When you've been building hot rods, muscle cars and trucks for 30 years, you keep raising the bar of the quality of each ride. Randy Price from Sharonville, Ohio, has always built his custom rides to drive and show-no trailer queens in his stable. Randy is a jet engine mechanic by trade, so you know he is very meticulous about everything, whether it rolls or flies. His visual perception, dedicated work ethic, craftsmanship and attention to detail are present in every inch of Randy's wild '37 Ford Downs-body flamed pickup. The truck was actually a "Friday night build". Randy's gearhead buddies would congregate on Friday evenings to help Randy with the 14-month build.
The LoBecks '35-'40 Ford frame was mated with a TCI independent front suspension, the rear framerails were C-notched, the frame was then sent out and powdercoated. The rear suspension was four-linked with a Panhard bar. All four corners are vertically activated by an Air Ride Technologies pneumatic bag system and LoBecks gas-filled shocks. The suspension's fabrication and installation was handled by the crew at Just A Hobby Hot Rods in Cleveland, Ohio. The suspension's original ride height was lowered 4 inches. Randy's purple haze rolls on a set of American Racing chrome 16x7-inch, Torque Thrust II five-spoke wheels consumed in Goodyear Eagle 205/55R16 rubber up front. Out back, a pair of 17x10-inch, Torque Thrust II five-spoke wheels are wrapped in healthy Goodyear Eagle 235/55R17 meats. The braking performance consists of GM front disc brakes and Ford drums in the rear connected by stainless steel solid lines. A 16-gallon fuel tank was yanked out of a '33 Ford and installed.
The grunt comes from a '84 Chevy 454ci V-8. The cast-iron block and heads have been machined, which increased the standard 454ci engine, into a 468ci stump puller by the crew at Butch Smith Race Engineering in Frankfort, Kentucky. After cleaning and machining the engine, it was assembled with all the right stuff. A single Holley 750-cfm carburetor feeds the precise air/fuel mixture through the Edelbrock intake manifold runners into the eight combustion chambers where the fuel is lit off. The exhausted gasses are then propelled through a pair of Sanders long tube, 2-inch Jet-Hot coated headers that merge into a 23/4-inch Flowmaster exhaust. A Mallory HEI ignition system maintains a consistent electronic charge and pulse to each cylinder. The engine was properly broken in between the framerails for 30 minutes at 2,000 rpm. After a few adjustments, the engine was fired again and the engine timing was fine-tuned. A GM 350 automatic transmission was gone through and upgraded with new internal components such as clutches, bands, sun and planetary gears, a servo, and some valvebody tricks that firmed up the shifts. The transmission gear selection is accomplished by grabbing the Lokar floor-mounted shifter. A custom-made driveshaft linked the Turbo 350 transmission to the Ford 9-inch rearend stuffed with 3.53 gears.