What got you into traditionally styled cars?

Two things....the little mags and watching my cousin race his '37 Ford coupe on the dirt tracks when I was 7 in '58. After that, my dad got involved with helping crew his and other cars, so I was always around '30s coupes and coaches. I wanted a streetable hot rod or mild custom, but by the time I was of driving age in late '66, the car scene had pretty much gone the way of musclecars. The closest I came to owning one was a Maroon '56 Crown Vic with a tuck-n-roll interior, Merc taillights, tube grille, 312, etc, right after I got my license. But the old man said "Buy your own freakin' car' when I hit him up for a loan. Since I had no bread, I settled for a stock '55 Ford 4-door after I got a job and saved up $125. It was well on it's way to becoming a decent high school rod when a drunk plowed into it.

After that, I did the Mustang, Fairlane and Galaxie musclecar deal for years..what can I say, I dig Fords , along with running my own dirt and asphalt track stockers until '96. I didn't like the "street rods" of the '80s and '90s so I kind of ignored the magazines. Call me a dumb bitch but I didn't realize that 'traditional' was back until a couple of years ago. Now I'm re-educating myself through HAMB as to what I learned in the mags of the '50s-early '60s. My '64 Ford might not meet the definition of a traditional hot rod, but who knows what might come next?....

Jan

 

same reason I love skateboarding
who knows?

 

When I was kid, this guy in our church had a early 50s chevy truck he called "ole blue" wasnt fast or tricked out just unique, then all the stories of my dad's glory days driving his 64 skylark with the cad engine and dual quads. I knew I wanted to do something like that. Got older and had a couple of muscle cars but they didnt fit my style. Used to read street rodder and every other car mag I could get my hands on and kept thinking as cool as the smoothie cars were there was something missing. Finally worked with this old hot rodder, he had a 59 elky,48 ford sedan, 49 olds, and 49 ford pickup. All but the elky were in primer and he built them all himself. They all just had _something_ that I was drawn to. Didnt realize I was into traditional cars until the past few years I just knew I wanted something different from the belly button cars you see at your average car shows.

Paul

 

Always loved cars as a kid. What got me into traditional cars..?

CHEATERS c.c. of MILWAUKEE & a rockabilly band called the Rustbelt Boys.

I remember seeing cheatercarl's primerd & flamed hot at the local cruise nite. Then I recall stopping by his folks garage to get a "peak" at his newest project and progress-a '50 shobox. chopped.It was bought at that same cruise nite. The rustbelt boys were his friends & when I saw that music w/ the hot rods sittin outside...It was all over. I had no money..so I blk primerd my '85 caprice, & put flames w/ red wheels on it. Huh, all this before I chopped my hair, It was in a ponytail down my back!

 

When I was growing up all the cars were traditional.
But of course they were just called hotrods back then.
I had toy cars and models in my hands since I was 6, ..1959
I just never stopped putting them together and playing with them.
Their size may have increased some though.

 

I saw Amer Graph first run at the drive-in. Attended the 1976 Street Rod Nats in Tulsa, OK. Grew up near MO-KAN Dragway. Jelopys throwing dirt at the circle track. Saw the sixties beach movies, The Munsters, 76 Sunset Strip, and lots more rods on TV. Read the big stack of little magazines in a friends garage. My dad pounded out Boogie-Woogie piano every night which lead me to love Rock-a-billy before it was cool.

 

I was lucky. Born in 1945, I grew up in a pretty good time. Lived in a little town in the mid-west and read all the books by Henry Gregor Felsen. Not many hot rod's in town. When one would show up it really made my day. Wrote a term paper on Bonneville cars to get out of the 9th grade. Spent quite of bit of time in a 1930 Model A pickup powered by a 283 Chevrolet. First car was a 1951 Merc. Saved the Evans heads and a 3X2 manifold. Always did like flatheads. Almost lived at Mo-Kan dragway in the early and middle 60's. Was told that I would outgrow all of this, not yet anyway.

 

time trip back to 1963 , several thingas happened about that same time ,neighbor kid built a 41 ford cpe w a 283 adapted to the gennie trans ,it hgad chrome reverse rims then , far as i know he still has it and is a member of MSRA,other neighbor was racing a 57 chevy stock car (recently found the very same car), helped pit a couple times ,down the block a guy had a 427 40 ford cpe , met brown street /drag car did 11's if I remember right , both him and the car are long gone,another kid in the neighborhood had a RED 46-8 merc cpe , this was a higher buck car and was show finished (for its day) strong CAMMED unknown motor, heard several years later he got killed in 'Nam,probably true as the cpe sat under a tarp in his mom's back yard for over 20 some years and dissapeared, a buddy of my dads was working on a 29 A rdtsr PU project and I helped my dad do the new bed wood , found a 1963 issue of R+C , and discovered model cars at the hobby store, beach movies came out about that same time (Annette? ^^ mmmmmmm ),no contest to model rockets , I was hooked, so you could say i was into traditional cars since they were'nt

 

Reggie(Hotwheels) and the Kontinentals (Lone Star Round Up). I went to one of the early LSRU when it was held at a football stadium off of N. Lamar and it really created a spark. The following year I met Reggie at a car show in Hutto and we talked for a good while. After that I was hooked.

