Art & Inspiration Why traditional?

I am a young guy and whenever I am buying parts of at the swap meets, people always ask me "what got you into the hobby".

Thought I would reverse the question onto all of you. Why are you into traditional cars? Why not different eras?


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Been into old cars since the age of 12 when I bought my first car ~ a 1932 5-window coupe.

That was 54 years ago,what excited me then still does ,but there are many different building styles and all types of cars and trucks that should cover anyone's idea of what qualifies as a hot rods & customs.

I just still like the simple way of building cars,I won't sat I am 100% traditionalist but I lean more to that style.HRP

 

I'm an old man in a young mans world. I have not kept up with anything that changes. I like the stuff that makes me feel comfortable. I just want to to understand what I'm looking at and the effort it took to get there. Thats probably not a good answer but its all I have.

 

My answer will probably be a bit different. I like and appreciate the HAMB definition of "Traditional" cars, but it is Not the end of the world for me. I like many types of cars, and can appreciate the effort that goes in to ANY well built modified or restored car. If the quality is in the build, I can appreciate it, even it it may not be my cup of tea. I respect what this place is about and keep my comments and posts within the guidelines, but I am not so narrow focused that it is the only thing I like, own, or build.
I look at it this way - I really like "Traditional" Old School Italian food, but that doesn't mean I won't go out for Modern American Cuisine as well.

 

Why do they still sell "the little black dress"? Fads come and go, but the traditional look (and that covers a lot of real estate) is timeless. I'm old enough to see most of come and then go. What stays is what matters to me.

 

Belair nailed it ^^^.

 

I appreciate the "Traditional" cars mostly because they represent a "Time" (a capsule perhaps)
Back when I was a kid and saw what was the 'coolest thing', and it stuck in my head, thinking "When I grow up, I'm gonna have one JUST LIKE THAT!"

Similar to when you hear a song, long forgotten, and just for a moment can recall the people, the weather, the season, all vividly as a memory.

 

I see eye to eye with what has been said and yet there seems to be one more consideration that is somewhat like a paradox to all of this: These cars are possible to work on with some skills and a good set of tools. They are not over complicated with a bunch of electronic stuff and other stuff YET to make a car that looks great, "nails it" or whatever takes a great deal of patience and hard work that is enjoyable along the way. I guess it's a long way to say timeless style and good looks endure.

 

I've been in this hobby my entire life, yes sense birth. My Grandfather was a gearhead, my dad raced SCCA from 55 till 68. For me a traditional car, no matter what era it is built for will always be relevant and never go out of style. Screw trendy builds from about the late 70's on, horrible.


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I grew up as a teen with hot rods and customs in the sixties, so what I build is strongly influenced by that look. I always seem to make a compromise here or there, but I am mostly traditional in my building.

 

Maybe it's the wrong time and place to ask, but how do you guys define traditional?

I built my car 60's style... That is, what would a guy with a young family in his 20's do with a 50 Chevy in 1965? Throw in a v8, choice of trans, Cobble together whatever he could for running Gear (I used a handmedown 1954 front end with dropped uprights) and a 57 rear axel, I made my
Exhaust by hand from mandrel bend U's and straight pipe. Modified my sick shifter to actuate an auto trans but with a detent/lockout plate I made by hand. Once finished I drove the crap out of it.

Is my car traditional?


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Member:
Rochester Street Rods - Est. 1970 http://www.rochesterstreetrods.org
CrossMembers Car Club - Hebrews 12:2 http://www.crossmemberscc.com

 

This hobby is like money, it will never go out of style.

 

I like curvy fenders.

 

Grew up with the old styles in models in late 50s, so it looks normal to me.
Dreamed of a early hot rod since then, and finally bought a 50s built full-fendered roadster 45 years ago.

I wish people would build stuff that truly looks like the 50s...what a fantastic decade of ideas and styles....customs and rods. I've yet to see a commercial shop get one right.

I also like the sketchy things I see on some survivors, it's part of the history.
.

 

Gotta check in the 1 car detached garage with no concrete floor, no fancy tools or purchased solutions! Hand made, old school rodding is still out there


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If I have to explain, you wouldn't understand.

 

When it comes to automotive styles, I am a bit all over the place. As a child of the '70's, I have an unapologetic fetish for street freaks and the like. However, since my dad and uncle took me to my first car show in the mid '60's in Tulsa, it imprinted the sixty's custom aesthetic into my little brain and it has stuck, angel hair and all. All of the cars that I drew in grade school seemed to have a bubble top and big blown engines. So that era of "traditional" is one reason that I still like the style and continue to haunt this place. This place is an oasis that I sorely needed.

