Home Built Heros
Anytime we feature a professionally built car in HOT ROD, we get the inevitable letters from folks saying they love the high-zoot stuff, but they also want to see real-world cars they can afford. We hear ya, so back in the July '07 issue we put out the call for readers to submit their hot rods, with the stipulation that they had to be mostly built at home, not by a pro. We picked 24 categories, and the best Homebuilt Hot Rod in each category was promised a spot in the magazine and a cool prize from our sponsors, with one overall winner gracing the cover.
Our suspicions were confirmed by the colossal quantity of primo rides that flooded in: Our readers build badass cars! Actually, if it weren't for the required buildup photos, we'd have never believed some of them were built in standard one- and two-car garages. Needless to say, you made our jobs difficult. It took days of wading waist-deep through envelopes and boxes just to separate the thousands of entries into appropriate categories, then several more days of arguing, name-calling, and poo-slinging to settle on the best cars. In the end we found ourselves wishing we had more categories, more prizes to give away, and most of all more pages in the magazine to showcase the killer homebuilt rods of all kinds that were sent in. So without further ado we present the winners of HOT ROD's Homebuilt Heros for 2007.
Best Ford/Merc/Lincoln
'64 Mercury Comet Caliente
William C. Bertres
Marion Center, PA
As a young lad with his nose in HOT ROD magazine, William soaked up every article on drag racing but always looked forward to seeing his idol Dyno Don Nicholson and his '64 Comet Caliente A/FXers. Thirty-one years later William decided it was time to have one of his own. Since an original fetches megabucks, the plan was to create one in an authentic manner with the right parts including the full fiberglass nose and doors, Econoline buckets, '63 Galaxie 9-inch rear, and of course the big bad 427ci FE. Just to be sure that Don approved, William spoke with him at a car show to find his opinion on tribute cars. Don told him that as long as he didn't try to pass it off as original, he thought it was a great idea. Six years of photographing and measuring real A/FX cars and thorough swap-meet scrounging finally got the Comet together.
Its coming-out was in 2001 at an event at National Trails Raceway in Hebron, Ohio, where it received Dyno Don's approval and signature. His only question was why William had neglected to add his name to the door. In his politeness, William had decided to ask permission before using Don's name. Though it's only run for fun, William has quick-shifted the four-speed Top Loader to a best of 11.91 at 117 mph so far.
Best Chevy
'69 Chevy Chevelle convertible
Brian Reidinger
Elizabethtown, PA
Brian's story echoes that of many other Homebuilt Hero winners-a guy with no formal training decides to just dive in and build his dream car by learning and asking questions as he goes. The Chevelle's modest original 307 ci would never do, so Brian elected to prep a 468ci big-block himself to drop in. All those extra cubes resulted in e.t.'s in the low 12s, but the torque also eventually resulted in some sheared-off lug nuts that sent the Chevelle into a ditch. Luckily Brian was OK, and the Chevelle was too, more or less, but since it was wounded anyway, it was the ideal time to tear into the car for an update and full makeover. Brian smoothed the body out and ordered up a slew of replacement parts to prep it for a new flamed paint job. To make sure the inside could keep up with the outside, a custom tan leather and tweed interior was stitched up along with a Mercedes-type cloth top. Though the Chevelle was "finished" a few years ago, like most projects it is always evolving, with Air Ride bags, Intro billet hoops, and a Gear Vendors overdrive recently added.
Best Camaro
'69 Chevy Camaro RS
Mike Crawford
Jackson, MS
Bought by a friend for $300, stripped for parts, forgotten about for 13 years, sold for $300, stripped a little bit more, and then bought by Mike for the same 300 bucks. That's basically the short version of about 20 years of this poor '69's life. That is, until Mike and his buddy Jeff decided to throw it together themselves in time to make the '07 Power Tour(r)-with only eight weeks to go and a solid but stripped Camaro. That's a tall order, but even more so when you consider the extensive parts and fabrication list it took to create this slick '69, 95 percent of which was done in Mike's backyard shop. Sure, there's tons of killer aftermarket gear that bolts right onto a '69 Camaro, and the guys took advantage of that, but they also tested their own abilities (and timetable) with custom touches. For example, 20-inch billets don't tuck well under stock Camaro quarters, so the wheelwells were stretched 2 inches front and rear. With less than three weeks to go, the paint was finally laid and the midnight marathon assembly began. With three days to go, the LS2-powered Camaro rolled under its own steam-just long enough for the slave cylinder on the Tremec six-speed to blow. Long story short, Mike and Jeff were able to get the part, pull the trans, replace the cylinder, and reassemble during an all-nighter, only to have to wait out the rain on Saturday since there were no windshield wipers. Early Sunday morning they jumped in the Camaro and called to get insurance coverage while en route to meet the Power Tour(r) in Evansville, Indiana. They got the epic road trip they were after, though; the next 2,700 miles went by without a hiccup.
Best Tri-Five Chevy
'55 Chevy Nomad
Donald Turnow
Chicago Heights, IL
It's always interesting to see the evolution of a long-term car as time passes and priorities change. When this '55 'Mad was dragged out of a field back in 1976 for $1,500, it was an ex-drag car with big 'n' littles, aluminum door panels, homemade traction bars, and tow points on the nose. The first mild resto kept true to that attitude and lasted for a couple decades until Donald, now retired, decided it was time to give the Chev a new identity and make it a more comfortable driver. Nearly everything from chassis to interior was accomplished in Donald's garage, with the assistance of his son Devin. As a master carpenter, anything Donald wasn't able to learn and do himself he bartered for carpentry work. A basement remodel got his powdercoating work done, and the trans and rearend rebuild was paid for with a new garage.
Most Bitchin' Stance
'55 Chevy 150 sedan
Eric Koopmeiners
Twin Lakes, WI
If one more guy asks Eric why his car doesn't have a straight axle . . . Seriously, though, the bitchin' gasser style and stance doesn't necessitate splicing in leaf springs and a van axle, since there were legitimate gassers on the strip back in the day that kept the control arms intact-including this one. First built and raced in the '60s at the Union Grove dragstrip in Wisconsin by Zalewski and Sylkowski, this '55 only passed into Eric's hands after he promised the original owner's family that he would not resell, part out, or drastically change the car's identity. Turns out that wasn't much of a restriction for Eric since that was his plan all along, and extreme effort was made to use only era-appropriate speed parts. A parade of drivetrains have passed through the car over the years, but current power is derived from a 13.5:1, destroked, 327 yielding 301 ci that's been prepped for 9,000-rpm runs, which we'll bet sounds like beautiful music emanating from those fenderwell headers.
Best Race Car
'73 Dodge Challenger AA/FC
Lee Fabry
Monrovia, CA
It takes dedication to restore any old hot rod, especially with period-correct speed parts. When we're talking about restoring a vintage Funny Car, everything quadruples in difficulty and price. Lee was absolutely smitten with the idea of resurrecting one of those animals, so when a long-neglected '73 Challenger body previously known as The Utica Flash came up for sale sans chassis and drivetrain, he impulse-bought and found himself having to develop brand-new parts resources. The plan was to bring the Flash back to its 6.37-at-226-mph, '73 NHRA Division 1 Funny Car winning form. Shockingly, it only took one Internet ad to net a complete exact replica of the chassis he needed from a fellow nostalgia-drag nut, but Lee still spent long nights with a TIG welder and a stack of chrome-moly tube and plate to fabricate everything from the control systems to the tilt mechanism for the body. When the lid is flipped up you can bask in the glory of the KB-484 Hemi, Danekas 6-71 blower, and Enderle bug catcher along with a hundred other bits Lee scrounged up to make it right.
