Hot Rods What is your “favorite part” of your hot rod or custom?

Most days it’s the windshield as it keeps the bugs outta our faces.


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My favorite part is watching people's heads turn around as I go by, and giving the 65+ gang hope for the future of classic cars. Almost every time I'm doing anything to the car some retiree shows up out of thin air and starts asking questions and showing their appreciation

 

As simple and almost boring as it is it has everything any Young Guy would want in 1955. Nosed, Decked, Fenched, Smoothed, Tuck-n-Roll and plenty of Get There under the Right Pedal. I like that she looks like she wants to Kiss me when I walk in front of her. There isn't a single upgrade showing when you look in the windows. My younger Brother and I started with a sack of rocks and just the 2 of us did everything you see in 12 weeks of non-stop work. This car has never won an award except the total satisfaction I feel when behind the wheel. She is coming up on her 20 year B-Day, right at 80k miles and never once put me on the side of the road and still going. So, I guess if there is any one thing about her it's just the feeling of another Job Well Done. My younger Brother passed 9 years ago but every time this Car is running, he's right there with me. Ya, that's my Favorite Part!

 

The keys to the cars, without them there is no fun!
KK

 

How come when I stop over at yer place, them pretty girls aint around?

 

I raised them right. They know when trouble is on the horizon.

 

That she takes me there and brings me back home

 

Reliability is so overrated! But good!

 

Those tailights

 

"Favorite Part". Trick question. Um, nut behind the wheel?

 

Or maybe

 

No question, one of the last 6-71's built by Gene Mooneyham.

 

My new louvers!

 

Not mine in particular. I don't have a car on the road. To do with all of them, I guess.

For me, I can't help it... it always comes down to the aesthetics of a stripped down roadster. I love the modular nature of it. The way the many visible components brought together form the complete package. "The sum of its parts", as it were.

I could pick almost any one of those components or more likely, the relationship of two or more components and see a kind of hot rod beauty in it.

One of my favorites are the turned-down front frame horns. From almost the very beginning, around the turn of the century, to about 1934, those curvy swoopy tapered front frame horns have been present. Especially when you pull the fenders and stuff off.

Of course, there have been hot rodders who've removed the frame horns for various reasons. Usually to "suicide" mount the front axle and further lower the car. And that has a persona and an aesthetic all its own.

But when I think of the dark silhouette of a hot rod roadster roaring by in the black of night,

I saw...

A radiator
Headlights
Tires
And frame horns

 

So far it’s the engine as that is pretty much all I got done so far. Lol!

 

The interior, it’s a spacious and comfortable environment while rolling down the road…

 

One of a kind..........maybe another one like it in a parallel universe......

 

Buick Skylark wire wheels for my 1958 black Impala.

Hello,

We had gone through tons of racing from the fall of 1957 to the tow car phase for our Willys Coupe build with the 58 Impala in 1960. First, racing only, then street cruising/racing, then a parts getter and tow car for our Willys build phases. It was an all-around car. It even took us to the local beaches for early surf adventures. The final phase was that our mom needed a car to go shopping during the week. It was some... grocery getter for her.

So, here was our mom, driving the 58 Impala with black wheels and small hubcaps for her first car experience. She liked the size compared to our dad’s larger Buicks. She even drove it between the two houses in that narrow opening without ever scratching either side of the Impala. The times when she drove the Impala, was the stock phase. Then I had the conversion of the hubs and axles to a Buick bolt pattern was something.

She wanted to know if it was going to "act funny" with different spoke style wheels. Ha! She already had 300 hp plus at this stage of the build, a super trick C&O stick hydro and most of the time 4:11 Positraction gears in the back. All she had to do was put it in R, back up and then D for all driving modes to the grocery store or shopping with friends.

The set of pristine Buick Skylark wire wheels was for me, a one of a kind deal. No , they were not hot or stolen. A guy took them off of a Skylark and needed the cash for something else going on in his family. So, I had 5 excellent Skylark Wire Wheels in my garage without a place to call home.

Jnaki

I had our local Bixby Knolls Henry’s Machine Shop convert the axles, hubs and drums to the Buick bolt pattern. While that was going on, the shop next door was balancing each Skylark Wire Wheel and aligning each spoke as they went through each wheel. By this time I was getting a set of tires trued and shaved. The whole process was fun and exciting. I had saved enough to get it done by the local experts at the block long row of hot rod shops along the Cherry Avenue workshop area in Northeast Bixby Knolls.

