Cookie cutter cars

Wow...a rat rod won "Best Of Show"

Your words not mine! HRP

 

only the cool cars are under construction ?

 

Seems to me this is getting more complicated than it has to be.

So here are some random thoughts...


First off, Hot Rodding wouldn't have gotten its start if it wasn't for Henry making all his cars the same by m*** producing them.

So they became cheap and disposable as used cars.
( that they were a great base to do performance modifications on didn't hurt either )


1-800 catalog builds tend to look the same, because they are built out of ( mostly ) parts that are available in the Catalogs and recommended by the Infomercials in the Street Rod magazines.


Rat Rod is an unfortunate term that has taken on a life of its own.
According to one of the Shifters who occasionally hangs out here, it was coined to describe the PPE.
( he lamented the fact that they didn't copyright the term )

Its now used to describe cars that are cartoony and built worse than they could be.
In the same way some of their owners misspell words with "K's" and "Z's", to mask that they have trouble spelling...

 

Not going to read the whole thread. But, cookie-cutter cars are only 'cookie-cutter' when surrounded by others. Out in the non-car world (somewhat larger than our world), these cars stand out. And it is easy to make a car stand out if you build a 1-800 rod. So, if you want to stand out, and you're a bit short of talent, 1-800 et viola!!

Cosmo

 

Cookie cutter cars,,,I think they would taste good if Denise baked them! HRP

 

That's some ****in' hilarious **** right there.

 

I DIDNT FEEL LIKE READING THE WHOLE THREAD BUT .but heres my take on cookie cutter cars ok lets start with a body. say the model a. how many did mr. henry build of them. didn't they all look alike. so there are millions of these things out there.or were.now say engine. c.c. 350 engines. how many of those did chevy build.? they are out there ,they are cheap, and parts are about the cheapest you can buy.i kinda call that lucky not cookie cutter.look at the horsepower you can build and for not a lot of money.after 60-70 yrs its kinda hard to be original.everything you think of someone has beat you to it.to me cookie cutter would be all the same color, all the same engine all the same interior all the same wheels and even the drivers can get into it too.all look just alike.lol now that cookie cutter.to be honest id rather go to a show and see a lot of old cars than go to a store and seeall those new ones...call them alike cars anything you want but to me they are different.just go to walmart and see whats in the parkin lot!!

 

It's like watching the builds on tv that take place in a week....it is easy to do when everything is plug and play and bolt on..... I thought I had all of my stuff measured and planned out when I placed my motor the mid crossmember happened to be inline with driveshaft so I get to redo that member.....Don't see that happen to much on tv.

Everyone has tried to convince me I want a 302 in my truck. I too get tired of seeing them, they are easy to build, and a V8. Thats why I went with a 300 in my 56. When I was at the supernationals I didn't see any with the big block six. Is my truck traditional.......no...........different yes.

My .02 cents.....

 

The people who think all the cars are cookie cutter, should just stay home. Why would you even go to a show, expecting the same bad results? That sounds... insane. Just. Stay. Home.

 

Get over it. It's a hobby and everybody doesn't have your "purest vision of how things should be" and I'm sure they don't give a **** about what you or anyone else thinks about their ride. Most of the time, a persons vision of their ride goes as far as their financial resourses will allow.

How many times does this subject have to rear it's ugly head on the HAMB. Try to encourage other people, nothing is more discouraging than negative comments. Even the ugliest car has something that is well thought out. Remember, the person driving the car brought it to the gathering because they wanted to belong, be a member of the car crowd and is proud to show off their vision.

My $.02, ...and have a nice day!!!

Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!

 

I'm with ya brother!! I couldn't agree more.

Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!

 

It's rather funny that when most of us rave about a fresh HAMB Friendly rod build on here it is pretty well a cookie cutter car when you stops and take things into consideration.

How many A highboys on Deuce rails with 38/48 flatheads with Edelbrock heads and two carbs with 4 inch dropped axles and 35 wires and black paint do we actually have in the HAMB collection when you start adding them up? I love em just like most every one else on here but if they all showed up at Roundup one year and were lined up in a row they might be rather boring as a group once the group shot was done.

