Is traditional the new billet?

no i dont think so, i think it just seems like there is alot more traditional styled cars just because there is more portrayed in magazines and here on hamb. ever try to have a traditional styeld pre 60 local cruise night? maybe your club and 4 others will show up

 

If you mean traditional as in paying a shop to build a "traditional" looking rod, some going so far as fake rust/patina paint jobs, fake gasser class numbers, fake racing scars.....I'd say yes, it will blow up.
All the music, ad, marketing, magazine, etc. industries will glom on and it will be sickening. The car you worked hard at, with your own sweat and blood, will be snickered at by the poseur set and their fan base. Your custom, out of the ordinary rod, is no longer seen as different or even cool.
But then after the corporate fed public has gone on to the next trend...there you will be. Still standing, still able to work on your own rod, indepenant, and lo and behold......still fuckin cool.
At least that's how its been the last 2 cycles.

 

if i didnt have a project and a budget i'd probably say the same----not

and what exactly is a 'Kustom"?

 

Fashion sucks and so do the media parasites who leech off it.

Just do your own thing and screw fads, trends and 'directions'. Timeless works for me - always has and always will. I'll build it my way and you build it yours. If you like my cars - great, if you don't - great. Now where's that fiberglass fake chromed billet, vacuum metallized engine cover for my engine cover because I'm too damn lazy to detail my engine?

 

okay....lets take a vote........
how many have 'traditional' cars with bags on them?
i dont recall them being around before the 90's but yet theyre prevalent at alot of the traditional shows now......
heck i like the easter eggs! everytime i see a guy with one i chat him up about how nice that car is(but i dont want to start getting into biding wars with mr. deep pockets when im trying to get parts or a project!) and how crude and uncomfortable a hotrod is(not to mention that that new corvette engine has sooooooo much more h.p. and how nice it must be to have a 6 speed tranny) compared to something 60+ years old
food for thought(and go ahead and start with the hate mail for the airbags if you need too!).....

 

There is an easy gauge for this. Is the Rodder's Journal sold at Hot Topic yet?

 

Next year pastel cars and splash graphics will be "traditional".

 

I find this funny when people say stuff like this...OF COURSE THEY ARE IN IT FOR THE MONEY!!! In case people havent noticed, making money is part of the american dream...you don't see many business owners saying hey, I just do this to stay open...I don't need MONEY to live off of..I don't need to pay the bills, make the car payment, get my kids a college education...I'll just give my stuff away cause thats cool....

Magazines are a business...they have stockholders to explain to, investors to impress, advertisers to sell ads to.


It's called running a sucessful business. Cheers to them for paying close attention to the trends and shifting their focus a little to match what they see. Smart business sense....



Scot

 

Ah, you forgot to add, "not that there's anything wrong with that."

 

Unfortunately it looks like it, and with that, prices for the traditional parts will go up as the demand does.

Goldchainers win again!

 

Everyone gets on the anti billet bandwagon, the fact is sand cast parts are expensive to produce with pattens etc. whack a lump of alum in a cnc machine and away you go. Its all supply and demand,the punters want something that affordable so the shops sell it. I am sick of a row of red 32 roadsters 350- 350 setups but then thats the way it is.No I havent got any billet.

 

I don't give a flying rats ass what any poser says...a HUGE part of TRADITIONAL is BUILDING IT YOURSELF!!!! Most of these fat checkbook billet worshipping jerkoffs don't even know which end of a ratchet to hold...and THAT about says it all. Will TRADITIONAL become the new billet? HELL NO!! Because you can't BUY traditional...you gotta BUILD IT!

 

If you were building a sixties style hotrod in the sixties the forties style hotrodders call it hitec or modern shit. Today you call it traditional.
Time change and so do hotrods
I think the attitude of the hotrod is more importen than if its billet or traditional
Lame hotrods is never fun
Rodrobb

 

Which is of course a complete BullShit statement as there are any number of rod shops ready to build traditional type rides for goldchainers and checkbook rodders. Just look around at all the new steel bodied Ardun flathead powered, Quickchange axled, brand new repro rods with not an original part on them....

 

Just like your favorite band: If your little sister starts liking it, it's not cool anymore.

 

history allways will eventually repeat itself......nice to see the early days of hot rodding doing a full circle finally. It has been a rough trip for me getting through the 80's-present having to look at teal graffics, tubbed cars etc, and finally watching Boyd Cottington drop dead.

Long Live the Hot Rod ! !

 

You was correct, turned to stupid...

 

Unless you just want to be in the "in crowd", don't sweat it... it will change. It always has. 20 years from now if you see a car with an early Cadillac they will say "hey that's just like the turn of the century!" It too shall pass.

 

This is were it turned stupid...

Some people should die because of taste in cars? Take a look at your signature, and reconcile that thought process.

 

Traditional? Explain. I don't get it. Does what we all here really like have a tag? At least for me it doesn't. I also read comments about 'checkbook' hotrodders. Do we really think there's nobody doing exactly that with traditional style? If that was the case there wouldn't be some of the shops that are doing it to the tune of 6 figures plus. Some day many of you will recognize that what you're really doing is restoration, taking old parts and making them new again to use for a build.

 

I don't know about that. Traditional rods and customs are like a nice crisp black suit; no matter what fads have come and gone, classic style remains timeless.

 

Build your own car in the style you like, make changes to it now and then.

If it fits your dreams and desires, nothing else is required....

