And a transmission cooler behind the grille, street rod mirrors and white letter tires. "Traditional" is not universal.
The last car shown was definitely a '60's styled car' . . . some wouldn't call it "traditional", some would. The whole point is that you have to pick the range of years you want to style your car around (at least closely) - if that is your goal, cool by most of us. One can take one look at the previous car and know immediately it was built or styled to be somewhere in the later 60's (at the very least). It has an alternator, it has a trans or oil cooler, it has 5 spoke American mags, etc, etc.. Start with the era, then work from there . . .
Well said.................. So what happens when someone finally gets their car period correct and they are the only thing not old enough to be period correct? Will people criticize them........
And you know how trends go, sure, we are deep into the whole "traditional" niche now. But what do you do when it's no longer a "thing". I'm good with whatever happens as long as tweed interiors and pastel paint don't return!
I'll keep doing at least traditional style rods. A couple decades after the fifties the stray cats had traditional style rods on their album covers. A couple decades after that rock bands still used traditional rods on their artwork often.....not pastel and tweed and billet. Only advantage of traditional rods having a following to me is I have fellow knuckle draggers to jaw at. I wanted a traditional style rods or custom long before I knew that there was a following lol
The roadster shown on Andy’s book was very cutting edge back around’66 or’67. I want to say the owner name was Herb Martinez, but not sure without digging out my copy. It had a big block Chevy and an independent rear suspension.
Obviously this is just my opinion but when somebody says they have an era correct car. I think if a car that looks the part it doesn't necessarily have to have every single thing from that era although the more correct the better. If it is in a show and not really a driver I want that thing to be as close as to authentic as possible. That is actually a pretty hard feat to do because it takes hundreds of hours worth of swap meet hunting, eBaying, hamb classifieds and talking to people to find all the bits to build an absolutely perfect 100% accurate hot rod. I mean technically speaking if it was going to be 100% authentic it even needs to have vintage oil put inside the engine but at what point do we draw the line? I can't imagine there is too many pairs of Sears Allstate bias ply tires still floating around So almost everyone runs the same generic tires from two or three companies can get on the internet (which they look great BTW But how many Firestone white walls were actually being ran in the 1950s it's debatable especially when there was 40 different companies making tires). Myself I prefer to keep stuff that I do authentic to the time period in looks But I let a few modern things slide For drivability and maintenance reasons. Things like overdrive transmissions, electronic ignitions (like a pertronix not some goddy GM HEI thing). Obviously anything you're not going to see like what's in the engine I don't have a problem if it's modern or not. I will also ignore things such as a rear axle because let's be realistic 1957 Ford 9-inch axles are getting pretty rare But a ford 8.8 is pretty much everywhere with that magic number sweet spot of 56 to 58 inches wide. The real reality is for me it's all about having fun and not being a snob. I remember when I was a teenager to young adult and billet street rods were all the rage and I remember one of the rare times hanging out with the guys in the Shifter's car club (I am the same age as Mark and still talk to him pretty regularly) And at that time all those gold chain wearing, lawn chair toting, 15-inch Boyd Sportin' men that are now seniors (or dead) shunned them for having budget built traditional hot rods... I remember how rude I thought that was and it's not like it happened once or twice It happened pretty often in Southern California. My point of mentioning that is I don't want to be viewed as that guy I just described and as I am now middle aged I want to do everything possible to get younger people into the sport of hot rodding and rockabilly/ tradional country music we diehard gearheads are a dying breed. If a young guy wants to build a rat rod it's not my particular cup of tea but I'm definitely not going to knock him for him building a car in his teens or 20s. He might have One of those goofy 1940s pickup truck cabs on a 2x3 chassis with Model A horns, sporting white wall tires but have a 1996 vortec Chevrolet converted to a carb with the 4L60E. If he is out driving his truck I'm going to give him props even more so if I see him driving it distances and era correct isn't really an issue for me in a case like that. When I hear people bragging about their car being a 100% point on build It's almost pretentious. We don't live in 1958 whether that be good or bad it's just the way it is If someone can honor the spirit of 1958 that's enough to keep me happy.
This is a great example of a car that looks period correct I don't know anything about it but with its hood down sporting its wheels and tires and its paint job and it's top it has that look that you would see in a pre 1955 issue of Hot Rod magazine.
These books will help…..plus all the stuff already said here. How to build a traditional Ford hot rod, by Tardel et al. How to build period correct hot rods, by Berger. John
To me era correct would be no parts after a certain year,I know it would be impossible to do it completely but all the parts that can be seen being from certain years. The parts that wear like bearings,brake parts and others would be hard to do unless one wants to spend the time looking for them.
A controversial topic to be sure. I’m not sure what my car will be considered, but it’s going to be a nice, reliable cruiser that I’m going to enjoy driving and not being altogether distracted by opinions. I like late 50’s and early 60’s style and Watson is my favorite builder of the time, so any additions will be along those lines. That’s not going to stop me from using modern technology to get what I’m looking for. After all, none of us here are accessing the H.A.M.B. on an Eniac.
