History Bring Back the 60s Wacky Show Rodz?

Hello,

My brother and I went to a lot of car shows back in those early times. When someone we knew had a hot rod/custom car in the show, we aggravated our way to that display and was happy for our friend. Most were mild customs, and some were a step above the mild category, but not the full-on custom with body changes and sculpting. Mox Miller’s cool custom car comes to mind,


The crazy modified custom creations obviously were not street legal and would be hard pressed to qualify for a DMV license for daily street driving. Those did hold our interests for a short while, but there were other better displays and hot rods that got our attention. Those wild creations were done well, for the most part, but were too expensive and too time consuming for anyone of our friends or even us to try and start/complete. So, they lost interest for us as soon as we walked by on the way to the cool hot rods and mild customs.

Mild customs were reachable for most of our teenage friends, so the spectators were crowding around the crazy modified customs, the normal cool hot rods had great photo opportunities without too many people crowding around. So, those wacky show rods had some purpose for us.

Jnaki

The closest I got to a wacky car design and finished product was during the photojournalism time period. I was invited to come up to a city near downtown LA to see and photograph a new creation. Actually, it was a modified version of a custom car that would not have been identified by any hot rod fanatic. It looked like a T Bird, had a bubble top that opened up and could be taken off to make it a full open body roadster. There were many comments that it looked like Darryl Starbird’s creation from the early days. It did look like it, but it was different. The bubble top was the comparison design and most looked at it as if it was the original one.

After shooting a ton of photos, the owner allowed me to sit in the driver’s seat. Now, that was a new and odd thing. There was no steering wheel. But, a lever to move forward and back. It also moved left and right. The pedals were the same for braking and acceleration. It was similar to a sailboat throttle lever. When you moved the lever it goes forward back. Then the side to side motion incorporated the same idea with the throttle. The one time the owner allowed me to sit and move, the car went forward, but steering and throttle was not working for me, so I gave it a few more turns and then opted out for the rest of the day.

The magazines like the concept, but did not feature it as it was similar to the one from Kansas in overall looks, not the mechanics.

 

I saw that '58 Impala at the Roadster Show a few years back. Stunning paint work and TONS of chrome! I was told it had been a show car all it's life and has very few, if any, miles on it... Anybody know if that's true?

 

Mox Miller's 58, such a cool mikd custom and amazing survivor. It was great to see it at Pomona. Check out this link from Pat Ganahl's video.

 

Thanks, that was a jaw dropper for sure... Looks like a rollin' jewelry store!!!

 

That doesn't really fit the thread.

 

Man, you don't have to run in here and post the same thing 7 times in the same day!
Echoes are fun, sometimes.

 

It's funny reading this post even though most of the things are two years ago now...
I have comments but I always have comments and I am learning to be vocal about them and tonight is no different.
How could anyone hate a wild show car? Especially one that draws in children? We can't take this hobby with us it is and always has been all about "passing the torch" to quote 1990s Rod & Custom and if a show rod gets a 12 year old into the hot rod scene where by the time he's 18 he's building his own hot rods it's what it's all about.
I can't speak for anyone else but I used to be that 12ish year old kid in the late 1980s and early 90s and it wasn't the pastel 1948ish fat fendered off make abomination that have been completely devoided of any and all bright work or the "classic" (said in a condescending way) mono chrome 1940 tudor sedans that drew me into hot rodding that some of the older members on this site were building at that time, it was the Hemi under glass I saw on TV that got me into nostalgic drag racing, it was my father's late 60s Rod and custom magazines showed the totally impractical and totally wild T buckets and C cabs pickups and super tall phone booth Ts with huge chrome engines that to this day look sketchy fast that got me into hot rods and from there I was started on Hot rodding by the time I was a junior in high school I was into traditional hot rods and buying at the time 30 to 40 year old hot rod magazines when the main stream guys were still doing billet $100k rodz.
If those billet cars would have been the only cars I had ever seen I would never have went down the path of hot rods I definitely still would have been into cars but it was the show rods that were the gateway drug.
It is still that way for kids today.
Boring vehicles like fully shaved and smoothed off Chevy nomads with giant wheels might get a guy that is already into nomads talking about what a "cool car" (not me but a person in general) it is but the reality is a young kid just sees it as an ugly old car.
It's the cartoony show Rod type stuff or rat rod type stuff that gets young kids going it doesn't mean it's practical or anything of the sort.
The evil looking rat rods, the 1960s crazy show rods, the fiberglass marvels that are totally impractical from then and now and even the goofy vw manx type roadsters all draw attention from the next generation hot rod kid.
BRING BACK THE SHOW RODS!
Or fund me and I will start making them, I have a thousand ideas in my head and not near enough money to build any of it from C cab T type vans with chrome engines to a Wells fargo type stagecoaches with 4 blown 389 Pontiacs (with zoomies) in front of it (like horses) with a name like "the Wild West Express" or the 389 pony express.
How about some new jelly Bean car (wagon) that is fully shaved smoothed off and devoid of anything that makes it look car like so instead it looks like some kind of moon Rover and even though it's super new and late model putting it on a set of moon disc because even though they were first designed 70 years ago they still look space age.
Anyways I don't know if I'm getting off topic but I'm done writing regardless.
I am definitely in the camp of bring back wild show rodz and wild show cars of all eras. Not ones that use the traditional styling techniques but things that are outlandish.

