Things Weren't Always Better Back in the Day!

"Back in the Day..." has become synonymous for something desirable or to be emulated, but that's not always the case, as I think these photo's demonstrate.

I acquired a pretty decent old Model A frame that had supposedly been part of a hot rod project many years ago. It came with front and rear springs, a front axle, and some spindles. But take note of (1) how much of the webbing had been cut out of the axle, (2) the "pigeon shit" welds on both some mounting tabs on the axle itself, (3) how the homemade bat wings were welded to the wishbone yokes, and (4) how long the spring perch bushings must have been totally worn out to allow the main leaf to wear such deep grooves in the top of the axle. To think that someone drove around on this suspension, cuttin' donuts, and maybe haulin' kids is pretty scary.

We're probably living in the second "Golden Age" of hot rodding. The first age is obvious, but not since the days of Doane Spenser, Doyle Gammell, et al have there been as many high quality traditionally-styled hot rods around. The combination of professional builders, a strong aftermarket, mature and refined aesthtic sensibilities, and simply more available bucks means there's probably more truly outstanding cars being turned out these days than at any other time in hot rod history.

Unfortunately ... not all cars -- then or now -- conform to high standards of craftsmanship.

 

wow that is amazing! i got an old drop axle from back then and instaed of bending the steering arms down they stick welded these extensions on the tie rod ends to drop em. kinda hard to exlpian , maaybe ill take a pic of them.

 

pretty scary stuff, but, like you said, unfortunately there are still people building shit without safety in mind. kinda gotta wonder why.

 

Wow, that's scary lookin'!!!

 

Know what you mean. Built a very fast 32 Coupe in 67 using galvanized water pipe for drag link and tie rods, no shocks, no seat belts, etc.

I am lucky to have survived that one!

 

Mine was the same, when I cut the extentions off there was ZERO penetration, just goober welds on top of toothpaste welds!

 

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Yep..That sounds pretty scary. At least ya' didn't have to
worry about your homemade 'galvanized wate' pipe' drag
link and tie rods rusting. Breaking yes...but at least not
rusting!!!

Mart3406
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well said, if you cant weld, leave it to some one who can!

 

I think what you have there was the start of a "back in the day" or "golden age" rat rod project!

 

The problem is they don't/won't recognize the fact they can't.

Alex.

 

Honestly I think that the HAMB and other boards have brought cars up several notches. I used to hoard books and magazines for any info I could get and I learned more important information in my first year on the HAMB than the 40 years prior to that. (And there used to be a LOT of B.S. and misinformation out there - sometimes repeated to me by guys who'd been into cars for decades.)

 

I wouldnt say everyone that dont know but tries to weld just fudges their way through it. I have no clue how to weld and realizing that early on helped me in the long run. I begged, pleaded, and now owe a huge debt to a good friend (future family member) for the assistance he has given me on numerous tasks. One of them being welding oddball parts and pieces up. Some things that are non supporting non structural, and not important things I would have at least given it a shot. Why screw up a critical part of your build when it takes 3 minutes to call someone who knows and you get it done right? I used to be very proud and never called people for help, but building this truck has opened my eyes to the error in my ways and probably saved many parts on my truck from being cobbled together.

I would also say that the overall level of builds has improved over the years. I would bet it has a lot to do with more exposure and more attention paid to these cars. I personally see this trend continuing into the future...hopefully the prices on some of the parts drops soon though! I would like to build an Ardun flatty without having to take out a second mortgage!

 

I think the only thing that could have been better about "back in the day" was the availability of original parts and cool speed equip.

 

The catch phrase "Remember when Sex was Safe and Hot Rods were Dangerous?" came from somewhere, right?

 

Yeah, it was simply terrible having to live through the fifties and sixties. Simply terrible...

 

I got a lot of the same thing on my bucket, pretty much the whole chassis was deemed unfit to work on by me. And I'll try to salvage almost anything.

 

Not gonna happen. Buy stuff as you afford it. If you sit on the fence, you'll lose out and pay more in the end.

