Steve McConnell's '46 Chevy Pickup

In the summer of 2008 Steve McConnell came to us with his '46 Chevy pickup. He had seen the Chevy we did back in 2005 - 2006 and wanted some similar modifications done to his truck bed among a list of other things. Steve was visiting our neighbor today and he dropped off pictures of the truck in paint. Looking good, Steve. What we did for Steve: Eric fused the hood into one piece and made a hinge on the driver's side. The skirt does not mean to make that sound like it's something just any old hack can do right. It took some engineering and math skills and so did the modification of the back fenders and truck bed.

They used the English wheel to make the tailgate concave and designed these taillights.

Wow! We had forgotten how cool the mods turned out on this truck. For more pictures click on the label for this post.

Last year Steve brought the truck back to the shop for a custom air intake system. Click here to read about how Bob solved his problem.

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Order Your Custom Air Cleaner

This custom air cleaner we built for Bill Rising's '37 Ford Coupe really turned some heads at the Portland car show. Bill wanted something attractive and practical. This unit fits a standard 14" air cleaner cartridge and draws fresh air from the hood side vents.

We designed this unit using sections of a 4" exhaust tubing u-bend . We developed flat patterns for the top and bottom sections on the computer. The rest was up to the skilled hands of Eric Petersen to hammer weld and grind this masterpiece in prep for paint.

Getting everything to connect along the dotted line is challenging when your working with something as stiff as steel, and it loves to shrink when you weld it. Luckily, we're old hands at getting sheet metal to do what we want.

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Custom Air Intake - 46 Chevy Pickup

This is yet another example of how we solve those pesky, bottom of the project problems. Steve McConnel needed fresh, filtered air for his engine; We designed an induction system that draws fresh, cool air from in front of the radiator and guides it through 2.25" intake runners directly to the throttle body. He should see a torque gain in the 2700-3500 RPM range because of the extended runner length. The filter module simply comes out the top of the upper shroud.

The runner tubes are fabbed from U-bends and the plenum is designed on the computer and fabbed from 18ga sheet metal. Silicon hose sections will connect the plenum to the runners to allow for engine flex.

The filter is a standard cone filter shrouded to the front to protect from rain and bugs, simple yet elegant.

Custom built air cleaners, custom built air intake, custom built air plenum

Air Plenum

A very common problem with LS motors in street rods and hot rods is that the induction faces forward and ends up very close to the radiator; no room for air cleaner or, in this case, a Mass Air Sensor.

Our solution is a hand crafted adapter plenum that surrounds the air inlet, providing the necessary area for air flow, and necks back over the engine where there is ample room for the goods.

The first requirement to solve a problem like this is a vision, the second is the realization of that vision. You can see what the air has to do, now just contain that flow.

We use a variety of U-bends and tubing to build air plumbing like this. U-bends come in all exhaust pipe sizes with several bend radii. Knowing how to cut and connect them so that everything blends is the tricky part.
Every once in a while, I get to get my hands dirty on a tricky little problem like this, and its good to see a plan come together! Bob