I was doing this shit in the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, well forever I guess. It was fun back then and it is fun today. Seems like having the younger guys into old cars now has brought me back to the old days because most young ones today like and respect the old school way, the simple way. I always remember this saying, "simplicity is the ultimate sophistication". Sent from my VS500 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I would think that back then as now it was more about making the car unique to you by adding and subtracting from it, your car, following the herd is boring.
I was playing starting 1964, Milwaukee Wi. our cars mostly were patched up, painted up, junkyard parts, 50's cars. When I think back, the street racing and speeds on city streets, DAMN LUCKY, I did not kill myself or somebody else, sadly some friends did die, in our modified junk or muscle cars which were huge in the Milwaukee area. I was proud of my cars, but in reality, junk and not safe for what we were doing, but great fun/memories from my youth. I read a lot about period correct, here and IMO 99% of period correct cars built today are not, BIG Bucks, professional/fabrication/paint /interior, back in the day, we didn't have that kind of $$$, skills/tools/experience. So...... Build/Buy what YOU Like/Want, Enjoy the Hobby and don't get caught up in all the BS here or anywhere in the Hobby. MY advise and $2 buys coffee at my breakfast joint.
Much had to do with West Coast or East Coast(roughly 10 years behind the west) and time frame 30's, 40's 50's but there were some basics here on the west coast: no one wanted wide 5's except track cars, no one wanted 17 and 16" wheels, everybody went for 15" wheels as soon as they came out in 1948, most kids ran 1 Appleton spotlight on the drivers side(too expensive for 2) Barris cars had 2 because owners had money. in So Cal skirts were in up until the rake came in about 1954, then skirts were out, where I lived you could get beat up for running skirts because you were lame or from "Back East". Everyone wanted an Olds, Cad or Buick overhead, pull the flathead and stuff in an overhead, nobody wanted a flathead unless they were too poor to get an overhead. In the 40's and early 50's everyone wanted a column shift, sometimes flipped over to the Left Side so you could keep your hand on the girls leg and still shift, in the late 50's everybody wanted a floor shift, LaSalle, Zypher or 39 Ford box. Full Moons were the thing in 40's and early 50's Late 50's baby moons (baldies) and 50 Ford smooth beauty rings. Your girlfriend knitted your angora dice in the early days(the store bought ones were never in), then shrunkin' heads hit for the rear view mirrors. Primer spots were in, paint was too expensive for kids.
in the late 60s before uncle sams vacation i spent most of my pay check on fast cars beer and my girlfriend the rest i just wasted
I never said it was, I just said they got driven that way a lot. And they sometimes stayed that way for a long time, or the new paint never did happen.
My dad was one of the “originals” he was a founding member of the Knuckle Busters CC here, he traveled around racing JR. Fuel cars, he managed the local drag strip here for a while. He owned but never drove sprint cars later on. He had all kinds of cool cars back in the day. He still owns a 38 deluxe coupe. A 64 Galaxie and a 48 Frazier. He’s owned the Ardun from the Scotty’s T Roadster since about’60. Another thing he did was (he along with some other guys) started what later turned out to be one of the best equipped and trained volunteer rescue squads in the country. Many younger guys may not know or remember but back in the day if you got in a bad wreck it wasn’t uncommon for it to take them a good while to cut you out of the car. Sometimes people would bleed out or die because they couldn’t get the victim extricated in time. Wrecks now that you walk away from would kill you back then. I unfortunately have witnessed a couple deals like that. As cool as our old cars are they can fold up like an accordion with you in there. So as great it seems, there was some pretty bad things that went along with it as well. On a brighter and funnier note. At times I try to advise my dad (he’s going on 87) on parts for his cars to keep them “traditional” like putting Bias plies on instead of radials or not putting modern stuff on his ford coupe. He could give 2 shits about keeping stuff “traditional looking” I kind of get a kick out of that.
I was born in 1942 so i had the privilege of seeing a lot, and living it. I was stationed in California from 62 to 66. I was working on my 56 chevy and ordered some Vic Hubbard pistons for my 283. They were $55, My paycheck for 2 weeks was $55.10. Go figure,but some how we all made it work. Good ol days
This thread brings a story to mind about what we had back in the day. (60's)A friend, Snooks had a probuilt 32 Ford Roadster, Very Nice car, he passed 8/10 years now, always talked about his Hot Rod from the 60's, Model T or A Roadster, Olds V8, 3 speed Ford tranny, channeled, fenderless, etc, sounded like an neat old school rod. He goes on a mission and finds his car as he built it, untouched, sat in a barn for 30 years, very excited, borrowed a trailer, go gets it and brings it in the trailer to a cruise night. We are all looking at it and thinking, pretty kool piece of history AND HE States, I just did not remember what a POS it was/is (we all thought it, nobody wanted to rain on his parade)AND it was the typical Hot Rod that I saw back then, Ugly welding, bad bodywork/paint/crap interior, JUNK/POS in general. There were a few nice Hot Rods, but only a few that I ever saw. Sharing his memory is what we all tend to do, glorify the past with rose colored glasses, My junk was actually pretty good compared to many, but that maybe those rose glasses talking again.
