The ZZ Top Eliminator hot rod became a caption by appearing in several stone music video . Rock ' n ' roll and hot rodding have a passel in vulgar . Both inject old course ( say , blues music or antiqueFords ) withhorsepowerand showiness . It ’s no surprise , then , that many rock stars are also red-hot rod enthusiasts . ZZ Top frontman Billy F. Gibbons is probably the best - do it roddin ' rocker .
Heavily influenced by Pete Chapouris ' the California Kid , Billy had Don Thelan ’s Buffalo Motor Cars shop work up him a chopped 1933 Ford in the early ' 80 that would soon be get laid as the Eliminator coupe . Underneath was a straightforward Pete and Jake ’s chassis with a dropped tube axle and four - barsuspensionup front and a Ford nine - inch out back .
Thelan chopped the steel three - windowpane body three inches , Steve Davis made the three - while hood with unique " outdo " side panels , and Kenny Youngblood designed the " ZZ " nontextual matter . extra body details included the filled rear splattering pan with recessed permission scale , ' 39 Ford tear taillights , and lowered ' 34 Ford headlight .
Finicky hi - po motor have never been Billy ’s shot , so the emphasis was on reliableness . Power was offer by a childlike but capable 350 - cidChevyV-8 with aCamaro Z-28hydrauliccam , a polished intake manifold with a single four - barrelcarb , and a Turbo 350transmission . As a finishing touch , Eric Vaughn mill the ZZ Top logo into the valve covers .
A picture of the coupe was have on the cover of ZZ Top ’s multiplatinum 1983 album Eliminator , and the real railway car was commemorate on the small screen in four music videos that were range in heavy rotation on MTV .
Each video have a Cinderella - story vignette in which an earnest but below the belt downtrodden teen is swept away and " saved " by the comer of beautiful girls in the Eliminator . The fellow member of ZZ Top grant the friend a magical set of key fruit with a conventionalize ZZ key mountain chain , and the hot retinal rod appear as a wizardly fantasy object .
Edward Gibbon ' Eliminator afford rodding immeasurable exposure and spurred the sake of an MTV generation of teenagers who had n’t before see a tangible hot perch in motion .
Billy had always been a rodder , but the Eliminator was his first cable car to gain international renown . Demand for public appearances was so gamy that Billy had California Street Rods construct an Eliminator clone to go on tour . He still owns both cars today , along with several other high - profile rod cell and customs . Billy has done almost as much for rodding as he has for rock ' n ' roll .
