How'd you get into hotrods?

I know this has probably been asked before, but im kinda curious. How'd you get into building hotrods.

Me personally, i dont really know. Nobody in my family is into old cars at all, let alone even own one. Iv just always loved old cars, and over the years been asorbing as much knowledge as possible. Soon as i bout my 42' dodge, i got bit. I eventually got my brother into it, and we bought a rightious 53' Mercury. Now we started our own club, and am getting other people into this as well. A life long friend of mine, with no mechanical knowledge, but the want to own an old car since seeing my collection, just got into this as well. I sweetened the deal for him, and sold him 2 1958 chevy Apache pickup trucks for his first project. Im willing to help anyone thats interested, as long as they are willing to work. I can honestly say that i have affected the lifes of at least 5 people, and got them eithor back into, or into building cars and hotrods, all while instilling good taste to boot.

And yet im still the wierd kid that dresses like a greaser at school. Ha!


Whats ya'lls stories?

 

It all started with an 67 MGB with knock-off wire wheels and a 283...

 

Late 1963, I'm still a kid in high school, sitting in the local doctor's surgery flicking through the magazines. I come across a mag with cars I've never seen the like of before, the October 1963 'roadster' issue of Car Craft!

OK, I'll admit it, I 'liberated' the magazine, read it a zillion times, then went down the street and bought a 1934 Chev moredor sitting in an old bloke's back yard for $4. It took me weeks to save up that $4 from my pocket money let me tell you.

Been hooked ever since.

Cheers, Glen.

 

How I started in the Netherlands? Just by reading magazine’s and really interested in technique in general. But I don’t know if it is really hotrodding. Yes it is going to be a Ford32-B. Nope it is not a “standard” chassis. No straight axles or a 350 combo. Never have been to a hotrod car show meeting. And never driven (or as a passenger) a hotrod
At the moment designing and building a tubular chassis. Bought in the UK a glass body, grill, hood and imitation chassis rails. Rebuild a V6 2.9Liter injection with a t9 manual gearbox. Basically everything I know about cars/hotrods is knowledge gathered by surfing the Hamb an the NSRA.<o></o>
Getting a car registered that is build from scratch is nearly impossible here. So keep on posting here guys! <o></o>

 

How'd you get into hotrods?

through the door!

 

My father was into old cars.Mostly Model A's
So I grew up around old cars and learned to work on them.
Had Muscle cars during High school.Bought a Model A after that.
I've had some type of old Hot Rod ever since.Currently have a 31
Coupe,chopped and channeled.
Could'nt see my life any other way

 

I blame this guy..

 

As a youngen, my dad took me to the stock car races in Hawaii. I loved the modifieds more than anything I saw, with their cut down bodies, big motors and tires, skilled drivers and higher speeds. When the AMT 3-1 Deuce kits came out, I built a lot of them into mini-race car verions of those modifieds. I also built a few of the more traditional Monogram 1/32 Deuce roadster kits into street rods. Drag or land speed racing had no influence because I hadn't been exposed to those forms of racing yet. But from a young kid on, I just liked souped up cars that went fast, cornered hard and had drivers that weren't afraid to poke their noses into a pack to see what advantage they could get. Because of those models and the stock car racing in Hawaii, I got hooked on modified, fast cars of all kinds without ever actually seeing a real hot rod in person first! Gary

 

I blame this Guy!

 

My Dad, got me my first car when I was 8, my first A when I was 12. He figured that would help slow down the hormones. It worked for a while, but I was bitten and the rest is history. Still building at 70, and just about ready to get her on the road. Iceman

 

One of my uncles gave me a hot rodmagazine (Australian street rodder, with a T model coupe on the cover) about 18 years ago and i have been hooked ever since.
moondog

 

It was hotrods or inherit my Dad's precious Nash Ambassodor 4dr - any questions?

Even as far back as 6th grade - I had the influence of an upperclassman. Guy named Tony Tellier (now a noteworthy offroad racer/writer in the SW) guided me through balsa flying models and then he came home one day with a 41 Ford coupe in a nice sky blue. V8, twice pipes...

Slightly later, it was the sketches and personal cars of a gentleman that has been discussed in here - Roy Delaney (RIP). I was a pimply-faced kid in the 8th grade working in a hobby shop and he (a HIGH SCHOOL guy) came in to purchase some fixative for his pencil sketches. He took the time to allow me to peruse his sketchbook as he explained how the modifications would be made, etc. There were roadsters, coupes, custom renderings of contemporary vehicles. That was it...I sold/gave away my HO railroad setup to the neighbor kid and started saving money for MY hot rod. Got me a 47 Merc about a year later, and I haven't found the end of the road yet.

Thanks for asking.

"I don't suffer from insanity - I enjoy every minute of it"

dj

 

I bought a 1960 Car Craft magazine.....I've had this sickness since then...I havent found a cure as of yet.......Bill

 

1981 I was cruising hwy 100 outside of Milwaukee in my 67 camaro. I stopped at a red light in the inside lane with a cop in the outside lane next to me. Catty corner from me was a 32 coupe- red and supercharged. The light turned green and the coupe fried the tires through the intersection. The cop couldn't do a thing and I had a grin I couldn't get off my face. I saw the car parked at a Mcdonald's later that night and must have stared the shine right off the thing. I've been dreaming hotrods ever since.

 

All ways been into things mechanical.even in baby pics of me,had a toy car in hand.
In 1946 I bought a new "Whizzer" motor bike to throw my paper route with.First issuse of "Hot Rod"magazine 1947 or 48 dont remember exactly which year it was.but have been into,building, buying,trading or any thing connected with them ever since.Dont regret a day of it.Met some of the finest people because of it too!

