Everyone always says you gotta start somewhere, just wondering where you did? I'm pretty new to rods and have only scratched the surface on the stuff I need to learn but heres how I got onto them... Growing up I loved vehicles, probably started early teens. Pretty weird since the whole family thought buying anything new was the only way to go. You always hear about the people born into drag racing or rod shops, that was the opposite for me. When I was 18 (22 now) I was big into minitrucks and fullsize truck, but never really did much work. I started work at a company and my boss happened to be a rodder. We would go to welding cl***es together and cut, weld and try body work on my truck in his garage and all that. Before this I had always thought of rods has the big billet, bling street rods mags publish and thought of them has old rich peoples rides and my friend showed me all the low-buck, rattle canned, rat rods that were out there and I was hooked. The town we lived in has maybe 2 rods both higher dollar so there was no scene to learn from or shops to work at so if it wasnt for him I wouldnt be into rods at all. Now Im moving in the next 2 weeks to a nice house with a big garage and cant wait to pick up a rod project and start working on it. Hope this new town has more people I can meet and learn from. One last thing, just because someone isnt rollin a rod doesnt mean they are a punk, take a chance they might actually be rodders inside. So how did you start?
[ QUOTE ] I had always thought of rods has the big billet, bling street rods mags publish and thought of them has old rich peoples rides and my friend showed me all the low-buck, rattle canned, “rat” rods that were out there and I was hooked. [/ QUOTE ] It was the same for me. But I was into 4x4. I'd alway like old cars as I kid and was always drawing pictures of cars. My neighbor offer to sell me a 37 Dodge truck cab and 28 A frame. So I took the motor out of the 4x4, sold the rest on bought the project. Damn I got ****ed in.
ive always been into cars. anything with wheels, and id like it. my first was a 72 chevelle. wish i would have kept that. from there, i moved on to vw's for many years. got really bored with those a few years ago, so i gave it up. i pretty much married into rods. my wifes uncle builds them for a living, and most everyone in the family owns one. they had a 28 dodge sitting in the field that was an old farm car. i figured he wouldnt ever do anything with it, so i kinda hinted around starting on it. that was about 6 months ago, or so. now i have the ultimate low buck hot rod. its chopped 6 inches, frame has been boxed. early ford front susp, 9" rear. 283 with turbo 350 trans. 16" ford artillery rims, with 6.50 whitewalls. so far, i have about 300 bucks in it. thats all tires and steel. ill have to admit, im a lucky guy! trey
I started one with a $10 firewall. When I was 4 years old, J.C Agajanian stored #98 at the service station my dad ran. modified cars have always been what "normal people" did.
Well I'd have to say the first Rod that made a big impression on me was Rod Serling, the host of The Twilight Zone. He gave me my no upper lip, serious as death sneer. Another Rod was Roddy Mcdowell, he was the good chimp on Planet of the Apes. But I'd have to say the biggest Rod that ever influenced me was Rod Stewart, especially in his disco phase. When he sang 'D,ya Think I'm ***y?' I responded 'Hell yea" as I danced around my bedroom in pink Spandex trousers. I was 16 at the time.
I was always into rods, had a subscription to hot rod and street rod since I was 5. My dad wasn't really into cars, cuz he thought they were a waste of money, but I was into them and he knew it. When I had enough money, I bought my neighbors '46 ford in ROUGH condition and did a complete frame off/rebuild in about 9 months, learning everything by trying and the help of a few old wise guys, and now I am onto a '35 pickup that I am getting from a HAMB'r plan9. Just grew up dreamin and now at 18, I am already obsessed and spend too much time and too much money on cars, but I love it and will always do it. Mike
Living in a small town full of Mulletmobiles where there was not much to do but cruise and wait to find out where the party was that night, I met Pablo, who had recently moved up from North Sac. He would take me down there to hang with his old low-rider buddies and I gained an appreciation for low & slow. In North Sac, I stuck out like a neon sign, but Pablo was a big boy and no-one would **** with me when I was with him. Soon we melted the springs on my el Camino. Back home in small town, It was fun being the only low-rider in a town full of rednecks where EVERYBody had either a camaro, chevelle or corvette. When we all made our annual pilgrimidge to Autorama, I would stand for hours drooling on the one or two customs that were present back then while the rest were off to ogle the horsepower machines.
