It glitters in the sun, but it isn't a diamond. It makes the hippies grin, it makes the graybeards chuckle, and girls don't understand it at all. It's metalflake, and we've discovered that it looks as good on your '60s street machine as it does on your bass boat. So check this trip as we add a little sparkle to the CC/Rambler.
inline_mediumwraptextrightCC/Rambler25614377/techarticles/ccrp_0912_metalflake_paint_jobccrp_0912_02+1967_AMC_rambler+metalflake_paint_job.jpgTrue

Editor Glad admits it freely. Our '64 El Camino shop truck is a beater. His prepurchase criterion of having a rust-free cab was validated. There is no rust around the windshield, back glass, and cowl, and that's a major score. But the floorpans and quarter-panels were pretty much junk. Those are big enough flaws to keep us from truly enjoying our Pro-Beater parts hauler. The flappy quarters are an eyesore to all who set eyes on its Shamrock Shake flanks, and the holy rusted metal (Batman!) floors, while novel at first, merely provide an entrée for fumes and road grime that ultimately overwhelm the driver and unlucky passenger.inline_mediumwraptextright26811046/techarticles/ccrp_0912_rust_repair_restorationccrp_0912_01_z+1964_chevy_el_camino+rust_removal.jpgTrue

1,450HP, 299ci, Short-Deck, Small-Block Chevy
Ron Main and George Poteet, Saticoy, CA
Bonneville racing is all about heavy doses of reliable horsepower. Decades ago, it took four supercharged engines in a streamliner to even consider going 400 mph. Now, Ron Main and George Poteet are planning an assault on the Salt pushed by a tiny, 299ci, small-block Chevy built by legendary turbo-engine master Kenny Duttweiler. The engine is specifically built to run in the Main & Poteet Speed Demon car that claimed fame as the first flathead-powered car to break 300 mph. Next came a Duttweiler-built Mopar four-banger Midget engine, followed by a turbocharged Duttweiler-built 2.2L GM Ecotec four-cylinder that set an SCCA record at 343.494 mph in 2008, running 390 mph out the back door. Duttweiler says this newest engine should put them close to their goal of 430 mph. That's 630 feet per second or more than the length of two football fields every second. At that speed, don't blink or you'll miss it all.inline_mediumwraptextright25613813/techarticles/ccrp_0912_land_speed_small_block_chevyccrp_0912_01+land_speed_small_block_chevy_engine+.jpgTrue

Three days of cool cars, burnouts, bikinis, cruising, and competition-is this heaven? No, it's the Car Craft Summer Nationals presented by GM Performance Division, and if you weren't there, you're gonna wish you were. We took over the Minnesota State Fairgrounds July 19-21 for a three-day celebration of everything automotive. Hundreds of gallons of race gas were burned, millions of calories of fairground food were devoured, and in spite of the unusually cool temperatures and ice-cold economy, we all had a blast. If you want to join us next year, log on to CarCraft.com for details.inline_mediumwraptextright31042167/eventcoverage/summer_nationals/ccrp_0912_2009_summer_nationalsccrp_0912_01+2009_car_craft_summer_nationals+.jpgTrue

Spotting a Plymouth Road Runner-or any blue-chip muscle machine-in the junkyard is sad and exciting at the same time. The sad part is realizing that a once-proud tire burner is a step closer to the crusher. The exciting part is the simple thrill of discovering a diamond in the dust. Either way, hope springs eternal that some savvy hunter-never us-will end up catching the prey and saving it for restoration before things get too far out of control. Unfortunately, for the '69 383 Road Runner coupe shown here at Desert Valley Auto Parts in Phoenix (dvap.com; 800/905-8024), any hope of resurrection is highly unlikely. But we can still dive in for a last look.inline_mediumwraptextrightMissing its 335hp 383 engine and heavy-duty 727 TorqueFlite transmission, this one has been carved up like a Thanksgiving turkey by Wile E. Coyote. We can only hope the inner fender, door frame, and other metal chunks have gone toward the revival of some other crashed or rusted Plymouth B-Body.30931962/offshore/091200/ccrp_0912_junkyard_crawlccrp_0912_02+1969_plymouth_road_runner.jpgTrue

