Are domestics the only hot rods?

Somebody flush this turd.

 

No foreign car can be a hot rod....

 

don't think so? what do you think the shelby cobra was? it was a brittish body with an american engine. one of the greatest cars of all time. no a foreign car can't be a traditional american hot rod, but it can very well be a hot rod, show me where in the rule book it says where it's supposed to be built here? it pisses me off when people have such closed minds to think in such narrow terms. if someone busts their ass to build a really cool car,who is it to say it can' t be a rod. i am about to start on v8 powered 72 datsun truck, sitting on a ford truck frame. it meets all the criteria of a hot rod, yet some people will still turn up their noses. there isn't a part on my car that hasn't been modified in some way or another , it's no trailer queen,hell it's still in primer. but it was build to enjoy driving with the windows down,it's fast and it's loud as hell. this is no riced civic, it still has a carb and a block made out of iron, and it actually has sheet metal,so where do you clasify it?

 

kustombuilder, I believe you nailed it. Here is my furrin hot rods and a pic of my all time favorite the C&O Hydro gasser.

 

Well, there's a bit more to it than that.

 

Hot rods all, in spirit and style:

 

Yes BUT, even if it someone posts a topic about something you consider an "Offtopic Build" they shouldn't have there nuts busted over it. And so what if someone wants to build a VW or something you don't consider in the relm of what the board is about doesn't mean it'a any lesser a hot rod than your '32 ford.
So then if someone wants to talk about something that is considered an offtopic build then in the title we should be able to put "off topic build" somewhere in the thread title and not have to be pounced on...right?

 

In the eye of the beholder!!!!
Fellow Silhouettes member Andy "Slider" Yee's early Datsun pick up.

"Are domestics the only hot rods"?
So the guys that do not live in the good old US of A or Canada are building foreign cars if they are building American made iron and there are tons of those guys here on the H.A.M.B., domestic to them are foreign to us!
Built what you can.

 

I see more snobbery on this board than on the AACA board, and there is a lot there too.

 

.......Horse Piss .

 

9 times out of 10 I never bother to post to a thread because some one else has already said pretty much what I would. Why waste the space, but in this case I'll make the exception. Kustombuilder pretty much said it all and I'm glad someone with a shit load of posts who's been around here longer than most of us said it. I know the HAMB has a specific focus, but some times it gets really annoying seeing a guy get shit on because some one doesn't think his car is trad enough or his car is a year too new to hang out. Isn't hot rodding as much about the creative and rebellious attitude as it is about the model of cars we build. There's as much if not more "trad" spirit in some of these VW's as there are in the cookie cutter AV8's all over the place. I understand not liking something, fine, but why shit on a guy over it. Just ignore the post like the thousand over retarded posts that die a natural death.

 

I don't get why people who have cars that are OT for this board continue to come here and piss and moan about how we're narrow-minded...nobody here cares about your Honda shitbox, get over it. Go over to the Chevy truck board and bitch them out for not discussing Ford trucks....makes as much sense.

And why resurrect a stupid thread thats nearly a year dead?

 

Fuckin' A!

 

Correction...you're not "narrow minded", you're bullying people who don't have (and in some cases might not be able to afford) a car you deem as kool enough to hang out on here and coexist with everyone and be part of the whole kulture. You are missing the point of hotrodding.

 

Totally just realized this was a zombie thread. The dangers of not paying attention to dates.

 

Closed the shop in Dec 2006, Been very busy building cars with my Brother.....Still into the VW's as well as the traditional Hot Rods.

Geoff.

 

this thread is whether foreign cars can be hot rods,it's not like i'm comparing my car to the traditional cars on the board, it's asking a question. thats WHAT this thread is about, the HAMB isn't going to collapse because of one thread,I like this board,because i enjoy fabricating parts for my car, and i like to see others do the same. thats not something you see in this "want it now " world much anymore . I grew up around traditional rods, I like traditional rods, theres no reason to piss on someone just because they have a valid point in a thread about that point. if you want to go calling a honda a shit box, go find some ricers in a new honda that is completly stock,that think they are badasses because they have a muffler they can stick their head in. don't run me down because i have put nearly a decade of work in my 22 year old car. i believe in respecting people who take the time and effort build something different. i would show the same respect to you.

 

Well said.

 

You kids have no idea what a hot rod is. You are the same asses that call a 55 chevy a shoebox,or anything rodded a roadster. thay drag race snowmobiles that does not make them hot rods.

 

kids? i'm 35 i grew up around traditional rods, i know more then you think.

 

You need to take more water with it!

 

You sayed it traditonal rods. hot rods ... rice burners are not and cannot be hot rods...

 

The question of this thread is pretty vague. I mean, when someone says hot rod, nearly every person has a different vision in their head about what a hot rod is. If you're one of the bloated belly kids in a third world country and someone says hot rod, you'd probably think of a goat with a gold chain around it's neck. If you're Amish, you'd probably think of a buggy being pulled by clydesdales.

