Thread: Who took the "hot" out of hot rod?

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Originally Posted by hotroddaddy

That`s ok, i can say i had the first merc with a spiderweb hood! It may never be done again, but i had it.

I'd like to see that. I think of rods and customs as rolling art. Metal sculpture is a part of that thinking.

I'm pretty much on the same page with Pops. The 4 cars in various stages of completion are all throw-backs of a kind. The '36 roadster is just a car that had always appealed. They were, and are, hard to come by in steel, and the lines are just way too appealing to my tastes. The '33 3 window is going to end up much like one that used to be parked in the street on my second paper route. It was the guy's daily driver in the early '60s. Loved the look of that car and lusted after it. The '65 Dodge calls to the hemi SS craving we had in the mid '60s, it will end up very much like the new A990 car we drooled over in the Mashak Motors showroom just down the street from Bob's Big Boy on Van Nuys Blvd. And the last one will be the car I wanted to build in 1980 but it just didn't work out at the time, another project got in the way (during my sports car period). Living in the past? Yeah, maybe, but all good things come in time, and I just see these as "goals" that are finally coming to fruition.

As for being selective about what "winds my watch" and gets attention at any kind of gathering it's probably a product of years of "refining" my tastes. In a brief glance there are going to be some cues that will either draw me in, or just tell me to keep movin' on. It would probably take some amount of over analysis to pin it down, but it's just that some things look "right" and some don't.................those that display "right" get more attention.

In an odd way I've had some similar thoughts to Jay's though. A few months back I started a folder in my photo files called "Cookie cutter cars". This will probably piss off some folks, but it was prompted by the guys who scoff at cars they deem "too nice" to drive, even though they more often are than not. The neuvo rodders who think they are the saviors of what they term "real hot rods". Whatever..............here are some examples of what I see as current day cookie cutter cars.......

Hey Bob
That second pic reminds me of a car at a recent show- the guy had used a can of spray-on Christmas tree snow to mimic salt on the car!

Sounds like you just need to take a step back and look further for creativity. I spent some time in Nepal and saw some real funky stuff, bet you never seen wheels like this:

http://photography.nationalgeographi...pod_image.html

Some custom accessories:

http://www.catnaps.org/islamic/islamimages/flagcar.jpg

Sean

No Uncle Bob--you're mistaken.... They're not cookie cutter cars--they all have different kinds or colors of wheels!!!!!

As for flatheads, been there, done that, ain't going back.

I don't even want to look at a project for me or a customer anymore if it isn't full of body mods, and a super killer double throw down, pounder of an engine in it.... Preferably a big block with an obscene amount of cubic inches. Pat started it with 700 and change ci chebbie. I know have to save my pennies for the Blue Oval version of it at 800 + cubes.... Means I have to do some extra work and sell some toys to come up with the bucks, but it's what I'm excited about now.....

The 'maro has a few mods, the Rancero a few more, and the one after that might be radical---or it might be a plane jane bracket car with a big block and green paint... Totally depends on what mood strikes me. I never have been one to follow any kind of trend or fad.

I guess my only point is, as usual, I hate catagories and copycats. Use a little imagination, ALLOW yourself to be creative, pick up an idea here, a concept there change them around a bit and go out in the garage and start building something!!!!! In the end it doesn't really matter who likes it or doesn't like it as long as your honest enough with yourself that you build something you want, and not something that will be a candidate for the most fashion trend conscious mutt in the show!!!!!

Just be yourself and don't waste your time, money, and talent building something that everyone else likes. I rate political correctness in Hot Rodding way down there with yuppies in Volvo's!!!!!

i do not go to many car shows any more when i do go i like to look at paint and look at the build work more then the make of the car or truck the engine how things like wire work mounts steering headers and how all looks .i had done some cars were alot of time went in to some things that less you done it you will never know .i like to make stuff that you can not buy so i look at fab up parts .this has allways been hot rodding to me .the group that go to car shows alot of them do not know how much work and time go in to a build or do not know what there looking at... if i go to a show with the car i get group in with the muscle cars and have to hear some jack ass say why did you do that to a GTO ?why why not build it back to stocki love them guys drill me about the size or make of the engine have to put me down it easier for them then to see the work that it took i like to take a engine or do some thing that alot say can not be done and they may be right but it more fun of building all the parts and making them work for me .i do not have deep pockets so i make alot of parts myself(hot rodding)?? and the 734 build i will have about the same as someone building a 555or 565 with good parts well i never want to fit in and that could be hot rodding toif not i in the wrong place

