What got you into traditionally styled cars?

I got into Traditional Rods because you can store stuff on them.

 

My old man own his own body shop as a kid I would go there and hang out on weekends. I would just sit there in the corner and watch him for hours thinking some day... some day I want do do that. he built alot of cool shit... then the rave was vans yuck! but none the less I was still amazed.

 

In 68 I was driving a very nice 58 Impala and a kid offered me his 36 coupe straight up. My dad said no way but I never got over that car! Mark

 

Generally grew up around cars, with strong family influence from all angles. With different family members into different stuff ranging from old Cadillac dealerships to muscle car / race engine building to street rod building to the traditional bikes & cars, i've had a good mix of influence throughout my life.

Nowadays, I also have to say that I get influence from the HAMB as well (mostly good too)...

As for myself, in my teens i rebelled by being into fast VWs. As I grew into an adult i grew into Cadillacs, traditional customs and hot rods. Ive also built a couple bikes, ranging from a triumph chopper to an old vespa to a newer traditional influenced chopper.

-scott noteboom

 

Well. I can't thank my dad. All he's into is sitting on the couch and watching sports.
But, as a pre-teen/early teen, we lived on a main drag in a 5000 resident town.
I'd sit and watch the older, "cooler" kids drive up and down in their camaro's, Mustangs, and other typical musclecars.

One kid, who was a year or two younger, drove a blown 66 Impala to school everyday once we hit highschool. I remember watching that car and thinking..How cool.

I went through the typical phases. My first car was a 72 LeMans in 86. Then I "stepped-up" to a Monza. Then to a 85 Cavalier in 87.

When I met my wife, I was almost 20, and she was 17 1/2. We dated for three years, then married, and we've been together for 17 years(3 dating, 14 married).

During our dating years, We had several 70's mullet Firebirds. I had a 75 Formula 455 that I was so proud of. We went cruising all the time.

As time went by, after we were married, I started gravitating towards older stuff.

We had a 70 Cranberry red SS454 Chevelle, which i sold to buy our first house.
Then I built a super clean 63 ChevyII nova, which I then traded for a triple black 70 SS Monte Carlo.
Sold that and built a nice black on black 70 Chevelle.

But I sold it to buy our second house. See the pattern?!

As all this was going on, my buddy's dad and uncle were building pretty badass "older" cars. I started getting real attached to those types of cars, and I started leaning heavily that way.

So as I got the dough, I started wheelin' dealin' older stuff. And with each year, I'd learn more, understand more and appreciate what it was I was looking at.

So for the past 9+ years, I've had a laundry list of pre-64 stuff. As many here know. I get bored and trade alot. I want to own one of everything

So I have to credit my best friend, BigJeff, and his uncle for helping me see the lite.

Jesus, can I ramble or what!?!

 

21, that was '67 and a rice paddy for me,

Being a first year "boomer" I got to grow up during what I consider to be a great time for it. A natural love of anything "one-off" and "unique" coupled with a tinkerer's fascination for anything mechanical led me astray early in life. I guess it was inevitable I'd wind up hooked on tin. To this day I still take the most pride in those things I have that no one else has one of.........

Oh yeah, and Cruella DeVille, one wierd chick with cool tin.

 

i had a 70 challebnger when iwas 16 kept till i was 22 it was fun but i always wanted to race the bitch and kinda got tired of people telling me that when i got it done it would be worth so much money so i said fuck it and sold the bitch and got 1960 el camino suede black a little rust drove the piss out of it now i got a 40 ford p-up and a 25 dodge touring car. jhust got tired of the muscle car bullshit

 

my dad. I grew up watching him restore old and cool stuff. I got into the VW seen first, watercooled stuff such as rabbits and golfs (like my daily driver is now) and got old enough to learn and actually afford some cool hotrod stuff, so I traded my way into a T body and some parts from my dad. Now I have a 68 camaro, a 68 chevy short box, the 27 T coupe, and my 89 VW daily driver, instead of 7 VW rabbits. Im 24.

 

Friend's brother was in the ELA Imperials. The Ayala Brothers shop was a couple of miles from my house. My babysitter was the one who turned my on to rock & roll when I was a little guy and she dated the greasy bad boys. She used to change clothes in front of me and dance to Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry and although she didn't know it (or did she?), my hormones were just a boiling. My pop liked racing and had a seriuosly hotted up Hudson Hornet, so he taught me to love speed and how to drive fast correctly. So the combonation of the love of velocity and the desire for chicks like Angie, my babysitter, who went out with guys who drove customs did me in.

