Trucksters - traditional?

Here is my attempt. People call it a rat at the local gas stations all the time.
What do you educated people think?

 

Not bad.

 

Rudy Truck......Ha...
Do all of us think that all we consider is cool starts in California?
Altho he probably had the first one with good proportion He did not "invent" anything....
we have to realize that this trend was in fact going on 40-50 years back,[1960]only difference was the age of the candidates -THEN-were at the time approximately the same age as the ones are now [in relation to] the so called -acceptable years-... that could made into hot rods.....
so by definition-....
we are talking about a"newer Cab" on a shortened frame with shortened bed -no fenders and wheelbase extended forwrd on frt end?
This one was built in 1961 in Torronto Canada about as far east from California as ya can get.....And at the time it was probably not considered the proper thing to build either....
My point here is if it was done with a degree of taste and an eye for proportion it was acceptable then and should not be much different now.... we are a cult society and sometimes we get hung up on a very narrow vision of what a hot rod can or should be....

 

Well, I wasn't around back in the day so I can't prove one way or the other.
But I will say this, if they are not traditional there are enough people on here who will shout loud enough to convince everybody that they are, just so they can fit in around here. History is always rewritten from the point of view of the Victor.
Paul

 

I love that one. It's like a closed cab version of the Kookie car.

 

FUXL, perfect.ive got a 48ford pu,long *** bed,8ba and i think it still has 16" wheels.the body is perfect and so is the floor. no rust anywhere.and your is what im gonna build. i believe you got it right.at least in my eyes.there was a pic that i seen on the hamb awhile back. dont remember much about it but i was a " bobber" and i think that pic was taken back in the late 50s or early 60s. sitting on a street like it was a d.d. i think it was in the vintage photo thread.i do remember seeing one in person in elgin il. around 70 or 71.thats about the only one i remember seeing on the streets in that time frame.and when i hear the term "bobber" it dont instantly bring up visions of those little trucks. it brings up the bikes we build in the shop, rigid frame, stock rake, ape hangers all rolled up in a harley.ive got one still prefer my old chopper but what the hell.

 

If it looks like a duck... but first, are we talking beds or no beds?

To me, bed-less bobber trucks are just "modifieds" with a roof - more or less the same as a 2-door Bantam or ****-less Model A body would be, or a shortened sedan or perhaps even a Vicky. Similarly, a fad T or RPU without a bed / deck looks pretty much like a modified to me, too, and therefore also a bobber. Despite being more of a motorcycle term in my mind, "bobber" seems to fit just as well as "modified" does to almost any of these bare-naked ****, cut-down models.

Adding more mud to the puddle...

How many (bobbed or bedded), closed cab gow-job trucks were "built" as hot rods prior to WWII? Having a good tow / push / utility vehicle might have been more important back then. Any racing cl***es or truck racing ***ociations before WWII? Or... was a truck back then just a T-bucket with a different tail end? After all, the buckets all were the same, eh?

RE being traditional, in the post-64 world of pre-64 rodding, cabb'd jobs with beds seem pretty much a new thing to me and I find them very appealing for some reason. They seem to have more of a custom than rod look / influence. Somehow stylish, in a funky way. In the Neo-Traditional or New-Vogue world today, I see them mostly as a new thing based on old parts and contemporary influences (low, long, funky, unusual part combos, faux or real patinas, retro / street freaks, etc.). Pulling up an old photo of a fenderless pickup from the 50's clearly indicates to me that there is something else going on with these new builds.

Again, post WWII, I think I've seen pix of T-buckets with shorty beds racing as roadsters on ovals, but not bobbed coupes or truck cabs. Were there "Roaring Coupes" or did they just call them stock cars? Ha Ha. As I recall, pickups were generally not allowed to race as stock cars on ovals, probably because of their weight advantage. But I'd bet that some cab bodies probably got built into oval track modifieds or super modifieds.

I would choose to leave the "R" rods and customs out of the problem set(s). While I just love all the creativity, I'm turned-off by seeing so many that are poorly built and all the excessive add-ons, be it Neo-Beverly Hillbillys, Post-Slacker, Goth or Druid, or just plain old stupid Satan / Halloween / Slasher movie stuff. Some "work" well, some not. Some have truly great approahes and amazing senses of humor. Some don't work very well or appear unsafe at any speed, despite how they "work" in the artsy sense. And please don't call them traditional. They are as 1990-2000 as you can get, IMHO.

For me, the Shine truck (and other similar builds) were the ones that got my interests going in fenderless hot rod trucks. At that time, that truck seemed to have a fresh, new approach with unexpected but somehow still traditional styling cues. When all said and done, it looked like a hot rod, and just as neat as a rodded Deuce. But in the immediate post WWII era, I'd venture to guess that most hopped up trucks were either full fendered g***ers, possibly run fenderless as altereds, or "show truck" customs.

So to me, hopping up trucks is mostly a post WWII thing and despite the variety in approaches, they are traditional as all get out. But were they "rodded" in the fenderless high boy sense? "Funk-a-fied" in the Rudy cab sense? As a bobber? Pre-64, perhaps not so many. But then again, lots of new stuff gets built in a traditional manner. Is that were the rub is? Between what was actually done back then versus what looks like it could have been done back then? Later, Gary

 

OK, somebody better buy the 40 ford cab I have sittin in the garden, or I'm gonna have to build one.........I do have a S10 frame in the driveway

 

Why does it make a difference----He drives it and likes it, you don't like it because it doesn't fit your description of whats right. Everyone has a diff. way of thinking on what is right, mine is if I don't like it I don't give it my time to ridicule it. I'm building an 1948 Internatiponal----none of those were hotrodded, they were worked now they are alowed to play with the big boys.