Best Dare To Be Different
'72 Porsche 914
Mark Surel
Chesterfield, MI
Mark Surel just can't win. He's built a unique low-buck blaster that hands mightier cars their rearends, and he still can't get any respect-which is one reason we had to choose his redheaded-stepchild Porsche for our Dare to Be Different winner. "Everyone hates my car!" Jeff says. "The guys in Vettes and Vipers hate it when I go around a turn faster than them, Porsche guys hate it because it's a 914, the 914-ers hate it because it has a V-8, and the hot rodders hate it because it's a Porsche. When I tell them I have less than 12K into it, they hate it even more!"
Mark was looking for something different to create his low-buck blaster. He was actually on the lookout for a Fiero to drop a V-8 in when a friend happened to mention that he had seen a small-blocked 914 recently. Intrigued, Mark did his research and discovered that despite its lackluster reputation, the lowly 914 was actually a solid platform with good suspension geometry and upgrade potential.
Of course Mark lives in Michigan, and 914s tend to rust in half there (literally), so when he ran across an ad online for a solid '72 deep down in Mississippi he didn't hesitate to load up and make the drive. The Chevy 350 mounts midbay via a kit from Desert Hybrids in Tucson, Arizona (www.deserthybrids.com) and is a complete kit with an adapter plate, engine and trans mounts, remote water pump, and alternator brackets. Basically, just add engine. Since Mark had lots more torque to work with, the transaxle was upgraded with taller gears, which are readily available for 914s. As for suspension and braking, the front and rear were upgraded with bolt-in swaps from an '82 911 Carrera, which netted larger discs and the five-lug pattern to fit the Boxster S wheels.
Quickest For Cheapest
'74 Datsun 260Z
Andrew Nelson
York, PA
Fast and cheap: Who doesn't want that? Of course cheap is relative, but we'd hazard a guess that mid-10s for under 2K is low-buck by anybody's standards. What's even more impressive is that this 260Z is the sixth car in a line of 10 brawlers that Andrew has turned out for less than a $2,500 total outlay-he even sent us the parts list to prove it. Sounds like a crafty individual. His latest creation was built to compete in the $2006 Grassroots Motorsports Challenge, which requires that entries have less invested than the year of the competition (get it?), excluding safety-related niceties such as seatbelts.
The Datsun abounds with garbage-pail ingenuity, such as a hoodscoop crafted from a Nova fender and an aspirin bottle that services as a shift light, but there's plenty of clever tech rolled in as well. The owner-built 350 Chevy emanates a distinctive exhaust note due to owner-fabbed 180-degree headers, and the custom ladder bars were created from 25-cent-per-pound box tubing. How'd he do? Andrew took home top honors at the dragstrip for the $2006 challenge and finished Ninth overall. That's just a warmup, though; once he dials it in a touch more, he has his sights set on Drag Week(tm) '08. We'll see ya there, Andrew.
Best Hidden Treasure
'70 Chevy Camaro SS
Perry Propps
Cooper City, FL
At first glance this hidden treasure didn't seem all that exciting to us-who hasn't seen a derelict second-gen Camaro sitting in a field? However, after we read on we realized Perry had found quite a gem wrapped in Florida weeds. The '70 Camaro is one of only 600 L78 SS 396ci cars produced that year, and one of only a handful of those still surviving. Even more titillating is that the M21-equipped 12-bolt car is complete and only shows 44K original miles. Here's hoping the bottom looks as solid as the top.
Best High School Project
'62 Chevy Corvette roadster
Chuck Breault
Twin Falls, ID
With the increasingly speedy demise of vintage junkyards around the country, we're always happy to see someone rescuing a carcass before the crusher comes in. Believe it or not, this '62 Vette was actually found in the back of an old schoolbus in Teeter's Auto Wrecking in Rupert, Idaho, where it had languished since 1973. Chuck hauled it out and all the way back to Shingle Springs, California, where it became the shop project at Ponderosa High School. Everything from piecing the body back together and painting it to building the 0.030-over, Duntov 30-30-cammed 327ci and wiring was done at the school. The electronics class even rebuilt the original gauges. The brakes are a unique setup with Chevelle calipers up front and '88 T-bird calipers in the rear. All of the rotors are S-10 pieces, and the spindles are 2-inch drops for '54 Chevys. This was no big-budget project, though; Chuck says that almost everything on the car came from junkyards, swap meets, backyards, and rubbish piles. Best of all, he and the kids handled everything themselves; no outside labor was used to resurrect the Vette.
