It’s been a while since I last posted about the car, and a lot has happened, so here’s a big update to get everyone caught up. The project has actually been progressing pretty well.
When I left off, I had just finished building an engine stand to take the Hemi to PRI. I had planned to head to Pueblo to help a buddy with his car for a race, but my daily driver—a 3500—had a major failure. The injection pump went out and took all eight injectors with it. That forced me to pause everything for a week to rebuild the fuel system. Once it was running again, I sold it to a dealer because I wasn’t interested in dumping endless money into it.
With the truck gone, I started searching nationwide for a pre-’75 pickup to use as a daily. I found two leads in California: a 1974 D350 (which I missed by one hour—painful), and a 1972 C20 big-block that my friends, the Kennedy Bros, had. We made a deal, and I booked a flight to SoCal. Of course, the day of the flight it was cancelled due to the government shutdown.
So, like any stubborn car guy, I rented a car and drove 15 hours straight to Pomona. I caught the tail end of SEMA and got to see some industry friends and racers. All of this happened while I technically wasn’t supposed to be traveling post-surgery… but I’m hard-headed. In just 2.5 days, I drove 15 hours to Pomona and then 19 hours back, thanks to someone turning the 15 into their personal runway and stopping traffic two miles outside Vegas.
Once all that chaos was over and the new truck was on its way home via a shipper, I shifted my attention back to the car. I had already pushed myself physically to get the C20, and since I wasn’t feeling too terrible (again—stubborn), I got back to work on the chassis. Side note: someone tried to break into my box trailer while I was gone. Luckily, it was empty—and it’s going up for sale anyway.
Back to the build: my buddy and I tag-teamed TIG-welding the front half of the cage, really knocking out a ton of progress. The plan is to cut out the back half after PRI and drop in the new rails. I’m planning to store the C10 at a friend’s place over the winter so I can fully dedicate the shop space to finishing the car. The goal is to have it ready for body and tin work at the hot rod shop and then send it to Tuki for paint around this time next year.
When the C20 arrived—about two weeks before Thanksgiving—I busted my *** to get it ready so I could give my wife the traditional mountain Thanksgiving she loves. This detour from the car was important to me because, after my own cancer scare, we received her diagnosis two days after I got back from California. I wanted her to have the best holiday possible. She’s made it absolutely clear that her diagnosis won’t stop the car; seeing it finished is her dream too.
As for the trailer situation: since we have the new vintage tow rig, we’re planning to sell the box trailer in the spring. We’ve ordered a custom-built 20-ft rail trailer with front-mount boxes from a local welding shop we’re friends with. It’ll be brand-new but styled to look like it was built in ’72, matching the look of both the truck and the car. Honestly, nothing is going to beat hauling a nostalgia Pro Stock on an open trailer behind a vintage rig.
So that’s where everything stands—car progress, new truck, Thanksgiving, and now picking up the first Hemi from Mad Cap for PRI. We’re officially back on track.
