I FINALLY BOUGHT A RUNNING 31 Ford Sedan, I am excited as hell. I have read so many articles, and seen so many diffrent trends. I plan on putting a Flathead in it and a quickchange.I am also not running fenders and chopping it 5". Curious what was the real deal back then. Did they channel cars,Z frames, did many war fellas really run bomber seats? I get so many diffrent answers. I have read diffrent things. This is all way before my time, but i really find it fascinating. I appreciate any imput on the true facts. Also I was thinking of running a 1937 terraplane grill and shell off a Hudson. I just love that look. Was mix matching a big thing then? Thanks again. Jeff A MAN ON A MISSION
to what ive seen, a v8flatty would be correct, fenders or not. and maybe a chop, but not anything radical like 5 inches, maybe 2-3 (especially if youre tallish) the hudson grille id think would be HUGE on an A
If you really want to know the truth and skip all the BS, go to a swap meet and find the guy with all the little books. Buy as many as you can afford and start reading.
I was ten years old in 1947 and my oldest brother was sixteen and obtained a 1935 ford bath tub. In those days after the war wage's were low (very low) for a sixteen year old. Parts were hard to come by and special parts were almost non existant. so you did most of the modifications your-self. If you wanted something filled in it was ledded in (no bondo at the time) So and modifications were small and simple.
First, for the street we didn't use bomber seats (really bucket seats, sometimes they were fighter plane seats, etc...)...they were just for compe***ion cars...and we didn't do much mix-matching, probably would never have run a Terraplane grille...channeling and Z-ing were more popular on the East Coast than on the West coast, and 5" chops were not unheard of, but we wanted to keep some visibility on the street. But, hey, it's your car, make it like you want it to be, maybe not like we used to do them in the '50s, though if you look through some early hot rod mags from the time, you will probably find something that looks like you want your '31 to be like... ...and, congratulations your find, great to find a running A.
There really was no firm blueprint that guys back then used, cars were done in all kinds of different ways. Some cars were called West Coast cars and some were called East Coast cars. That usually meant that the ones in the West tended to be highboys for the most part, and the East Coast cars were channelled, sometimes to ridiculous extremes. But even those are not absolutes. As for chopping, I think more cars on the West Coast tended to be chopped more often than ones on the East Coast, but again, there were exceptions. Hudson grille, not so much anywhere. The first time I saw one of those used was on a rat rod 37 Chevy pickup. Most true hot rods had either an A or Deuce grille shell. Hoods were generally omitted, but some ran either the top, or sides, or a full hood. As for engines, maybe in the early 50's the flathead was king, but not so much in the later part of the decade. Once Olds, Cad, Chrysler, etc OHV V8's started showing up in wrecking yards, and adapters started to become available, flatheads were being replaced on a pretty large scale. Again, there were diehard flathead guys, but as they started seeing tail lights on the guys running OHV motors, a lot of them became converts too. So, to answer you question, there were NO absolute guidelines. Cars were channelled, and not channelled. Cars were fenderless and not fenderless. Cars were chopped and not chopped, and so on and so forth. One thing that some people tend to not acknowledge is that hot rods and customs were constantly evolving..........that was the true tradition. As soon as we saw something someone else had done to change their car, or we picked up the latest Hot Rod or Rod and Custom, we were trying out something new on our car too. Don
No Rust or Patina/Fauxtina. The idea was to make em look fast, good, and hopefully actually be fast. Primer Spots,or spray bomb the whole car. These cars weren't that old. Twenty years plus or minus Many may have been beat down, and surely some had rust, but not like the current trends. Like said above, get the little pages, and read on.
Sedans in the 50s were by and large left full fendered. The 5" chopped, z frame fenderless cereal box on its side look is more of a 90s-2000s Ol Skool Rodz type of look.... neo-trad? Even in the 60s most A sedans were full fendered. Of course there were exceptions to the rule, I'm talking about the majority. The Hudson/Terraplane grille thing is not 50s, once again it is that OSR look from recent times. Full fendered, 3" or 4" chop, dropped axle, solids with littles and bigs.
As was stated above go pick up some of the vintage little books from the 50's, that shows what was really done. Another great book is Andy Southhard's Hot Rods of the 1950's. That book has a mix of pictures taken both on the east and west coasts. You'll find the main stream cars in all those books tend to be mostly roadsters and coupes. You'll find a sedan here or there. No to the terraplane grille, i doubt you'll find any autrhentic examples running grilles like that.