It started about 1952: One of my Mother's friends gave me a toy roadster with a clear plastic engine whose pistons went up and down as I pushed the car across the rug. That pretty much permanently locked up my mind right where it still is... Our family car was a '48 Ford, which I still have. Early Ford=hot rod. A later formative event was about 1961-62, when I first moved away from the comic section of the newsstand and bumped into my first issues of R&C and HRM.
I bought a 49 ford in 1955, in KC. Then a guy moved down the block from me, from Pittsburgh--he had a 40 ford, low, fat fender ROD painted a wild purple with a flathead canadian truck engine in it that was bored out and it was pristine. He helped me put duals on mine, smittys, lowering blocks, then hi-compression heads, mallory ignition, dual manifold, two carbs we found separately, primed the thing and I never ever EVER forgot it. Hence this one.
My father was a Drag Racer back in the mid '50's up to the mid '70's. I have been around Hot Rods since I can remember. When I was born (in '69), My father had a '56 B/Gas 'Vette with a Hilborn injected 427 and a four gear he raced out of Blair's Speed Shop in SoCal.(March 1969 issue of Hot Rod magazine has a write up on his car). I spent many a night in that shop helping him and his friends work on their cars. My father and I didn't get along. We fought like two cats with our tails tied togther,unless we were in the garage, and that's the only time we could agree on anything. He p***ed away in '92, and I gave up on the whole Hot Rod thing all together. It was my lame attempt to hide the pain. Then one day, about six years ago, the U.P.S. guy brings me a box. Inside is a note from my sister that reads "I heard you bought a old truck for a Hot Rod project. I thought you might like to have this." I pulled out a NHRA Top Ten jacket that my father won in 1962 ( he lost the G/SA championship by only 15 points). That started the fire inside all over again. The day I drive my old truck to it's first Hot Rod show is when I can wear that jacket with pride. I have much to learn yet(like how to weld), but my goal is to make it to the GoodGuys show in my city in late August of this year. Anyway, back to the topic. For me, it's not how I got started. Hot Rodding is a Gene, it's in my blood, and it won't ever go away. I was born a Hot Rodder, and I will Die a Hot Rodder. Plain and simple.
Let me testify here... About 15 years ago, when they were still cheap, I bought a '50 Plymouth woodie. Drove it some, joined the Santa Cruz woodie club, paid other people to work on it 'cause I was busy and didn't know much about anything but old volkswagons like I'd had in high school. Couple of years ago I got thinking how my Plymouth wasn't my ideal car, and rather than put a bunch of $ into it (which it was starting to need), I'd just buy a car I liked better. Well I was a dummy. I bought a '48 Chevy woodie on the advice of a friend without looking at it myself (It was across the country), and bought a big project for which I overpaid big time. I decided to put the car right, then decide which car to keep. Only problem was I didn't know anything about it and had lots of questions. Then (Angels and trumpets...) a friend suggested the HAMB. Over a period of months I got the Chevy straightened out, and in the process got interested in old-fashioned hot rodding. Before I came to this site I thought hotrod meant gold chains and deuce coupes, or '57 Chevys. I always knew that wasn't me, I just never knew there was a whole other world of cars and people out there. I'd never even heard of "Traditional Hotrodding"). Eventually I sold the Chevy- only loosing a little money on the deal- and set out to make the ugly duckling Plymouth a better expression of what truly interests me. And the HAMB is now a regular hangout for me. I learn more here than anywhere else on the net, and that is a big part of what I like about hotrodding.
My mother told me by the time I was 5 (1961) I could tell you what make of car was driving by.It really amazed her.In the mid 60's my uncle would sneek me into the drag races in the trunk of his Impala.I went with him when he bought a new 69' Z/28 RS from the local Chevy dealer. I finally got a decient car in 87.I found a 72 454 4 spd Vette convertable to learn on.I got wrapped up in the restoration end of the hobby.But I wasn't satisified with Corvettes.There was no creativity.Your just a check book to a preestablished way the car HAS to go together.Then I started noticing 32's and the additude that they had about them.Everyone was different from the next.They pissed off restorers.Perfect!So I traded a 78 vette for a 40 chevy,then that for a 32 sedan and that for my roadster.
