As I has said before, I am new to Hot Rods as a hobby. I have always loved cars, both old and new, but recently, my tastes have begun to change. When I found the HAMB, I had recently attended a car show where I saw the truck that inspired me to purchase my own project, despite my lack of experience. The truck was a 57 F100 with a new engine out of a recent model Mustang. It had 20" chrome rims and a bunch of custom options. I was inspired by this truck. I loved it! I posted some pics of it, along with pics of my project truck, and was a little taken aback by the negative responses. I couldn't believe that the HAMBers didn't love that truck as much as I did. Some were a little more diplomatic about it, saying it was nice, but that it just wasn't a "traditional" Hot Rod. Others, well, others were less than friendly with their responses, but that's OK too. I wasn't deterred. Well, I am still moving forward with my project, and although some of my tastes are still outside the bounds of what is considered traditional, leaning more towards street rods, more and more I find that my tastes are being influenced by the HAMB. Last night I attended a parade for show cars of all styles. Earlier in the day, I attended a show with over 800 cars. While my taste in cars has not changed in terms of the eras that I enjoy, my taste in the builds has. I have always enjoyed a very eclectic range of cars. My favorites have always been trucks of any kind, up to the early 70's. As for cars, I really like the Model A Hot Rods, and then my taste seems to jump quite a few years into the 50's and 60's, with muscle cars holding my attention as well. One personal change that I noticed throughout the day yesterday and during the parade last night, was that for me, the bling of modern chrome wheels simply no longer have any place on older cars. Actually, I don't even think they look good on newer cars, but they really stick out like a sore thumb on anything that is considered "old". 20" rims on a late 60's Mustang would not have bothered me a year ago. Last night, I found the set-up to be offensive. I couldn't believe how much it offended my senses. I commented on it to my wife to the point of annoyance. Like I said, my 57100 (at this point) is still scheduled to get some more modern comforts, which are outside the bounds of traditional Hot Rods, I can assure you than it will have a more traditional look to it. No 20" rims for this dude! Who knows, maybe if I hang out here long enough, I'll even go with a dropped axle instead of an IFS. OK, probably not, but no bags. We can at least agree on that! Oh yeah, one more thing. Rat Rods suck. Always have.... always will. I found I hated them as much as I hated the '66 Mustangs with 20" rims. Yeah, there were plenty of each.
Finally seeing the TRADITIONAL light is a good thing, and the big wheels look terrible on just about everything, especially vintage iron. Many vintage parts are of very good quality, and reuseing/recycling them is where it's at. A traditional ride done correctly will NEVER go out of favor or style, and money spent here is money well invested.
Until the guys who grew up with them die off, and the younger generation (without any emotional attachment to them) "don't get it".
Anybody who calls it an INVESTMENT has got to be delusioinal. It is a hobby and you spend your money to enjoy yourself. Doing it RIGHT is another story. It pays to do it right both in the level of your satisfaction and those of the others that will look at your project. Doing it WRONG is what rat rodders do, on purpose or not!
I don't remeber exactly what brought me to the hamb, I belive I was looking for interior ideas and stumbled on the sight, can't remeber now. However I also found the "rat" rod sight at the same time. I remember at the time I wanted to build a cheap hot rod and I used this and the rat site to "learn" what it would take to build a cheap hot rod. The first rod I built is my truck, which has the ifs and 18's, lots of polished aluminum, stainless and chrome, nice paint and nice interior, lots of store bought parts. I love the truck, and although it is not a trailer queen, I am still hesitant to walk away from it at a show for fear of some ass walking up and scratching it. Fast forward to now, I have a model a coupe, which with hunting and digging and patience, i have collected almost all the parts I need, including the flathead, aluminum heads, tripower, and quickchange for a for 1/20 of what I have in the truck. Now on to the relevant part of the story. I rarely visit the other web site now, however this weekend I jumped on there and looked at pictures of some of the model a's that people are building there, and realized within 3 minutes why I have shyed away from there; the rat rods are sub par quality and really are a disgrace to the sheet metal used. I will never knock someone for attempting to build something, hell we all have to learn at some point, but to build a dangerous piece of shit and leave it that way is just lazy. I guess the hamb has opened my eyes to not only the nostalgic aspect of hot rodding, but also the reason people look down on the rat rod seen. I get pissed when people ask if I am building a rat rod, but I stay calm about it. A couple years ago I was ignorant to hot rodding also
I still like 17" to 19" wheels on a hotrod. I do see myself starting to like white walls now though. If i have the money i'll be running a set of 17" in the front and 18" in the back of my 52 chevy when the time comes though. I kinda like the smoothies on the 52 chevy amsoil car.
I think that as time keeps slipping into the future that traditional hot rodding's true bench mark will become more evident and will encompass more later model vehicle types, rodding evades all trends, rodding has a focus towards simplicity in design or the elution there in, rodding has a definite goal towards safe function and general user friendliness, these traits will be applied to later model cars as time moves forward but the movement will remain in tact.
You can't expect everyone to have the same tastes, but I still think there's something "right" about traditional rods & customs. That said, the '57-'60 F100s are cool trucks, and I actually think they make a good canvas to lend themselves to many different styles. My old '60: (now sold to another HAMBer)
I like this look. I just cant get over it. On the other hand im starting to like white walls on a lowered 52 as well thanks to the H.A.M.B. Tall skinny white walls will probally be what i run do to money issues.
I think you're realising that the Hamb taste is timeless, and that 20" wheels are (hopefully) a passing fad. The Hamb has fads too, like satin paint for example, but generally speaking the Hamb is timeless. Street rods tend to look dated after a few years, and often their owners dont care. The Hamb is dated to start with, and we are in the minority in the rodding world, but our dated look is timeless because it's not generally fad driven, it's tradition driven.
The Jalopy Journal
