November 2011 Hometown Hot Rodding

All Arnold Tomlinson wanted was a solid turnkey muscle car to cruise in while his current ride was torn down for an engine refresh. That’s when a seemingly cherry ’70 Mercury Cyclone Spoiler looked like exactly what he needed. Nevertheless, once the car arrived from Florida to his hometown in Colorado, he discovered the bane of wet Southern cars: rust. The floors were shot, the doors wouldn’t open, and the windows wouldn’t roll down. Even the window felt was missing, letting the glass rattle around. Rather than throw his hands up, Arnold dug in and decided to remake his Mercury muscle.

A little web browsing is all it took to a find the original FoMoCo parts necessary to build a big-block brawler—a 429 Cobra Jet, a four-speed Toploader, and a 3.50 Trac-loc rear with 31-spline axles. Inside, the black bucket interior with console and Hurst shifter (and the signature cluster with tach, temp, oil, and amps recessed in the dash) was rebuilt and refreshed. Arnold says the Cyclone turned out to be a wonderful driver that gets tons of attention at local car cruises, and pretty much everywhere he goes.

A recent trip to the dyno for some tuning has brought Randy’s ’67 Charger one step closer to completion. It’s been an ongoing project for the last 21 years and in its current form is one hell of a sleeper. The engine he was tuning is a 451ci big-block with SMPI, eight coils firing wasted spark, and twin turbos backed up by a Viper T-56 six speed. Yeah, doesn’t look the part, does it? On the rollers it spun those 15-inch Kelly Chargers to the tune of 729 rear-wheel horsepower and 711 lb-ft of torque. You never saw that coming, did you? To top it off, thanks to a stock 8.75 diff equipped with 3.23 gears Randy says those numbers were followed up by a calculated 18 mpg on the trip home. Wow. Next on the list is redoing the suspension and generally making the Charger look like an untouched original, just to really mess with people’s heads. Hey Randy, when you get this beast finished, let us know!

Life really sucks for Pete DeFelice. He’s got a ’67 Buick Skylark. Convertible. In Hawaii. And he’s got the nerve to complain about the high cost of a restoration in his South Pacific paradise? You need to have a chat with your brothers in Flint, Michigan, my man. Hey, at least Pete says the body was straight and rust-free when he bought it from the first owner two years ago. The open-top flyer came loaded from the factory with A/C, power steering, power brakes, power windows, tilt wheel, and a posi rear, but that still wasn’t enough. To that tally Pete added Baer brakes, Hotchkis suspension bits, an AGR steering box, and 17-inch Nitto NT555s on Torq-Thrusts hoops. And the engine? A 40-over 455 Buick from Tri-Shield Performance in Anoka, Minnesota. Pete says the beast will light the tires with the slightest blip of the throttle! Poor baby.

Nothing epitomizes the muscle car era more than a Chevelle, and that’s exactly what 39-year-old Scott Evans has wanted since he was a kid. He’d been bothering his aunt about buying her ’72 Chevelle since he was 12, and as soon as he turned 16, she relented—giving him the deal of the century in the process. The GM intermediate A-body immediately became Scott’s daily driver—and fortunately it survived the slings and arrows of teenage hell with nary a scrape. Naturally, Scott heaped on loads of goodies over the years, including an LT1/4L60 swap from a ’93 Camaro, Edelbrock throttle body, UMI front suspension pieces, SLP headers, wheels from Coy’s (17s in front, 18s in back), BFG rubber, Flowmaster Super 40 mufflers, an Auburn limited-slip diff, and a brand-new coat of Cranberry Red paint. We wish we had an aunt like that!

This is the place to show off your pride and joy to the rest of mankind, so we figure those readers who took the time to capture a really cool shot of their hot rod should get a little bonus. Mothers agreed, and decided to come to the party with some freebies for the best picture submitted to PHR.

Each month, the editors at PHR will sift through the images and pick the one with the best composition, lighting, and overall quality. The winner will get a cool assortment of Mothers products to keep his or her ride looking nice and shiny. Mail us a CD with digital images in JPEG form, along with a written description of your car. Remember that digital images need to be 300 dpi, and the bigger the image, the larger it can run. Also, be sure to include info on the car, along with your name and address. Good luck!

Got a car you want the world to see?
Send specs and pix to johnnyhunkins@yahoo.com