Mythbusters: an unscientific statistical analysis of rod building styles, circa 55/60

Bob Greene and Wally Parks...Ray Brock was the publisher. BTW, did that from memory, never looked at a masthead!

I'll throw something in here that no body has mentioned and that is the circulation figures. Standard Rate & Data breaks circulation down by geographical and all of the car books had higher circulation in the midwestern states. West coast numbers were not as high as one would think. Mountain states were the lowest in subscribers and news stand buyers. Circulation was in the 400,000 to 500,000 range during that time. HOT ROD numbers touched a million several times in the late seventies, early eighties.

 

I tried to read a lot of the posts but I am lazy, can someone please spend some more time on the subject and create a graph for me to look at?

thanks in advance.

 

^^ x 2 the cliff notes version

 

Simple table version...

 

Funny side note, in The Hot Rod Story, Alex Xydias says something to the effect that, back then, if it wasn't a roadster, it wasn't considered a hot rod. I need to watch that again, great show.

 

Yeah, aint it though? One of my favorites.

 

Ooooh...now you've gone and done it...lol.

 

Where's my can opener, I've got these worms see...

 

I don't think it's a matter of deflating myths in regards to channeled cars being improperly known as EAST COAST hot rods. I think it's more a stance/rake AND channeled thing. Accurate history is VERY important. But actually secondary to me. As far as any NEW old-time hot rod build is concerned, style and form and creativity using cues from the bibles of hot rodding trumps all. Performance comes in third, put a big OHV motor in an antique car, it's probably gonna haul ass.

FalconMan.....you wanna build a channeled, cycle fendered car, do it! It'll be bitchin' AND uninformed people will say it's EAST COAST. You'll have to learn to live with that! hahaa

 

This is really interesting stuff. I have been saying for a while that kustoms (my preferred auto style) were much more varied back in the day, with only a small percentage fitting into our current idea of a "classic kustom style" car. I even went to the trouble of scanning in an entire annual custom car mag to show what I meant. But everyone still wants their car to sit an inch off the ground, no trim, Caddy sombreros, etc. Hell, they didn't even all have whitewalls!

(Everyone please ignore the fact that the car in my avatar is in black primer - it ain't finished!! I know that flat black is not traditional, although I also know that colored primer was a fad in the mid-to-late 50s. Andy Southard's book has a couple shots of primered cars, including one that was primered over a shiny paint job to fit the trend. And my car isn't meant to be "traditional" anyway. Just saying.)

Those complaining that magazines are not truly representative of all rods have a strong point, but you're still making a good argument and they surely represent the most desired rods of the time.

 

^ This is what I have always believed about the much larger percentage of cars that were built/versus what is "copied" today.



When person reads the HAMB doctrine in one of the main intro pages, The founder writes: "if you are into poodle skirts and side "A" record music, this is not the place for you".

I feel that way about the modern build styles, compared to what most kids really built in Anytown, USA, or overseas.


The "B" sides of any hit record were both good and bad, but don't seem to get any air time or RESPECT today, just like true "everyday" old builds.


it sucks to see a 50s custom or rod completely changed, and then it becomes just another car that gets lost in a sea of same builds. You'll forget it, as soon as you walk past it, at a show.

 

^^^

 

It is possible that some of the conclusions made from these numbers might be correct, it is also possible that due to unknown factors any or all of these conclusions could be somewhat true or might not be true at all.

 

I for one would like to thank you for your research very interesting indeed and proof that no good deed goes unpunished. That video says it all and is hilarious.

 

I'm still waiting for the US bureau of statistics to release the results of its 1956 survey of vehicle modifications (I hope no one lied on the form).Until then the trends revealed in the most popular hot rod publication of its time will have to do. Can I put my rose coloured glasses back on now?

 

Nice. Way cleaner than my sorry attempts. Thanks Froghawk. I'm gonna take that,load it in imageshack, and replace my original with it.

 

Interesting from down here in NZ I see things from a slightly different angle I cannot comment on things stateside but I do remember back to my childhood here in the late 50s. We had what was refered to as the V8 boys bodgies and widgies driving modified sidie V8s mainly sedans as roadsters were always rare here they were their every day car hence mud guards/ fenders early 'hotrods' followed early hotrod mags but mainly sedans and coupes coupes being prefered or a roadster when they could be obtained . Early roadsters here often looked like lakes modified cars or stock bodied whith different wheels and if you were lucky enough a 32 grill. American hot rod Mags had a profound effect on us and soon we started following the trends seen there as soon as fiberglass bodies were available you might as well say we followed American styles.