Most Interesting Treatment Of A Common Car
'79 Chevy Corvette
David Knight
Kalamazoo, MI
This one was another difficult spot to fill, since we were looking for a commonly hot-rodded car with either a unique take or a unique purpose. David's '79 Corvette isn't radically different, but we liked the concept. Chevy's Grand Sport Corvette was a limited run of special-edition cars built in 1996 to mark the end of the C4s and pay tribute to the five original Grand Sport race cars built in 1963. Since there were only 1,000 built (810 coupes, 190 convertibles), they're mostly stashed away by collectors. That didn't matter to David, though, he just wanted to borrow the style and create a disco-era Grand Sport. The '79, of course, wears the appropriate admiral blue and white stripe, and to make it further distinctive, it has an Ecklers front bumper with shaved bumperettes and flush-mounted driving lights. The rear is an Ecklers ZR1 tail designed to fit C3 Vettes. Nothing but black 17-inch wheels would be appropriate, so a set of Intro Mulhollands were powdercoated. Grand Sports were designed to drive hard, so the chassis was treated to fabricated upper and lower control arms, fat sway bars, and fiberglass transverse leaf springs from Vette Brakes and Products.
Best Retro Car
'30 Ford Model A
Aaron Von Minden
Oxnard, CA
It has incredible curb appeal now and the right no-nonsense hot rod attitude, but it was little more than a warped and hacked-up body when Aaron started. Someone had begun an amateur chop on the roof and given up when they realized they were over their head. Unfortunately they'd also cut out the floor with a torch, resulting in a lot of fairly warped steel and lack of structure. It wasn't exactly a prize, to say the least, but at the time Aaron was a broke kid who wanted a hot rod, and it was practically given to him. The body, a dropped axle, some juice brakes, and the front stub of a Model A chassis sweetened the deal a bit more.
A duct-tape grid was laid out on the garage floor, and Aaron began squaring up the body using steel tube to replace what little was left of the original wood. New framerails were out of the question budgetwise, so the A stub provided a starting point for a basic rectangular tube frame. Since the floors were gone, Aaron figured it was good excuse to go ahead and channel the body-besides, As just look better that way anyway. A tired flathead was lying around his shop, but with no funds to rebuild it, Aaron somehow parlayed a trade for a running small-block Chevy and even scored a cheap Muncie four-speed from the same guy. Everything else came from eight months of staying home all the time, eating ramen noodles, and spending every spare waking moment either working on the car or asking questions and researching and learning what he should do next. "That's what makes my car so special," says Aaron. "It gave me the incentive and drive to get out there and just try. Not having any money made me look for other ways of doing things."
Best Kustom
'51 Kaiser Manhattan
Keith Charvonia
Tempe, AZ
Like Michelangelo staring at a chunk of marble, Keith truly had an artist's vision when he looked at a '51 Kaiser Manhattan four-door and saw a chopped, channeled, traditional-style, two-door kustom struggling to get out. The $150 Kaiser now rests upon a $1,500 Caprice cop car chassis, and to date Keith tells us there's only about $3,000 total invested in the build. Obviously Keith has a way with a torch and welder, but he's no professional fabricator. He learned everything the good old-fashioned way by studying books and taking a sheetmetal fabrication class given by legendary customizer Gene Winfield, then applying what he learned. Incidentally, that's where the Caprice chassis grew from; it's apparently one of Winfield's own tricks. We definitely dig the style and ingenuity, but Keith says, "Traditional rodders don't like it because it doesn't have a carb, street rodders don't like it because it's rough, and Kaiser guys about have an aneurysm when they see what I did." Sounds fine to us-this kind of car should ruffle some feathers.
