So, is this a restoration thread again? Just sayin, and I'm a 57 model so my likes end about 1971 but was raised by those who were "there" in Motown during the glory days prior.
Many, Moe and Jack, JC Whitney, Honest Charley, Warshoskies, scowering junk yards and a guy behind the counter who knew everything...them were the days. In '59, '49 Chev four door hand me down, removed the hub caps, brush painted the wheels silver...real hot rodding. Then '31 model A 2 door. All black brush painted with "tire black" till two days later a rain storm washed it off. Then a '58 Morris Minor. Big wheels with white walls, hot dates in that little rascal. Period correct / traditional......a moving time frame using what was/is available. My build now...and last... preservation, some traditional, packaging modern safety and some conveniences, meant to be a driver not a Riddler.... certainly not perfect... Sent from my XT1710-02 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I agree with what Mr48chev posted earlier in this thread. His experience is based upon being in High School in 1965. My two older brothers were graduated in '64 and '67. I was about 12 or 13 at the time and me and my buddies would explore every alley and side street on our bikes. Every rodder that I knew about in our small town worked on their cars in backyards or driveways. Most modifications or rebuilds were done using dads hand tools or borrowing tools from a neighbor or buddy. Most engine swaps were Buick Nailheads, Olds 303s and 324s in cars from the '30s and '40s. But the car of choice was a Tri5 Chevy. Four Doors were still unpopular, but if that's all you had, you kept it until you could something else. Safety took a back seat to performance, so a lot of play in the steering wheel was not uncommon. Wrecking yards were very popular on weekends. Automatics were not very good at the time so if a engine swap was being planned, a 3 speed stick shift to go along with the swap was the way to go. Floor shifters could be bought mail order through Honest Charlies and lots of engine rebuild parts came from Sear Roebuck or Montgomery Wards. Fiberglass matt was being used to fix rusted out floorboards and also to patch trim holes. Spot Primer was used sometimes just to give a car the hotrod "look". With minimum wage at $1.25 an hour, you really had to scrounge. If you could get job pumping gas in a Service Station, you really lucked out because most owners let their help put their cars on the rack after hours. Nobody ran whitewalls, they just couldn't afford it. Lots of Drag racing happening on old county roads. Seemed like every weekend, the old TV show, "Wide World of Sports" would have a segment on Drag racing. About 1968, hotrod began to disappear as guys went to Vietnam. Some cars were stashed in garages and may sat in backyards until they got towed away. The muscle car phase was starting to really take hold in '68. I graduated in '72 and by then all the early hotrods were gone, even Tri5 Chevies were disappearing. Lots of Fairlanes, Mustangs, 64-67 Chevelles, 62-64 Impalas, Roadrunners.
I was born in 1940. As a young 15 year old I hung around Frank Maratta;s body shop on Hudson Street in Hartford, Connecticut. I was the Gopher I did what I was asked to do, sweep the floor, take out the trash, etc. I saw some custom cars being built, I went to the Autorama in 1955, and 1956, where I was exposed to a lot more of my hot rod, custom car education. I subscribed to Rod and Custom, and Car Craft magazines at 15 years old. When I was16 we moved to San Francisco, and I subscribed to Hot rod Magazine, which I still do some 60 plus years later.. I expected to see hot rods, and customs all over the place, I was dis-appointed. They were around, but not on the streets every day. In Galileo High School we had an auto shop with a lift. Our high school had some hot rod car enthusiasts. A 41 Mercury with an Olds engine, a 1937 Ford 5 passenger coupe with a 265" Chevrolet V-8, A bone stock 1931 Model A four door, a 1950 Ford four door with an Earl Schieb ugly green paint job. My neighbor across the street had a 1949 Mercury, nosed and decked, as well as a 1932 Ford chopped 3-window coupe. He was a member of the San Francisco Ramblers, car club. When I started hanging around his garage, I met the rest of the Ramblers car club, what an experience I had, going to Mel's drive-in for club meetings, as well as going to Half Moon Bay Drag Strip with them.. I recently contacted my former neighbor, who is now 88 years old, and a 1932 Ford roadster owner, to thank him for his mentoring time that I spent with him, and his club mates. I think it made his day to my remembering him, and his club mates. We should all try to do this, as they started us upon this path.
