If you have a trunk that you think is worthy of a spotlight in our Dumps and Bumps section, feel free to email photos and basic information to: saul.vargas@sourceinterlink.com.
OwnerJoe Hilyer
Vehicle'63 Chevy Impala, "Overtime"
City/StateSacramento, California
ClubUCE Car Club
Joe Hilyer, of Sacramento, California, has been a loyal and dedicated reader of Lowrider magazine since 1992. With several cars under his belt he knew what it would take to build a magazine-worthy car. This time Joe took on the challenge of building a '63 Chevy Impala, which took him two and a half years to complete.
Most of Joe's frame-off restoration was built in his garage. After all the parts were compiled, it took Joe about a month to complete the setup. Joe dropped the batteries down in the back of the trunk to keep the pumps exposed. He also staggered the height of the pumps to make the double-pump setup to the nose stand out. Joe then used a Chevy Bow Tie, made by Ron from Black Magic, as a "t" fitting for the return. He flipped the rear pumps so people could see every aspect of the setup. Two Black Magic 3/4-inch pumps with 11 marzocchi gears for the nose and two Black Magic 1/2-inch pumps with nine marzocchi gears for the rear are powered by 12 group 31 deep-cycle Exide batteries. One custom-built, chrome, super-duty Adex dump is used for the double-pump setup and two chrome regular Adex dumps are used for the rear pumps. Chrome fittings were used on the Parker slowdowns to make the setup cleaner. Polished, stainless steel hardlines, done by Bryan Steffen, were used throughout the trunk. Eight-inch chrome cylinders with 41/2-ton MBQ coils were powdercoated Candy Blue and used for the front. To allow the car to lock up, a set of 16-inch cylinders with chrome 3-ton coils were used for the rear of the car. Since Joe likes the trunk to be open and have air flow through the entire space, he didn't want to use panels to hide the batteries. He also wanted to use some custom parts that were different, so he tracked down some rare motor endcaps made by Hugh Stillman, a true pioneer in the game.
With around $6,000 put into the trunk, Joe has a nice setup that was built right, showing people that if you put some time into something yourself you can build a show-worthy setup. We hope to see your complete build in Lowrider one day, keep up the good work.
OwnerMario Muro
Vehicle'00 Lincoln Town Car, "SouthSide Blues"
City/StateSan Bernardino, California
ClubMajestics Car Club in Los AngelesMario Muro, of San Bernardino, California, has been working on his '00 Lincoln Town Car for about a year. Although he has completely redone the trunk, today we are focusing our attention on the audio setup for his luxury cruiser. Mario headed up his project and sent it to Audio Extreme of San Bernardino, which happens to be down the street from his home.
Mario had seen the work they had done on other vehicles and decided to have them go to town with his. Once the car was there, E.T. and Gabriel started cutting wood panels to house two Performance Teknique amplifiers, and created a custom audio setup that would share trunk space with the two custom, aluminum hydraulic pumps. It was about a one-month project. The main bass amplifier is a 2,500-watt amp that pushes the three 10-inch Rockford Fosgate Punch subwoofers. The three woofers were installed in a custom box, exposing them through a plexiglass face. The second 1,500-watt amp was used to power up the 6x9s and the six and a half Fosgate mid and high speakers that were used for the front of the vehicle.
All in all the custom audio/hydraulic trunk was a good street show setup that caught both our attention and ear at a local car show. Mario's one-month project turned out great, with the help of his local audio guy showing us that sometimes you just need to give the new guy a chance.