Why traditional rods and customs?

I just love old parts...cars, motorcycles, home appliances, tools...the shapes and styles these things were made with, they just feel like they all have stories, and they feel as if a human being actual designed and made them...they're organic, mechanical, almost primal in some cases, and you know they were made by a being, not a machine. For me it's the look of the old parts, and their unabashed functionality.

 

out of all the things I hate, this is the one I love the most

 

It's cheaper than Cocaine and Wild Women.
Every time my wife asks me why, that's what I tell her.

 

Because old is got soul

 

Because You Don't need A Smog Certificate!

 

X2, everything from say the 50's back had style and manufacturers cared how things looked as much as profit.

 

"You know the old saying - If you have to ask........"

that's what i was thinking....i guess i would have to ask in reply "why do i like traditional hotrods and customs vs. what?" in my narrowminded opinion it began in the 30's and the perfection cutoff time is mid 50's. beyond that i think it is either off a bit or way off from what is to me the perfect time of man and auto coming together.

 

because it's real and most things now days ain't

 

thats pure genius......can't argue with that now can you? lol

 

its my life im 17 and ive loved every minute of it i dont know what the so called rockabillys that are into hot rods over there(in the states) probably got sky high pompadors and leopard print creepers but here weve got it right its my life every minute of it im having fun ive gone through school getting all the***** you can imagine about how i dress and what im into and it still has'nt put me off im in it for the long haul it's just what pushes my*****ons to working on rods to being up at 4am drunk as a skunk dancing to the songs i love in rockin clubs you just cant beat it really for me anyway

 

By 1958 I was really into hot rods and custom model cars. The AMT Three in One kits really got me started. I would ride my bike all over town to look at rods. My first car was a Model A sedan, with a souped up Model B banger. I remember sitting in Daleys Drive in wondering what a new rod had under the hood. It was a mystery in those days,could have been anything under that hood. Today its no mystery,most of the time its a SBC. I can not relate to all rods haveing the same motor. I can not relate to Mercedes head lights on any old car. I hate 20" wheels with rubber band tires. I hate what Chip Foose does to great old cars. Time never changes for me,I am locked into the 50's & early 60's.

 

Its what i remember when i was a kid.

 

Amen I couldn't have said it better myself. It tickles that little thingy in my brain too. I'm only 31 and have loved the style since my late teens.

 

For me nothing says class like chrome and wide white walls.

 

I like the feeling of what it felt like to drive. I can get out of my auto-couch daily driver, and get into a hot rod and drive it. It smells the same, rides the same, sounds the same as it did in 1958. The fun part for me is putting together the right parts to make it look like it should have in 1958.

 

...because I was there in the thick of it, Pasadena, CA
...because hot rodders were the people my parents warned me about, so I couldn't wait to be one.
...because there is nothing like the thrill of blowing up a motor in the timing lights and living to tell about it
...because the first source of parts was the junk yard, and there was usually one close to home...you could build a hot rod for a few hundred dollars.
...because I can tell my grandkids about it, and as long as someone is telling stories (lies or otherwise), the hobby lives on.

 

For me, they remind me of a much simpler time in our history. A time that I think I lived in a previous life. I connect with old stuff. I know, weird right? It's just the way I feel.

 

X2. I love the connection I feel to the past when I touch an old part, appliance, tool, weapon or guitar. Made by the greatest generation and their parents, grandparents and great grandparents. Someone saved up and bought it and loved it as much as I do now. I think of it as continuity of history. Someone else down the road is going to love it just like I do. And, hopefully, on and on it goes.
Or maybe my wife's right and it just a piece of junk and I'm clear full of*****.

 

So I can be different like every one else! JK
Went to the drag races with my dad at 5 years old watching FEDs and gassers thats where it started for me, I can fire up my old FED and it takes me to a different place, a quater mile at a time.

 

Gee, did you go onto a photography site and ask why they're into film? Did you go onto a quilting site and ask why they like that style of cover?

Traditionalists built this site for other traditionalists. It seems silly to ask why we like traditional rods and customs. Just like asking Corvette Club guys why they like fiberglass cars, or Shelby folks why they prefer aluminum bodies.....

dj

 

my thoughts, exactly!

 

Pin's ya nailed it..Very well put.

 

Could'nt be stated any better. I grew up in the 70's, and my parents were in the antique business, which tatooed my brain w/american history. Like any kid growing up being into cars, I easily connected the dots to depression era, prewar, and postwar nostalgia. For me this hobby is so great because you can be so individual with your build. Anyway great thread !!!!!!!

 

Because the only satisfaction when you finish working on a new car is the happiness that you are done with that pile o' junk.

 

Isn't that all there is?

 

i used to play with hot wheels, being at car shows is like a bigger version!

 

life was simpler back in the 50-60 era...car technology was too as compared to today's computer runners....i like simplicity!

 

in one word .......TIMELESS.......

 

I heard all these stories from my dad and uncles about the cars they had back in the day, and I wanted a piece of that action. Maybe one of these days I can build an actual traditional hot rod.

 

Geez, u dont have to make the guy feel stupid for being curious about why we love this hobby, and why we are in it. Thats like having a kid coming up to you when you are out with your car and ask you a question, and you make him feel stupid for not knowing the answer already. Geez