naw, we are barely even on the "tree huggers" radar. they have a much bigger problem (as do i) with the millions of people who feel they NEED to drive a Hummer or Excursion because they haul a couple of bags of fertilizer from Lowes once a month. the fight against OLD cars is largely a myth, the cars we dig out of fields and barns are worth nothing to the corporations who run the programs that collect old clunkers that pollute heavily, ie chug smoke going down the road. they want these cars so they can get tax credits so their factories can pollute more. i don't know many tree hugging corporations. i, and at least one other HAMBer(not DrJ) are also members of a fairly far left political message board, they even have a sub forum for people who are into cars, go figure! your average left leaning person sees groups like greenpeace and PETA as extremists, they are not the norm. you are absolutely right though in finding common ground.
This is kinda funny. I have fathacks old fleetline, and if you ever saw it, you would remeber how rough it was. Frame and bottom 6" of the car is rotted all to hell, interior is non existant, and it had a little v6 swapped into it. I have put it on a new frame, channeled it, all new floor, trunk, and late model engine and overdrive trans. I got shit from someone at my shop saying that I ruined the car...and he saw it before I started...some people...
I agree...what were they thinking?...I've got stacks of late 80's and early 90's Hot Rod mags here that make me sick just looking at the box, let alone actually turning the pages...and to think, 40 years from now it'll all be making a comeback...somebody shoot me before that happens...
Still alive and well around here. Well, most of them. The old cat wtih the MOST serious collection of vintage tin passed away. Who knows how his kids will treat his estate. Rodding guys will help each other out but those that care to preserve the past feel as passionately as we do about smiling, profiling and spinning a wheel. To each his own. Rod
I think the whole thing may have started by those trying to restore ,,watching folks cut up perfectly good parts...Resto your looking for the best and when you see a mint door all cut up,, it could be frustrating ,,,,perhaps a Resto / Rodder swapmeet..I mean think of all the stuff you hear that dealerships pulled off of cars that are like Hen's Teeth now ....alot of things rodder toss resto folks could use ,,and a resto guy taking all the hotrod stuff off a car he's trying to restore ....In the end everyones the same,,just a different vision
On the other side of that type of storey, I was buying patch panels for my 32 from a local antique parts guy - George Moir last year and showed him some pictures. He said " I don't like it when guys take restored or restorable cars and cut them up into hotrods, but you're making what was a piece of junk into a car again and I think that's great" He's even looking into putting a Model C four banger and a five or six speed trans and better brakes into the Model A cabriolet he's building so it's more driveable than his other cars.
My friend's dad used to drive different old Fords to work (schoolteacher) every day. They were stock. That was in the 80s though, cars are *way* faster now than they used to be 0-60. I drove a POS bug in college that was 0-60 in like 16 seconds I think??? Something awful. Id just think you'd get blown off the road trying to drive a stocker in today's traffic, unless you're in a parade. I'm not sure what that has to do with anything but it made sense when I typed it back to on topic: I wish I coulda seen that guys face after you told him you ran over the fenders!!! and who turns a great condition car into a rod? I've mostly seen old heaps that were rodded, it just doesn't make sense to spend $$$ on a restored car and then cut it. Well, except for some chainers that have magazine cars, but that's another thread.
Sounds to me like you guys were a lot alike. But here is a thought... I bet '20 and '30s Fords were Hot Rodded before they were Restored. It would be fun to point out to a elderly Restorer that he is a relaltive newcomer in his way of doing things. I can see both sides of the fence. I am a Restorer AND a Hot Rodder.
Heres the way I see it, I love seeing old cars on the road rodded or resto'd. I go to the All Ford days and see beautiful old Ford V8's and smile and think some day that ol' V8 will become an awesome hotrod. I see it as a generational thing, our fathers drove hotrods, some of us our grandfathers drove hotrods, some of us our grandfathers and great grandfathers drove stockers. Cars that we remember as kids that we rode in with our fathers have a certian sentimental value-chances are that if your father or grandfather drove a hotrod you will some day think it would be nice to have a car like that so what do you buy/build...a hotrod! There is also a one way flow stockers are made into hotrods many times more than a hotrod is used as a donor to make a restored stocker. Some day hotrods will rule the world of old cars as the few stockers that are left will be the ones in mueusems.
At the end of the day you do to your car what you like. Hey, I like restored cars to, espescially 50's & 60's cars & home grown muscle cars. But restored cars make good rods & customs because all the surface work has been done. When we're out cruising & see a restored oldie my kids say "that would make a cool hotrod". And we shouldnt use the words 'cruising' & 'restored car' in the same sentance. Hey, on a side note, do you other Aussies get the feeling Americans don't like the term RAT ROD? I'm starting to think that their definition & ours is slightly different. We have some pretty nice cars here that are referred to as rat rods. I might start a forum on this, and get some opinions. After all, our country is a democracy.
Simple to me... Restore: Duesenbergs, Auburns, Pierce Arrows, Hispanos, Bugattis, V16 Cadillacs, early Packards, Brass era cars, etc. Hotrod: almost everything else!
I think it was the President of the Antique Automobile Club of America that said "Restorers should thank hotrodders, they kept the cars so they at least still exist. 95% of the 32 Fords that still exist were once hotrods."
The Jalopy Journal
