Folks Of Interest Traditional Rodders and Custom builders stand up and be counted

From what I've learned, East coast style hot rods were oftentimes channeled. West coast style cars were chopped so perhaps Tom's deuce is East coast influenced?

Tom's deuce roadster is just plain sexy. No other labels are necessary.


iPhone - TJJ App

 

Just thinking out loud but after reading this thread I keep thinking about the motivation the origonal poster had for starting this. Hmmmmm.............??????

Frank

 

Glad I'm not the only one.

Frank

 

Whenever I finish my '39, and it's sitting in the parking lot.... and someone comes up to me and says, "Hey, nice rat rod" -- I'll know. If someone comes up to me and says, "Hey, nice traditional hotrod" -- I'll smile back, and say, "Nice to meet ya." And I'll know.

Quite frankly, I don;t care about labels.... I build for myself.

 

This thread is still open?

 

Yea, ol' Pork is stirrin' the beans...

 

yep
my definition of traditional is different from a lot of folks here so im out.
just as soon as i say this: i was taught by a guy who grew up in the 40s and 50s. my dad. so i do it his way with a little of my ignorance thrown in. ok, now im out.

 

I understand the way of thinking. I'm not sure how you can rebuild, refurbish, rechrome, or put tires, gas lines, brakes, or re-upholster ANYTHING. How can you do ANY of those things and claim that nothing since '64 was used in your build?

It's just a build "Style" unless you have access to a time machine or a stock of n.o.s. parts unknown to the rest of the world.

We all love the tradition stuff or we wouldn't be here, but the claims of building cars with nothing built after 1964 is just bullshit.

The newest of the four Fords in my garage was built in Sept. 1931. They are all traditional builds, and will all have parts built since 1964. Hope that counts me in.

 

I build traditional but am not a purist, using only old parts. From what I learned about hot rodding from my dad before he died building hot rods was about using what you could find and afford to improve the performance. I've done that using everything Chevy to VW parts on my coupe but I bet you can't identify the new stuff. Next time you see her try and find the Yugo part!

I'm updating my 59 Plymouth with a 360 Magnum and an A833 so I guess you could call me a street rodder. Frankly I think the titles are stupid. I build cars for the fun of the build and the drive.

 

ok i couldnt stay out.
like i said i learned from my dad before he took the last ride.
he called them squeekers(original, restored, not quite hot rods)
so thats what me and my friends call them.
if it aint scary fast it aint a "HOT" rod. its just a rod or just a funny looking car if your not into cars. or maybe even if you are.
just my 2cents

 

I do, what i can do, when i can do it.. I pay for, what i NEED to pay for, when i can pay for it.. Which is why my ride will be in the garage a little while longer, and come out when its what i want!!!

 

Imma street rodder.
I enjoy it here on the HAMB, so I 'try' to keep my nonsense to a minimum!

 

I don't sew and I don't have room for machine tools...everything else I do. That said, the older I get the more I find myself buying custom parts rather than roaming through junkyards looking for something that I can make work.

 

in.

 

I have done nearly everything on all my builds with the exception of engine "machine" work, radiator repair, and the actual stitch work on my Chevelle interior, I take great pride in what I've done, and have learned along the way. If building with what you have and can afford, challenging your skills, and scratch building along the way instead of ordering a "kit" from some catalog is "traditional" then stand up I shall......

 

i do every thing but the machine work on block. i have equipment to do heads
made parts. body,suspention, whatever i ineed
sorry i run radial tires
been working on cars since 65 in a shop

 

You're partially correct in your observations. As far as a "period" build, it's possible. True enough the paint, upholstery, gaskets, etc, will all have to be new. I think you could still strive for the goal by making sure the "hard parts" like eng, trans, frame, axles, and other related items don't go past the year you want. I won't put a 1978 4spd in my truck build. Not for any judging reasons or to "qualify" for anything in particular, just because I want it that way. I want it to age a certain way too. I know that's obsessive, but I can have and do as I wish. I said earlier that I'll lacquer that truck also. That's the age thing. Modern paint will look modern for decades. Lacquer will get a glow to it that can't be found in urethanes. Leather will wrinkle and surface crack and that will be welcomed. In no way will it be abused or treated to fake patina, it will simply age on it's own like any other 50+year old build would. If my trans is a 66, my rear axle a 57, my motor a 59, the body and frame a 54, well, you get the idea. Crazy? Obsessive? Guilty...

 

I guess I no longer fit into the traditionalist label any more even though that is all I drove back in the day, before personal computers / web sites existed. I still prefer late '40's - early '50's bodies, but now the engine / drivetrain I prefer is late '60's - early '70. Even though I fell out of the "traditional loop", I find this site to be a daily routine of mine.