I had a 1951 Chevrolet Coupe back in the mid 60's and it was painted a Sapphire Blue and I wanted to have blue window glass and my choice was either plexiglass or purchase the real blue glass out of a Greyhound Bus which is what I did. Tommy Saunders a neighbor of mind worked at a glass company and he removed all of the side windows and used them as templates to cut the new glass for me and he reinstalled everything including the chrome window trim. Today it much easier to get the same effect but in those day's that is what we had to do. Jimbo
Yup, primer, and the hood and trunk ornaments removed. Heat the front coils with a torch and lowering blocks in the rear to get it in da weeds. I also had a 19.95 floor shift conversion. 50 chev fleetline, (I think fleetline). Sent from my VS500 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I was/is/still am/maybe not, a historical reenactor .....1814 Creek Indian War. Since I got 27 rural acres in the Appalachians, my desire to "pretend" I'm in 1814 ,is gone. I don't have to do that anymore since in a way, live it every day. If I want, I can take the flintlock off the wall and get me some supper. I can have a garden. I can go shoot my gun anytime. I can get the blanket and sleep under the stars at my own place. Much much different when I lived in the suburbs of Birmingham..... No worries about if this item was "correct". No dead end political discussions from those who choose to warp history into their own modern political agenda. Yes..... with Period Correctness ....Political Correctness is always close by. Now that I'm really living it in a way, Maybe there is a message in what I just wrote? There is more than just time period.... Location/Region...... Culture....... Being influacned by cartoons as a kid....I asked my grandmother if they put coon tails and hood ornaments (stuff like that) on their cars. " We did not put stuff like that on our cars." Socioeconomic class......What a Appalachian coal miner's kid did in Alabama 1940 is much different than a advertising executive's kid did in Modesto in 1955.....case in point....My grandfather's first car was a Model T that he pulled home with his father's mule. This was during the War. The rose colored glasses of history/memory...... When truth contradicts legend, print the legend..... The absolute piece of junk( by the standard of any era) built by a 17 year old with no mechanical expertise is rembered as an icon of automotive history. Do you research...... Search out articles.....the real gems are not really about hot rods....try to find them "in the background".... Research not only the period but the region and social class of that period you want to emulate..... Draw you own conclusions. Stay true to your research. You may come up with something really correct but really different and that only adds to this pursuit.
Maybe it wasn't cool but I think they tied them on to whatever was available. I don't believe the cars figured in the equation much more than from A to B. About a 5 minute search
People cobbled up junk just like today And was just as proud I bet ya didn’t see a “patina” 57 Chevy in 57 cause it was new Kinda like a the patina on a 2019 Chevy today.
Agreed. But a board is SO out of place on a wagon out in the middle of the prairie. Or a car show in Kansas City. -Dave
Yeah....but what about a '37 or a '27 in 57? Anthony, Back when I had my '62 Galaxie there was a private junkyard with stuff going back to the mid 30s. You know parking at a yard is not always ideal. I was always afraid when I was scrounging parts, that someone would take parts off of my car.
I grew up in a town of 10,000 in the Midwest. Was born in the 50’s but fell in love with cars by the early 60’s. By the end of the HAMB era I was completely hooked. Had 2 older sisters so I got to know, and ride in, a lot of the older guys rides. I honestly only remember 2 older hot rods in town. An A 2 door sedan that was crazy fast and wore 3 colors of primer and an immaculate 30/31 A coupe painted purple that also ran hard but seemed to be broken most of the time. There were several Tri 5 Chevys and Fords in town. The Chevys were all painted except 2 and all ran pretty well. The Fords seemed to be more cruisers except a 56 with an FE in it. Most the Fords were primer. Almost nobody had a finished interior. Chromies were popular. Stock wheels with spider caps. And trim rings were popular. When Cragars came out almost everyone switched to them or slots. SPark
back then, "patina" was something that art collectors knew about.... "rust" and "faded paint" was generally what old cars had.
20 and 30year old cars. That 1927 would be like fixing a1987 today I’ve also have seen the rides built by my southern coal mining kindfolks. Crude
There is a point there about '27 being 30 years ago. We are in a different place now. 1927 is 92 years ago, nearly a century. There were no truly Old cars in the hamb era. Not in the sense of today. Personally I would have a hard time painting a 60s car with original paint. If I can make that 50 plus year old car look presentable I'll do it. This is the mindset I have and it's purely 2019 as 50.....60......100 year cars really did not exist in the Hamb era.
