In the past, we've had many a post on inspiring ideas gathered from outside the traditional hot rod and custom world. Today, I thought I would feature a specific idea that Silva and I stumbled upon just the other night while thumbing through a recen... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
I am planning on stealing a few ideas from the 1952 Indy cars you had posted a couple weeks ago. I am trying to do my best so that I can keep my hood sides on my '31 Chevy while running a 331 Hemi. I seen a few blisters and side scoops that may fit the bill in that thread and I am not ashamed to steal a few ideas from the masters.
Older European cars have had the spare plugs on the firewall for a long time.. that cord probably stole that idea in the first place. here's a pic of a 1914 Rolls Royce http://www.silverghostskiff.com/newphoto9.htm That wooden box is a typical place to have plugs and a few tools
an idea i havent stole yet, but plan on stealing is Norwells overhead dash in his diamond duece pickup http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=208585&highlight=diamond+duece&page=2
Here's an idea I stole from 50's sportscars, the dropped door top. Turned out to be an elegant & unusual solution to an ugly problem. Problem #1, according to the tape, my 29 chrysler body is about 12 inches too long thru the doors and quarters. It'll never reach hot rod proportions like this. So it's time for scratch built doors and 7 inches out of the quarters. That solution created a new problem. The part of the quarters cut off had a curve on the top, and transitioned the cowl's wide body line into the tub's thin body lines. Plus there's a height step. Well, here's where the stealing comes in. I had em move the transition forward onto the doors. The car will use a 55/56 chrysler dash which wraps around and has to blend into the door tops. Moving the step not only throws a period styling theme into the car, it allows the dash to flow like part of the exterior. At this point I see it in my head, but everyone with good taste winces and whispers about my sanity. Denny Jamison was tasked with blending the dash into the doors, and he took the idea to a whole nother lever by increasing the height & length of the sports car transition and wrapping it inward. A weird little design quirk has turned into a central feature of the car. Now the ****pit wraps around you with an airplane feel, and the curves are so flowing EVERYONE who sees it practically strokes the car like a living being. Those little coves in the door tops blend right into the dash curves. Wish I had better pics, it has a beautifully sweeping line in profile Now if I could just steal something equally awesome for the tail lights
My first thought seeing the back of the car in the pic says "58 Impala". Where the rear body line curves downward. That dash transition looks sweet! Big hell yeah!
The plug rack reminds me of guys with Chryslers mounting mutiple ballast resistors on the firewall knowing they'd be needed eventually Shifty, DAMN NICE work on that roadster!! Flatman
It's not a great idea unless someone steals it and expands on it. I've always thought that the early coach built and racing cars were great sources for design ideas. My usual thought when looking at most anything is "how could that be used on a hotrod or custom. Lately I have been collecting photos of two seat Indy style cars out of the 20's and 30's for inspiration for a project that has long been on the back burner. If you stay within the boundaries that some on the HAMB set for traditional cars you will have a car with no original ideas. every detail on the car would duplicate the details on cars from th 48's or early 50's Maybe not the same car but each detail item could be traced back to it's roots. And yuppers I just saved that last photo that Shifty posted in my collection of photos for that car. A couple of ideas there worth saving for later reference.
A buddy of mine has access to the airplane graveyard here in Tucson. After looking at some of the old B-52 bombers up close I noticed they had all kinds of cool fuel filters, oil filters mounted in the wings underskin. We were able to talk our friend into letting us buy some. In fact he took us in a storeroom where he had hundreds of these still in the old paper packages and the certs from 1960 to go along with. The filters are cast from aluminum complete with a metal tag riveted to the part. The bowl is spun and safety wired to the housing. I ended up mounting one on my firewall. I will post some pictures soon.
I plan to kind of steal the "Backseat Betty" dash idea for my 37 Chevy pickup. There is all sorts of ideas from the Indy styled Moal roadster, Miller cars, Pinkees cars, POSIES cars and Hollywood cars that I am throwing around.
" ...The earliest known semblance of a rear-view mirror mounted on a motor vehicle appeared in Ray Harroun's Marmon racecar at the inaugural Indianapolis 500 race in 1911..." (wikipedia) OHV Buicks in the teens had an oil can in a clip on the firewall to oil the rockers every 100 miles or so. Then there's the "invention" of the spare tire...
I am not for sure you could call it stealing or maybe you could.But i finished my first rod shortly a while back and the majority of the ideals and tricks i used to complete my project i got here off the HAMB from pics and old fashion post with request for info.I guess you could call it good old fashion theiving....Worked for me!!!!!
I use a lot of the suspension set ups and geometrys from off road racing. Excample the Mickey Thompson Stadium Trucks used to sit about 3 to 4 inchs off the ground at normal stance, but had abut 18 to 20 inchs of travel. Also a lot of the cooling systems used in score and baja series stuff is pretty trick.
"Stealing" an idea can also involve paint schemes and electrical wiring. (Routing as well as components themselves)
That is a good idea. It reminds me of an article I read in some magazine years ago (on an AD Chevy truck, I think) that had a metal headliner fit in (another roof, or something). Thanks, Kurt
By no means elegant, but I stole this idea from a local circle-track racer. It solved a mounting problem and will end up looking pretty cool once I sand and paint the piece of road sign on the cable and the base, and get some new wires. It's a home depot turnbuckle, bottom hook replaced by a bolt through the body and a keeper nut.
I'm not sure how many fresh good ideas are possable in a scene based on retrospect. Every car and cycle that I've owned has been based on whats come before. New ideas are overated, I spend most of my time fixing them every day.
I wouldnt say that they are over rated, new ideas are hard to come by. Most people use lessons learned from other fields or walks of life to apply to they want or need. While doing that if you come across a way to improve or make it better, no harm no foul. Somebody somewhere might have done it already, but remember that innovation is born upon improvement. Besides who doesnt love to tinker with **** and imagine.
You should be here in Minnesota in the winter. EVERY two cycle snowmobile has a place to store an extra set of plugs.
ive been inspired by stuff like old dirt cars&even stuff newer dirt cars use,like some of the stuff in speed way!
I'm amazed that they had spare plugs at all. I once had a Ford prefect, that came with every receipt for every Penny spent on it. In the mid fifties, a set of 4 spark plugs cost more than an engine rebuild As for stolen ideas, I'm going to use one of my junk ch***is upside down and under slung. One day
By overated I'm refering to modern tech. as used in 2008 model cars, not inovative solutions to "old school" problems.
I imagine 'back in the day' I would've been a pretty smart cookie. Over and over again for the last 25 years I'll come up with something I think is way kool and then a buddy will show me where it's been done before. Here I'm thinking I'm some innovative whizz just to have it pointed out I'm not. I figure, at this rate, sooner or later I'll do something no one's done before and I can enjoy my achievement for more than one damn day. (shut up and let me enjoy my wishful thinking)
O/T, but I did do something I'm pretty certain that hadn't been done before. 1 man, one actuator, one dream, 12 years, 5 tries. Without a degree or a computer, it was like pushing rope,
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