History What us trad rodders were doing in the 70's...

Wow man .. seems all you had to do was read post number one to figure out what the discussions were meant to cover.

Even the thread title is a dead giveaway.
So where in thread title does it say "What us Trad rodders were doing to our cars in the 70s ...."???

 

Skirv, a lot of folks that have read this thread can relate to what was happening in the '70s, just not a part of your life. Yes, this is a car forum, but some us also like to share memories, and have a little fun.


Post # 1 What us trad rodders were doing in the 70's...

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In the 70's my parents were in junior high and high school driving 67 Camaros and Olds cutlasses and whatnot.

 

Hey, I'm sorry if I got off topic on motorcycles. But....all I did thru the 70's was fast cars and motorcycles. And we all did. At least my friends. I'm sure lot's of folks on here can relate. Anyway I'll stick to cars. That said I'm enjoying all related stories.

 

I'm looking for my photos but at 16 I bought a wrung out '56 Belair in '74 for $125 and when it wouldn't go any longer, built my '55 Chevy from scratch. 150 sedan body and frame, '68 impala 327 w/ 650 dbl pumper on a Holley street dominator manifold, 450L/280D cam, '67 Chevelle M22, Dana 60 rear out of a '65 Belvedere with the GTX option. Car had no back seat, Toyota front buckets, G60 on chrome reverses and Anson slots on the front. Black paint, then primer, then black again. No front bumper. Drove it to school every day and to the track some weekends. Ran 13.50 thru the mufflers and spun the street tires bad at the strip. No worries, no responsibilities, no money left over. The car still sits in my car shed because I can't get rid of it for sentimental reasons and it still runs. Like every small town we all knew who had a bad car and who just put in a giant cam to make it sound bad and yes I wish I had held the patent on shackles. But just like today, fabricators and mechanics who built their own stuff were admired and fast, just a different era.

 

1973 Woodburn, OR. I was 19.
solid lifter 327 w-tunnel ram, CR Muncie, 4:56's

 

Kowalski, is that you?

 

Been driving this for the last decade... almost ready for some paint since I tagged a Ford Ranger.

 

i used to have a couple 73 sattelites smooth riding cars

 

that was great ! it was like yesterday my gramps came home with a new 65 442 setting at the light and watching all hell brake lose at the rear tires as he wasted a new set of tires Thanks for reminding me of that day in 65

 

Lakewood "slapper bars",... I remember laughing at guys that would buy these or Pro Stock slapper bars,... put them on there car with the air shocks pumped up all the way,.. for that "Jacked-Up" look,.. and the snubber for the slapper bars 7 or 8 inches away from the contact point of the spring...... they would take off and get wheel hop because the traction bars were doing nothing,... except jumping around violently, looking like the back of the car was having a seizure.....

 

racing jalopy's and sprint's on dirt

Later

 

That's why you trim and shim... when set up right they actually work....

 

Yep, some guys seemed to make 'em work ok.
Yea, I know these are a little different than the "clamp on" style bars.
Larry T

 

And actually on Mopars, most guys use an adjustable pinion snubber.. but that's not nearly as cool as the curb stabbers...

 

Now that's funny

 

Oh crap I remember that! Lol! Tried to tell 'em how to set the bars up but a few didn't listen...

 

Geez.....I never got a nude chick to pose in the back of my ISCA championship show van. I just KNEW there was somethin' missin'.....!!

 

I knew a kid in school (we graduated in '78) that drove an old mid 60's Chevy pick-up. He had an old bicycle inner tube cut in half and one end screwed to the front side of the drivers door window frame and the other end to the rear of the door window frame. I could never figure out what it was on there for so, one day I asked him what it was for. He said that it was his "slingshot". I said "what?" Then he said "let me show you." He then pulled his bag of weed out from under the seat and in with the weed was a ball bearing about an inch in diameter. He told me that if/when he gets pulled over by the cops he rolls down the window and he puts the bag into the inner tube sling shot and he "launches" the bag out the window while he is still driving. He said the bag will fly about 40 to 50 feet off the side of the road and if the cops can find it they are going to have to work for it.

Doc

 

now thats funny. i remember seeing the same thing. guys got bars hangin way down from the spring. and the rearend jumping all over the place.always waited for the bang.sometimes we got to see the rearend leave the car!ive got a set on our ot nova. and they are set up right and really do work.lol i just bought a chrome set for 20.dont know what id put them on but they do look cool on the shop wall.

 

Skirv,
You have to realize that a lot of what was being done in the '70s was driven by sex, drugs and Rock'n'Roll. We were the product of the revolution that started in the '60s (actually the later '50s with the lost generation).

Hell a lot of the accomplishments or escapades that I did in life would never have happened if it weren't for the music and chemicals that drove me. Face it you got to have some sort of drive to go from the epidemic that ended the year that I was born to slamming around a flat dirt oval on Hap's Manx. Or tackling the mile @ San Jose (without an AMA Liscence) in borrowed leathers on someone else's XR-750, the same track that I watched a good family friend go through the cyclone fence and strain himself @ the age of 4 (while still in braces).

Most of the cars or bikes that I built were done after hours on borrowed energy while Seger or Hagar was blasting out of the cheap assed speakers, or in a 6 dollar motel room with some lame assed sitcom on a fuzzy black and white tube.

There is no way in the world to separate the cars and bikes of the '70s from the culture any more than you can separate the cars and bikes that we build today from our current culture. We believed that we could do anything and that no one could tell us that we couldn't. We lived different than civilians and because of that we did the things that we did.

Sure we are not a "culture" site but the culture of the time has always driven the motor heads of the time and influenced what was being built.

Well I'm glad that's over.

Outlaw,
We were building our own, lakewoods were the bomb but when the pocket book doesn't reach that far you snag a piece of plate and some scrap tubing from work and get creative.

Once when I was in San Francisco I saw a fella with some that really hung down, obviously an engineering failure. He managed to snag one going into the Tic-Toc Drive-in. Lifted the entire rear of the car off the ground before it snapped. I laughed until my french fries came back up.

Larry,

If it weren't for Hunter S. Thompson I would have never left my bike at a cheap motel in Vegas, gotten twisted and crusied the strip in a rented caddy until I was peaking then walked into circus circus and enjoyed the freak show until they threw me out.

 

Dang Beano you are sounding like Ernest Hemingway ... or was that Dickens? ... either way I like it!

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times"

 

Larry,

If it weren't for Hunter S. Thompson I would have never left my bike at a cheap motel in Vegas, gotten twisted and crusied the strip in a rented caddy until I was peaking then walked into circus circus and enjoyed the freak show until they threw me out.[/QUOTE]



Benno,
Im sorta glad you brought this back up (like anyone needed any inspiration to do any of the stuff that happened back then). I've been feeling guilty about leaving Tom Wolfe out of my first post. You opened the door to right the wrong.
Thanks,
Larry T

 

...

 

I have drank beers with SKIRV and whatever he says - GOES

 

...... No hair? ... bwahaha

 

350, three on the tree, mattress in the back , "if this van is rock'in ....."

 

brother beaner, your last thread was almost poetic.it just about sums up the whole damn generation.you do have a way with words. but that part about being glad its over. im not really, id love to live it all over again. hell man i was always happy.be it thru chemicals or just life. great music,,great cars. and scooters. hell what more could a man want.lol