I was born in '48 so I got in on some of the early rodding when I was pretty young. None of the guys in my part of the world [North central Oregon] had open wheels. I saw a few open wheel cars in Portland but not many...too rainy. We only had one car and we used it for everything. If it broke, we fixed it where it sat. Once in awhile we could get a buddy to tow our car home at the end of a chain. I've replaced several clutches, broken axle shafts, axle keys and clutches in gas station gravel parking lots...once replaced a busted 55 Pontiac 4 speed hydro on a gravel street with a buddy, beers and a bottle jack. Paint was what ever came on the car..maybe added a few black primer spots for effect. We raced on Friday/Saturday nights so your car was always in tune....usually done in school shop as a "class project". Tires........whew! Tires were tough. If we were bucks up from working the summer in the hay fields or lugging potatoes, we might have enough to buy recap cheater slicks and a new pair of front bias plys. One year I even made enough for school clothes AND a full set of chrome wheels for my 55 ford! Got broke and sold them to my buddy, Hobie for his surf wagon, black 55 ford wagon and I put his stock wheels/tires on my 55 tudor sedan. We learned how to rebuild and grease our vacuum wiper motors 'till they worked almost as good as electrics. No money for new engines so I dipped the top layer of diesel truck drain oil out open 55 gallon barrels behind the truck stop. The rear main leaked almost as fast as I could pour it in. I even used the old Chinese finger-trap tool to replace the rear main seal in the Y-block but it only lasted 5 minutes before it began leaking again...worn main bearings. I learned to hate being broke.
Honestly if it was not for magazines growing up, I waould have never know nice hot rods existed. Most old cars were circle track fodder and “ cut diwns” abused in the woods. The rest were abused work rides and pulp wood trucks.
Ha. I was in SD last summer on an interstate.There was a local show in Deadwood, I think. Anyway , going west was a nice '59 and I think a '59 wagon with a surfboard on the roof..LMAO!
The HAMB traditional cut off date is what '63, '64, '65???? At least where I live, and the group I hung around nobody gave a rats ass about "traditional" back than. If you were talking traditional back than you were talking '40's & '50's Salt Flat, Customs, Model "T' & "A". IMO the term wasn't made popular till the HAMB used it many years ago. Around the 90's a few of the smart guy's ( i wasn't one of them) were getting out of the '80's & '90's billet crap and saving, collecting '30's, 40's, '50's & '60's Hot Rod parts, they kinda seen the hobby pendulum swing back to it's roots. When you use the term "traditional" here I still can't relate to it, in my mind gas is still a$119 a gallon, cigarette's 35 cent's a pack & a bottle of Coke is sold for 25 cents, floating in ice & water, from a machine, in front of a service station ........................
patina ranks up there with barn find as two of the most overused phrases of today. A hot rod was a hot rod and a custom was a custom. A street rod was not a hot rod.
Whatever happened to Used Car Lots? Now it's some other phrase like previously owned. As a kid in Virginia I had a friend who's older brothers made a rod. As I remember it was like a 49 Chevy they got for $50, I remember seeing them with a hacksaw and hammer, removing top and fenders. Some filler and black primer, red painted wheels, baby moons. All together when finished they maybe had $300-$400 in it. Sent from my SM-S320VL using Tapatalk
Everything’s been done before, even the fender less post 35 hot rod pick up truck. And even though many don’t want to admit it, a lot of what people now accept as traditional really isn’t all that traditional.
Some of you who've been there= Man I wish it was mee toooo! I'de see myself as living in those shoes whole heartedly. Today= ugghhh. I saw the last of muscle cars cruising, yards going bye bye, and the way it used to be a memory......... No Cell/Computer..... Only want add's/for sale, a trip to the yard to hunt, and people's word..... Even though times are constantly changing/evolving, I wish I was there with you, doing the things you did...... I envy you guy's ............
Nothing like a "How how was it back in the day?" thread to get all us older guys talking LOL. INVISIBLEKID, every era has its good and bad stuff. Enjoy the good there is today. And we can't live in the past but we can visit frequently. Nothing like taking your honey for a nice long ride in the old car out in the country among the old farms. When there aren't any newer cars visible, it could almost be 1962 again. You do that and all the rest of it. Seems like a lot of this stuff is going away. Keep the passion going. Sent from my VS835 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
You are correct. Everything is ‘relative’.....the young guys then didn’t know any other way than what was current. It is only through the passage of time and the inevitable changes that occur that give us at least some perspective and wistful thinking about the ‘good ‘ol days’! I am not being the least bit critical here, I treasure memories of those times (now !), but like @Rocky said....”I grew to despise being poor”. Further, we ignore the differences, many of which didn’t touch us, like fighting a war, diseases that hadn’t been controlled or cured yet, etc. Nonetheless, given the chance, I’d buy a one way ticket on a time machine back to the ‘50s and early ‘60s.....maybe even to the late ‘40s.
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