Electrical Components
Here's where we could probably fill the entire magazine with ideas, parts, and wiring kits, so we really had to exercise self-control and not stuff this section with part numbers. While most car crafters don't worry much about what wire they buy, they really should. The wire you find at the local hardware store or auto parts store generally uses an inexpensive insulator that can quickly become brittle. We found a company called Del City that supplies many aftermarket companies with high-quality electrical wire and components. Del City's SAE spec wire is designed to withstand continual exposure to as high as 257 degrees F. Generally, you would expect to pay more for a quality wire like this, but we purchased 100-foot spools of 18-gauge black and red wire for less than $7.00 each. When we checked at the auto parts store, we found a 30-foot roll for $6.99, so by purchasing in bulk, you get three times as much wire that's also a superior quality.inline_mediumwraptextrightWeatherpak connectors are great for quick-disconnect wiring and also excellent at maintaining the connection over long periods of time. The connectors require a special crimping tool.26812816/techarticles/ccrp_0912_small_parts_guideccrp_0912_09+small_parts_guide+.jpgTrue

It doesn't take long when reading car magazines to realize how each story always comes off looking easy. Even if the tale is all about trial and frustration, it can seem like another chapter out of Aesop's Fables. That's because the reader is always spared the fits and starts, and the story takes barely 30 minutes to read. The only thing more fantastic than a quick magazine story is a complete muscle car buildup in 42 minutes on reality TV. So when we tell you Ken Crocie spent months on this Pontiac turbocharger restoration and all but slept at Westech's shop in search of respectable Pontiac power, it was all in the name of doing the project justice. We came along for the ride as intrigued observers, but trust us-the suffering was all Crocie's.inline_mediumwraptextrightThis may not look exotic, but nearly 750 lb-ft of torque qualifies in our book as something special. And it boosts through a stock-appearing Quadrajet.26726278/techarticles/ccrp_0912_turbo_pontiac_400_buildccrp_0912_01+turbo_pontiac_400_engine_build+.jpgTrue

Step Two
Edelbrock E-Street Heads
429 hp at 5,300
481 lb-ft at 3,900inline_mediumwraptextrightFor the sake of comparison, we looked at the numbers from a set of factory GM iron Vortec heads flowed previously on the same flow bench. The E-Streets were within 2 to 3 cfm through midlift then flowed 12 to 14 cfm more through the intake after 0.500 lift and 10 to 12 cfm more through the exhaust after 0.400 lift. The E-Streets have 185cc intake and 60cc exhaust ports.26784358/techarticles/ccrp_0912_small_block_chevy_buildccrp_0912_08+sleeper_small_block_chevy_engine+build.jpgTrue

Tech Notes
What: '69 Dodge Dart Swinger 340

214ci, 700HP Chevrolet IndyCar Street Engine
Jerry Magnuson, Ventura, CA
And now for something really different. Jerry Magnuson, owner of Magnuson Products, the supercharger company that markets the trick aftermarket Eaton blowers we all love, has a '54 Corvette that just needed a little boost to make it interesting. His friend Ryan Falconer, the man behind the Falconer V-12 you may have heard about, was one of the original engine builders involved with the '02 Chevrolet IndyCar race engine program. Falconer had a few of these 214ci engines at his shop that he had converted from their original methanol-fueled race configurations into 560hp, 98-octane street engines, still utilizing much of the original engine architecture. These street engines utilized the smaller, 112 Eaton positive-displacement supercharger, so Magnuson, being the inveterate car crafter that he is, upgraded his engine to a larger 122 blower that now makes a solid 700 hp. This is the rear view of the engine, because frankly, it's the most interesting side, since the front covers contain the drive mechanism for the dual overhead cams (DOHC) and no accessory drive. The driver side of the engine mounts a small water pump and alternator driven off the same shaft with a starter motor squeezed in there as well.inline_mediumwraptextright26949370/techarticles/ccrp_1001_chevy_indycar_street_engineccrp_1001_01+chevrolet_indycar_street_engine+.jpgTrue

Don Green lived up to his vanity plate when he entered the drag racing event after the car show at the Milan Dragway Mopar Days in Center Line, Michigan. After a quick burnout, Don staged and revved up his blown Hemi. When he launched, the TorqueFlite 727 scattered and bounced parts like a handful of marbles. As the car rolled forward, the transmission fluid ignited into a huge ball of fire. Don escaped injury, and the safety crew was on the fire extinguisher so fast the paint job survived.