 

I dont know if I'm a hot rodder, street rodder, or just an old fart, but I do know that I bought my first car in 1952 at the age of 12. I boughta it from a neighbor that told my dad I would never get it running. It was a 1931 Model A and I give 5 dollars for it awith the understanding the he got the radiator back when I got tired fooling with it. My dad came home from work 2 days later and I was running circles with it out in the pasture. I went to work at a local junk yard [recycling facality] now days and started building cars out of parts you could find at the time. now I have a 33 ford 5 window coupe full fendered non chopped with a D O C [damned old chevy] and I built my wife a 51 ford chopped lowered and all that stuff. She informed me when I: was building it she didnt want anything showing that was'nt 50's. everything is metal and was done in my shop by me except the top chop [chopper rod shop] and the upholstry. It boiles my blood to listen to people talk about doing their car when they dont know spark plugs from tires. I sat next to a guy at a car show [not my abag of tea] and he was telling everybody how he had dug his car out of a ditch in canada and took him 4 years to build [it was a coast to coast kit car 37 ford]. street rodder, hot rodder, I build em drive em. classify me an ;old fart that enjoys my cars and the guys and gals I meet thkat do the same

 

I should have just wrote this and not wasted 5 min telling others about something I didnt really need to talk about...

 

Let me stir them a little more.

I have a friend named Ed that passed a few years back. He was a family friend from a time when I wasn't old enough to know that he wasn't family. He was a kind of a goof ball and he taught me something that I have always kept in my list of rules to keep. Above all things be yourself.

The fellas that I hung with when I was a young long haired germ were all about that, being themselves. Most of them still greased, they were building cars the way they always did, even though the trend was changing to what was at the time was the latest and greatest. They didn't seem to care that I was a long haired germ, to them it was about the cars, but it was morre than that, it was about being yourself whether anyone else liked it or not.


If you look back, the greatest rodders, builders and racers of any era were all about doing things the way that they saw fit, and didn't really care if anyone else liked it or not.

A lot of times you will hear me say build it the way you want and let the chips fall where they may. Its not about what color I like, it is about what color you like, its not about if I like it low or high, it is about if you like it low or high. Hell it isn't even about if you roll your cuffs or grease or have ink on your ass for that matter. It is all about being who you are all the time. If someone is offended by who you are, then they also have jeans to get unoffended in, if they don't then they are the looser.

Its the same with what you build, I most wouldn't likely build it that way. Would someone have built it the way that you want to way back when? Perhaps, no way for any of us to know for sure. We do have a window that we look through at what is traditional and what we think wasn't. Some of what we know isn't is obvious, and some of it is a little obscure. After all we are looking though a window and sometimes it isn't a very damned big window, other times it is not even really good glass it is a little wavy. There is only one traditional thing that we know of for sure, the fellas that we revere were themselves. If you want to be truley trad in a world that doesn't believe that you can be there is only one thing that you can do and that is be yourself, let the chips fall where they may.

 

That's partially true - Look at pictures from the era we seem so consumed by. You will notice that most of the guys dressed the same, whether it be Levi's with cuffs and white T_Shirt (like where I grew up, or White pants and button downs like the Christian rodders of the day.
Look at the cars from club photos - many were very much the same within any given group.
Why? There has always been, and always will be, Peer pressure to fit in with those we hang out with. And the majority of people will be that way. We may be a microcosm of society but we still tend to flock together and be similar. And if someone does step outside the box within a group one of two things usually happens - he is either ostracized or the others tend to meld in a new form similar to the rouge one.

 

What's traditional???? Buying the $1000 Firestone whitewalls or using two screwdrivers to pop on the free tires you scrounged up.

I'm the later.

 

Hey man, the OP might get a bit riled by going OT and givin the cop out "build it your way" thing. Oh wait, you are the OP. Never mind...

 

But each club is but a small window that we peer though isn't it. That is what I am trying to express. I am very fortunate to have been around some of the fellas that made our hobbie what it is, sometimes I think that it makes me an authority but most of the time I know that even what I know is just a little bitty bit if what it all really was.

Peer pressure is an adolescent thing. In theory it is something that we out grow. For some of us the theory never applies, some of us will always be followers. They must lead a very difficult life.

I think what Ed was trying to tell me when I was little was not to succumb to peer pressure. The gentleman in question was at the time a mover and shaker and since has become famous. His peers or contemporaries if you will did the same, each his or her own way and none caring what the other thought.

 

I do pretty much all my own work, with the expection of machine work, and I do a little of that, things like valve notches, cutting spring seats ect. Dont do stitching, but I might take a run at that in the future. But I have never owned what I would call a traditional hot rod. If I had to attach a label to myself, it would be "street racer".

As far as "peer pressure", most of the peer pressure I see on the HAMB is actually usually pressure pushing people AWAY from doing what I would call "period" hot rods.

 

Preach it brutha!!!

 

Hey ,Beaner what are you smokin,

 

carlos I actually haven't twisted one out since about '82. I discovered it was pretty hard to be yourself if you can't find yourself.

Now this is way OT.

Some one told me once if there wasn't a pulpit you would have to build one. This one has a lot of nails in it.

 

Why don't you compose a decently written rebuttal to whatever it is you disagree with? "what are you smokin" is awfully vague.