Just throw it together, if it doesn`t flow. Then change it. Get it driveable, and change it if it doesn`t work. Make it pretty later. Here`s the body I`m starting with. So far I have gotten parts from about 15 different people. With lots more to go. Gonna make it driveable first. But I still need to get a motor and a frame. Then make it a roller. I knew what the finished look will be before I bought the body. You have to start somewhere or it will never get rolling.
Hot rods always seem to evolve or change. My feelings are if it doesnt look cool it's pointless, if it never gets done its pointless and if its not faster than stock it isn't a hot rod.
You have to be born cool! I know because I am a Cove Boy! Grew up in the Cove area of Stamford ct. we were born cool but would never say it . We just were[emoji41] Never talk about being cool or if your car is cool. Just be it .[emoji78] Sent from my iPad using H.A.M.B.
^^^^Owning a finished '32 Roadster AND finished '32 5Window just adds to the coolness. (That is four Midnight Joe Sunglass Coolness points)
Great reply. I had visions of a chopped up, reconfigured car...but I really like the idea of building something from "scratch" that never existed before. I'd look for a certain genre of car you like, and build your interpretation of it using the parts you have. Nothing could be "cooler" than that.
Hot rodding IS about looking cool. Problem with looking cool is that it usually costs a lot of money. Not just in the Hot Rod world; new wheels for the daily, the right clothes, etc. Most people spend their entire life (and a lot of $$$) trying to look cool. What's REALLY cool, is when someone does something creatively 'cool' to their car w/o spending a lot of money or breaking out the credit card.
I feel that a well turned out hot rod or custom is an art statement in the automotive world. Just as a fine drawing or painting. Its about the aspects of the build complementing one another to produce a pleasing visual flow. The components dont have to be the latest and the greatest or in our world the oldest and the greatest to meld together. Taking the time and effort to align panels, smooth rough surfaces and edges. Make wiring neat and tidy. Also taking the stance and tire relation into consideration has a large impact impact on the visual appeal of a vehicle. Large influxes of cash can go far as well. Effort and planning can produce excellent results for a reasonable investment. At least thats what I tell myself when monies are in short supply as often is the case.
Someone should collect all the stories, then make the movie, but there isn't an actor that could make it believable. Bob
A very wise and wealthy man once told me: "if you buy dogs, you own dogs." Likewise, if you build an ugly, slow, weird piece of junk, then you will own an ugly, slow, weird, piece of junk. If you can't afford to do it well, then you REALLY can't afford to do it wrong. Because you will be wasting your limited resources. I don't care how miserly you are, if you make it drivable, you will have a substantial sum of your time and money wasted on it. You won't want it, no one will want it. You won't be able to sell it and parlay the $ into a better project. I'm not saying you can't do a low budget build. I'm saying especially if you do a low budget built, you need to be extra careful about its style. It needs to be a clean, good looking design, and perform well. If you achieve that, the lack of costly frills will be overlooked. You cited an assumption that is a common mistake. That is, to keep it cheap, you want to use what you have on hand. That is the worst reason to use something. Some cars look like you drug a magnet thru a scrap pile and whatever stuck got welded together. Not all parts are compatible. T rails and Falcon doors? George Barris could have pulled it off somehow, but not on a cheap budget. Most people can't make totally incompatible parts work. My suggestion is: Plan the build very carefully, based on the T rails, or some other worthy part that you have. Draw it, or cut up prints of cars with a scissors and tape them together to get an idea what you will have. Pay close attention to style, stance and proportion. Work with it until you LOVE it. Sell off the incompatible parts, roll the funds into parts that will compliment your build quality, that you sought out killer deals on. Then build it. Use good workmanship, don't take shortcuts. Then you will have something worthy of your effort, and it can still be very affordable. And it will have re-sale value.
