Hot rod: any 2-4 wheeled vehicle that you sit your butt in an puts a huge smile on your face Weather it be a model A roadster or grandmas hand me down 87 cutlass Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Everyone has their own definition of a Hot Rod. { And that's Cool } But if my grandkids ask me for a ride in the Hot Rod. I know which car they're talking about.
It’s 2019 most every thing pre 1990 is cool now at 26 yrs old I can’t afford a 32 for or a tri 5 Chevy as I’m sure is true for most of the younger generation so we buy what we can afford and hot rod it Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
A hot rod and a car that has been hot rodded are not the same thing. This is all semantics anyways. I build time machines.
A good friend of mine used to say a car that looks like it's going a hundred mile an hour when it's standing still is a hot rod.
A hot rod is a car made from 1948 back that has been altered by a kid that wanted more speed and a different look . After doing so it was noisy , rode rough , had that oily gas smell in the interior , tires would wear out quicker than normal , got worst gas mileage and attracted police cars no matter were you went !
That's not true, it's an excuse... ...another baseless excuse. I built a 32 by starting with a cheap junk 5w body shell missing the roof. I bought old beat up parts as I could find them and afford them. I had plenty of time to spend on the junk body shell while I waited to find/buy the next cheap part I would need next. It took a decade as I sometimes got sidetracked with other things, but it's now my true only daily driver for almost 2 years now. I actually gave the 32 to my son, but he has no garage yet, so I'm still using it until he does get a shop/garage. I don't have money, don't own a cellphone or TV/cable bills, and don't have a any vehicle newer than a 66. Don't have a wife or GF that has a newer car that I could use either. If you want anything in life, you simply just find a way to make it happen. It's often said that the youth of today want instant gratification. That's fine if you were born with money. The rest of us work towards what we want. I also build the black roadster in the 70s when I was in my 20s, again starting with some rusty body pieces... I built much of this one in the driveway because there was only 5 foot headroom in that tiny one bay under that home. I later joined a rod club that had a huge shop, and I paid $4.50 a week for an indoor spot to finish this car. The older guys in the club were there if I needed help figuring things out. Some of us were blessed to have very little money, because we were then forced to learn how to weld, fabricate, and scrounge like a rag picker to be able to own what "we could not afford to buy" So, if you really truly believe you can never have a 32 or Tri-5 or whatever model you secretly lust for, then you certainly never will. . .
This is an interesting question. Aside from the relatively new vs. old discussion, what is a hot rod? I have an A pickup with a stock ‘36 85 horse flatty, ‘39 style trans., juice brakes, ‘39 cross steering, ‘32 shell, stock rear, and ‘35 wire wheels but I hesitate to call it a hot rod because I’ve made no attempt to hop up the tame little engine. It is just a much better driving version of an otherwise stock A pickup.
Don't feel bad, at 56 I can't afford a 32 or a tri-five either. Thank god there are more cars out there than just Deuces & tri-fives. Find something you like & make it your own!
i dont buy it, I was definitely spending more money on cars in my mid 20's than I am now in my early 30's. Less responsibility/ less responsible, less care about what I had in savings, less bills and expenses, etc. Lots of guys in their 20's working on building cool hot rods to all levels. im not much of a positive attitude person, but theres a lot of truth to the old adage that "if you want something bad enough, you'll work for it and not settle for a cutlass because its cheap" I like G bodies, but they aren't a hot rod to me.
I've been in the hobby for 59 years I know what a Hot Rod is, also know what an Antique and Classic car is. Changing the years to make someone happy isn't something I get involved with, Wal-Mart parking lots are not my idea of a car show either. Bob
Those cats took 10-15 year old cars that were cheap and plentiful (with lots of available parts) and modified them to go faster... just like my grandfather did in the 40's, my dad did in the 60's, I did in the 80's, and kids now are doing in the 2000's. That is Hot Rodding. So, If "Hot Rodding" is modifying a car to go faster, how can a "Hot Rod" have a cut off date? What do you call the cars that are newer than the arbitrary cut off date that have been hot rodded? Chappy
However this is a traditional hot rod/custom site so your 90's and newer cars are not discussed here. Mick
I think it easier to define what a hot rod is not rather than what one is. Sort of like trying to define good music, I definitely know what it isn't.
You call them Customs, Lead-Sleds, Street Machines, Gassers, Resto-Mods, Muscle Cars, Tuners etc. Back in the late 60s the term Street Rod was coined...basically a Hot Rod that was street legal and driven. Back then, a large portion of those hot rods were old Fords...and I have always assumed the pre-48 rule had a lot to do with the end of Ford's "straight axle era". The line is sort of blurred between Street Rod and Hot Rod, a matter of semantics, but the ONE thing they have in common is they are both pre-48. VERB: You can certainly "hot rod" a 87 Cutless. NOUN: but if you drive a "hot rod" it's a pre-48. That's why all of these others have their own name: Customs, Lead-Sleds, Street Machines, Gassers, Resto-Mods, Muscle Cars, Tuners etc. JMO
I'm old, but to me a true "hot rod" is a fenderless 1934 or older car with a hopped-up motor for faster than stock acceleration.. That said, I believe today's idea of a "hot rod" is any older car hopped-up to go faster.. I'm OK with both definitions.....
I knew you were going to catch grief because of this, but I'm with you. If you can raise its coolness factor and it goes like hell then it's a hot rod. I laugh at the old timers married to and stuck in the past. Fortunately, the real hotrodders, Isky, Edelbrock, Thompson and so many others looked to the future and kept up with the times. Dates mean nothing unless you're trying to sell magazines or live a past that, in many cases, you didn't experience.
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