Anyone who has been going to events for the past 40 years will tell you that cookie cutter hot rods aren't anyway near a new phenomenon as I remember thinking the same thing walking around the Street Rod Nationals in Tulsa in 1973, "damn, a lot of these cars are almost identical". Walking around the grounds you saw untold numbers of black or red 32 five windows with nearly identical wheels, identical stance and the same general "look". When you started looking at Model A tudors most looked like they were fully restored cars that all the sudden had had V8's stuck under the hood and mag wheels slapped on and many had flower vases with fresh flowers attached to the inside of the door posts. No freaking crybaby dolls in those days because our women were still young and worried more about how their short shorts fit than about getting cute things to wag along with the car.

 

I find myself walking by those to look at a well built truck, fat fender or even a wagon. I can still appreciate them, but "Different strokes..." I like to see that they all drove to the said "cruise-in"

-Rich

 

When we collectively start nit-pikkin details about someone else's car, we start looking like these little birds...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=pBvjqvrR7fI

 

good for you

 

I totally agree...as my wife said...it's the "only one in my driveway" screw the others.

Murph

 

I could have spent the last ten minutes reading every post on this thread, or I coulda spent it taking a dump. Nothing like a good dump on a quiet Sunday afternoon...

 

Purple shirt pink pants green shoes diffrent ? I built a 32 because I like it FTW

 

It's all been done before.Some guys want a Westergard style while others are after the Spencer look.Pre-war,post war,early custom,60's g***er.Long as the owner likes it that should be enough.I'm putting together a '55 Chevy g***er. Some will say there are already too many out there...it's been overdone.I could care less.Mine will look like a dozen others.So what.Spend 10 minutes on here looking at shows like billetproof,s**** drive,viva las vegas,lone star roundup and scan through the pictures and you will find cars that look the same from each show.
Cookie cutter? Yeah but I always have room for more cookies.

 

'Cookie cutter' cars exist because not all of us are comfortable with 'different' cars and not all of us have the artistic eye to make a car beautiful. Being the owner of a seriously different car I have been the brunt of comments from the guys with safe, belly ****on cars. I think some of it come from personal insecurity, some people are just bullies... I feel sorry for them.

I built my woodie roadster in '75-'76 when I had much more time than money. I have driven it from San Fran to NYC in 1980, did Americruise in 2000 and have toured, shown and autocrossed it. It's been in Hot Rod (a little black and white, but damn it, it's in there!) and a couple other mags,we won 'Car of the Show' at the Handcrafted Car Show and a few GoodGuys 'Dare to be Different' awards.

My next car is a '32 highboy with a Chevy, 5 speed and Jag rear end which is the car I have ALWAYS wanted and wanted when I built my woodie.

This pic is of me and my dad in '05 when we were taking a few lasp of Sears Point.

 

Perfect!
What puzzles me is how worked up people get over what others build. You'd think somebody was building these cars and forcing others to own them and look at them.

 

I agree. I always am glad to see some new cars at the shows. Basically you have to go to different shows to see different cars. 2 things, money, and ability. It's tough to build something unless you have both. It's funny to rows of cookie-cutter Ts at a show and everyone like me is hanging around a rusty rad-rod drooling like the aliens on The Simpsons.

 

"rusty rad rods" oh yea, those are REAL thin on the ground, real "creative". They are especially different if you run faux spindle mounts on the front, that REALLY takes it to the next level...

 

Bawahhahaha!

 

I have a beater '57 Plymouth wagon with a 289 Ford.

I'm building a '57 Chrysler hardtop with a Hilborn injected 392 and a stick.

You can't accuse me of having cookie cutter cars.

I went to the Hot Rod Power Tour kickoff thing. There were 4000 cars in the parking lot and not one of them was a finned Mopar. Lots of red '57 Chevys and blue '69 Camaros though.

 

I agree that different can be interesting, but if I had the cash, I'd build a 32 Roadster that looks like a hundred others we've all seen on the HAMB... and I would have a permanent smile.

 

Your wagon rules, by the way..

That's why I didn't go to the power tour party... I figured that would be the norm.

 

Cookie-Cutter 5-windows?

 

One more thought...

Its not likely that 2 handbuilt cars, done by 2 different people, are exactly the same.

Because fabrication is kinda like handwriting.

If you think they are the same, you are probably not looking close enough...

 

Let's see, 48 Studebaker pick-up, 37 Dodge 2 dr, 47 Autocar. Nope, no cookie-cutters here. Non-traditional engines in all three, but I built them, drove them, (Autocar not finished yet) and had fun with them, that is my way. If you have a cookie-cutter car, have fun with it and maybe we will meet at a show and have fun together some day. Fun is what it is about!