When I was a older teenager, I discovered the "little pages" and was fascinated by the era that I had just missed. My contemporaries could not understand my interest in this "old timey shit". They couldn't look past Cragars and a jacked up ass end (not that there is anything wrong with that). But my dad did and he encouraged me to embrace it. He told me many times that I was born way too late. He was right.

I'm sorry, what was the question again...?

 

Well, I probly would. I wasn't there, cause I was born 40 years too late, but I know what it is to build a car in the above conditions - no heat, money, "kit" parts, help, concrete, lift, or fancy tools. In the winter, with a crazy deadline


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That's it plain and simple........ This thread is complete and the Question has been answered.

 

Very well put! Especially the part about adapting and using what's at hand


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Enough Said!!!

 

I think a lot of us here appreciate cars from different eras, but when we're here we stick to "traditional hot rods and customs", because there the best. They are the source.

For instance; I've been trying to get my friend Tony who owns the body shop next to my woodshop to sell me his 196x xxxxxxx xxstback for ten years, but I would never say that out loud.



now I just wait a minute............
wait for it......wait for it.....
Here they come

 

Just as with music, what you like when you are in the formative years is what sticks with you the rest of your life. I like rock and roll, traditional hot rods and southern cooking. Never gonna change.

 

I could write a book on this subject .... but I digress.

It all came down to a mid-60"s Sunday after church, I was with my older brother visiting one of his buddies at their farm, when I saw his car.... a faded, chipped, scratched, home built, fenderless, hoodless '30 Model A Coupe, channeled, black steelies, no hub caps, pulled a Chevy 327 w/AFB and 3-speed from a wrecked car, stock exhaust manifolds with 2 straight pipes out the back .... Now you have the mental picture.

I was all over it, asking questions (most likely to many) of which he answered, then said .... "Ya want to take a spin up the road?"
I climbed in the homemade seat that sat on the floor, he fired it up and slipped the chrome round rod 3 speed shifter into first and let the clutch out as we moved toward the 2 lane blacktop road. As we pulled on the road he 'Nailed it' .... the tires screamed in rejection, I thought the engine was at 10,000 RPM .... he power-shifted to 2nd.... again the tires squealed .... then 3 gear ... I was scared, excited, holding on, I almost peed my pants. WOW !

I was hooked .... and have been ever since.... and that's why I built a Model A Coupe 30 years ago and still drive it almost everyday.

Real Hot Rods Rule !

 

You paint a good mental picture. Felt like I was there


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I wasn't born until 1966 but I grew up with 50's music. We lived in a valley that was about 60 miles away from any tv or radio stations. The hills blocked most signals.

Dad had an old but good quality record player - the kind that was built into a cabinet. And he had a Time Life 50's Rock and Roll compilation of all the hits by the original artists! I played them until I had most of the songs memorized.

Dad was a mechanic, so we'd talk about some of his favorite cars he grew up with.

Guess it all mixed together to produce me, a man born in the wrong century.

 

For me, I discovered Hot Rods at the end of the seventys, and down here, they weren't so modern to the time, as we were a little behind the Northen hemisphere.
So I became infected, but when the eighties hit, and my small country was catching up with the rest of the planet, I was left feeling sick, as graphic paint and billet took over.
I was pissed, who, what, how could this happen?
I was so mad, that I focused on my career, girls and partying.
Then in the nineties, those rr things .came out, and it perked my interest again, as these things were raw, and kinda like where I wanted to be.
Then rr got totally stupid, but through them, I found the H.A.M.B.
I had no idea that this world existed, and it was exactly what I'd been looking for, no billet, no stupid pastel boring color, no dumb skulls and spiderwebs, just men and their machines without the stupid,, just like it was in the beginning, well kinda.
Anyway, I knew I'd found my idea of how I thought it should be, and I've never had to worry since.
I also discovered after leaving school in the early eighties, that I liked history, so it works well for me.
I appreciate all built cars, but only dwell in the side that is dealt with here on this forum.

 

It does seem more rare for a guy in his 20s today to be interested in older pre muscle car stuff, Thats what intrigues the guys asking at the swap meets etc. Most of the guys I know personally that are interested in this stuff are even older than I am and Im in my mid 40s......Its always good to hear about interest in this stuff from the younger generations.