Roadkill Garage

The 1967 Chevy known as the Crusher Camaro has a long history at Hot Rod magazine as well as on Roadkill and Hot Rod Garage. Most recently, the car was transformed by Hot Rod Garage into a Pro Touring machine with supercharged LS power, but the fans spoke out: They wanted the car to return to retro! Starting with this episode of Roadkill Garage, that’s what’s gonna happen. The newest look for the Crusher is inspired by early-’70s NHRA Modified Production drag cars, and this first installment shows the transformation of a BluePrint Engines 400ci small-block Chevy into a tunnel-rammed, retro monster making about 560 hp! Best of all, this episode features 60 percent more fire. Stay tuned later in the season for future installments of the Crusher Camaro’s retro revival.

Lurking in the background of many episodes of Roadkill Garage is Steve Dulcich’s 1973 Dodge D100 stepside pickup, his pet project loaded with a 550hp, 360ci, 7,000-rpm small-block Mopar and a four-speed. In this episode, the Mopar Muscle Truck comes into the spotlight as Dulcich and David Freiburger finally wrap up the last details of the buildup that have been lingering for more than a year, then hit the road. A shootout with the LS6-powered Roadkill 1974 Chevy C10 stepside seemed like the obvious plotline. But can the famed Roadkill Muscle Truck outrun the Roadkill Garage Mopar Muscle Truck? Inquiring minds will watch the episode to find out.

See the Crusher Camaro get its eighth engine in its 23rd year as a project car! This 1967 Camaro has been built in a number of different styles in its time with Hot Rod magazine and Roadkill, and in Roadkill Garage episode 14 we initiated the latest makeover into an early-'70s drag racer by reworking a 550-horsepower small-block into retro style. In this episode we'll install the engine along with a radical TH350 transmission from Gearstar, then fire it up as motivation for the next steps on the way to hitting the dragstrip.

There is no episode of Roadkill or Roadkill Garage that out-Mad-Maxes this one, because absolutely no one these days hacks the sheetmetal off of a 1970 Dodge Challenger to fit giant off-road tires and go desert bashing. Except Freiburger and Dulcich. And even if people did slice up desirable muscle cars, they’d be smarter than Freiburger and Dulcich and wouldn’t drive them into a lava flow during a 100-year sandstorm that strips paint, shreds skin, and tears up eyeballs. Ah, but there’s no glory without suffering, and this time on Roadkill Garage, there’s plenty of glory. Not only that, but the guys turned a mundane dirt-track race car (seen in Roadkill episodes 54 and 56) into an unforgettable E-body off-roader. BTW, don’t worry—this car was no rest candidate to begin with.

One of the most daunting jobs on a car is bodywork and paint, but Roadkill Garage’s Steve Dulcich has no fear of hammers, dual-action sanders, and body filler. On this episode, he’s going to attack David Freiburger’s 1970 Plymouth known as the Crop Duster and show you his techniques for quick-and-dirty body repair with fantastic results—but not until he manages to get the car up on three wheels while hooning around. As longtime followers know, initiating paintwork can be the death knell for a Dulcich-Freiburger project car, but this time Dulcich swears the Crop Duster will be back on the road in no time. This is Part 1 of the paint and body series. Look for Part 2 about painting and detailing the car.

This special episode of Roadkill Garage finds us well outside the garage, heading into the outback of Colorado to revive a `68 Jeep Wagoneer that had been sitting untouched for 22 years! We’ve also got special guest host Rick Péwé, editor of Jp Magazine—but fear not, because regular host Steve Dulcich and his dog farm will be back in the next episode. Meanwhile, watch David Freiburger and Péwé struggle with the obscure 327ci Rambler V-8 in the old Jeep. They’ll also grapple with Freiburger’s original concept of turning this rig into the DRAGoneer, a weirdo of a sleeper drag-racing machine; could the “Waggy” just be too good to tear up, Roadkill style? Decide for yourself by the time you reach the end of this Roadkill Garage field trip.