When it was finished and ready for the now, trued, balanced wire wheels, it looked outstanding. Thanks to @themoose for taking the time to showcase his talents to the 58 Impala with the Buick Skylark wire wheel phase of our teenage cruising days.
"The ultimate sleeper..."
At the time, it was the only fast Impala that had a C&O Stick Hydro and Buick Skylark Wire Wheels in the whole cruising area of So Cal. It was fun to go fast and also look good while doing the usual teenage cruising around the local coastal cruises and hot spots we normally hung out.
Quite a difference from the original version in the Fall of 1957. YRMV

 

I've always liked the stance, in this pic it's a little high in the back with air shocks all the way up. (No Bags!)
CLICK HERE for Swap-O-Rama info. Famoso Dragstrip

 

My wife was adamant when she said "no louvers!"
Those that watched the build thread knew before she did that I had it punched in secret!
After she found out (too late now) she insisted they not be "tipped".
Pinstriper extraordinaire, Mitch Kim tipped 'em (without me asking) because, in his explanation to her "cuz that's cool".
At the Portland Roadster Show this weekend she admitted she absolutely loves the louvers and the truck wouldn't be as cool without them.

Yep, they are my favorite part of "her" truck build now for all those reasons.

 

1940 Flathead powered Ford Sedan Delivery … high school +

Hello,

It was the countless hours of behind the wheel road trips all over So Cal, from Santa Barbara in the north to San Diego and Baja, Mexico in the South. It was just right for my teenage pocketbook and savings account. Little cost to run and drive all over So Cal coastal areas in search of surf, and empty waves…

Since the sedan delivery was the third car in a 4 person family, it was relegated to park outside in the backyard. But, that was fine. Instant drive into the driveway and no finagling back and forth to get the 2nd spot in the small two car garage. Just turn left and park on the grass area with wide open spaces to load and unload stuff.

But, as easy as it was, the Flathead was not as powerful as the Impala or even my dad’s 57 Buick Roadmaster sedan. The instant fast start and good running motor was the key. “You take care of it and it takes care of you…” seemed like the motto for this old Flathead powered sedan delivery. Once backing up along the narrow driveway out to the street, it just seemed to know where to go heading South.
The view from the driver’s seat

Jnaki

It was a step in the right direction for me. But, I was still connected to the hot rod group and cruisers as it still played an important part of our history. Being teens makes exploring more exciting as it is a new direction of opportunities.

The bucket seats were straight from the local junkyard and a sporty car. In those times, sporty car bucket seats were adjustable and a 100% better than the stock factory seats. The black was slightly worn, but had no tears or big scratches. They leaned forward, when the time came to store our longboards inside, the footwell was necessary to get as much room as possible for those boards to fit with everything closed up and locked.

But, it was a one of a kind hot rod. The kids at our high school saw it everyday. I always knew when everyone started showing up for the “coveted” front row parking spots. So, I got there 30 minutes earlier and was usually parked in #1 or #2 spot(s.) This was valued, as everyone inside of those classrooms had a direct views of the parked hot rods and acted as a theft deterrent from across the street. YRMV

 

My dash gives me Happy Happy Joy joy

 

Sweet coupe great color! Favorite shade of primer .

 

Well technically it's not on there yet, But I'm working on it!

 

Everything. It was my first love and will be my last. Fell in love with Willys gassers as a kid when I quit playing with the toys at the supermarket and opened a car magazine and saw my first gasser. A couple years later, ('65), I bought my Willys from the grandson of the original owner, The 331 hemi from another classmate, the Hydramatic from another, bought a wrecked '56 Olds for the rear end and wiring harness. My high school graduation present was the hemi/hydro******* adaptor.
I slapped it together as a teen and somehow survived that junky build! For example the brake pedal arm made from a running board bracket taken off the frame. Tore it down in about '75, didn't build it back until life got out of the way in '95. Has been in this condition ever since, often my daily driver to work.
Thing I don't like about it; I never get to see it driving down the road! I'm always the driver.

I survived this!!


My love.