 

good reading on the comments from Australia and N.Z. part of the world.

 

I purposely left cars from NZ and Australia out of the mix. Didnt want to muddy the waters too much.

 

Read up on how accurate memory is when it comes to eye witness testimony. It isn't worth shite!

We remember things the way we want to remember things. Human beings only remember accurate recall for about 15 seconds.

Most can't recall what was had for breakfast, let alone how things were in the "day"

 

For some reason, your post sounds to me a lot like Charlie Brown's teacher did.

"Whaah whaah whaah whaah whaah whaah whaah whaah whaah whaah..."

 

Rickybop you crack me up! george thanks for the input. not that i can afford a 32 but at least if i ever built a hi-boy i would know it would not be Cali traditional lol
great read guys, i just spent the last couple hours reading and laughin my ass off too

 

Lol, great example. It was actually...

Whah whaah whah whaah whah whaah.

 

For whatever it's worth ,this is the way I remember it. Z'ing a frame or chanelling a body was promoted as a good way to improve handling [ lower center of gravity] and to make your car stand apart from a stocker. Also it could be done fairly cheap.

 

I shoulda included wheel size as part of it, but I've pissed enough people off for this week...

 

We use to use 14 inch rims to lower our cars and use Lanser 4 bars.

 

I've always been of the opinion that hiboys were more a mid 60s through current thing. We've seen them morph into what they are now, and in an effort to participate the hiboy today is one that woke up later dressed in an old suit from his grampa.

Why so many full fender cars. The reason should be sort of obvious in that they're a part of the car right from the start. Many of our favorite 30s cars that don't happen to be a Deuce have lots of character in their fenders. Lose them and many look simply incomplete. Of course we can harken back to dry lakes and drag strips, but that's not what was crawling the streets and hangin and the burger joint. It should also be noted that most every form of hot rod that's most pleasant to the eye follows the straight line form of racing. Early Indy cars are so sexy with that hand formed body work, but did we see em on the street? Even the NASCAR look didn't earn street cred except for very few unique examples. I'll go out on a limb and say more "hiboy" 33-4 coupes were built AFTER the Mooneyham/Sharp 34. That thing was just vicious looking and the timeless photos of it blazing the hides at speed couldn't be anything but inspiring.


Next...

 

The year spread is the most important part IMO.

I was going over the recent Hamb thread on the 2013 redo of the Colorado HotRod Hill Climb event from 1953, which is coming up...

There are lots of orig 1953 pics on there, and half? of these earlier cars are a lot different than what we are thrashing on this thread. Lots of highboys trying to road race, yet some were lowered to emulate? the sportscars that were getting popular?

We have all read that the low slung european sports cars were very popular, starting sometime in the 50s, and it seems that low look spun a new style trend in hot rods. JMO

 

The reason I brought up the Colorado Hillclimb pics from 1953, is that it shows an important part of hotrodding from the performance side of why hotrods were built;

There are quite a few highboys trying to do the roadcourse,(even one says it is a Bonneville car), but it also shows a few guys took off the topheavy, and "too heavy" 32 bodies and installed a 26-27 T roadster body. That one change got a ton of instant advantage on the new roadcouse trend. So we are seeing more of a performance build, rather that pure visual perfection style build.

It reminds me of my first and only trip to the local indoor slotcar track in the first half of the 60s. I was shocked to see ultral thin bodies real low, and lacking style. I wanted a "cool" hotrod body, so I used a 32 AMT vicky body which I then found out was WAY too topheavy and simply could not get around the tight turns without spinouts. A friend with bucks up parents, said to go up to the counter, and get a pair of the new $3.00 silicone slicks to help. I said I can buy 2 new AMT models for that, and went home.

So, the modern built traditional hot rod is more about choosing the "best" styling, and therefore forgetting some of the quirks in old builds, that were done by backyard rodders. A perfect example is channeling for sure, and also the quick,cheap, and easy way to lower the 30s Ford front end, by using the spring-ahead suspension. Nobody would build a car like that today, as the style is not trendy, or accepted.

...but the new builder is still trying to make the tradional new build better, by adding a 5 speed and other things needed for modern needs. It's always been about improvements, and the "visual perfection" seems more important these days, compared to the old looks.

 

Gotta take that first step George...