Hot Rods What's wrong with a channeled hot rod?

i have been seeing a lot of posts about ruined cars due to channeling. Channeling is as period correct as it gets, I get that it's not for everyone's taste, but it looks good on some cars especially in a sea of cookie cutter hot rods. It's no more ruining than a chopped top or a sectioned body. Why all of the hate?

 

To quote an old line, "haters gonna hate ".


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Channeled fenderless coupes and roadsters were popular in the east and midwest for the low sports car look. In California they were practically unknown. I believe this was because racing rules for the dry lakes and Bonneville called for a stock body "unaltered in height width and contour". Major mods like chopped top or channeled body put you in the streamlined class.

So, channeling was out if you wanted to run at the lakes, or look like you did, or let on that you were going to. It's possible a lot of guys just knew a channeled car was uncool without knowing exactly why.

There were a few channeled customs but that is a different thing. No need to worry about racing rules if you aren't going racing.

 

That's all fine, but it does not explain the love of a chopped car with the hatred for the same car having a channel job. I have been building hot rods and customs for a long time and I have always admired a car with a lot of mods done tastefully, it takes a lot of work to channel a car and to some people it blasphemy.

 

couple of things, I like a channeled car but in a lot of cases it wasn't done, safely, neatly or with regard to long life. So sometimes all the floor and subframes are roughly cut out and body dropped over the frame and all sorts of bodges done to keep it there. Hence "ruined cars due to channeling" is a body hacked so as to make it very hard to un channel.......................... instead of seeing an opportunity to save a channeld hot rod the fashion conscious see a damaged body that will be hard to put back on the rails to suit their idea of a traditional Hot Rod .

 

I guess that's my point, "thier idea of a traditional hot rod" I have hundreds of magazines and books from the 50s and 60s. Mthese are the books I read, and I have noticed that a huge amount of the feature cars were channeled. I'm currently reading the history of spokane hotrodding, and there are a lot of pics of old channeled cars in it. That's a long way from The east' coast.

 

well a Hot Rod IS a personal thing, what I like you may not.......... perhaps right now channeled isn't the fashion , huge chops seem to be the go , which I don't like fashion and traditional probably don't mix well, I don't follow fashion....

 

Jim, I'm channeling my 32 Pickup, I think it looks rad and also not very common in these parts. Nothing wrong with a chopped and channeled hot rod.


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I dig channeled cars.


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They look cool, but for me 6'2" 235 pounds they don't look very comfortable to drive?

 

The reason I thought this up stems from a post on selling a 32 three window project. The guy is railed on about every post because the car is channeled. First off, if you don't like it, buy it and unchannel it! Secondly, it just got me thinking about the hatred that seems unjustified. I'm building a 32 three window right now that I am channeling 2 inches just to make the frame less of an eye catcher. I guess I'm stupid but I think it helps this car.

 

Having owned both. A channeled car is easier to see out of especially seeing traffic lights.
I am not real tall 5 foot 10 so they never presented a room problem, but some of my taller friends bitched about how hard both were to get in and out of and see out. So I ended up with short friends.
There are no rules in hot rods . That is why I stopped doing restorations. To each his own.

 

Well When I built my "T" Coupe I had the best of both, Chopped and Channeled.

Channeled 4" and Chopped 6"

How I regret selling this car now.

You either love um or hate um, I'm a lover of both if they are done correctly

 

You nailed the look, anyone who does not like this does not like hot rods!

 

Sure it is personal idea of what looks good, to me wheel well to tire is what I see first. If the body is channeled to the point the tire sits above the wheel well it looks out of place. There is a '32 Roadster build here on the HAMB were the wheel wells and quarters were raised to solve this visual problem. That is a lot of work few people tried to do back in the day. Bob

 

Ray Kuns Automobile Racing 1947 had the earliest "How To" on channeling, very basic. Bob

 

There are a lot of channeled cars I like and a lot I don't. Your coupe is really bitchin'. I agree it really helps overall shape of not only the body but the frame, too. What I don't like are the cars hammered so hard that they look broken.

 

My last Model A Tudor I channeled 3" and moved the wheel openings up the same amount. Plan on doing the same on the current one. Guess it's a personal taste thing, but it's my car and money and I like it, and to me that's all that really matters.

 

It all depends on the car in question. Nothing looks more hot rod than a channeled fenderless 32 Ford roadster. Some cars are over channeled and look like rat rods. I think it is all just a matter of personal taste. You need your proportions right. My opinion, which is worthless to anyone other than myself is that a fenderless pickup cab channeled looks like crap. Same with a sedan body, but coupes and roadsters, if done properly just scream Hot Rod.
With hot rods, you do your own thing and let those who don't like it look elsewhere.

 

Growing up here in the South when I was in my teens there were not that many hot rods running around but the majority of the early ones seemed to be channeled and not chopped,I believe it was more of a east coast style.

My friend Larry had a red channeled hi-boy Deuce that his dad and uncle built and another channeled 5 window chopped top hiboy sat at the local gas station,this was in 66 and I was the typical long and lanky teenager,the price was fair and I had already made up my mind I was going to buy the car and it drive it home.

Then I crawled in and it was imminently apparent that my 6'4" Neanderthal body was not designed for the small confines of the coupe,the steering wheel was in a position that I was unable to get my leg high enough to press the clutch pedal and that's when reality sat in,I wasn't going to drive this car home.

My only problem with the channeled cars is - I DON'T FIT! I certainly don't hate them. HRP

 

EL Mirage circa 1950, channeled B modified roadster.

 

One of my favorites!

 

I want to see more of that article about "turning a bearing journal using a hand tool".

 

In short because a lot of restoration types seem to have invaded along with the rust is cool crowd.

I see people bitching on a pretty regular basses about a chop is going to ruin that car, or how pulling the fenders is a terrible idea.

So them being pissy at channeling a car doesn't seem that far out of line.

Fuck em

 

It's nice to see that there are a fair amount of real deal hot rodders left on the hamb. I sometimes get a little disgruntled that we are reverting to the resto-rod era of the mid 70s. Long live the real hot rod!

 

Some of us are still building them, here is my 33 coupe.

 

Just the other day I was invited to an old mans house to look at the car he had in his garage. It was a 1934 ford 5w, unchopped with a 6 inch channel and set up for an olds rocket. This guy bought his car when he was 13, and he is in his 70s today. His car sits just as it did when he got it. Now if that's not period correct, I don't know what is. Oh yea, and this car was done right here in Washington, pretty far west for an east coast thing.

 

That other thread was about the value of an old back yard built rod. Today an original body with the sills and floor intact is simply worth more than one than has been cut up. Good chops are also in the eyes of the beholder. It just gives the buyer more options when building his rod.

 

Nothing wrong with a channeled rod at all ! - Happy to have mine ! Like people say each to their own, but it works for me !

 

I channeled my 34 Chevy 5" and two things I haven't worked out to my satisfaction are the steering column is now in the middle of the instrument cluster and where the front fenders tie together under the grill shell there is very little ground clearance. Will be worked out but is not a ride for anyone over 5'10".