If I were doing a Model A sedan in the 1950's here is what I might make for modifications: Hydraulic brakes all the way around;a dropped front axle;and 15" wheels with 5:60x15's up front and 8:20x15's on the rear.If wire wheels were desired,35 Ford 16" with proportionately sized whitewall tires. A flathead was a nice swap and a V8-60 even better as it was a good fit. '39 Ford gearbox with Zephyr gears if I could afford them. A quick change was a high buck item even then and most elected to go with 4:11's as a good acceleration gear. Body mods were usually kept to a minimum;chopped tops were the exception rather than the rule as were filled roofs. '34 Ford tail light ***emblies(both sides to replace the single A rear) usually with the license plate mounted on one side and the club plaque on the other. Latr model headlights with sealed beams to replace the large and dim Model A lamps with maybe a dropped headlight bar. A Deuce grille shell and hood were nice mods but sometimes a bit pricey.Mostly a stock grille with hood sides(or complete hood)removed to show off the engine. Chrome head nut covers,wire looms,generator cover,voltage regulator cover,upper radiator hoses were good if you didn't have finned aluminum heads or multi-carb manifold.Chrome radiator truss rods were a must too. If you were really in the bucks,you had padded running board covers made;usually in white.Bumpers were sometimes removed and if you were lucky had a set of custom made nerf bars made. Interiors were usually the last thing you did.Most had vinyl seat covers installed on stock seats.Stewart-Warner gauge panels were nice but expensive.A steering wheel change was usually either a banjo wheel or a mid-50's Ford wheel(usually white). That to me would be a good representation of a mid-50's sedan.I'm sure i've left something out but I'm old enough to forget things.
I've been in Md all my life. We had no airplane bone yards for WWII seats. I never heard of using them until the internet. A lot depends on your area. We were always copying the west coast style when I grew up because of the magazines but we didn't have the same resources. There were no TIG welders in our area....no airplane industry to draw from. I bought a used mig welder in the late seventies and it was a big deal. Where you grew up and the industries that provided our training in that area has a lot to do with how a car was built and the parts that we used. So I guess what I'm saying is that there is and never has been a correct hotrod.
Well "They" on your side of the country was real big on channel and not real big on chop. Valve in head engines were big in the '50s, a lot of fresh back from the war cars were running flatties and they continued into the '50s but the cutting edge balls to the walls rodders were running valve in head engines. There were two recessions in the '50s the biggest after '54 so you would have seen your share of jalopies, but most of them were on there way o being painted and upholstered some day. There was no big push for mag wheels yet you still would have seen a lot of stock wheels reversed and some of them would have been chormed if there was money for it. Normally from what I understand drivetrain and wheels and tires came before paint and hydes. Seats got one of two things when it happened either wide rolls and pleats or seat covers like from JC Whittney type of seat covers. Frizee upholstery with ****ons was also popular and I have seen pics of several eastern rods done that way. Toward the end of the '50s you were starting to see more "show rods" with modified grill shells and quad lights or singles molded into the shell along with fade or panel paint jobs. I have seen pictures of more eastern rods with panel jobs than with fades. I know very little help but I tried.
tommy that pretty much sums it up.the magazines is how we found out what was going on and thay was as late as the 70s.even in the early 70s i tried to emulate the late 50s cars.and found out how they did things from mags.and a few old timers.and mig welders.hell thats all i got.and use it for everything. dont need no tig!
As for speed parts...keep in mind they did things the way they did a lot of times simply because they didn't know any better or have any better.
Only if you want to know what was in the little books, if you really want to know what was going on street wise skip the little books and do one of two things or both, sit down with an old timer and talk to him or look in someone's old photo albums. What landed in the little books was much the same as today, uncommon rods and customs. There is a lot of difference between what was done and commonly seen and what lands or landed in a magazine.
in the '50s we didnt have all the fancy aftermarket parts . junk yards were our fav spot for parts . example : in the junk yards we got cad or lincoln tires (9.50x15) for rears & the smallest 14" for the front . thus big & littles . no fancy paint , no fancy upholstery ...... literally "run what ya brung" . crusin was a big deal & stop lite to stop lite was the best racing . in '55 when chevy came out with the v8 , it changed alot . late '50s you could get corvette parts from the junk yards . i had a '40 ford coupe with a hemi in it , that was fast then . most cars were basically stock with the owners personal touch . lowering was done by heating coils . like said above ... no money honey !
