Are traditional hot rods and Customs too perfect now?

YES.....and I only read the title.....
Function before form.....but sometimes function itself has a nice form all it's own....did that make sense?

 

The Rocky 33 was the perfect example of stuff not perfect (and I dont mean condition)but taken as a whole made ya stand back and go WOW!

 

I'd say that a majority of my personal favorite cars don't line up perfect. A brand new Model A was as far as a half inch off square and you don't really notice unless you measure. The gaps were WAY off. And that's just fine by me.

There's that term, I can't remember who said it, "Right, but not TOO Right..."

 

There are guys who are constantly improving on "the look". Some of the work amazes me, as a backyard guy. I see their cars in the mags, fantastic "improvements" on the "look". I talking about the cutting edge guys who are building the finest cars.

Once in a while we look at an old pic, a car that was really the "way it was". It looks just right, all the parts, stance, it just works perfectly. A lot of us want to duplicate that look.

I like them both.

 

Would you be building what you are building if the Chrisman Coupe was a thrown together jalopy? I feel that thought, design and craftsmanship will always be appreciated. It's only sad when a "side show freak-mobile" gets more attention than a well crafted simple car.

 

Yes!!! Finally the rusted out P.O.S 's are becoming scarce and now building Hot Rods like they were intended to be . Fuc#### Drivable !!

 

Yes.......

And as to how far to take polishing you're hot rod...

With my roadster, I'm trying to build the nicest car I can without getting bogged down. There's a point at which the 'problems' just don't bother me anymore and I leave them. It's different on different days but my goal is to get a car on the road, not in a museum...

I think trying to build a car like they would have back when is too much to worry about... I think you use the parts appropriate to the time and then it's just about doing the best you can with what you have and what you're comfortable with...

I mean the original guys were all over the place on build quality...

You had guys like Ak Miller who's main concern was going racing and the look and fit/finish of his car were secondary. Then there were the Doane Spencers and So-Cal crew who seemed to think everything out and care about the details, and then there were the Barney Navarros somewhere in the middle...

So even then, who was 'right'...

Just build it the best you can, but make sure it actually makes it to the road one day... Don't get bogged down in stuff...

 

i painted a car for a friend , in a color from the early 60's...not a perfect car ...not a perfect paint job...but i struggled to get the look i wanted...as it seemed to be too nice finish wise....my junk is far from nice...but its good enough for me....

 

I think with reinvention of traditional rods we are making the rods the guys were trying to build back in the day. We have got much better at metal work and we are able to gather ideas while we are still building our cars. At any given moment I can jump on a computer and pull up hundreds of examples of what does not work and what does. We as builders can sit back and look at a car at a car show and say i would do it just a little diferent. Think how often a guy building a rod back in the day went without seeing another car like his while building it, and when he did I highly doubt he was gonna rip it apart to fill in the 1\4 inch gap. I am glad the quailty is rising cause for a while we were losing to many cool cars to the "Rat Rod" tools trying to tuen a buck on egay. Just me .02

 

I'll also add that I've been contemplating the "Label Conciousness" of trad-rods...

I mean, I'm the kind of guy who's been known to cut the labels off of clothes because I didn't want to be a walking bill-bord...

But isn't it the same kinda lameness to be searching for that special label flathead part?

I mean it's all "thickston this" and "Hildebrandt that"...

How different is that than your girlfriend and her freinds being all "Prada this" and "Gucci that"?

I've got some of that going on in the roadster but for my next car, I think I'd like to try to keep it at a minimum...

 

I've been tweaking the lines of my car for 9 years now and have re-done/re-created the whole front clip from various cars/parts at least three times now and I'm still not completely happy with it. I know it will never be perfect and I don't think that is what I expect out of it and at some point, I guess I will have to just accept it and move towards a finish, but I know I will not be happy if I cannot change it anymore.

I guess the funny part is that I actually get paid by people to do concept illustrations of THEIR cars so they can build them with a vision of the finished car and yet I have never done a concept of my own car - I just cut it and move stuff around to see if I like it, then change it again (and again).

I guess you could say it has driven me nuts, but I enjoy it and I don't really want it to be "done" or "perfect" I just like to mess around with it.

 

A good example might be the Lane/Poteet 32 Delivery.

Gorgeous car, but to go that extra mile to make it "perfect" would make me go crazy.

Lane must have the patience of the pope.

Rich

 

Yes.
Anytime we achieve the level of refined crafsmanship that we have, you will be overrun with those anal types that must make it 'perfect'
The Amish wood crafsmen create fine furniture. Look closely and you might discover the intentional imperfection in every piece.
This serves to remind us not to get too full of ourselves and remember that we certainly will never be able to create true perfection. We are incapable since we are only human.
The So-Cal coupe is beautiful in it's restored state, but when one takes something like that and 'over-restores' it, it loses something real from it.
I'm terrible when I'm building something. I have to constantly work on building it instead of making it perfect. If I pursued perfection, it would never get done and I'm not going to live forever.
Build it, drive it.
Enjoy it.
r

 