 

My Dad bought this car as a shell in 1980 when I was 8 years old. He always wanted to build a hot rod but never had the means when he was younger. This pic is from about 1984 when it was finished. I've been hooked ever since.

 

My dad was a car guy who even had built an underslung roadster with his bud Lyle Browning when they were teenagers but what really got me started was seeing a magazine called HOT ROD in the hands of one of the "older kids" on the bookmobile as a fifth grader on Bainbridge island. Wa. I found a copy to check out and was instantly hooked and waiting for the next time the bookmobile came to exchange that one for another. My birthday present from my grandmother from then till 1975 was a subscription .
My first car when I was 16 was a 51 Merc coupe that I bought from the wood shop teacher (Chuck Darlington) and kept for 32 years. It's still out cruising as a not so hamb friendly custom with it's current owner.

 

My Dad had a 1933 ford pickup, I played in it and grew up with it in the garage.....I have had alot of cars and hotrods over the years but the 33 pickup is in my garage today......So it's my Dad's fault.........

 

My dad built racing flares, hoods and trunks out of fiberglass for a bunch of guys that ran Alfa Romeos in the SCCA circuit. That was 25-30 years ago, I remember getting to sit in the driver seat while they pushed the car into the staging area and to get weighed in. Dad also had a few, I would sit in between mom and dad and could push my way back into the covertible area, moms backside of her arm was my seat belt.
How did she not ever knock me out is beyond me.

 

The Devil made me do it.

No, not really. I always loved cars....but one day as a kid I was riding in the back seat of my parents car and saw Gibby Haynes flamed Chevy FLYING the other direction. I remember it like it was yesterday. Possibly the coolest thing I've ever seen. I think that's where it began.

 

I always liked customs, but I noticed alot of girls liked to ride in hot rods, so I knew I had to have one...and now two of those

 

about 13 a friend father took us to a antique cars show in a stock model a sedan then i got a job in a candy store , when there was nothing to do i would read all the hot rod mags. and of course my older brother went out and bought a 57 chevy its all down hill from there old cars and old motorcycles

 

I saw that CheaterChris had a chopped shoebox, so I got one.

Then I saw his black sedan and so I built an all black hot rod.

Now I'm in the process of trying to get an appointment with his tattoo artists so i can get matching sleeves!

 

...my dad drove old cars as a necessity and I always liked em, he also took me & my brothers to the local dirt track stock car races every Sat. nite in the 50's,where I got infatuated with those old coupes & sedans....and those cool old push trucks,
...been hooked ever since.

 

My Dad and Uncle polluted my young mind.

 

My Dad worked part time in the evenings at his buddies custom shop. Joe Imbrognio from Steelton PA, built and painted customs since the 50's. All their friends drove customs with big motors in them. I hung around the shop with Joe's kids since we were 4 or 5 years old. They never took us to a car show but we would go to every kind of race, Sprint cars at Williams Grove, the Hershey hill climbs, Indy cars at Pocono.........

Joe started glueing wrecked Vettes back together that were shipped here from all over the country. In the mid 60's they all sold their customs and bought Vettes as drivers and started building kit cars on veedub pans....that was the beginning of the end in my opinion. Joe got involved with airplanes and moved to Florida in the 80's.

His son Buddy took over the shop, by that time we were into Vettes, but always loved the customs. We started many cars over the next few years but someone needed them more than us, before they were finished and on the road. We sold them after we did the body work. We would find another junker and dumped the extra money we made into our Vettes.

I opened my shop in '98. Four years ago I decided we needed a different shop truck so we sold the '70 chevy truck to build a custom. This time my 12 year old son and I got it on the road before we started cutting up the body, we've been driving it everywhere ever since and working on it a little at a time.


R.I.P. Joe Imbrognio

 

1959 I was 6 years old. Older cuz moved in with us because he was going to school in our town. He was into hot rods. His first car was a 36 Ford 5 window that he shaved and put electric door poppers on. He had a 56 Chevy when he lived with us and he got me started down the path by getting me to hold wrenches for him while he tightend fasteners. Been a car junkie ever since.

 

i was born into it . no choice as im not the brightest bulb in the box ! but wouldnt trade it for anything ! ............ DAHR ....... thx .. steve

 

Well, my grandfather was an old school hot-rodder. He had the Model A's with the souped up Flatheads, but I was never around to witness any of this because my grandfather can't help but sell things off to buy new things, so by the time I showed up all this stuff was gone.

My dad, who had a very big influence on my introduction to the car scene, was a hardcore Ford guy, (as was my grandfather) because Ford was involved in Le Mans and different kinds of road racing. My dad used to have Mustangs and all that, but when I was around he had (and he still has it) a '58 Ranchero that he and his friend built. My dad also has several Ford Mercury Capris, which he races.

So then there's me. My dad took me and my brothers to car shows when we were young. I don't remember when exactly, but I remember getting it in my head that I wanted a '60 Cadillac Coupe DeVille. I saw some really clean ones at shows, and I knew that's what I wanted. I would have been maybe 14 at this time. So over the next year I was looking for a project. Ended up finding a well-priced '57 Buick Super (56R) from a guy here on the HAMB. I ended up buying that, and I'm still wrenching on it. I've done a lot to it. Then I bought the '63 Buick Electra 225. Kind of looking to do a custom.

Anyway, while all this land-yacht purchasing was going on, I continued to go to shows, and I started seeing these "rat rods" pop up. I'm pretty sure I was instantly hooked. I liked the edginess of it all, it was really cool to see "rat rod" cars when everything I'd seen prior to that had been Billet-esque stuff. I respect traditional rods, and I think a lot of them are cool, but since I'm still young, I'm definitely going to get a rat rod.

I'm actually going to go look at a T today, wish me luck, guys!

 

Double-post... that's not supposed to happen.