Nitrous Cams

Some things are just meant to be. If you subscribe to the latest conspiracy theory of the week, then you might find it hard to believe there is no hidden agenda behind the fact that Dan Novara happens to drive a big-block '69 Nova. The question of whether there's a hidden message in his last name is perhaps best left as a topic of discussion between groups of psychiatrists. That's because we know better. Besides, if he was really playing off his name, his license plate would say something like "Nova Ra" instead of "Huz-Nxt." Face it, Dan just likes to go fast.inline_mediumwraptextright26987695/featuredvehicles/ccrp_1001_1969_chevy_novaccrp_1001_01+1969_chevrolet_nova+.jpgTrue

The new era in street car competition is to pit these machines against each other in a real-world environment of braking, acceleration, and handling rather than merely judge them on how good they look. For you longtime Car Craft readers, this is really nothing new. You may recall a then-unique competition CC initiated back in the May '86 issue called Real Street Eliminator (RSE). The premise today remains the same, but we've made some changes and even added a unique twist just to mix up things a little.inline_mediumwraptextrightReal Street returns with a new competition and now has the owners (or designated hit men) wheel their machines. So this is now just as much a driver's race as it is a test of the machines. This is John Wegner's nitrous-assisted big-block Camaro.26988442/eventcoverage/real_street_eliminator/ccrp_1001_real_street_eliminatorccrp_1001_01+real_street_eliminator+.jpgTrue

The joke among guys is if your car is making a strange or irritating noise, turn the radio up. But there are some noises you just shouldn't ignore, and the whine coming from the pump area of the 4R70W transmission in our ex-Santa Barbara County Sheriff's '03 Crown Victoria would surely leave us stranded by the roadside if we took that advice.inline_mediumwraptextright31211562/techarticles/ccrp_1001_4r70w_transmission_rebuildccrp_1001_01+ford_4R70W_transmission_rebuild+.jpgTrue

Ted Toki has done the work. You can tell he's built a lot of engines, raced everything, and been everywhere. He can't tell you who the next American Idol is, but who cares? If you can get his attention, he has the answer to every car-related question from decades of firsthand experience. He's holed up at Westside Performance in West Los Angeles, California, most days, wrenching on impossible cars without a lift or a pit. He's the one kneading a shop towel as another customer's rumpity street machine echoes down the alley.inline_mediumwraptextright26986582/featuredvehicles/ccrp_1001_1955_chevy_gasserccrp_1001_01+1955_chevy_gasser+.jpgTrue

Though convertibles and 2+2 (fastback) models get all the stares and collector dollars today, the basic Mustang hardtop accounted for well over three-fourths of all Mustang sales during the car's first few years of production. For instance, of the 607,568 Mustangs sold in 1966, 35,698 were 2+2 fastbacks and 72,119 were convertibles. By contrast, a whopping 499,751 were hardtops. Get the point?inline_mediumwraptextrightFirst-generation Mustangs (like many Ford models) have the all-important warranty plate riveted to the driver-side door. When the door goes missing (as it has here), you lose vital information describing original specifications like paint color, interior trim style, vehicle assembly date, where the car was originally delivered, axle type/ratio, and transmission type. Dig the clean, rust-free body. The only signs of repairs are small patches on the lower quarter-panels.25834595/featuredvehicles/ccrp_1001_1966_ford_mustangccrp_1001_01+1966_ford_mustang+rear_view.jpgTrue

Though we car crafters like to think of ourselves as a more sophisticated bunch than the average car guy, the truth is we all have a warm spot in our collective hearts for excessive and gratuitous displays of horsepower. And few things scream wretched excess more than a supercharger jutting through the hood. The bigger, the better, too. An 8-71 on a small-block Chevy-why not?inline_mediumwraptextright26989516/techarticles/ccrp_1001_supercharger_guideccrp_1001_01+supercharger_guide+.jpgTrue

Have you heard a twin-screw blower yet? There is nothing in the world like the giant slide-whistle scream of the new batch of positive-displacement superchargers for late-model engines. It's like being duct-taped to the hood of Scotty Cannon's Pro Mod with your head in the bug catcher. The whine turns to a whistle, then a shriek as the engine starts to make power.inline_mediumwraptextrightThe '64 El Camino has been dubbed El Guapo by Pete Waydo, an engineer at Vortech. It has an '04 GTO LS1 with an MSD MEFI 4 controller, a Keisler A41 automatic overdrive transmission, and a 10-bolt with axles and a limited-slip from Randy's Ring and Pinion. For more on the swap, read the how-to article in the May '08 issue or online at CarCraft.com. The general swap components are from Street and Performance and use its pulley system and headers. The motor mounts are from Holley.25848146/techarticles/ccrp_1001_supercharger_installationccrp_1001_02+1964_chevy_el_camino+supercharger_install.jpgTrue

