Thread: Whats driving our design of our street rod

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As long as you don't argue with the car ........................................... it's A.O.K..................

No- but sometimes I do fuss at them like- " Why'd you do that for?"

Originally posted by Don Meyer
Very interesting replies. I enjoyed them all!

Dave, since you like Caddy fins I'm att. a picture of my current project for my Son. It has 62 fins w/a chopped top & lengthened doors(Uncle Bobs suggestion),late model bed narrowed 13",the original fenders also are narrowed,not yet attached in the picture.

The suspension is a 1986 Buick Regal IFS & a Ford 9" rear w/Crysler leaf springs.

The only after market parts I've bought are Vintage a/c ,Auto meter gauges & America racing wheels.

uh what year truck is that i see a 90's bed and a fender from the 50's??

Nice truck. For me I don't follow noone or try to copy any trend going on that I see on TV or anything. I do what I think will look best on a car and don't copy noone. I may like things that other people like and all but it's not like I look at someones car and say "THAT is what I am doing to mine". Like on my 48, I am trying to decide if I wanna chop her or leave it. I wish I knew how to do it on photoshop but don't remember how to do that anymore. I look at my car and stare at it for hours and then look at pics, etc and still trying to see exactly what I am going to do to the body. I know what I wan't for paint but trying to decide about the chop top or not.
I am looking at a 64 Cadi 4 door for sale near me with NO rust or nothing and all original and not a thing wrong and it's so nice that the only thing I would do to it would dress the engine up a tad and tint the windows. If the guy goes down in price I will buy it for an everyday driver. With that car I wouldn't do much to it at all, I like the body lines on it and everything even though it's so big. I don't know there is just something about old Cadi's that I like.

a little of both worlds is good. My 48' is going to be a mixture of everything I have seen and experienced in the last 40 years. I am alot like hambisket, the car had it's own persona to me, it just had to come out. I am an avid junkyard roamer and I do get ideas there but I am there mostly for parts. I can't see spending $30.00 for an aftermarket part when I can go to the wrecking yard and get it for $5.00. Not that it isn't easier to just order it with the wealth of parts we have around here, why should I. I love the "Foose", "Boydster", "troy", "KennyD" rides, they are awesomely beautiful and well built screeming fast safe cars. I would give them my hangin' pair of boys for any of their cars in a heart beat. There is nothing wrong with using the best parts the current market has to offer, I do but the ones that are in the yards! The best thing about hotrodding is that it is truely the enjoyment of the hobby that counts, after that as the before caddy shows, it's all good!!!

FMX, I woulden't chop it, unless you want to end up with a roadster coupe thing, if it were a truck or 20's or 1930's car, than I'd say, you probably could do it but, unlike a '20's 30's car, if you cut out of the roof, your gonna have to add metal in places because the back slopes a little not to mention the little windows in the back, you could fill them in, but it'd look doofey, they'd need work also,unlike a old 20's or 30's car where the roof is str8 up, no slanting or tilting, in fact, the only complications you'd run into would be the measurements unless, you were to give it a rake, which is where the roof tips tword the front, then you would cut the rear pillars at an angle and cut the fronts shorter in conjunction with the angle. You'd end up with a roadster because, 1ce you screw up the top, that'd be the only option you'd have, unless you knew someone who was a good metalworker and knew how to chop tops who could bail you out. I'v been eyeballing a '57 Cadi eldorado 4dr, needs resto and is a pink car, which would be changed to a dark blue or a gloss black, If I bought it but, it needs a lot of metalwork, front fender work and all new rockers and door skins. I'v been thinking about building a t bucket as my next project.

Originally posted by Don Meyer
Are the big rod shops,after market parts & designers like Foose driving how we build are cars or are we designing our own by our adapting junk yard parts to our rods.

Do you follow the trends in design?

YES!

i like to watch the car shows foose boyde and the like. the problem i have with all these shows is just this. why would you go to all the trouble of building such a beautiful perfect car . i have seen some of these at the shows i have been at and they are nice but ,,,,,, i can take my 66 ,pack it full of the kids and wife ,drinks and etc cruise 60 miles to the drive in and back and not be worried about bugs hoppers and the odd stone chip spilled drinks etc. the car still looks nice but its not a show car its a driver. in my mind cars are ment to drive not be babied .
i would be soo afraid of driving some cars as they are too perfect.
i still think my kids will remember driiving around with dad in a old car as opposed to looking at a old car.
i still remember riding in my grandfathers 53 ihc stepside and thinking it was a pretty cool truck.

The driving force for me tends to be the ERA that I got heavily involved in cars and street racing in (the 60's and 70's). During that period of time, I was buying cars like first generation Falcons and Chevy IIs pulling the 6's out and stuffing in hot small blocks. This latter changed to doing the same thing to Pintos and Vegas in the 70's and 80's.

At this point in my life I find myself building the type of cars that I tended to watch out for when I was racing, the understated plain Jane 2 dr sedans that would show up.
My 64 Ford Custom is a good example. A black 2 dr post, no engine emblems on the outside, bench seat interior, and painted steel rims with dog dish hubcaps. The drive-train will be a tri-power 401 FE with factory cast iron headers, 68 C6 and 9" with 3.50 gears. This will be pretty much an era correct car with the exception electronic ignition and disc brakes.

My real Hot Rod (37 Dodge PU) is also heavily influenced by the 60's. When I get back to it, an early Hemi with 6 carbs and a basically stock body. The non-era correct concessions will be a Mustang II front suspension and tilt column.

I personally prefer chrome steel or polished cast aluminum over billet pieces and while they look OK on late model cars I don't think the 17" and up wheels on the older cars look right.

While I enjoy seeing the cars built by the people pushing the envelope like Foose and Coddington, their not my personal style. This hobby/sport/lifestyle has always evolved around trends and the certain times dictated where the emphasis was placed. The great thing is there are no hard and fast rules that dictate how we HAVE to build are cars. Everybody is free to listen to the little voices in their head.

Thank-you Mike

I took time out for my other "carpentry" project and just saw this interesting thread. I mainly want to say to nitrofc that I wanted to do what he is doing many times but I do not have the metal skills. I think what he has done (nice job!) could also be done to a Tudor '42-'48 Ford sedan and I made a lot of measurements on one but never got into it. Anyway my motivations are a combination of a fixation on Model-A roadsters I saw on the street in the '50s, many articles in Rod magazines and the thrill of the power of a GM 350 in my Dad's Malibu. I thought that 350 was truely awesome and for me the idea is to put a powerful engine in a "cute" light body, but too much power in a short wheel base worries me for the street and it seems to me that 250-300 H.P. is enough for me at my age.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder