Question: How common was it to use other makes to Hot Rod back in the day? Could this pass as a traditional build? I think so, but depends on Whats traditional. Either way, its cool! And i think there should be more love for the inline6 Engines!
Yup I’ve seen plenty early Chevy hot rods. Not near as many as fords but a lot non the less. looks more traditional than a lot of “newstalgia” fords I see being build
Back in the day also? How about Mopars? I think some of the Early Mopars looks really good. Its cool to see people build cool cars of other things than Ford also. And that inline6 sound……
Yes absolutely back in the day. I mostly see Chevys but that’s because I’m looking for them. I’m sure other makes were hot rodded as well. Quick looks through books like “the birth of hot rodding “ with a keen eye and you’ll start seeing them.
My favorite early Mopar 6 engine'd hot rod pic, from a Life magazine shoot I think. A Mopar engine and an all-girl car club. Two things that were kinda rare but definitely were a thing.
While I'm not old enough to having been there back-in-the-day, i.e. early 1950s or before (my interest era of hot rodding), I have been seriously interested in and involved with them for over 45 years and have learned to understand people have been hot rodding all makes & model of cars since late-1800s. Only reason most people today are more familiar with or often only focused on T, A/B & V8 Fords is because they are & have always been more common & "popular" than anything. You know like popular music, etc. or you can think of them like being '50s Tri-Five Chevys/T-Birds/etc, '60s/'70s Camaros/Mustangs/VWs/etc or '80 & later Camrys/Civics/etc of their day, i.e. simple & readily available, inexpensive, mass-produced cars kids can/could afford to buy & be "accepted" in, not to mention manufacturers of speed & bling equipment being able to see big enough market to make productions profitable/worthwhile and of course (print) publications traditionally focusing mainly on "popular" subjects to secure marketing funding from aforementioned speed & bling equipment manufacturers.
James Bowdish 34 Chevy 302 G.M.C. powered, form New London Conn. Patricia Bowdish photos form the H.A.M.B. and Kustomrama. Personally, I don't use the term traditional hot rod. I prefer the term period correct, because even back then there were some very untraditional cars- AK Miller's 32 Ford roadster Ak used a 40 Chevrolet front suspension in this car. Paul Mooney's 270 GMC powered track roadster in the Jan 1950 issue of Hot Rod.
Ted and Bruce Jansen's Babbit pounder 235 (pre 54 truck) engine 31Chevy roadster Hot Rod Magazine June 1953 This is a local real deal built back in the day hot rod. 30 or 31 Pontiac 235 Chevy powered
Back then if they thought it would be fast or would give them an advantage, they would try it, if it did not work, they would take it off, cut it off and try something different- Like when Ed Pink and Chet Herbert teamed up, and they put Chet's Injected 274” GMC-6 (Wayne Head) in Ed's 36 Ford. According to the American Hot Rod Foundation "A note said the car ran 131 mph"
Same here. To me, the term "Traditional", depending on context of course, often conjures up a mental image of something like a "Belly button", "Boring", "Nothing different, innovative or interesting", etc, but then again, I've always held individualistic and often drastically different views than everyone else, including not caring what others think of me, my cars, lifestyle or what I do with it all, etc. Heck, back 35 years ago, when reconstructing my Roadster, I seriously entertained an idea of building my own engine from scratch and while my design/idea was based on combining several engineering concepts from 1920s & 1930s, including inline 4- or 6-cylinder with dual overhead cams, etc, it was definitely not going to be like everyone else's engine. In the end, I somewhat accidentally settled for a "boring" old (no-bling) DeSoto 276" V8, but now, after 100K+ miles later (& counting), I'm fine with that choice.
Im with you, i really dont care either but the question stands. Way back when and so on. Plus this is a cool car regardless. I wouldnt call a desoto 276 boring. Not your everyday mill but cool!
I love the "rough and ready" look of a lot of the non-Ford hot rods from yesteryear. Of course we all love the Fords. But come on... there were others and they belong just as much as any. I'm very happy for a number of reasons that my project is a Plymouth.
I hear you, but I guess my reference to 276" DeSoto V8 being a "boring" choice comes through the lens of having built my Roadster (35 years ago) into a period correct construction of early-to-mid-1950s, at which time such engines were essentially either just new or late-model and readily available, i.e. nothing exceedingly special or unique. I also specifically left it in mostly* "stock" form (i.e. no bling or blowers, etc), as most teenage kids back then would've done, mainly due to lack of excess $$'s to spend on their only ride (again, I tried to think in period correct terms). OTOH, having owned, driven, rebuilt countless early Hemis in past 40+ years, perhaps I'm little jaded by how common they seem to still be in my world. Heck, besides the one in my Roadster, I currently have several in my shop along with couple of 413" Cross Ram engines (+ cars they belong to), 289" flathead V8 (by Lycoming) + the car it belongs to, etc not to mention, periodically working on some OT (late-'60s/early-'70s) 4-cam V12 Ferrari engines, etc, some of which I find less boring or common than early Hemis. * I did switched its '53 2-bbl intake & carburetor to a "later" model, '55 intake & WFCB (which I also "modified" myself into having mechanical, rather than vacuum secondaries, for better throttle response).
There has always been a percentage of hot rodders who built machines of brands other than Ford because they didn't want to follow the herd.
I am a bit confused by the term "traditional". I am 77 and got my start from my father as a kid in the 50's. The "tradition" of hot rodding has always been to modify to improve performance and style. Since tradition means to always look for ways to improve, maybe a much better and more accurate may be "period". My avatar roadster is a mix of old school and current build ideas and was built only to please myself for what I wanted to achieve. It has a hemi in it, not to be "traditional", but to be somewhat different, because that is what hot rodding was and still is to me. I also own an O/T 68 El Camino that has been in my family since April 4th 1968. It has had an engine and transmission swap from a broomstick 307, 3 speed on the column to 350/4 speed , (the third 350 because the car has over 500k miles on it) and was purchased by my father new. Upon his passing in 1990 and became mine lots changes have been done and will continue as long as I am able to work on it. Things happen a little more leisurely when your youthful energy isn't what it was. Nevertheless , I just work a bit slower and still enjoy it every bit as much as I did back in the dark ages of the early 60s. My hope is that a least one of my sons will pickup the torch when I pass and keep the hot rod flame burning bright. The kids today, with the tuner Hondas and such are as much hot rudder as we were in our youth. My dad began by working on 4 bangers of T, A,and early 21 stud flathead. Hot Rodders have always adapter to the era that they lived in and modified what they had available. The same spirit we had in our youth. Some of us outgrew it, and thankfully I never did. My roadster has a hemi in it, my El Camino has a heavily modified 350 it it, and under my bench lying and patiently waiting are a 59A and an 8BA, ready to be resurrected and hopefully introduce a new generation what us geezers did, happily, back in the dark ages, right after indoor plumbing and electricity were invented! Not too long ago, I was sitting in my garage, enjoying building a fresh flathead, when a friend stopped buy. He asked what I was doing and I told him that I was building a 53 Ford flathead engine. He then asked me how old I was and I replied, 73. He was surprised and said, "why are you still doing this ?". I simply replied, "Cause I ain't dead yet. That's why! Some people just don't understand long term happiness.
Many many years ago , one of the first pipeline jobs in a rural , R of W . I noticed a 34 Mopar sedan delivery sitting in a barn on the property I was working on . Later in the day the farmer comes riding up his tractor to feed the stock . I ask him about the delivery . He invited me to stop by the house on the way out and show it to you . I did , the delivery was used to pull the 34 Mopar coupe he had also to the drag strip . 34 coupe had a flat head 6 Mopar stuffed in it with 2 - 97s on it . I ask about why not a V8 . His answer “ none were available when I raced this Ole Girl .” There was a 48 Panhead with a sidecar sitting there also. I owned a 37 Chevrolet coupe at the time . I ask about purchasing any of them , he said “ I have owned all of them way too long to part with them , they will just sit here and pass on after I die . “ I got back to the spot about 15 years later , he was still working his farm , and stuff never touched . I made a point to return on a bike ride a few years later with some buds to see the Panhead , all was gone . A meat processing house stood at the spot where the stuff was stored . I always ask locals where the stuff went , when I worked near . No one knew anything about the cars , but I knew the guy that got the Panhead . He never touched and told me there was an Indian Chief in the house he got also .
When my wife and I moved here, the guy next door was a retired crane operator. He enjoyed relating his past. Back in the sixties he loved tearing up the dirt tracks in the area. An accomplished builder of Small block Chevies, he decided to work his magic on an inline Chevy Six. Going the usual route of using Clifford Engineering to gain more horses. After a couple races the V8 guys stayed parked when they saw his '57 sitting with the six in it. The deal was He could out run them on the straight, then take the turns without a downshift. That inline would pull him out and away from the gear grabbing crowd.
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