Best Street Rod
'34 Chrysler Phantom delivery
Shelton and Tony Williams
Belhaven, NC
We were blown away by the sheer volume and quality of entries we got in the Street Rod category. It was difficult to narrow it down, but Shelton and Tony's '34 Chrysler got the nod mainly because they started with a car 99 percent of us would have dismissed as hopeless, stylistically speaking, and created a show-stopper in their garage. Shelton had written off the dilapidated more-door several times over the years, but his interest was piqued when it dawned on him that it could make great fodder for creating the sedan delivery that Chrysler never did. Can you see how it was done? First 4 inches came out of the roof, and it was filled with an S-10 Blazer's ribbed roof. Next, the doors were welded shut and the rear window post was cut out, then the hole was filled in. Of course, a delivery needs a rear door, so the hole was cut and a door fabbed by hand from the skin. Easy stuff, huh? There's nada available for early Chryslers in the aftermarket, so everything chassis-, drivetrain-, and interior-related was an exercise in creativity as well. What can we say? We just love it when guys have a vision for overlooked steel.
Best Truck
'37 Studebaker Coupe Express
Steve Doerschlag
Eaton, CO
When it comes to dramatic styling on trucks, Steve had a bit of a leg up on the competition. While most guys have to spend some time massaging and shaving to get the utilitarian persona out of their truck, there wasn't much to be done here. It's just hard to beat the stone-stock lines of the '37 Studebaker Coupe Express. As Steve says, "They had to have been designed by a street rodder who was very ahead of his time."
As the name implies, Coupe Express trucks, Studebaker's first foray into the truck market, were created using a four-door sedan nose, fenders, and cab with the same chassis and drivetrain, with a bed grafted on at the factory. Steve spent years searching for one and finally pounced on an abandoned project he found in Hemmings Motor News. It was a sight-unseen deal and probably a bit overpriced, but he wasn't sure when he would come across another. After several sleepless nights over whether he should restore or rod the rare Stude, Steve had an epiphany and decided to keep the body stock with only a few minor touches, but drop in a spiced-up, McCullough-blown, 289ci V-8 with a Powershift auto from an Avanti. As long as he could keep it all Stude, he could live with himself. The fairly Spartan, but stylish, interior carries on the Stude theme with buckets and gauges from an Avanti, a center console from a '63 GT Hawk, and a heater from a '46 Studebaker truck. On the chassis side, Steve had to relent a little and go with a 9-inch Ford from a '63 Econoline with Posies springs, while a Heidt's Mustang II with Air Ride dips the nose. Brakes are 11-inch GM pieces and stock 10-inch drums in the rear.
Best Pontiac
'68 Pontiac Firebird
Larry Nobles
La Quinta, CA
Sometimes it's just the allure of a simple build well executed that attracts us. Larry's Firebird was conceived as his idea of what the prototype for the '69 Firebird might have looked like utilizing the '68 nose. The car has a certain air of probability about it, since the chin and deck spoilers were original dealer options and the second-gen TA Shaker hoodscoop jives remarkably well. Actually, it's so convincingly subdued we'll bet it often takes a few minutes to dawn on admirers that it's a masquerading Firebird. For performance, a 455 was bored 0.030-over to yield 462 ci, which delivers around 428 hp and boatloads of torque. Larry wanted the 'Bird to earn its road-race-inspired moniker and be able to attack corners as well as the street, so the tried-and-true stiffer springs and bigger sway-bar recipe was applied to lessen the body roll.
Best Olds
'70 Olds 442 convertible
Robert Fox
Jackson, WI
We're glad we had quality, because there certainly wasn't quantity from the Oldsmobile camp. The pickings were surprisingly slim, with only a handful of entries. Robert's 442 convertible appeals not only because of its sharp four-barrel, four-speed, dual-exhaust, drop-top status, but because he stood fast and stuck with Olds power underhood. Robert chose to bore the B-O-P 350 out to 362 ci and top it with a set of worked-over Stage 1 Mondello 455 heads outfitted with big stainless valves and Harland Sharp roller rockers. With 10.3:1 compression and an Engle cam, Robert coaxed out 430 hp and 490 lb-ft of torque, which gets sent to a 700-R4 that gives the PPG Rally Red Olds long enough legs to deliver 20-plus miles per gallon.
Best Use Of Used Parts
'71 Ford Pinto Runabout
Al Elliot
Lake Havasu City, AZ
Almost by definition, this category has a heaping helping of Dare to Be Different-style cars, but it's the ones who take the scraps at the bottom of the pile that everyone leaves behind and cobble together a fun toy that we love. Nearly every part of this Runabout was a castoff that Al got for next to nothing by digging through swap meets and junkyards. If this Pinto looks a little strange even for a Pinto, that's because Al shortened the body by 9 inches behind the door and stretched the nose 9 inches to create a better weight balance and make room for the 3.0L Nissan V-6 topped with a Roots-style blower. Didn't see that coming, did you? The little bomb was 10 years in the making but was ready for the now-75-year-young Al to drive to Bonneville and back in 2006.
Best AMC
'60 AMC Rambler Sedan Delivery
Randy Greganti
Whittier, CA
Randy says the most frequent comment he heard about his Rambler project was "What are you going to do with that?" or "That thing is ugly." Undeterred, Randy pursued his dream of turning the little pink four-door family wagon into a bright pink (and purple) two-door sedan delivery. He'd had plenty of years to contemplate the transition, since the wagon was originally purchased by his grandparents, and Randy and seven other grandkids had spent many trips piled in the back of it. Randy even tried to talk his grandpa out of the by-then-retired Rambler when he turned 16. Gramps declined, quite sure Randy was going to "tear it up." It took 13 years or so, but Randy did finally get his hands on it and of course proceeded to tear it up by creating the sedan delivery he'd always wanted. He did at least leave the reliable little 195ci six and pushbutton auto stock, as Gramps would have wanted. We dig the conversion and the way it emphasizes the unique dipped roofline. Plus, it's the only car we've ever seen effectively pull off pink and purple two-tone, with purple pinstripe flames to boot.
Best Modern Treatment On The Pro Street Theme
'66 Ford Fairlane
Doug Schultz
Covington, WA
Could the customary '80s Pro Street look use an update to make it hip again? That's an all-day argument, but we wanted to see what would happen if one of those big-tired brutes were brought forward 20 years or so and built with a modern approach. There were few entries for this category, but Doug's '66 Fairlane quickly rose to the top with its "Pro Street meets Pro Touring" vibe. The low 'Lane sits on a 2x4- and 2x2- inch mild steel frame and custom-bent Art Morrison rear clip with copious structural reinforcement tying the rocker panels to the frame. A Heidt's Super Ride II IFS with 2- inch drop spindles intended for '55-'59 Chevy trucks and Air Ride ShockWaves put the nose nearly on the ground, and a parallel four-link with a Watt's link is attached to a 9-inch Ford rear that Doug fabricated himself on a Dutchman Motorsports jig out back. Of course the rear tires are what it's all about, so large-by-huge 20x12 steamrollers with Michelin 335/35R20s leave big marks on the pavement when Doug lays into the 635hp, 514ci Ford.
Best Mopar
'69 Dodge Dart GT
Larry Forgacs
Pittsburgh, PA
Accountants are smart with money, but rather than just stocks, Larry diversified and invested in a piece of Mopar muscle. Of course he's had it for about 20 years, but with the price of Mopar steel scooting skyward lately we're pleased to see that Larry hasn't become one of the idle purists. Larry happily beats on his Dart regularly, and he's never afraid to drive it to the store or take a three-hour road trip to the Mopar Nationals in Columbus, Ohio. He even sought out an ultra-rare STR-12 cross-ram intake, then immediately ported, polished, and painted it. Did any Mopar fanatics just faint? For those long trips or cruises with his wife and 2-year-old son, the dual MagnaFlow and DynoMax mufflers (yes, four) Larry used in his handbuilt stainless exhaust system help keep the interior noise to a muted roar. Surprisingly, that doesn't seem to hamper the homebuilt 11.2:1, 525hp, 414ci stroker much since it regularly returns low -11-second e.t.'s. Everything from the engine to the tranny to the fab work was performed by Larry in his one-car garage. The paint work was not, however-it was performed in a makeshift booth under his back deck. Nice.
