Hot Rods And Custom Cars
Hot Rods and Custom Cars are what this site is all about. You won't find pictures of women with tatoos. You won't find political rants. You won't find religion. But you will find lots of information about Hot Rods and Custom Cars and how they are built. Our emphasis throughout is on showing you the planning and processes that goes into building a Hot Rod or Custom Car. Our articles are written so that you don't have to be an engineer to understand them. They clearly explain what you need to know and are geared for people with an appreciation of the art and craft that goes into the building of Hot Rods and Custom cars.
We won't build your hot rod for you. We won't sell you stuff. But we will provide some direction and solid information so that you can find your own parts and build you own hot rod or customize your own car. But that's where the real fun of it all is.
Latest Articles
Dash Panel and Gauge Installation: Keepin' Track of What's Going On Under the Hood
Interior
The dash on our '68 C10 pickup needed some sprucing up. Here's how we did it.
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Basic Hand Tools
Your Hot Rod Shop
If you're new to hot rodding (or are soon to be), it helps to know what tools used for some of the basic automotive techniques
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Chopping a Model A Top: One of the Stronger Methods
Body/Paint
There are several ways to go about chopping the top on a Model A. We believe this is one of the better ones.
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Trailer Lighting: Don't Forget the Ground
Electrical
When you're a hot rodder, you have probably used a trailer to haul home that next project (or pieces thereof). With trailer lighting, like with most things, it's important that they function properly.
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Installing a Vintage Air HVAC Unit: Way Cool Regardless of the Climate
Heating/Air/Defrost
Your comfort is important if you want to get the most out of your hot rod or custom car. And to keep things cool, a Vintage Air install can do the trick.
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Making Front and Rear Wheel Bolt Patterns Match: Re-drilling the Rear Axle
Wheels/Tires
Whether you are merely swapping in a different rear end, or have made a change to the front suspension, it is desirable to have matching wheel bolt patterns on your hot rod
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Drum to Disc Brakes Upgrade on a Chevrolet C10
Brakes
Brake technology has improved a lot over the last 50 years. Disc brakes stop quicker and fade less and are a worthy upgrade for any classic car
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Book Review: Hot Rod Magazine: All the Covers by Drew Hardin with the editors of Hot Rod.
Feature Articles
Ever since the early days, Hot Rod Magazine has been chronicling the history of hot rodding. This book chronicles the history of Hot Rod Magazine as seen on its covers.
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Building a Gas Tank to Fit Your Hot Rod
Feature Articles
Internal combustion engines need fuel to operate. In vehicles, that means a portable reservoir of fuel must be added. In Hot Rods, the space available for these reservoirs may be limited, so you have no choice but to build your own.
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Article Archives
Hot Rod Project Planning: Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance
Feature Articles
Hot rods are made up of a vast collection of parts and pieces. After assessing the condition of your hot rod project, you need to keep track of things. You want to know where you are in order to get to where you want to be.
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Staying Grounded: A No-Nonsense Method of Eliminating Hot Rod Wiring Problems
Electrical
One of the most common reasons for electrical problems is poor grounding. This can cause electrical component failure, or even worse, intermittant failure. Here's our take on making sure our hot rod's electrical system works.
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Deciding What Hot Rod to Build: Build or Buy the Hot Rod You Really Want in the Beginning
Hot Rod Ideas
Deciding that you want to build a hot rod is the easy part. Deciding what you want is a bit more difficult. This article may help you narrow down the choices.
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Selecting Gears for your Hot Rod: Tire Size vs. MPH vs. RPM
Drive Train
The drivetrain components of your hot rod work as a team and to get the combination that works best, you need to look at the big picture.
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Chassis Fabrication: It All Starts with a Pair of Framerails
Chassis/Suspension
The chassis should be solid, dimensionally square, and of adequate strength to actually support the body, drivetrain, suspension and payload. It is truly the foundation of any hot rod project. With more than 50 photos, this article shows you how to put together a chassis that'll meet all those requirements.
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Tying Safety Wire: The Only Time When Tying One On is a Safe Thing
Feature Articles
Racing requires it! But it's not a bad idea for street machines. No matter what your ride, no one likes it when things fly apart.
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Sandpaper Storage: File It Under Abrasives!
Your Hot Rod Shop
Sometimes the simplest solutions can help prevent some really annoying problems.
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Hot Rod Body & Chassis Builder's Tool Guide - Part 4
Your Hot Rod Shop
Regardless of how well equipped your shop may be with pneumatic and electrically operated tools, there will always be a need for basic hand tools such as various hammers, body dollies, sanding boards, and clamps. Knowing how to use these basic tools efficiently will make you a better fabricator. Fancy tools just make the process easier and faster. We'll look at these in our final installment of our Tool Guide.
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Hot Rod Body & Chassis Builder's Tool Guide - Part 3
Your Hot Rod Shop
Building a hot rod or custom car can require that you make curved panels out of flat sheets of steel. In Part 3 of our exploration of shop tools, we'll look at several options available to the hot rodder to do just that.
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Hot Rod Body & Chassis Builder's Tool Guide - Part 2
Your Hot Rod Shop
Tools for cutting metal have made great strides of improvement in the last 60 years or so. Where a cutting torch was once the norm, contemporary hot rod shops are equipped with plasma arc cutters, pneumatically operated shears, nibblers, air saws, die grinders, and air chisels. In part 2 we're going to look at some of these.
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