Well the earliest recollections I can think of was my dad and his brother *****ing at my dad's '38 Ford fuel pump that didn't work right for the 2nd or 3rd time; I was about 6 or 7 years old; maybe it was the language used that impressed me! The one thing that really got my attention was when I was coming home from school and took a detour by the Ford dealer, was this '35 Ford up on a 6 foot high display stand. It was a coupe,dark green with wide whites and I wanted it bad! I was 11 then and the salesman told me to take a powder. That was a neat car,made a deep impression on me as I started to hang around gas stations and junk yards, looking for more old cars.Forty + years later, I still hang around junkyards; can't hang around gas stations no more, they're either gone or self serve and I'll get arrested! Yeah, I never forgot that '35.
UH, my old man was a rodder. I'm just carryin' on an ol' family tradition. Actually he always said that he never wanted me to be a mechanic or have anything to do with modified vehicles. But I don't remember doing anything with him that didn't either have something to do with scooters or cars. So how ya gonna act. It aint my fault, I'm just a product of my environment. Or did you want the long version
My dad and grandpa were into old cars, but never really had any when I was a kid. My dad helped a neighbor build a '34 roadster when he was like 14 years old and we always went to car shows to check out the stuff. When I was in high school, my best friend came from a rodding family. We spent most of our high school years when we weren't playing sports or in school working on his truck. While we were in school, our parents became friends and my dad got the old car bug again. I guess you could say I was born with the gene and it was nurtured by friends.
My stepdad got me into it, at first i was into anything that was old, then i saw the purple people eater in rod n custom and my step dad told me all about the shifters and old school hot rods and ever since then thats all ive been into is old school rods and kustoms! Nate
Always love cars from when i was a few weeks old, but in 1987 ( ithink i was 10 or so ) i lived in Eugene, oregon for 6 months...and discovered CARTOONS magazine....I then knew what a deuce was a t- bucket etc..was hooked for life... Those taught me so much... And i just found my cartoon smags in a box yesterday!
[ QUOTE ] Always love cars from when i was a few weeks old, but in 1987 ( ithink i was 10 or so ) i lived in Eugene, oregon for 6 months...and discovered CARTOONS magazine....I then knew what a deuce was a t- bucket etc..was hooked for life... Those taught me so much... And i just found my cartoon smags in a box yesterday! [/ QUOTE ] Car toons, now that brings back a memory or two.
Bought a '39 Chevy when I was 16, got tired of no oil pressure, didn't like billet rods, voila, here I am. And I'm loving it. Still have the Chevy, still not finished.
before i could talk i made motorcycle noises in my crib, when i started to walk i walked into my uncles groove and played in the old40s chevys sitting down there. its ben a down hill fight ever since
When I was in High school, ('60-'64) if my folks would have bought me a new 409 or 413 or Corvette, I'd've been happy. But they were poor old retired folks so I had to make do with old Fords. Lucky for me flathead speed parts were dirt cheap. We'd build them up, set them on kill and run them 'til they cried. And beat up the late models more often than you'd think.Sure wish I would've kept all that sh*t. And the thing that draws me to the traditional rod movement is that it's still working cl*** folks having more fun than the bucks up crowd.
Guess i have grown into it. Got into motorcycles at the age of 12. Got hold of an old trash Sachs 50cc and started to fix it up. Had to learn it the hard way by myself and from friends since no one in the family was interested. Some years and about 20 modified bikes later I bought an old Beetle. Guess I learned a lot from magazines. Man, I studied those tech articles, and garage pics. So when I started with cars I had the teoretical basic covered. One nice thing about beeing broke is that you learn to be creative. If you cant pay, you just have to do it yourself. If you cant buy the catalog stuff you must find some other way. So had to learn how to beat tin, weld, do body work, tuning motors, upholstery, etc. Some 8 more or less heavily modified aircooled VWs later I was ready for something more. Living in Norway, hot rods was far and few between. Much thanks to the law that was working against it. We have quite a lot of old american cars here, and most cars imported before WW2 came from the US. Couldn be too difficult to locate an old A bone and a flattie. This was before the traditional trend boomed, so prices was reasonable. Collected together a heep of s****py parts and I was on my way to be a hot rodder. Couple of years later it was finished and got it licenced by the law. Had to fight to get the plates, but it is easier now much thanks to all the other norwegian rodders. New rods are on its way so the story continues. Ho knows, maybe I end up hot rodding old fighter planes before it stops. Ever heard a v12 Rolls Roys Merlin full throttle?
