He's pretty insistent about wha tyou should and shouldn't do isn't he? Lots of things in there that are contradicted elsewhere. I feel confused Old chassis or new chassis, boxed or not boxed, 3 speed or Muncie ARRGGHH
That's all part of the fun. Don't wanna be confused or learn anything? No problem. Lots of shops will build you a rod. Just sign the check and accept their version of reality. They might even let you choose the color if you feel up to it.
No man you got me all wrong. I wanna learn, but I dont jsut want to use a three speed cos it tells me to in that book. I got a lot more research to do before I buy anything at all.
[ QUOTE ] He's pretty insistent about wha tyou should and shouldn't do isn't he? [/ QUOTE ] I don't think the author is insistent so much, he's being accurate with history, how it was done and how to do it. Doesn't say in there anywhere you have to do it a certain way. Take what you like, build a good foundation and put your own personal stamp on the car. Bluey - the car on the cover and the one the book is about, for the most part - is built by the book, but you'll notice there are other ways to do it. One of the big things that make the book valuable are all the pen and ink drawings of historical cars. They are accurately rendered. As much as I like Model A highboys, I'm more of a fan of the A on 32 rails bit. That because of the visual gap/setback between body side and A chassis. Taken care of very nicely by the side exhaust. To me, that is the perfect touch on Bluey and it leads to a temptation to do a highboy A on A frame for the next project. Why not, I got the book right in front of me ... it's the checkbook that's lacking....
Those drawing were awesome as were the photos, I'm very happy with the book, just thought it would settle things in my mind a bit more I now know about ford rear ends and bendix brakes though which is good.
I guess I would look at the title and say to myself "Self... Traditional Hot Rod Ford probably means how to build a hot rod using parts of the era." They don't talk about Muncies and Chevy 350s because the old rods wouldn't have been built that way. Maybe a radical Magazine car would have the bleeding edge stuff, but not the everyday rod. The book isn't titled "How to build a Traditional LOOKING, But all modern and fast as hell underneath, Hot Rod Ford WITH A CHEVY 350 and boxed So-Cal Speed Shop Rails" Just use it as reference. You can still build a more modern car that has the flavor of the old rod, but thats not what the authors were going for in this one.
I'm working on a 31 coupe with a flatty. Mike's book shows how to do lots of things I have planned for it. But,,,,, I'll be using a Dana 44 with a Model A spring on top of it and 36 bones as the lower part of a triangulated 4-bar in the rear and a T-5 tranny so I'll have to come up with my own clutch and center crossmembers. No totally trad, but it'll look good and haul long miles on the freeway. Still Mikes book showed me the way and gave me ideas. So did Rocky's 33 and other HAMB cars.
I just bought that book yesterday.What ever you think of it ,there's alot of information in it.I really like the section on 97's.
Mikes book is like a cookbook with only slight variations on one recipe, the early post-war AV8. If you want to build a traditional AV8 depicting an example from this era then it would be good to follow his recipe. If you want to build a traditional pre-war 27 Chevy roadster on Essex rails with a 30 Olds motor, Cadillac transmission and Franklin rear-end or what-ever, there are still lots of good tips you can use there, Just dont call your car an AV8!
Yup, that's about the era he was after. Pre-SBC. Also Pre-aftermarket, except for speed equipment. Back then a deuce was only around 20 years old, Ford was still building flatheads and Model A roadsters were cheap light bodies. Most parts came from cheap wrecked cars. The stuff they worked on was less than 25 years old for the most part and rust & dents weren't as big a problem as today. Today, by comparison, my 70 Chevelle is too new to be considered Traditional HAMB material even tho it's 34 years old... The 29 bodies and deuce rails are scairce and expensive and 60 to 70 years old. But they're available aftermarket if you want to build rust free like the guys back then could do. A Brookville body costs more than a house in the suburbs did back in the 50's tho. That's inflation. I paid more in taxes on last week's paycheck than the average A-V8 cost back in the 50's. Anyway, building a traditional 50's Hiboy A-V8 is alot harder today than it was back then for the average young guy. That's why most of the young guys build Hondas. Sad to say, they're probably closer to being 50's style rodders than we are. We're trying to go back 50 years and stop the clock. They're taking 10 to 20 year old cars and making them faster and customizing them. Just like the 50's bro...
The Jalopy Journal