Hemi Joel is right. You can build a fairly cheap car (relative term, $5K is considered a cheap car these days) that is cool, but you can't do it without a plan. spending money on the wrong parts, or on something you do not need will kill a budget fast. Using all the parts you have on hand, or using something you can buy just because its cheap, will most likely not be very cool, and it often requires a lot of work to make function. Mismatched parts often don't work well together either, and that often makes for something that isn't much fun to drive. A finished product that was costly, was hard to build, doesn't drive well, and isn't cool to look at, is pretty well a failure. A good mock up that you can stand back and get a good look at is always helpful. I often start out doing just that. If it doesn't look cool to you, it probably won't look cool to anyone else either. Gene
Looking "cool" never did it for me. In the 50's we had a midget that didn't exactly confom to the accepted "look" but no one could beat us, even the Offy's. It Really pissed a lot of gold chainers off. Nowdays they have so many "Mickey Mouse rules", it is hard to innovate.
Why would you bother wasting the time to build something that doesn't look cool? That's really the ONLY thing it's about because if you say it's about anything else there are a million other cars doing it better than a traditional hot rod or Custom.
People say if you don`t have time to make it cool in the first place. When are you gonna find time later on to change it.
Apparently 'Cool' has changed in my world. After a lifetime of hot rods and horse power, last weekend at cars and coffee I was fawning over big old bulbous cars, especially a '61 Bentley for sale. Maybe because I'm now big old and bulbous and need a matching car.
i think every person that every built a rat rod thought the same thing, cheap and cool, obviously it must be very hard to do. but then you do have falcon hubcap's
I never built a hotrod that I didn't want it to be cool. I also never cared if it appealed to everyone who saw it, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't care if anyone else liked it. I think almost every normal car builder wants people to appreciate what they've spent months or years building. I don't care about trophies, or how it's judged by the average person. But I do care how other diehard car guys see my builds, and if they don't like everything I've done on it, that's OK too. I build my cars for myself, but I still want a certain look, and it has to fit into my budget.
Is your idea of cool financially unreasonable with your available money? If so, are you willing to commit a lot of time to realize your cool dream? These are questions you need to ponder. In my case I knew there was no way I was gonna just go buy a 33-34 ford coupe but I absolutely wasn't gonna settle for less. I 'd had a string of pretty cool cars but I totally committed to building a 33-34 coupe. Sold off all my other projects, worked as much overtime I could at work to help finance my cool dream. Bought a piece of shit body from one guy and traded an old Studebaker for the 34 chassis. I was friends with a super capable body man and I did his mechanical work while he put the 34 body together....spent very little time away from my family but just enough so my wife found something to do on Friday nights while I worked on the body....all this took 8 years. I put the chassis together over a year and a half in my home garage. It's in urethane primer but in my mind it's cool. It's just what I wanted and when I drive past buildings with big windows, I watch myself and my car in the reflection and think.....this is cool. DON'T GIVE UP!
Everyone has a different idea of cool, they loosely group together around their subject matter and then argue amongst themselves what’s cool then sub divide again. Then the “idea” of cool will change so what was cool eventually won’t be cool anymore until it’s cool again Look at 4dr cars for example. Some think they are cool, some think those people are crazy.
The idea of what is cool changes as we get older. Some people are more accepting, but others are a lot more rigid as they grow older. Some are concerned about how other car guys view their ride where others are more concerned with how the general public views their ride. The good news is there is very likely some people that think your ride will be cool besides you, but you may have to change the heading under which you label your ride. If your not concerned about the "label" you ride may get, its a lot easier to find people that think its cool. Hanging with people that think you ride is cool is a lot more fun. Gene
Looks ? And thumbs up while I'm driving ? I just don't waist time on opinions when I can be driving and enjoying what's back on the street breathing again.....
I kinda love that '49 Plymouth. Has a real "Road Warrior" thing going on, not like what they're calling rat rods today... very purposeful yet just slapdash enough to look dangerous. The scoop looks like a civil defense siren - era appropriate for sure.
I don’t believe I was ever cool.....ever, but I have always been comfortable with who I am.....comfortable in my own skin as it were.
Everyone has their own definition of "cool". My vision for the T is a period that mostly appeals to fans of "old school". Some of my friends and family don't understand why I got rid of the wide tires and aluminum slots, and why I removed the short pick up bed. They don't get why I'm going to paint out the "purple pearl" for gloss black. That is because this is my vision, what I want, and what I define as "cool". We will never appeal to the "unwashed masses"!
The Jalopy Journal