I like all cars. Right now I'm trying to squeeze pennies out of my retirement checks to build my first streetrod. I couldn't care less about having the biggest big block,my concern right now is having a block period. Yes, I plan to use a ho hum,everybody has one, w hy did you ruin it with that sbc. It's what I can afford. I intend to repair all the dents and rust, prime and paint. No ,I don't need lessons on how to age,patina or other wise totally screw up my own hard work. I don't care to impress anyone or win trophy after trophy,I've never figured out how to cook them anyway. I figure 300 horses in a 2000 lb car to be enough snot to be called hot. Maybe not everybodies cup of tea, but it's my cup,and that's all I want. Hank

If I might add something interesting I just thought of... You hear these guys talking of "rat rods" and that they are built to drive and not "showcars"... Then why are they all "cleaned up" and at CARSHOWS??!!! Why did they "create" carshows (Billitproof for example) for cars that were never meant to be "shown" in the first place??? So what, now we have shows for "non-show cars" so that they can compete in car shows??? Its all backwards if you ask me. I don't really have a problem with them so much as I have the problem with the reason they used to be called rats and why they are that now. Old looking cars that were built with high dollar budgets to look like old cars???? Personally, if I could come up with an early 50's chevy, I would drop in a v-8, add air, brakes (NOT airbrakes... I knew somebody would say it!!! ) a stereo and use it for my driver. If I wanted a showcar, then thats what I would build. NOT something crappy looking then have to make up with a show for crappy looking cars... Maybe thats why they have done away with the "under construction" class at most shows now...they would have 300 cars in it and 25 finished ones!!! jmo Donny

Originally Posted by Steves32

Hey Bob
That second pic reminds me of a car at a recent show- the guy had used a can of spray-on Christmas tree snow to mimic salt on the car!

Can angel hair be far behind?

It's all relative to your age, testosterone level, past and current technology as well as the price of gas! One of my favorite books is "Speed and Power Handbook (Special High Mileage Library Edition)" from Newhouse Automotove Industries, copyrighted 1952. Unfortunately my copy has lost it's cover but it is still a prized posession. On page 121 there is a picture of a '41 Ford convertible with a chopped top and rippled bumpers with the caption "...Engine reworked to deliver over 200 H.P. This is a very HOT rod." On page 15 there is a picture of a dual carb setup on a flathead with finned heads and a beehive oil cleaner on the firewall described as a "FULL HOUSE MERCURY". Then on page 22 there is a picture of what was nostalgic in 1952 as what looks like a Cragar setup on a Model B 4 cyl complete with dual carbs and a 4-into-1 header. Today, "HOT" probably means a tubbed musclecar with close to 500 H.P. but it can only run on the weekends due to the price of gas. Maybe "American Graffitti" was the high point of the hobby? Today the trend is toward turbocharged 4 cyls and smaller bodies, so on it goes. For a typical time-boundary (paradigm shift!) imagine it is 1954 and then take a look at

http://www.oogabooga.ca/oogaboogapag40.htm

Yet only a year later you could buy a '55 Chevie with a 265 OHV soon to be followed by a 283, 327 and then 350. The hot rod philosophy is simply interest in what can be modified, tweaked and improved on autos, with emphasis on speed. Just a rambling answer to a vauge question. '

In edit mode I want to mention that I really miss the Barris era smoothie customs based mainly on '41-'51 Fords and Mercurys. Once they were plentiful but I suppose the body work was much more difficult to chop the compound curves than the straight coupes and roadsters of the early '30s models. Still for me the "neatest" cars are/were carson-topped '40 converts and '41-'48 coupes that have been chopped and smoothed out.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

i quess im one of the lucky ones , i still love all things hot rod and im sure it helps that im not in the hot rod bussiness and dont have to look and work on them everyday ..... at least for now i dont see them as boring and i hope i never do..

Originally Posted by flh4speed

i quess im one of the lucky ones , i still love all things hot rod and im sure it helps that im not in the hot rod bussiness and dont have to look and work on them everyday ..... at least for now i dont see them as boring and i hope i never do..

Good point. I think that plays a big part in it. I know when I worked at the bodyshop the last thing I wanted to do was look at or work on my car at night. And when I worked at the marina, the last thing I wanted to own was another boat. Maybe playing with our own cars too much makes us not as excited when we see a bunch more at a show.

Don

If this helps...I am involved in a lot of bike paint.....several hundred, since '72! A few years before the "rat rod" term showed up, this style of building started to become popular on bikes. The term that was used was "Rat bike". That term did not stick, but I always suspected that the building style...and the "rat", came over from the bike hobby. Today they refer to them as bobbers, which is credited to historic terms, like "bobbed fenders".

DennyW, I fixed the oogabooga URL, I clipped off the "htm" accidentally. Try again at

http://www.oogabooga.ca/oogaboogapag40.htm

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Don...you're the man!!! Well said sir!