Best Buick
'64 Buick Special two-door wagon
Tom Spresser
Scottsdale, AZ
It's always good to see the outcome of Project Garage alumni. Tom Spressor's two-door Buick, which was in the Mar. '07 issue, was born of a diehard Buick fan's desire to have a two-door wagon. Of course Buick never built one, but that wasn't about to stop Tom, who had a rendering done by Problem Child Kustoms (www.problemchildkustoms.com) to make sure he wasn't crazy, then set about planning how to make a two-door wagon without having to reinvent the body. Rather than go to the extreme of extending the front doors rearward and making custom glass, Tom simply welded the rear doors shut and blacked out the window trim to create a quick and easy two-door. Style was the main goal with this cruiser, so Air Ride suspension and 17-inch Boyd Coddington wheels were chosen to give it the right low-down stance. Rather than drop in a 455, Tom wanted to keep the Buick's little 225ci V-6 for economical motivation. However, it motivates much more crisply now thanks to 10.0:1-compression slugs, head and valvetrain work, and a custom cam, all performed by TA Performance (www.taperformance.com). To take advantage of the newfound perkiness, Tom swapped in a junkyard-scored T5 five-speed from a '90 Camaro.
Kinnan's Pick
'65 Ford Mustang
Ray Banks
Mountain View, CA
Ray Banks' story is a typical one. He says, "This car began as a 'let's build it better than stock with just a little more power.' That quickly turned into 'OK, I'm making 568 hp, so I need to upgrade stuff.'" The results of the rolling snowball are what you see here, a badass Mustang that's just as at home on the street as it is whipping tail on sports cars on the road course. Ray sent us videos from the road courses of Sears Point and Laguna Seca as proof, with one clip showing him freight-training a Corvette ZO6 between turns 4 and 5 at Laguna.
Aside from the bodywork, paint, and engine machining, Ray did everything himself in his two-car garage. That includes welding up all the frame and body seams, installing the Global West/Cobra Automotive suspension and 16-inch Vintage 45 wheels (to clear the Baer Sport brakes), and building the 382ci small-block that makes 568 hp at 7,300 rpm. Ray also fabbed up his own dry-sump system using a Peterson external pump and an Accusump 3-quart reservoir, and the fuel system is road-race-ready with a FuelSafe 22-gallon cell and a 11/42-gallon sump to avoid fuel starvation in corners. Ray spent three years collecting parts, then another three years building the car, in which time he put it together twice prior to paint.
Why is it my pick? Because it's a car I would love to have, a perfect combination of a sedate-though-cool fastback with the heart of a Trans-Am car. If you remain skeptical, go to www.hotrod.com and find out for yourself. -Rob Kinnan
Freiburger's Pick
'65 AMC Rambler American 440H
John Ciancitto
Des Moines, IA
Truth is, we just couldn't have lived with ourselves if we'd picked this one as the best AMC since it has a (no surprise) small-block Chevy in it. But this car was just so different, radical, and purposeful that I nabbed it as Freiburger's Pick. Zero hesitation.
John's brother Tom has a similarly unique open-road-racing '37 Ford pickup that was featured in the Jan. '04 HRM and selected as one of our Top Ten hot rods that year, but we have to admit that the Rambler one-ups the truck a little. We can't get over the wicked stance and the Vintage Wheelworks series 48 rollers. All that look is backed up with cook, thanks to a 584hp, 406ci small-block, a Tremec TKO-600 trans, and a Speedway Engineering rear with a Detroit Locker and 3.64:1 gears. The brakes are 13- and 11-inch Wilwoods with six-piston calipers. It all rides on a tube chassis and custom coilover suspension designed and built by the owner. The full rollcage tells you it means business.
That business is racing. With the PPG Midnight Blue barely dry, John hit the Maxton Monster Mile and ran 169.093 mph. He also intends to open-road race it and drag race it, and he's been driving around on the street just for fun.
