out of their way to flush out and record every bit of their cars’ histories. Such is the case with Gene Lavine of Excelsior Springs, Missouri. Lavine is 65 going on 35. A car guy since he was 16, he served his country as a jet fighter pilot and then went on to fly for the Federal Aviation Administration. He also has a Ph.D. and now is vice president of a company that manages collections for more than 30,000 businesses.
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Installing a Be Cool Aluminum Radiator and Module System
Be Cool is no newcomer to cooling heavy metal. For years it has provided cooling solutions for some of the most impressive high-performance engines to rumble down the streets and dragstrips of America.
The folks at Be Cool understand that having the proper cooling components in any car or truck is vital to keep an engine safely within its operating temperature range. They also understand that to make cooling and installation easier, they had to design a full bolt-in system, a system that would fit hundreds of applications for classic cars and trucks, as well as more modern vehicles that also need cooling help.
What they’ve done is design the Be Cool module assemblies, created to offer a complete package without the worry of having to guess which parts fit and are compatible with other parts. The module assemblies include a beautiful natural or polished aluminum crossflow radiator, a high-torque European fan (or fans, depending on horsepower), aluminum fan mounting brackets, complete electric fan wiring harness, diamond-cut vented coolant recovery tank, billet Be Cool radiator cap and all the necessary hardware to complete the installation.
Each of the kits is designed to be a complete coolant solution, offering guaranteed temperature drops of 20 degrees or your money back! Hello, does that work for you?
Be Cool stands behind this guarantee because each kit is matched for peak efficiency. Depending upon your application and horsepower, the module assembly is available in ? 400-, 700- and 1,000-horsepower applications. The ’68 Chevrolet truck shown here is powered by a reliable, healthy Chevy small block that has always seemed to run a bit hot (in city traffic), and since high heat affects performance and causes extra wear on the engine internals, a new assembly from Be Cool might prove to be the perfect solution for this particular installation. This Chevy small block is backed by an automatic transmission; however, Be Cool offers these aluminum radiators with a built-in trans cooler, which is how this radiator was equipped.
When the owner purchased this classic truck the original radiator had been removed and replaced with a junkyard unit. The shroud was gone but the engine temperature ran okay, although it was marginal during the summer. With a little basic information and one call to Be Cool, about a week later the owner of this truck had a brand-new cooling system. Rather than to jump on the install, the owner wanted to do it correctly, so he gave the folks at LMC Truck a call for new, lower retainers and support pads, along with a set of original-style hoses. Once he began draining the antifreeze and removing the radiator the kit went right in, with no problems whatsoever. The wiring is straightforward and, thanks to the molded shroud and twin fans, the owner should never have to worry about running hot at blistering fairgrounds events, even while cruising. The complete installation took about three hours and required just a few simple hand tools.
ARTICLE SOURCES
Be Cool Inc.
310 Woodside Ave.
Essexville, MI 48732
888/515-6075
LMC Truck
Box 14991
Lenexa, KS 66285
800/562-8782