 

What got me into traditional cars? The same thing that got me into every other type of cars. I like them, and I like pretty much all facets of the automotive hobby, regardless of whther it's a homebuilt, unfinished bucket or a $200k, RUF tuned Porsche. I just happened to be around traditional rods and customs first.

 

I don't think there's just one moment that crystalized it for me, but a constant undertow of traditional hot rod influences that was threatening to drown me in it for most of my life.

When I was a kid, it was that '36 Ford gasser Hot Wheel, Tom Slick cartoons, and the Badman '55 Chevy model car.

As a teen, I was into two types of cars: VW's and hot rods. When I bought Street Rodder, Hot Rod or Rod Action, it was more often than not the traditionally-styled cars that got cut out and taped up on my wall. Back then, they were usually called "Classic Hot Rods" or something, but you knew that cars like these would be hot rods forever. Even at the height of the splash graphics on an aqua car thing, I realized that it was all a fad and that black lacquer with flames and a big chromed mill would be cool forever.

It was really while I was in the Navy that it was solidified - I've always like weird cars, and after I bought a Nissan for reliable transpo over a '62 Mercury, I realized the mistake I'd made, and have kept interesting cars around ever since. BTW: I still have a thing for air-cooled VW's.

 

psst... that's 'cause A/C VWs have more in common with traditional rods than most here want to admit... period styling, easy to hop up for drag race speed, relatively cheap with a similar aftermarket... Already drag racing in the NHRA in the early '60s... And there were hot rod and custom versions running around in the '50s and '60s alongside the type of cars usually discussed here, as were Anglias, Topolinos, and Austins...

(not trying to turn this into a VW board, merely commenting on a comment. End hijack)

 

1)family-Dad and Grandpa
2)Cartoons magazine
3)Happy Days
4)American Graphitti
5)and yes, I'll admit it-the race at the end of "Grease"-Olivia Newton John helped alot,also

 

I've always been into anything with wheels (or anything mechanical, actually).

Grew up with GTO's and cars in general. My stepdad belonged to the Duke's in Spokane, WA. Took a ride in a BBC T-bucket at age 9.

Recently found pics of my grandpa's 32 coupe he had in Chicago in the late 40's and then his 32 roadster he ran at the Rendezvous track up in Alaska in the early 50's. I'd love to build one just like that...

 

Y'know, I had to really think about this one.....

Originally I was gonna say seeing AG got me into the trad rods. Milners coupe was a seed for alot of us, no doubt. But the more I thought about it, the more that didn't seem right. It was earlier.

Then it hit me- old cartoons I used to watch did it for me.

Disney had a 'toon about Susie, the little blue car whose life is chronicalled(sp?) from the showroom floor to the scrap yard, to the hands of a young hot rodder who saves her from certain death.

Then ol' Tex Avery had one about the Taxi cab car parents whose car kid wanted to be a hot rod, not a taxi like his old man. His pop gets stuck on the railroad track, & Junior pushed him out of the way, only to be struck by the locomotive himself. He's rebuilt & chooses to be a taxi after all... although he keeps the souped up motor.

I remember Donald Duck's nephews having a hot rod in one cartoon, too.

And I also loved the hot rod in the old Disney "Shaggy Dog" movie.

Any one else remember them old 'toons?

 

I had uncles that built camaros and shit, so I was already into muscle cars. THEN, I saw the movie Cobra and, holy shit, that Merc changed my life. Add in teenage years hanging out at the dragstrip and having friends building lotsa Impala lowriders and the path was set...

 

Because its more fun to build than to buy. And Boyd NEVER built anything as cool as the Model A in Post #9

 

Not smart enough to think of anything else to be interested in.
Frank

 

bump for those who didn't see the post

 

I'm in it for the wide profit margins.

 

When I was a kid that's all I built with my lego's were cars. Model cars and balsa wood airplanes were next. Then at the ripe age of twelve my brother let me drive a rotted out Satellite wagon with a 318 2 bbl in the field behind the barn. I couldn't even see over the dash so I'd just stab the gas to the floor and let my brother be my eyes. Apparantly I ran over my mom's apple trees with one of my doughnuts but I couldn't see where the hell I was going so I can't claim responsibility.

Fast forward to 16 and I get my first car. An 84' Buick Skyhawk, at least it was a 2 door. It was five different colors red and promtly got named the Bloody Tampon. So I rattle canned the whole thing one color red, tried to flame it and put on a set of shitty baby moons that promptly zing'd off one by one.

