Would You Consider A Component "Traditional"...

...if it was available "back in the day", but maybe not popular, or seldom used?...like, disc brakes were around in the '50's, as were, air bags, (air springs---for large trucks), rack-n-pinion steering, (the 'Uncetain T' used one),etc....

...or, would it have had to have been used by the majority to qualify?

 

Are you afraid of ******* off the trad police? If you want to use it, then use it.

 

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Don't confuse for "vintage". Also, components available today do not equal components available then. For example, it is a real stretch from Mustang II disc brake to Kelsey Hayes disc brakes. I'm pretty sure you'll be disappointed with the answers that your about to get.

 

What are you planning on using that wouldn't be considered traditional? I noticed your avatar, if that is the car and you are planning on upgrading with disc brakes, air bags,etc. then don't worry about being traditional! (Kinda like no blood, no foul if you catch my drift!)

 

Crusty, not worried about ******* off the Trad Police, I usually do what I want...
Scotty, good observation about the difference between "traditional", and "vintage", I agree with the Mustang II/Kelsey Hayes comparison, but, what about early Hurst Airheart calipers & hats?...
Rick, nothing particular in mind, just thinking out loud maybe...

 

I dunno. Send that stuff down here for inspection and I'll see what I can do to help out...

 

Who gives a ****? This board is loosely defined as pre Mid 60s. If you can use the part and make it work in a hotrod, more power to ya! If you are trying to p*** off 70s **** as a Traditional early hotrod then you are wrong.

 

And like Scotty said, I can put that Hurst Airhart stuff to use since it aint trad in your brain

 

If you want to use the disc brakes use em, I know it's not traditional,but they invented em for a reason. it is nice to be able to stop.

 

I'm running disk brakes. Pretty handy shutting down from 115 in the 1/4. Generally the guys that have given me **** about the disks didn't have a running hot rod.

 

Tman...I always love and dig your reply's!...wasn't sayin' I thought the Hurst disc brake setup wasn't trad, it is, from a mid-late '60's perspective...I have a '57 Chevy g***er project that was started around '67-'68, and never finished, ( I found it and bought it in '82)...in the trunk was a box with the Hurst/Airheart, (Airhart?) brakes for the early Olds rear...

I was just thinking, that, "technically", if those parts were available back then, someone "may" have used them on a car, making them "traditionally legal"...

Great comeback Scotty!!!

 

Most of the so-called traditional cars I see on here aren't traditional at all.

Even some of the cars that were built back in the day did what hot rods have always done . . . that being to break the mold and break off from the pack and follow their own thing.

Not accepted by some and others liked it.

Geezus, nobody back in the day worried about fitting into a pre-conceived set of self-imposed rules.

Show up at the drive-in and the guys either liked your car or didn't.
And if your car could kick **** on the other guys car he didn't say much one way or the other.

Hot rods have always been about HP and the simple rule of "Too much is not enough."

Too much PC type worrying goes on here imo....

 

if its done right and works safe , i dont think anyone would give a **** ..

 

im running disc brakes on my 54 ford....but you cant see it from looking at the car unless your under it. im all about tradition but in the same breath it is nice to be able to stop in a panic if you need to, also electronic ignition is also nice for those trouble free starts. i know people are going to say if you keep your drum brakes adjusted they work fine but id still rather have disc. unless its a open wheeled car then id stay with drums. but as people have said on here time and time again screw what people think build the car for you to have fun with. now that im done with my rant just my .02 for what its worth.....................john

 

traditional cars are more than just parts from a certain era. it's an overall look and feel.

say you wanted to build a 34 hiboy like it was 1950. well I bet someone somewhere put the front suspension from a 50 chevy in a 34 when the suspension was new. (I actualy saw one in a 36 or so truck) that would not be traditional

I think I'm sick of the word traditional.

 

Disc brakes were used in WW 2 on aircraft and some armoured vehicles. Invented in 1902.

 

I'm not sure what the question is...but if the answer is the car in your avatar, then you're on the right track, Bro!!

 

C9...I can dig it, totally agree...
Hack, the shoebox in the avatar is a WAY down the road project, but will get disc brakes, and, yes, probably bags...it'll just look "traditional" on the outside...this thread wasn't pertaining to an actual build, but rather, a "what if"?

 

You answered your own question! Keep us posted.

 

Oh, not traditional but "traditional". Kinmonts, Chrysler Imperial Discs(4 wheel too),and other versions like cable-operated Crosley disc brakes, were there and not used much...why? Cost(high dollar), availability(not readily), lack of install kits(HAH),sometimes the available new technology is not the best technology in the real world.

 

well i bought disc brakes for my topolino..traditional??depends on the era..in the late 60's early 70's when i was a teen, i saw topolino's at the track alot and they ran no brakes up front..but as the aa/fa's started to fade, i did see a few with brakes up front..so i guess to keep it propper it would depend on what "era" of traditional ya wanna be...but hey, like said above, build what ever ya want...i am...it's mine...

 

Who cares whats traditional or not on YOUR car?

 

pasadenahotrod, that's what I was talkin' about, those particular brakes were available back then, but just rarely used, (if at all!), for just the reasons you stated...which would still make them right for a late '40's -- late '50's period hot rod...

choppintops, "IF" I were building a traditional, "period correct" car, "I" would worry about it...

 

Just make sure that your car is safe and well built......

 

I think that vintage, period-correct add-ons are what its all about! If you can find some "vintage" speed parts, then go for it, or just do whatever you want. In my current build, I am using all new technology underneath, but keeping everything that you see original looking. Is that a traditional rod? No, but it will look traditional while keeping myself and my family save and comfortable.
At some point all of this stuff will be unobtainum, so modern parts will find their way in somehow, at some time.

Mark

 

Fat Hack's comment hits it right on.

Got some more pics of your "lowered" Shoebox?

 

...they've been posted before, but here ya go...

 

Is it traditional to use a computer and the internet to argue about what's traditional?

 

My view - if you can find a single example of it back in the day - it's allowable as period correct.

Kinda like the independent front suspension run by Al Barnes on his 29 roadster at the lakes in 1949 - I wonder how many of the Hamb trad police would get their ******* in a knot if you fronted with that today.

ref: Hot Rods in the Forties, by Don Montgomery, pg 114

 

Precisely! I love to see the gents with the "100% traditional" rides posing next to it with their cell phones clipped to their belts. Get real!