Traditional cars? Customs, mild to wild, like sweater girls, make me hot. A '29 roadster on duece rails with a dressed out Rocket is the epitome of cool. Or a duece roadster like Jimmy White's with a Rocket is perfection. Early R&B, rock & roll and country stands the test of time. I guess it's called Classicism? I dunno. I just dig it. Here's the deal: When I squat down to look at a detail on a car, it's called cool. When I stand back up and my knees and back sound like a Cozy Cole drum solo, it's called Traditional. How's that for perspective?

Chili

 

what got me into traditionally styled cars? my age, they were state of the art when i started liking them.
dan

 

I got into it from Ol Skool Rodz.

 

I got into it because of my Pops he had a 1932 Ford tudor sedan and raised all kinds of hell. My uncles and dad told me all kinds of stories that just sounded crazy and in the center of all the stories was the Hot Rod. If there was a part needed and he couldn't find it or steal it from another car he made it, that was when I learned using you brain and two hands was the way to go. I like all kinds of cars but Hot Rods and Kustoms that's the life.

 

Hmmm.....
Well I guess I have been watching the Martin and Rae Flatti dragster here for a hell of a long time along with Squeak Bell and his influence on the Whakatane cars (DB & Pins A Coupe #1) and the cars of the guys who would become the Shifters here in N.Z. Chris in particular.
I know by the time I went to the UK in 90 or so I was more into Drag and traditional stuff, saw a bunch of very nice trad Cars at Knebworth show over there and then some more cool stuff in the US on the way home with Antique nats at Palmdale and Goodguys VRA at Sears point....... I had also been running a 62 Holden (same designers as all the mid 50's GM stuff) with a warmed over original motor (rather then putting a modern motor in) so I would hazard a guess as to all those influences + AG and Two Lane Black top etc.....

 

I built my first streetrod in '72 to '74. Born in '47, I bought a super clean '34 Ford Deluxe 2-dr. The first engine was a Lil Iron Duke, rebuilt '39 trans, and stock 4:11 banjo. A few years later a 262 Monza eng and TH 350 with 9" replaced all that. Quit rodding for 10 yrs in '90. Got re-infected in 2000. My '32 Ford Highboy, finished in 2010, has SBC, 700R4, 8" posi with 3.73s, steelies, '46 Ford caps and rings, S/W gauges, '46 Ford steering wheel, Vintage Air heat/a-c unit, seat heaters, Sid Chavers Bop-Top, '39 teardrops, mini '32 headlights, C.E. 4" dropped and drilled forged axle, hairpins, and SoCal ladder bars. I love the people at Top Notch drive in on Burnet Rd. in Austin. There are ALL styles of rods, and nobody gives a shit what class, style, or catagory one might "fit" in. I am old so those amenties in my roadster disqualify it from the "TRADITIONAL HOTROD" catagory, and that is fine with me. I am not going to drive around in the Summer, sweating my ass off just to say I have a "traditional" ride. Nor will I cruise the streets in the Winter freezing it off like my Grandparents did when I have the comforts at my fingertips. My latest trip to CA was a totally trouble-free, 4000 mile ride over a 15 period. Once again, we had no, nada, zilch, zero problems. Flathead owners just can't make that claim, and bias-ply tires just aren't as dependable or safe as radials. Driving that old sheetmetal stuffed with modern amenities is soo much fun. You have the best of both worlds, without the freezing or the sweating, and that makes for an enjoyable cruise, whether it is 40 miles or 4000 miles.

 

I guess these 3 things. My first car and my two older cousins cars .

 

Dale, my sister's first husband and his brother were building two street rods back in the 70's complete with chrome wheels fat tires and all, I thought it was cool. then he got into the traditional style and I just did not understand. why would you do all that work and put steel wheels and skinny tires on it? Well I guess I grew up at some point, now I can't understand building any other way. So I guess it was all Dale's fault, he was a great guy.

 

I worked out in the uk that the most individual styles were immediately post war to around 1961.

After that a sameness started creeping in certainly from mid 60s onwards

I then discovered Anglias when they were despised and unwanted and still love them which lead to me following the early uk rod scene in early 70s then started picking up USA rod mags.

Discovered the total genius and good sense of Ganahl in Street Rodder in late 75 and the stuff he and Oddo were doing on early rods and suddenly all the different strands of my interests came together .

 

this piece of awesomeness?