 

Guys Traditional is my choice an as with any car it takes time,I think a traditional style car maybe longer because of the parts search.But not everybody with a fat check book builds those billet laden street rods.Back in the mid 90's on a 25,000.00 dollar a year income I built over a 3 year time frame a 46 Ford coupe tubbed,low mustang II front four bar rear an yes a bbc with a 350 turbo an all the fixxins.built with hard work cash money an a little horse traden.All cars traditional or not get built in the matter that people can afford wealthy or not.Hey its hot roddin lets enjoy.

 

didn't one of Watson's cars have bags?....I think I read that he was getting pulled over for it a lot and only dropped his car when it was at shows. Maybe not exactly the same as today's bags, but he had air.

 

to me, a kustom is old style like Hirohata Merc or Jade Idol. customs are like the chezoom or cadzilla.

 

Traditional...My definition of traditional is a guy(or gal) with busted greasy knuckles, who is building what he/she wants. Billet, pastel, chrome, it doesnt matter. If you put all the time and sweat into constructing something...top it off how you want. I cant sit at home forging wheels, I gotta buy em. I dont have a plating shop in the tool shed...gotta buy my chrome. I am one of a million people that can't paint a lick,so, off to the paint shop.
Only thing that isnt traditional is buying without putting the effort into building. Thats it. Fiberglass is even traditional...Hell, it takes more effort to get glass to look right, then most steel pieces.
But, thats just one guys opinion. We all got em. In all reality...with an opinion and a dollar, you can buy a cheeseburger. Thats about it.

 

IMO its like this guys....

Ever bought a car like a late model? Before you bought that car, you never really noticed them on the road did you? I mean sure, you KNEW they were around but you never really paid attention to them till you actually BOUGHT ONE.

Now that car and others like them are at the forefront of your attention because you HAVE ONE.

Then all of a sudden, wherever you drove around youd see them all over the place, aarrgghhh !!!

Its the same with trad rods & kustoms (or anything else for that matter)

We spend so much time reading, writing, seeing, driving and wenching on these types of cars so it all we see.

We think they are everywhere !!!

Guess what.....?

Theyre NOT.

And thats just the way I like it !!

Rat

 

Selling out to make a buck the new American Dream!

Shifting focus a little is one thing, sticking your finger up in the air to see which way the wind is blowing is another.

Chasing a market, like Hot Rod Magazine's shagged vans in the late 70's or mini trucks in the 90's, is just pandering to a short term audience/buck. Never mind who brought you to the dance, go home with the first shiny suit you find. There is a significant difference between a long term business model and the short term buck, how about ask any of the pop-up mortgage lenders from the past 5 years. How many changes to the staff and editors has Hot Rod had in the last decade in order to please the "stockholders"? Nothing worthwhile is achieved in the short term, and short term is certainly not traditional.

s.

 

Bare with me on this rant, but who really cares?
Taste and style in old cars runs in cycles. In Indy alone, there are countless numbers of car enthusists that as recently as 5 years ago would snub anyone who drove what today is considered to be a traditional car.
In fact, many have joined this board. They have shed their shiney street rods, restored cars and street machines for a look that fits closer to what they believe a traditional car should represent.

I can't believe the number of cars I see that are wanna-be traditional cars.
Is it still traditional if you:
Install disc brakes and then cover them with phoney drum brake covers?
Put dummy spot lights on your car (yes, I'm guilty, but my car has had them since 57)
Dummy lake pipes, or dummy bellflowers
Install a tri-power with only one carb working
Put 6-2's on your car with only the two center carbs working.
search high and low for an Early ignition then stuff it with electronic guts
EFI disguised as carburators
Install a late model 5-6 speed or overdrive tranny in your traditional looking car?
Put radial tires on your car (yes, most all of mine have radials)


To give you an example, I've seen the times when:

Traditional hotrods were cool.
Chopped tops go in and out of vogue 3 times in the last 45 years.
60's style show rods were cool
60's style show rods sucked
Gassers were cool
Gassers sucked
Resto-rods cool
Resto-rods sucked
Monochromanic paint schcmes once (that will be back soon) were cool
Prostreet was cool
Monochomanic sucked
billet laden easter egg colored street rods were cool
Prostreet sucked
Prostreet almost made it back and finally became pro touring instead
Gassers cool again
Easter egg cars sucked
Traditional hot rods again.
Easter egg billet cars going traditional
60's show rods cool again

Some on here say the style of traditional customs and hotrods is timeless and has always been in style. I call "bullshit".
If traditional customs have always been cool then how/why in the hell did Moonglow meet it's demise?
If traditional hotrods have "always been cool" then why were so many bought and converted to billet laden street rods in the 80's, 90's and 00's?

The reason for the above is 99% of the population wants to "fit in" to what is in style today, now.

There are a few diehards that have stuck to their guns all these years and remained true to traditional cars (and I'm not saying I'm one of them). The diehards were chastised for years as not being true car guys, or not "with it" because they did not bend and conform to the latest trend.
Don't take offense, and it doesn't make you a bad person, but, If you aren't at least 55 years old and reading this, then all you know about "traditional" is what you have read in a book, read here, or what someone has told you.

Hopefully this has made for some good reading and will be a forum for rebuttals.
thanks again for the rant.

 

You said the smartest definition I have yet heard on here ever... Stylish, not trendy, be it clothes or cars...Rite On...