Born in 44, Primerd rust was still rust. Covered with clear is now the pee-word... Our cars were lowerd, raised, jacked-up, etc, had no "st" word, (a BS word anyway) had dump tubes made from driveshafts, sometimes called scavengers if store bought, 5.60's or 6.00's on the front and 8.20's on the back, white walls-black rims-baby moons or black walls-white rims-baby moons. We made a buck to buck an a quarter thru HS hoping for a 2fifty job when got out. I still look at them as the "good old days" and to me they were.
I was born in 1948 and I lived in Southern California (San Gabriel Valley). My brother (r.i.p.) was 7 years older than me so I was introduced at a early age. What was current mostly depended on what area you lived in and whether your family had money. West Coast fad's usually were 5 or 10 years ahead of the East Coast. As mentioned earlier, everything that you want to know is right here at your fingertip's. Use the search function, that's what it's here for. You might also look at people's profile page, many of us have picture's posted there of what we drove when we were younger. I am not going to try and tell you what it was like in Southern California in the late 50s and early 60s, there are too many people on here that are younger than me and never lived in SoCal that know more about it than I do and I don't feel like getting in a pissing contest, I'm old!!
I see that response often,an take it as a bit of a joke,so yes its funny. But also not real. So here is a funny kind of too; I built my first hot rod in 59 for high school,Dad said he was not buying me a car,but was for my sister{A man up,from Dad}. As for "Safety last thing on any hot rodder's mind" well Dad didn't help build,but he did check safety stuff="Bad safety would be wack on my butt an felt on my mind" Learning what was a bad idea,can come faster then we can dodge.
We coulda been twins!!! I was also born in 48 AND I have a picture somewhere of me sitting on the hood of our old 53 Ford station wagon!!!! That was what I learned to drive a standard shift car in. 3 -on-the-tree! Dated a few times in the old "dog wagon" (was used mainly to take the dogs bird hunting in). Iwould have to hose out the dog sh-- and try to deodorize it before picking up my date. Two great thing about going on a date in a station wagon.....(1)going to the drive-in movie(just back it in the parking slot and drop the tail gate)......(2)real EZ to do "naughty stuff" in the back too...with the rear seat folded down! Sometimes......."naughty stuff WHILE AT the drive in........." movie".
I really enjoy looking at nostalgia builds. It is interesting to see some of the combinations of parts used back when there "necessity was the mother of invention". But there was another dimension that is equally interesting to me. And thats the guys that were engineering intakes, multi-carbs, cams, blowers, reverse flow heads, overhead valve conversions, etc. all in the search for more horsepower. Then there was the dimension of the guys that couldn't afford speed equipment but built gow-jobs, removed fenders and windshields, fabricated streamlined (track) noses or used noses off of farm equipment, basically removing weight and streamlining all in the search of slipping through the wind and being faster. Money was tight, tires were skinny, horsepower wasn't easy but guys were engrossed in the never ending quest for speed. I would venture to say it was much harder back then than it is now.........I really appreciate the keepers of this site that continue to preserve, teach, and propagate the knowledge from the past.
MAY be true.........cause I don't know what laying frame is. I was talk'in bout low in the back-high in the front like when you haul moonshine. (Here goes ANOTHER ..."did-you-ever-haul-moonshine thread" 6sally6
Sometimes......."naughty stuff WHILE AT the drive in........." movie".[/QUOTE] As I remember it.."you could get a lot of first hand information in the back seat of a second hand car"
there were a few specific points i was hoping would come up. one of them would be AN fittings. i have heard that guys working on things for the war may have snuck out with a few fittings in there lunchbox and they made it on some hotrods. can anyone verify this? another thing i was kind of wondering would be when did guys start using ladder bars? im assuming back in this time period a 4 link was not a thing? my understanding is that all quick change rear ends were home built at first and when did that become something you could buy off the shelf?
AN stands for Army Navy, and is the identification nomenclature for a whole lot of hardware used for the construction of military equipment. It is still used today and not just for hose ends and plumbing parts. Sent from my VS500 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Always a pleasure for me being educated by the correct guys... Squirrel: (safety) youre referring to street races? Sent from my Mi A1 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
exacly my understanding is that in its infancy AN fittings and things were not avaialble in the civilian market
Hot rodding was about going fast, it wasn't about being careful. You'd never know it, reading many of the threads on the hamb.
Probably true. The stuff we can buy today is not all real AN stuff made to military standards. Sent from my VS500 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
forget it ... I thought bad ... that you referred to the quality of manufacture of the hot rod... Sent from my Mi A1 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
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