Make sure to attend the traditional style events in Sweden. From what I see from my Swedish brothers over there they get "traditional" better than most here in the U.S. Make yourself happy and do what you can afford. Dale Seaholm
Worrying about being period correct is dangerously close to being aligned with restorers, there, I said it.
I tend to get too wordy on threads like this one so I will be short. Something I haven't seen mentioned in this thread is the feeling you get driving the car you are trying to build. I have found that for me, the best part of what era you want your car to be is what era you want to FEEL like you are in when you are driving. In my last car, in my head it was 1952 and I was an 18 year old kid. The newest part on the car was the 1949 Mercury flathead and the car was a 1931 Ford fenderless coupe. When I drove the car it was always 1952 and I was always 18. I had it 12 years and drove it all the time! Build to the era you want to be in!
Having attended a 'traditional' event in Sweden, and met enough of the Swedes who have brought their traditional cars over to the UK for events, I agree fully with this.........the OP needs to spend a year attending all the old timer events in Sweden, and maybe elsewhere in Europe, such as various VHRA events in the UK, and he'll soon know what's traditional or not. Easier than asking on here to be honest.
This right here is the main reason I'm keeping the stock suspension and using a 58 rear end on my 53 Bel Air. There's going to be small updates like front disc and a heavier front sway bar (gonna be a daily driver) but I want it to feel and act like a fifties car.
There is no such thing as period correct. There is no such thing as a period, and no such thing as correct. Every single rod and custom ever built was different in some way from every single other. That is what made them special. The closer that one gets to building a vehicle that is identical to one that has been built before, the less that this is an an automotive hobby, and the more it is cosplay. Almost everything that anyone who would use the term traditional is a vehicle who's owner got lucky enough to get a rare picture in a magazine, or was seen directly by the observer. In other words, an impossibly small and not statistically relevant sample set. "Was not done back in the day" is often self-important way of saying I did not see it, so it must have not existed. Build something that works, and that you like the look of. Life is too short to get hung up on these things.
I’m okay with that. I view it as a contest with myself. This hot rod stuff is my only hobby, and I’m pretty serious about it. I understand that 99.9999% of the people who walk by my car could care less, or even recognize the extra effort it took to find and use the proper old parts. But that’s still okay.
What won me over to using vintage parts is the cheap generic feel of even high end resto mods. Like even if they have over $100k in the build they have the same basic billet steering wheel, same aftermarket tilt column under the same billet cluster insert standing out like a diamond in a sows butt, the same basic billet oversize wheels, same vintage air setup, cartoon door handles, same mustang II front end. Etc etc. I've even driven a few mustang II equipped cars like mine. They don't even feel right......and I don't mean in an increased performance kinda way. Like even fresh from alignment they always kinda felt like they were plowing into corners. At least if my jalopy handles off in a high speed corner I can chalk it up to 1949 technology.....not because I spliced in fifty year old pinto technology on my car. With "era correct" style builds there's a lot more options for a lot of stuff to increase performance while fitting an era without being exactly like the next rod that has a severe case of Boydalism lol
I agree with the second half of the @gimpyshotrods statement in that term traditional hot rod is a bit of an Oxy-Moron because hot rods, customs and race cars were built by individuates and everyone had thoughts and way of doing things. However there are most definitely periods of time and period correctness, you can’t have a Civil War reenactment with uniforms, weapons, and equipment from the Desert Storm Era. Hot rods are a little different in that they were changed over time, bigger engines, wheels, tires to improve speed, power or simply to change the look of a car.
Here is a good example- Steelies whitewalls a white roof and a 32 grill give this car a early to mid 1950s look… But the same car with five spoke wheels, Gold line Firestones, a black roof and a Model A grill give it a late 1960s look.
You cannot have a Civil War reenactment with uniforms, because they weren't. There were guidelines, but no mass-production. What's accurate?
A big issue is some builders can't see the forest for the trees. When amassing a collection of 'vintage' parts for a build, staying within a 'time window' is important. To be 'period correct' you not only have an upper limit for newness, but a lower limit too. Throw in the 'revisionist' wing of the traditional Hot Rod crowd and the water gets even muddier. Things like 18" wheels (seen only at the dry lakes or Bonneville back in the day), big OEM headlights and wire wheels (pretty much extinct from the '40s until the resto-rod craze in the late '60s) along with uber-rare bits like Kinmont discs and Ardun heads, which given their very limited production numbers, certainly weren't 'common'. Don't get the idea I'm advocating for a strict interpterion of 'traditional' because as Gimpy says, it really doesn't exist. But a conglomeration of 'trad' parts also doesn't mean what comes out at the end will be an accurate representation of a traditional car. There's a lot of excellent craftsmen out there, but not all have the imagination or vision actually needed. Don't get me started on customs...
The Jalopy Journal