Tim Dolan
Los Angeles, CA
We got a lot of positive feedback from people who could relate to Editor Glad's column in the Oct. '09 issue dealing with having to work on your car in less-than-ideal locations. We received a flurry of pictures depicting carport and shanty-town-style lean-tos all housing readers' current projects. We must've struck a nerve. We'll continue the theme with Tim's garage, though we're not sure you could even call it a garage. The door opening didn't look wide enough to swallow his '69 Buick LeSabre. Garage is a relative term in Los Angeles and usually refers to an oddly shaped structure such as this-one that really only lends itself to storing crap you don't want to keep in your apartment. Believe it or not, however, Tim built the 500hp 455 for his Skylark in here. He's also currently putting together a Turbo 400 to go behind it. Let's take a peek.inline_mediumwraptextright25805213/featuredvehicles/ccrp_1001_this_guys_garageccrp_1001_01+this_guys_garage+tim_dolan.jpgTrue

Jake Osborn
Spokane, WA
Jake emailed this photo of his garage, and we immediately wanted to pack up our stuff and move in. No reason in particular; it just looks like a cool place to work-not a showplace for company executives to park their build-it-for-me mobiles. Jake's a diesel mechanic who works for Kenworth. He also has more than 20 cars scattered around his property, all of which are in some state of build. The high-priority cars are in his garage. Let's take a look at how they do things in the Pacific Northwest.inline_mediumwraptextright25613114/featuredvehicles/ccrp_0912_this_guys_garageccrp_0912_01+this_guys_garage+jake_osborn.jpgTrue

Spotting a Plymouth Road Runner-or any blue-chip muscle machine-in the junkyard is sad and exciting at the same time. The sad part is realizing that a once-proud tire burner is a step closer to the crusher. The exciting part is the simple thrill of discovering a diamond in the dust. Either way, hope springs eternal that some savvy hunter-never us-will end up catching the prey and saving it for restoration before things get too far out of control. Unfortunately, for the '69 383 Road Runner coupe shown here at Desert Valley Auto Parts in Phoenix (dvap.com; 800/905-8024), any hope of resurrection is highly unlikely. But we can still dive in for a last look.inline_mediumwraptextrightMissing its 335hp 383 engine and heavy-duty 727 TorqueFlite transmission, this one has been carved up like a Thanksgiving turkey by Wile E. Coyote. We can only hope the inner fender, door frame, and other metal chunks have gone toward the revival of some other crashed or rusted Plymouth B-Body.30931962/featuredvehicles/ccrp_0912_junkyard_crawlccrp_0912_02+1969_plymouth_road_runner.jpgTrue

Tim Sockness was looking for a lightweight car he could cut up and use as a "Pro Street go-fast car." He'd been doing so since the '80s when he saw a Pro Street Duster wobbling down the freeway. "I thought it was the coolest thing I'd ever seen," Tim says. So it stayed in his head for 20 years. Then one day, something clicked. "I was a late bloomer as a car guy. Up until I was 30 years old, I drove garbage." When Tim realized his fate, he began to build. First there were four-wheel drives, then an import with a turbo. "That car was fast; it had 240 hp at the wheel and only weighed 2,100 pounds." That's when Tim decided to build a real car.inline_mediumwraptextright26699092/featuredvehicles/ccrp_0912_1998_ford_rangerccrp_0912_01+1998_ford_ranger.jpgTrue

In the rodeo world of bull riding, 8 seconds is an eternity. Strap one hand to the back of a 1-ton-plus bull, let it rip, and hope to hold on long enough to not get stomped. In the drag racer's quarter-mile arena, it's exactly the opposite-the quicker the ride, the greater the thrill. By the time you pare it down to 8 seconds, it's about the same as strapping on that bull. But for those guys who've done it, all they want to do is go quicker.inline_mediumwraptextright26698372/featuredvehicles/ccrp_0912_1999_chevrolet_camaroccrp_0912_01+1999_chevrolet_camaro.jpgTrue

The air in the parking lot was electric. It felt historic, optimistic, and liberating. We were staging to cruise Van Nuys Boulevard for the first time in more than a quarter century. At just a few minutes past 8 p.m. on Wednesday, June 10, a booming voice shouted a few informal instructions and cars began to pull out from the Rydell Chevrolet (formerly Paradise Pontiac) lot, tentatively at first as if they were anticipating trouble. Finally, an old-timer rolled into the street with authority, a bit of engine revving bravado, and just the thinnest wisp of tire smoke. The ice had been broken, and cruising was back on Van Nuys.inline_mediumwraptextright30810021/eventcoverage/car_shows/ccrp_0911_van_nuys_boulevardccrp_0911_02_z+van_nuys_boulevard+cruise.jpgTrue