I think that in the United States, for a vehicle to be considered a traditional hot rod, then it must be a domestic vehicle

That's just my view of the whole thing. Yours may be different.

 

Hotrod joe =just like the outher kid you don't know a hot rod from a clydesdale. Hot rods are pre 49 domestic cars. The style was set in the 30's and 40's by the grandfathers of hot rodding and is not up for debate. You can put a 350 in a honda it will be fast put it's not a hot rod.

 

Did you read my post? I said, that in the United States for a vehicle to be a traditional hot rod it must be a domestic vehicle.

Also, I hate hondas. In my opinion, Americans that buy foreign cars are communists bent on destroying the American economy from the inside.

 

Your use of vague, is why I went off .

 

First of all, I love VWs-- lately ive been driving mine a lot. And... my Ghia actually influences me on things like my Cadillac-- one piece flowing body, etc (don't tell anyone, lol) project-- as the body style / flow is so great. I'll misbehave and corrupt this post with a pic...

That said, VWs are not hot rods. VWs have their own great tradition with the early Cal Look, Der Kleiner Panzer cars, etc. I hate when folks try to make a VW a Ford...



-scott noteboom

 

And we've already established as FACT that hot rods in the US were built from whatever people had on hand, and that a number of them were built from foreign body shells, like Fiats and Anglias. Therefore, you're wrong. Had there been more cheap foreign bodies available, there would have been more foreign based hot rods. But, coming off of WWII, we had pretty much destroyed the economies of Germany and Japan, so there wasn't much tin coming from those areas of the world, and there hadn't been much pre-war tin available from those countries before the war. It just happened to be a matter of circumstance that most hot rods were built out of cheap domestic cars. But when cheap foreign bodies were available, they were, in fact, used to build hot rods from.

As an interesting tidbit, my Andy Southard book, Custom Cars from the '50s, has a page with a crazy scallop painted Renault 4CV on the streets of California in the late '50s, so even customs were being built from foreign cars when available.

Jesus. And we're supposed to actually listen to people like you?

Buying a 50+ year old car is no more helpful to the American economy than buying a brand new made in Japan car. You really think Ford or GM are helped out when you buy a Duece? Buying used does NOT support the manufacturer, regardless of brand. The ONLY way to support the manufacturer is to buy new, and buy new every year. Have you done that lately? If not, your used domestic car is just as much a detriment to the US economy as my used Fiat.

Foreign manufacturers are spending billions in the US by building factories here, empolying American workers and using American suppliers. Their profits go into R&D right here in the US. Domestic manufacturers are spending billions in setting up factories in other countries, employing foreign workers. Their profits have gone to buying overseas brands, like Aston Martin, Jaguar, Volvo, Alfa, Mazda, etc. as well as doing R&D work in other countries.

Maybe you're just talking about executive salaries. I'm glad you're more concerned with the Domestic executive's villa in the south of France than the Japanese executive's condo in Vail, CO, but that's a very tiny portion of overal operating costs and neither one really help the economies of their respective nations. Factories, the worker's wages, operating expenses, suppliers, etc are the real picture, and the fact is, Honda, Toyota, BMW and Mercedes have put billions into the US economy buy building factories here, and using US sourced suppliers, which directly impacts the economies of the communities and states those factories are operating in. Property and B&O taxes, utilities, facilites services (like plumbers, electricians, food service vendors, etc), local stores supported by the spending of the wages of the factory workers, local housing markets, etc, everything involved with the infrastructure of a facility employing thousands of people. A far cry from "destroying American from the inside."

Sorry for the long post, but I really cannot stand the kind of closed minded ignorance that passes for "opinion" in this sort of forum. I'm 45, and I've been involved in this hobby/genre since I was like 5 years old. I've learned a lot in that time, and there's always more to learn. I like learning more from the older guys. But, I really hate to have to say to myself, "well, this person's opinion is based on so much ignorance that I can't take anything they have to say seriously."

Fact is, hot rodders in the '50s were young guys making faster cars from the cheap economy cars laying around, or doing cosmetic modifications on brand new cars. Hating on and insulting people doing the exact same thing today is closed minded and disrespectful. And I can't respect someone who acts that way. Build what you like, but don't disrespect someone else for building what they like. For the most part, we keep our non-traditional rides off the board, and only talk about our traditional ones. But this thread's question is a valid one, even in the context of a traditionalist forum. It's truly sad that this sort of question brings out the worst character traits in our genre, and not the best.

 

It's no different than the earliest customizers trying to make their Fords into Packards, Caddys or some other upscale car.....

 

............and if you recall in "Hollywood Knights" there actually was a chopped-top VW in several scenes at "Tubby's". Would that be a hot rod?