Best of all, this Homebuilt Hero was completely revamped by John himself. He swears that no one touched the car but him and his wife, who sewed some upholstery. He thought of it, designed it, welded it, built it, bodyworked it, and painted it. He tells us, "My philosophy has always been, 'If someone else can do it, why can't I learn how?'"-David Freiburger
Best Overall
'67 Chevy Camaro
Jack W. Hodson
Glendale, AZ
Out of all the categories we had to fill, this one was by far the most hotly debated. Truth be told, there were dozens of cars with terrific style and character that were coverworthy creations, and it took a great deal of nitpicking and deliberation to finally single out Jack Hodson's '67 Camaro as our Homebuilt Hero Overall Winner. It wasn't just the right-on stance and slick paintwork of the Camaro that really caught our attention. Nor was it just the carefully chosen parts and pro-level clean installation. What really impressed us is that this was Jack's first real build, and the results are darn near professional level.
Now before you scream "checkbook build," know that none of this happened quickly. It's the labor prices that skyrocket the price of custom builds, and since Jack didn't have the money to pay for others' work, he decided to learn everything as he went and took five long years to finish it.
Jack didn't even bring a lot of cards to the table. He's a neon-glass blower by trade and had never welded before. At work, Jack's boss and a few of his co-workers are car guys and always had something interesting cooking, so the bug to build began to bite. Initially he was searching for a '70 Camaro, since that was his birth year, when someone offered this '67 to him for one of those hard-to-pass-up prices. Of course good prices are usually for good reasons, and Jack didn't know the common Camaro rust spots to watch out for.
Since the paint was presentable, the original plan was to keep it simple: some custom wheels, lower it, suspension work for handling-the usual bolt-on recipe. But the more Jack inspected the car, the more masked-over problems he discovered, and the more he realized he was never going to feel right about it if he left it that way. Plus, every time he washed it the trunk filled with water. So within a couple of weeks the Camaro was reduced to a pile of parts in his garage, and Jack was working overtime trying to assure his wife that this was just a "small departure" from the original plan.
Jack's plans were growing by the day, but his budget wasn't, so he began observing and asking tons of questions. He watched the fabrication guys at his job when they created the steel parts needed for the signs and talked their ears off with questions. He also made friends with Dean Livermore at Hot Rods by Dean in Phoenix, Arizona, and began swinging by often to soak up all he could. Dean was impressed enough by Jack's persistence and willingness to learn that he offered to let Jack use some of the tools in the shop. He even stopped in during the build to check on the Camaro's progress and offer advice.
When he was ready to go for it, Jack picked up a MIG welder and figured out the touch by building a body dolly to roll the Camaro around on, then attacked the less visible parts of the car, replacing floorpans and the upper dash and adding some DSE subframe connectors. Once his confidence level was up he started on the pretty stuff, patching numerous holes and smoothing out the firewall. He even welded and filed the body gaps for perfect clearance, relying heavily on what he remembered from his high school autobody class. Eventually the body was sent over to Crisp Custom Paint for final prep, several coats of House of Kolor Tangerine Kandy, and some custom root-beer-colored stripes.
Once it returned home, it was time for the real fun to begin. Jack stuck to his plan of doing everything himself and went through a crash course in chassis wiring and interior design, as well as the logistics of dropping a blown EFI small-block and Tremec six-speed in a first-gen Camaro. It was another long four years in the making, but we say the outcome was well worth it. Since the car's been on the road it's not only grabbed our attention, but found itself with a nomination for The Goodguys Street Machine of the Year with some very high-dollar company. "We didn't win that day, but it was a real honor just to be considered alongside those cars," Jack tells us. "Several other magazines wanted to shoot it, but I really felt I had a chance to win Homebuilt Heros, so I held out and went for it." We're glad you did, Jack; this Camaro shows what's possible in a two-car garage with a little patience and persistence.
Photo Gallery: Owner-Built Home Built Heros - Hot Rod Magazine
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