There have always been guys that absolutely got it right and went to extreme lengths to get there. The Doane Spencer roadster is probably the most notable. And he drove the snot out of it. Also the McGee/Schritchfield car, the Niekamp roadster, same deal. Anything that Tony Nancy touched. I think on the rodding side there always were pretty close to perfect cars. I also believe from talking to many old timers (I actually take the time to listen to the guys that were there, they won't be around much longer) that most rodders tried their very hardest to build the absolute best they could, not just slam together some pile so they could join "the scene". There were the heaps, but most were trying.
Do we take it to extremes now? Yes, cars like Roger Ritzow's Troy built roadster have very little to do with traditional other than paying a bit of homage to the style. Totally bitchin' car , but not representative of an early era.
On the Custom side I think we have elevated it to another level. As much as I have always loved the Hirohata Merc and the Matranga car, I know that if they were built to that standard today, they wouldn't compete. Not that they wouldn't still be two of the best looking customs ever, but the undercarriage etc was no where near what the top builders do today.
It's funny you should mention signs, because I've always been amazed at seeing sign work, and pinstripping for that matter, that was done in the 20's-40's and how many times it is so damn perfect it blows me away. I think it speaks to a craftsmanship, patience, and pride that are sorely missing today.

 

Interesting topic.

I agree with what Blackout said,

I look at a hotrod that was built recently, and I say 'damn, that is HOT' and thats about as far as I get...but show me an old photo taken in the 40's and 50's of a roadster, coupe etc sitting outside a shop or on the lakes and I'll stare at that sucker forever...we all know that those cars weren't perfect, but at the same time they were. I can understand how it's hard to explain, I guess if you 'get it' then, well, you get it and you don't really have to explain.

thanks!

 

I'm glad Cleatus chimed in here. I was going to use his car as an example of the benefit of constant tweaking with it to get better results. It just keeps getting better. When he finally gets it in paint, I bet it will have lots of those little nit-picky things that make a car into a traditional custom. Form follows function in hot rods and racers. The flow of the lines are what make a righteous custom, in my eye.

But TOO perfect? How can that even exist??

 

I'm sure the opinions were just as varied then as they are now. There will always be those who don't care what something looks like as long as it works. I was an art major so I feel that form is very definately a function. There have always been those rodders and even cutomizers who have cobbled things together. And there have always been those who have had every detail nailed. And probably plenty in the middle and to both extremes. It doesn't matter. Build what you like, post photos of it on web, take it to shows and let the experts tell you if it sucks or not.

 

I have a vision in my head for the PU I am building. It will be lowered not slammed. It will have a rake to it, to a degree. It will be built to my vision with imput from my wife, she is going to drive it also. It may not look to anybody else like their "Ideal Hot Rod", but I am building it to please me and my wife. It will be a driver, not a trailer queen. It will be reliable, it will be comfortable within the limits of the body design. It will also be a bare bones project. Nothing fancy, mostly stock bodied. Not that I don't like a chopped, channeled, slammed, good looking rod, I am building it for us to enjoy.

The next one will be different though. How I am not sure yet other than it will have stupid amounts of power and I will probably be the only one able to drive it.

Kevin, I am not sure if this is what you are looking for as a reply, but that is the essence of what a Hot Rod is to me. It also varies greatly from time to time.

I am not looking for a "perfect rod", I really don't think that there is such a thing for everybody. It just has to be perfect for me, if it is mine. I like a lot of the different rods on here. There are some I wouldn't cross the street for either. Just personal preference.

 

One of my favorite hotrods is the Don Tognotti 5W.....sure, the front spring mount isn't perfect, and the headlights are mounted a bit back...but there is just that special "something" that talks to me....
In my eye's, there aren't too many '32's built today that even come close....

That goes for many other cars too......I think with all this trying to "recreate the past" in building "fresh" traditional cars, with details and fit and finish out to kazoo, something is lost during the build....ya know?

 

I would have to say yes. I was at a show a few weeks ago and a guy told me it was a nice rat kustom?????????????????????????????? whats with all these damn names. I wanted to hit him. I said no I just have more work to do before the paint. I started just wanting a driver but its you should do this and do that ? I get real tired of the picking apart of home built rides. mostly by guys without cars or the talent to build them

 

The reason many of us look for the period parts, labeled or not, is because they are part of the foundation of the hobby. We are the sons and grandsons of the inventors of this hot rod stuff, and we almost have a genetic link to those men and their parts. If a 32 3 window is one of the icons of hot rodding, so then is a Thickston manifold or Kong distributor or a set of Eddie Meyer heads.
I wonder how many of my granddaughters or your girlfriends, granddaughters will be hunting Gucci & Prada items at the flea markets and antique clothing stores in 2075. I'm thinking not many at all.

 

I'll chime in...

My thoughts are that some people only try and do one thing to a car and stop there. The Pierson coupe would have looked terrible if all they did was chop it heavily. There was a ton of work that went into the rest of the car to make it all work. Some people aren't willing..or able..to finish the lines and make it all work together from many angles. Execution is a great word. Form-Function? Yes. Absolutely. It is a balancing act, you just have to know what objects to balance.

Spike

 

You shouldn't strive to "overbuild", but you also shouldn't strive to "underbuild".

Don't stop til it feels good.

 

ding ding ding.

Some confuse "unfinished" with traditional
Some confuse bare bones with traditional

some exclude really nice work, just because its high $ or lots of time/effort involved with NOT being traditional

style has always been hard to define.

There were perfect and even overly perfect rods and customs back in the day. There were also unfinished and bare bones rods.

no one thing or style defines it. its more a feel. Much like the sign you saw.