David Freiburger's 1967 Chevy, the Crusher Camaro, is one of the industry’s most well-known project cars, having been around Hot Rod magazine since 1994. This changeling is getting its latest makeover on Roadkill Garage (see episodes 14 and 16), and the retro revival wraps up here as the Crusher hits the dragstrip. The car is loosely styled after Bill “Grumpy” Jenkins’ Camaro, which won the very first Pro Stock race at the NHRA Winternationals in 1970. It packs a 550hp, 400ci, tunnel-rammed small-block engine; a trick TH350 transmission from Gearstar; a Gear Vendors Overdrive unit; and 4.57 rear gears. It adds up to a package that’s even quicker and faster than Freiburger and Steve Dulcich had dreamed.

The Dulcich D100 is back! On Roadkill Garage Episode 15, you were introduced to this Mopar Muscle Truck, a shortbed stepside that we loaded with a 500hp, 360ci small-block before taking it drag racing at Roadkill’s first-ever Zip-Tie Drags. After that, Steve Dulcich drove the truck everywhere for months, including using it for tow duty. Unfortunately, after the Dodge was used to haul the Crusher Camaro to the track one day, it had a massive meltdown, when a hole appeared in a cylinder wall. Dulcich removed the 360 and installed a 400hp, 318ci engine to keep the truck in service. David Freiburger couldn’t allow that, downgrading the Mopar Muscle Truck to the Mopar Yoga-Class Truck. Watch the action on this episode as the guys install a fresh, 550hp, 408ci engine! Were the truck’s other dragstrip deficiencies addressed? Of course not! But that never stops Roadkill Garage from trying—even if it leaves our projects in pieces by the time we’re done.

First, we had the original Roadkill Chevy Muscle Truck (Roadkill Garage, Episode 6) and then the Mopar Muscle Truck (Episodes 15 and 21). So you can see what’s coming: the Ford Muscle Truck! All of these pickups are ½-ton shortbed Stepsides, and the new Ford is a 1968 F-100 with a 460ci big-block engine swapped in by the previous owner. It’s also loaded with a C6 transmission, a Ford 9-inch rear with 3.00 gears, and even air conditioning. The bummer is that the truck had a wiring disaster and barely functional, old, aftermarket fuel injection on it when Steve Dulcich and David Freiburger picked it up, so that and more get fixed on this episode of Roadkill Garage. Dulcich has been driving the so-called FMT every day since the episode was shot.

The very first episode of Roadkill Garage featured David Freiburger and Steve Dulcich doing a cheapy rebuild of the 351 Cleveland engine that had been swapped into Freiburger’s 1967 Mercury Cougar, but the most memorable moments from that show were Dulcich powershifting the car’s Top Loader four-speed trans like a madman. Now, 22 episodes later, both the Cougar and the legendary gear-banging are back! The difference? The car now belongs to Dulcich, and this time the guys are jerking the haggard Cleveland in favor of a 450hp, 363ci, Windsor-based stroker small-block. That poor Top Loader didn’t even know what hit it!

The Crusher Impala is the 1969 Chevy built during Episode 60 of Roadkill (the one with Mighty Car Mods from Australia) and refined in Episode 65, where it ran 11.70s in the quarter-mile, did small wheelies, and outran the Rotsun. Problems? The blower was worn out and the brakes barely stopped. Also, after a summer out on the show circuit, some wiring was sketchy and the engine started to run super lean. In this installment of Roadkill Garage, all of those things get fixed—and the work turns into one of the most fun episodes ever, with plenty of tire smoke from stoppies and 100-yard burnouts. The Crusher Impala lives!

Built on the cheap in episode 8, and winner of the highly debated and socially contested autocross of episode 9, the beloved Crew Cab Chevelle is back! The goal: find out how fast the old four door can go in a standing mile. After sitting on the farm for over a year the Chevelle gets a land speed makeover with a full roll cage, a safety adjustment or two, and a homemade aero package. Freiburger gives Dulcich the honor of piloting the crew cab to new heights and only one transmission exploded in the process!