 

You can bring back the show rods...if they are pre 1966.
That could be more problematic.

 

I'm of the same opinion, Show rods have their place, and kids love 'em. One real hurdle in building one today is the EPA tax costs associated with chrome and paint. Show rods have loads of custom chrome and wild paint. I'd bet you could shell out over $40,000 on that alone on a typical show rod's plate/paint bills.

 

Factor in that Roth, for one, was collecting royalties from Revell while his early kits were in production, so no doubt that money helped with the cost of constriction for his next project. Once the Beatles exploded on the scene, it wasn't the same as far as kit sales were concerned.

The zany/wacky/crazy show rods have their place in history, and certainly their fans in both 1/25 and 1/1 scales, but like Woodstock, maybe it's best nobody tries to bring them back.

 

I think the reason you don't see these built largely is due to the shift in society. People have become afraid of ridicule. If what you drive or wear is not the same as everyone else, the cops and people in general are unable to handle it.
Try wearing a top hat in public!
I like things that are different. Show cars and weird stuff with lots of thought put into it.

My build might not be as chromed out as the old ones but I'm doing it on a shoe string budget. It will get as wild chrome and paint as I can scrounge. Thinking vibrant purple metallic

 

Never was really into them…..except for the Munsters Coach.

 

There was a real wacky one in the late 60's called the..................
"Manure Spreader", top that!

 

They are called "Show Rods" for a reason. They are to get your attention. They are supposed to be waay over the top. I loved looking at them in the magazines when I was a lad.
Bring them back? Hey, if you have that kind of imagination and lots and lots of stupid money, have at it. People will come to see them.

 

Unfortunately, most of the outrageous customs now are not HAMB friendly, like the Bosozoku stuff.

 

This one has been to Donut Derelicts in Huntington Beach one Saturday morning.

 

How about some pictures of it?

 

Those are more heavily customized cars similar to a 1951 mercury then full show goofy stuff like a bubble top show rod or a giant radio flyer wagon but I guess I get your point as that is what people are building now.
What is crazy to think about is a 1980s car is just as old as a model T was during the 1960s so I guess I understand why people customize them and yeah I don't want to see them on the HAMB ever...
When I made my rant/comment yesterday I was thinking more like the Giant shopping cart I saw a few years ago that was sitting on some ugly wheels and had I think it was a blown big block Chevy... It wasn't really my thing but three or four years later I still remember it and I would imagine a million kids do too.
The same goes with monster trucks or wild those T buckets. I just keep hoping the '60s influenced show rods make a reoccurrence but I think time is unfortunately left them behind.

 

I'm surprised I didn't jump in on this thread originally, but it's never too late to argue about stupid stuff here. And, wacky show rods are certainly stupid.

 

It's admittedly hard to square my liking for some of these things, with how lame I think others are. Might be that it's the difference between some stupid "theme" car (or bike...looking at you Orange county choppers) made out of a bathtub or whatever and something like a C cab T (Ice Truck for example) that at least started out as7was loosely based on an old vehicle of some kind (or a horsedraw hearse I guess...), or was some shot at a futuristic car like the Manta Ray.

 

If I had the time and money, I'd spend it on something else.

 

Show rods and freaks aside, the Show cars and 60’s style stuff is very Hamb friendly. Has a lot of talent and craftsmanship. The Roth cars, Instand T etc.
Guys love Barris cars, they were the worst of the worst American chopper type junk.

 

I dig the audacious imagination that these folk exhibit in creating these. Some are not for me, but "live and let live." Does this qualify as a "show rod" to you all?

 

My first model car was the Predicta when I was 7 around 1962, Then I found a book in the school library by Ed Roth and it had pictures of him building the Mysterian. Then I started going to to the World of Wheels in Milwaukee when I was 13 and started seeing things like the Red Baron. Paddy wagon, Boot hill Express and others. To a kid in the 60s anything with big tires and big motors, custom paint and tons of chrome were as cool as it got and are what inspire everything I have built since, and a C cab model T still cruises my car dreams from time to time. lol Larry

 

I never liked the show rods when they were popular, and hope they dont make a come back.

 

Kool build man.

 

I used to race at I-70 Speedway in Missouri. At intermission, that big, blown shopping cart would make some laps. The kids were all over that thing.

 

I am not against these style of cars however at some point the vehicles cross a line and I zone out ie bath tubs and wheel barrows etc.

I like the Roth vehicles, Munster coach, Atomic Punk and the list goes on...............I understand them somehow.

I agree with @X38, some of these vehicles become non hamb appropriate

Cheers Turns

 

Doesn't anyone on here watch Ian Rousell on "Full Custom Garage"? He not only is still building them, but he drives 'em on the street.