Hey guys, I am currently working on two projects for my High School that are based around hotrodding throughout the 20th century. My senior project which will be a timeline starting in the late 20's with the birth of the Model A, then on to the explosion of hotrodding as soldiers came home from WW2. The 50's is what my project is centered around since I'm using my 58 truck as my product. The 50's will be over 50% of my paper. I am thinking about comparing the East Coast to the West Coast, different styles, Clubs, Drag Racing, influence on Pop Culture,etc. A few of my buddies at the Iron Lords CC in Concord,NC have helped me out with lending me books such as Hot Rod Detroit(Bob Larivee Sr.) and G***er Wars(Larry Davis) but two books will have only gotten me so far. Any suggestions would be great! Thanks, Rob
great projects - lots of books out there, hope that you get your hands, or computer, on the right ones.
Thank you! I just looked these 3 up on amazon and they aren't too expensive unlike the other 2 books I already have. I will look into them
Vintage magazines at estate sales and used bookstores could be a boon. My local used bookstore had 5 years of Hot Rod from the mid 60's for $.10 a copy. Dungeon and dragons stuff is their forte' and the chick/dude behind the counter said they almost threw the HR mags away, "because nobody is interested in that stuff".
Believe it or not some of those books can still be checked out at the local library. I was looking for one that they didn't have and they told me that they could get it on loan from another library for me to check out. You have to have the ***le of the book and they can look it up.
As Gringo mentioned, you may want to ask your local library about interlibrary loans, depending on your timeline (they can take a few weeks to arrive). Mine never cost more than $10 for shipping (library policies do vary, mine picked up part of the cost) and I was able to read a number of books I couldn't afford to buy. Look for: The American Hot Rod, Dean Batchelor The Birth of Hot Rodding: The Story of the Dry Lakes Era, Robert Genat Flat Out: California dry lake time trials, 1930-1950, Albert Drake Dry Lakes Pictorial, Veda Orr Hot Rods and Custom Cars – Los Angeles and the Dry Lakes: The Early Years, Robert Ames & Ken Gross Hot Rods In The Forties: A Blast from The Past, Don Montgomery (the HAMBs own @Rockerhead)
Thanks for your input! I will check out the library after school today. All the input has helped a lot!
And since you specifically mentioned comparing the east and west coasts, here is a book you might want to look into.
Yea, East vs. West is a big part of my main project. I have the book Hot Rod Detroit which is a really good piece on the NorthEast. It has a lot of good information and will give me a large amount of the data i need to complete the east coast part. I have been thinking of doing a more narrow comparison down to Detroit vs. LA which would be awesome and in a lot more detail if I could get enough information to write 10-15 pages.
I want to help you with your project. I have photos of hotrods in New Jersey in the mid-1950s. Both car shows and drag racing (Linden Airport, 1954). Need to do this off-form. Email? Don't know if it's OK to include email addresses here. Don't understand the "conversation" capability. What do you suggest?
Track down some or all of the early HRM books: The earliest 2 are "Hot Rods" and "how to build a Hot Rod" circa '51-53, then from 1954 until I think 1962 they are annuals labeled as such. They are a roadmap to everything good. Then...look up the Trend/Petersen Spotlite series! Late '50's, earl '60's coverage of every detail of contemporary building and style.
Thanks for all the suggestions guys @Frank Carey I will message you when I get home later today. I appreciate all the help guys.
Rob, Sounds like you've tapped into a great research topic area. I'm going to contradict myself a little here, but bear with me a moment. You didn't say when your major project is due, but I'm guessing April for a Senior Paper kind of thing. First, open your field of research as wide as you can reasonably manage, and then pick a point, say late February, to narrow your scope to those areas that have yielded the best results. I ran into this problem while writing on other topics in college. You find something interesting to write about, then find yourself with too many different sub-topics to cover them all with any sort of depth. As much as I want to suggest that you look at '50's rock'n'roll for ***les and lyrics that show the influence of hot rodding on popular culture ( one favorite, Three Carburetors, by The Whirlaways ), this could easily be an entire research topic all by itself. I think it may be better to do a thorough job of covering 3 or 4 main ideas rather than trying to include as many areas as you discover. Anyhow, good luck with it., K6
I am a junior, so I have about a year and a half to get this thing done, which with work over the summer, it could easily be done by August of next year. Our school starts people on their senior projects freshman year and you continue working on different aspects of it each year. I would like to be done with it by September-November of next year, so there is no immediate rush, working on it now so I don't end up cramming last minute sometime next year. I am focusing mostly on the 50's and 60's, which is broad but no as broad as the entire timeline, I figure that the different styles from East Coast to West Coast, Drag Racing vs. Salt Racing, Clubs, etc will be great subtopics and will be manageable. Thanks for your interest in helping me get this thing knocked out! I need to get busy on knocking out some books now.
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