 

Traditional or not....... I like mine!

These threads sure are fun, lots of hypotheticals and perceptions. Makes for interesting reading. Alas nothing is ever solved! Opinions are opinions and rarely change.

 

I don't think most people think Rudy invented them...just so happened to be a popular builder who built one that was decent looking....therefore popularizing that style of build.

And as far as I can tell, that 60's built pickup you posted wasn't anything far off from the norm, wild or weird for that era. It's a nicely proportioned fenderless Model A pickup truck hotrod. Just like a fenderless sedan or a coupe would have been built back then.

Whether the "Rudy" was traditional or not...doesn't matter. It goes without saying that "Rudy" style trucks weren't popular back then, for the same reason why their still not popular with the "traditional" crowd of today.... They look awkward....simple.

With alot of work, and like you said "a degree of taste and an eye for proportion" you can make that "Rudy" style truck look NOT BAD...but no matter what...it's still not that good! haha.

That being said, I think that "Rudy" style of truck is a reasonable option for some guys nowadays...because the good stuff (T's up to mid 30's cars) is very hard to find for a good price.

If a broke-*** guy wants a "hotrod" or "ratrod" or whatever...he can get in the game...picking up a late 30's or 40's truck cab for a couple of hundred bucks.

Then when guys tell him its not traditional or it looks ugly...he can say...."well Rudy did it" hahaha

 

You can keep the S10---how muh cdo you want for the 40?

 

These threads are always fun lol. Te pictures of them prove there was a handful around back in the day, but since you don't find them in magazines it seems to me they were treated like we look at Rudy trucks today. Some tolerate them, but few like them.

 

JOBCORP, yours and "Rudys" are really nice and there are a few others. One gripe I have is the pan below the rear of the bed. VISUALLY, it's totally unnecessary. Well, that's my opinion, of course, but if it just was the bed and no pan, just a couple of rails poking out with a spreader bar, or maybe a real tight, abbreviated pan, maybe a single tube bumper....whatever, but it would lighten up the *** end. Is the goal to have the pickup look like the lowest thing out there, or to have the pickup look very proportional AND very low.

 

Jeem, without the "skirts" the bed would just be "floating" very high above the visual line that the bottom of the cab makes.

 

You missed the smily, so I would say you are the one who is snippy. You seem to be about the only one who doesnt get that most of this is tongue in cheek. And it is 1963, so you are also wrong.

 

Good post Paul

 

Lots wrong here, but it was a fun truck to drive and race.
Let's see:
Fenderless------------check
Short homemade bed--check
Open engine-----------check

Built in the 80's
Larry T

 

The only reference to cutoff year I know of is in the Cl***ified sticky, and it is 1964.

 

Here is a perfect example of what you are talking about.....

The guy that has it told me it was his dad's car, and his dad added the bed becuase then he got a larger fuel ration since it was a truck.... Pretty sure it will continue to sit where it is for a long time.....

I thought it was really cool.

 

I know what you're saying, but I'm OK with that!

 

I did it to hide my coil over springs

 

I think that JOBCORP's 59D truck is bad ***, and I don't really give a **** what anyone else thinks. I instantly loved it the first time I saw it. There are hundreds of examples of this style of truck that are really horrible, so I understand. It seems that wheelbase is always the biggest problem. Proportion, wheelbase, and general flow all have to be considered. HEAVILY! But, if done right, like the three trucks I posted earlier, they are as kick *** as any hot rod out there. Geesh, this topic always gets me in a lather....

 

Fuxl. Your truck is spot on too!


iPhone - TJJ app

 

Unless it is flat black and had red wheels, then it could be a '87 Geo metro and still be traditional.

The problem with this type of argument is that there is no definative answer to it. Someone certainly could have built a bob tailed bedless fenderless 40 Ford back in the day, gawd knows that someone did one of everything at some point in time. Someone else is bound to have a picture of it and once they post it it will be traditional.

 

We call'em Cabsters!

 

Thank you Mr. Ford


Your a hero in my book.....lathered or not

 

Benno,
Funny you should mention that. I have the next traditional trend here. Saw it in a 60's little book. Unborn calf hide upholstery on the outside of the truck. It's in the book so it MUST be traditional.

Remember folks, you saw it here first!
Larry T

Just now hit me that if someone drug this one out of a barn and wanted to run it in original "patina", they might need some sort of nose plug. Some times it takes real dedication to be ********.

 

^^until I read the caption under the photo, I thought the doors were made from corrugated aluminum. Good one Larry. Honestly, the only way to deal with this stuff is tongue in cheek. Most of the stuff people want to label as "traditional" is so ridiculous, that its hard to respond seriously. I REALLY like Metal shapers "neo-traditional" Thats dead on the money.

 

Hey Jobcorp I really like the look of your truck. If others on hear don't like it tough. I for one can't afford a A body but I picked up my 38 chev cab for dirt cheap so that's what I am using.