I helped my dad build his 34 Ford tudor sedan while I was growing up. Ever since I was old enough to hold a hammer I knew I wanted a rod. Always wanted to build a street rod pickup. When I was 14 we pulled two 37 Chevy pickups out of a field in Thompson Falls, Mont. My dad had two rules when we were building it: it has to be red and it has to have a big block chevy. Well, I got one out of two right, it's orange. Now I can't wait to be done with college so I can get a house and a garage (or maybe just a garage ) so I can start on my next project. My next project, I hope, is to rebuild my dad's 34 like he always want to, as a tribute to him.
Here's a little something I wrote awhile back about how I got started in the car thing. Some may have seen it and some not but I'd like to tell it again. MEMORIES OF A 15 YEAR OLD. It was back in 58 as I recall, Leon's next door neighbor started it all. We was watching Leon's dad work on his 36 ford, Not much to see so we was kinda bored. About that time Leon's neighbor hollered at Leon and me, He say's com'on over boys I've got something for you to see. Now the neighbor's son was older than us, And we thought he was cool cause we'd heard him cuss. So we wandered over and hopped the fence, Then winked at each other cause sometimes his neighbor didn't make no sense. It was getting dark and kinda hard to see, This better be good Leon say's to me. The neighbor took us in the back door to his garage and turned on the lights, And there before us was a magnificent sight. His son Terry had been working on this old Ford sedan, We hadn't paid much attention cause when he got it it hardly ran. What I saw that night burned a spot in my brain, And since then it has been the cause of a lot of pleasure and pain. It was a black cherry shoebox ford with fresh laquer paint, And at that moment I thought Terry was a saint. I stood there speechless with nothing to say, That black cherry shoebox is still in my mind to this day. There was three sixty watt bulbs and one neon light, The sides looked black but the top of the fenders glowed red that night. When Terry opened the hood it took my breath away, A full dress flathead laid in that engine bay. Finned aluminuim heads and three stromberg 97's, I thought I was looking right into heaven. White tuck and roll and appleton spot lights, By this time my throat was feeling kinda tight. Then Terry asked what do ya think now boys? Let's start her up and make some noise. There was a knot in my gut that I can't explain, When I tried to breath I almost doubled up in pain. When he fired that flatty it was music to my ears, It almost brought this 15 year old to tears. Till the day I die I'll never forget that night, That awesome sound and that beautiful sight. It started a sickness for which there is no cure, And I relive that night everytime I drive Ol Blue that's for sure.
My dad was the local Ford dealer, and his parts manager, Larry Mills, was involved with cool, black Fords. In the early '60's he had a 1961 Fairlane two door post with the 390 6V high-performance motor and overdrive ****** (no four-speed until '62). He took me to the drags one time. Lions Drag Strip. Saw Hugh Tucker match race Stone-Woods-Cook. By this point, I was already interested in hot rods, but after that day, I saw the path, and there was no turning back.
I am probably not the norm in hot rodding stories. I always liked cars and my Dad used to show me pics of all the old cars he had in the 50's when he was a car salesman. But He has always been in sales and about 20 years ago he opened his own business and never had much time to show me much on cars other than simple maintenece. But somehow about 5-6 years ago I decided I wanted to buy a project car and start to learn on my own. In 5 years I have gained a lot of knowledge about auto repair and car culture. But I know, I have soooo much more to learn. Living in a city where garage space it at a premium, if you don't own your own home, It's been a struggle to keep my Olds running and stored in a safe/dry place at times. But slowly and surely I am getting further and further along on my first project. It just takes patience..some money which I have not had alot of finishing college only a couple of years ago..and a lot of advice from people who have helped me along the way.
It was 1969 I was a apprentist with the nz railways and my tradesman was a hotrodder, he drove a 32 roadster channeld,flathead .I was hooked.
The Jalopy Journal