For examples; A. nice street/show tudor: Ed Roths `30-`31 sedan. B. radical/comp: Christmans all out `28-`29 race sedan
One thing I'd like to remind the youngsters is that the little books and of course HOTROD only showed state of the art hotrods just like today. 50 years from now they may think that we all drove Riddler award winners. We read these books to see state of the art hotrods unlike the "real" hotrods in our local area.
I dare anybody to find a dozen pics of street-driven Model A sedans in any 50's magazines that were chopped 5 inches and fenderless. I just don't think it happened very much. Compe***ion cars don't count. If you are trying for a compe***ion look, then there was no real reason to channel for the drags. And they probably wouldn't have used an A sedan unless they were hard up for $$. A lighter coupe body was cheap back then. As was said before, if you want to be a stickler for detail, get the magazines from the era you are shooting for and do what they did.
"Most true hot rods had either an A or Deuce grille shell. Hoods were generally omitted, but some ran either the top, or sides, or a full hood." Deuce grills and shells were just about unobtainable by then, but you would never see any Hudson anything on a rod around here. I was in high school in the mid 60's. My sister was 7 years older than me, and was running with the rodders in the late 50's. I got to see a lot of the 50's rods in the North Dallas area. By the late 50's a lot of the rods were being p***ed down to younger brothers and new owners. A lot of 50's rods were getting subtle changes to up grade them. Styles changed considerably right at the end of the 50's decade. Mostly wheels and tires. Some of the holdovers like Bobby Sponseller's deuce had full fenders,no chop. Mike Motley's T-bucket was very much on the style of Ivo's car. The styles are very regional for any given time. For instance, Texas seemed to be about one or two years behind the West coast for street rods and customs, but almost in step for race cars. What you are getting here is all good advice from some guys that were there building cars at the time. I remember lots of Olds and Cadillac engines, by the late 50's early 60's the small block was king in this region. The "little pages" are going to be your best resource. East coast cars, channeled, no chop, cycle fenders. West coast cars had a bit more compe***ion flare, chopped, sometimes channeled, no fenders. When you start doing research you will see trends forming. Ask around a**** your rodding friends. A lot of their dads and grand dads may have material you can study. I have "Hot Rod" and "Rod& Custom" back into the mid 50's, a lot of us kept those old mags. It's your car....If you limit your self into building in a very specific time frame, you may end up with a car that has some styles you don't really like. Let the car speak to you. You'll know when you have it right, and what we think won't matter. HAVE FUN!!
Yep, it was bought from a fella hamber.. Thanks fellas for all the imput. There is a local swapmeet this sunday, gonna start looking for those little books. When I gather enough to attack it. I will start a build thread. I HAVE BEEN WANTING TO SAY THAT FOR AWHILE. THANKS AGAIN. Jeff
Congratulations on getting your Model A. I built a '28 sedan a few years ago and had a lot of fun doing it. Mine was more of a 60's style build. Looking forward to your build thread. Rockfish
Been watching and looking for awhile. There are so many cool trends. The crazy trend now is the extreme. 42" roof line. That is cool, But we drive our cars and its just not practical or comfortable. I am probably doing a mild chop and go from there. And to Mike Britton, You are soooo right. The cars do and will talk to you..=] Thanks everyone. My fathers a TV repair man, HE HAS A AWESOME SET OF TOOLS! I can fix it. =]
I have some of those little car mags, some the size of comic books. You have everything in those from the best built to the backyard built. So many wild and quirky builds in the 50's. Rod & Custom was the leader of the pack for tho rod mag back then. I have hundreds p***ed to me from a fellow hot rodder.
Ya know, I bet those guys did what we do. We see something we like in a magazine or in our case, the internet and try to emulate it. I also think the guys who couldn't reproduce their dream car, found new ways to reach their goal. Some of those guys became "innovators", but all they really did was find a different approach to the same end and it caught on. So, as was suggested, I'd grab a stack of "Little Books" and innovate my *** off.
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