 

That is the funniest post I've seen all week! (but the week is still young.)

 

Very interesting perspective you bring up about the quality of hot rods today versus the golden years that most us long to have been a part of.

 

I've long stopped trying to compare the "old days" with today..............no comparison. Everything is better today with the exception of available old tin and we can thank the war scrap drives and stock car racing for much of that. There are many times the number of hot rods on the road today as back then and thanks to the after market most are much safer, faster and handle better than the predecessors.

Frank

 

I saw the rebuild of the Bob H merc or Jim mcneals Merc if you will and the way Barris C notched the rear frame scared the hell out of me 20 MPH would have killed the car.

 

Yep..the good ol' days weren't all that good when we started to build a "hot rod", but we didn't know that then. I'm sure I would have given my buddy's left nut to have been able to log on to the HAMB when I was installing a dropped axle in my first car, a 40 coupe in 1954. I'm sure some guy told me I had to bend the spindles or I just figured it out when the tie rod wouldn't fit. We did know how to weld though. Any guy who put together a car with bad welds was a dipshit then as today. The big positive difference between my beginner hot rod days and my son's are the Internet, the magazines and maybe most important, the aftermarket suppliers. Don't throw too many rocks..all a lot of us had was a drop-light, our dad's tools, a dirt carport and a 1.75/ hr job. It was still fun, maybe a bit harder. that's why there weren't so many guys driving hot rods in the good ol' days.

 

I think I get the picture pretty well from your description, having seen similar "craftsmanship" over the years. The hard thing to explain is how you're supposed to adjust the toe-in after that.

 

Of all the model A axles i have drilled and polished i would say that 30% have the sloppy shackell dents on the top, very common as the cars got worn out and the value wasn't enough to fix them.

I remember helping pops build a black pipe roll cage without bends with an arc welder in the 57 chevy hardtop dirt track car, and digging every minute of it. Scary as hell now, but we learn and progress as the years go on. This was how it was and you didn't question it, check out a chassis research FED, three inch round pipe and 150 mph, and a cage that didn't really cover your head.

 

You Kids aren't old enough to drive our cars that's why you paint them up real shiny, put billet shit on them and haul them around on trailers. Plus, you needed big balls to cut up a car!

 

Billet?? Trailers?? I've been driving (legally) since 1958, and have cut up more than a few good cars along the way to build hot rods (Like takin' the blue-wrench to a pretty good `55 Chevy to build a `40 Ford p/u chassis). So...not sure what you were trying to say. Neither one is consistent with the most folks here...

As a point of interest, however, the whole concept of billet was invented by Lil' John Buttera, a better-than-average hot rodder in most folks' estimation. Don't care for the looks of it myself -- and don't have any on my cars -- but to each his own.

 

I think I actually have a photo of a car with that axle on it at an event in Texas in the early 70's Garry. I can't remember if it was a street car or drag car though.

What a lot of these guys don't understand now is that back "in the day" a lot of guys out off the beaten track picked up a rod magazine at the local magazine rack and then tried to build their own versions with little or no skill outside of being able to weld broken farm machinery back together. No chop saw, portable band saw or band saw or cut off disks and things were often cut to size with a torch or hacksaw at best.
A lot of those cars never got finished to the point where they got driven and some were pretty crude when they did make it on the street or to the track. Guys who went to Little River for the drags in the late 60's and early 70's can tell stories about some pretty scary cars running there at that time.

 

yeah I can relate. My old T bucket had the wishbones bent in at around a 20 degree angle so the car could turn sharper, plus the body was held on with the front mounts for the pedals......

Sure was fun to drive though!

 

That gene pool is still a bit cloudy, there were idiots "back in the day" too.

 

I'd be willing to bet that front axle setup came off an early home built dragster with hardly any weight up front and it was probably a bunch of worn out parts to begin with. But then again, it could have been on a street driven car in the "day" then later on a hay trailer which is where the worn rub marks come in. If it could only tell it's story.