This whole time I poured over any hotrod, chopper, musclecar related magazine I could get my hands on. Which mainly consisted of Car Craft and Street Rodder, which I dubbed "Snot Rodder" for obvious reasons. I did see one car in Snot Rodder that stuck in my head though, a 30' Ford coupe on Deuce rails with a 331 Hemi. It was some crappy pic a reader sent it but I thought it was way cooler than the billet junk that seemed to pour out of that magazine.

My senior year in high school my sister started dating her now husband (Hambe name Hank) who drove a 74' Vega. Flat black, small block, Hilborn scoop sticking through the hood. Dad wouldn't let me buy it from him, something about it being a death trap or something. Next I find a 71' Plymouth Satellite Sebring for sale and ended up spending most of my bank account on that one. The weird thing was it was a 318 2 bbl car, the same as the first car I ever drove. Creepy. I got daja vu the first time I drove that car to work too. Creepy shit again. I think I bleed Hemi orange.....

Long story getting longer, the Satellite got a 440, the cops in town loved me, and I couldn't get a street race from any rice-grinders to save my soul. Eat Mustang's and shit Camaro's, that's all I wanted to do. The paint sucked and still does, the interior looked like hell and still does but listening to that Thermoquad gulping for more air was the only fix I needed. Screw spending $$ on chrome rims when black steelies looked way better.

Next I meet up with MaxGearhead and promptly get seriously hooked on vintage iron. I always thought of 50's styled cars were real hotrods but had no idea where to start. My sister's husband was a pretty good influence though and got me thinking. MaxGearhead got me turned onto the Hamb and I ended up giving him a ride down to Bleed's place in Delafield. After that all I did was eat, sleep and obsess over where I could find a coupe.

Merry Christmas to me. I bought a 30' 5-window coupe, got my hands on a 331 Hemi cause thats the only thing that I would be happy with. My dad thinks I'm off my rocker but I probably am. This is where my long shitty story ends.

 

It's the preservation of history...keeping alive the old techniques, style, value of Americana.

 

Hell yes! That taxi cab cartoon was the coolest. I also remember the Susie cartoon, and how about the 'Cars of the Future' cartoons that came out of the studio where they did Tom&Jerry? I named my car after a cartoon (Porky Pig as a cop checks out a haunted house) so what do you expect

 

I was 23 that year.

But I can remember back to '60, in 9th grade, at duPont HS in Jacksonville. This guy had a 40 standard coupe, Bahama(?) Blue with white T&R, 301 SBC with 2 four's, and 4 speed. That started it.

He belonged to the "Slicks" car club. They had a ramshackle corrugated tin shop/clubhouse where they did their magic. I knew the name Slicks referred to the tire that was on the club jacket, but all our Mom's thought it was about their hair and appearance, so the place was off limits (plus they drank BEER!) What she didn't know didn't hurt her. We would ride our bikes down there anyway on Saturdays..... and get run off. They sure didn't want any punk kids ruining the image.

Then there was the channeled A pickup, with the bobbed bed and 292 Y-block with T-bird covers I saw at the beach that summer. Absolutely bitchin' and driven by the coolest guy I had ever seen. That cinched it.

Then came Thunderbolt Dragway at the old Navy airstrip outside of Orange Park. Had a flagman originally, but eventually changed to a red, yellow, green traffic light. Place was lit up by two big surplus searchlights that were behind the starting line. The usual local cars and bikes, but every now and then it was Sunday-Sunday-Sunday! Garlits, Karamesines, Langley, Malone, Ivo, Hill, Sneaky Pete, the Arfons brothers' Green Monster, Phil Bonner, Landy, Profitt, Nicholson. Blown FE Chryslers, Buicks, OHC Fords, the "new "hemis, 409 stick cars, match race time. Good stuff.

It's amazing how those images were seared in, and are crystal clear today.

Thanks.... to those two guys, the "little books", T-bolt, HRM and the rotogravure section, for the addiction. Hope I never kick it.

 

My father

 

Peer pressure.

That, & my dad's first car was a '57 Ford custom, with his body work in lead

 

I remember the moment like it was yesterday.

I was at the newsstand. I even remember the day. It was April 27, 2005. I saw this magazine called Ol Skool Rodz. Now, I'm hooked on old cars.










seriously though, I don't really remember. It was sort of a gradual thing. I had no family influence....I just remember always liking certain cars more than others.....

I always liked the old cars, especially 50's cars. Just something about them appealed to me. At first, it was just the stockers. But the first time I saw a really radical custom, I was intrigued. Then it just kind of snowballed from there..

 

Growing up in San Jose in the 60's there were alot of customs and early style lowriders all over town.

 

I was 21 in '57, ouch !

 

I was 21 in '57, ouch ! Got married then too.
We drove around in my '34 Ford pickup with a '48 Merc block and pipes that
came up through the running boards at the back of the cab and ran to the
back, under the beds angled tops. Just got another '34 Ford pickup with a
Chev. 350 dropped axel and no fenders. It's great being 21 again !