If you're a car guy....... a TRUE car guy, you suffer from this time consuming, wallet eating, relationship testing disease. Attention to Detail Disorder. It causes you to drive 100 miles to purchase the hub cap you were needing for your build. It causes you to fabricate a part, even though the same part could be purchased from any number of catalog companies. It's the icing on your "cake" of a build and only you'll know it's there. That bracket you formed. The engine swap that doesn't make sense to any one else but you. Maybe, in a panic, you purchased an English Wheel to form a cover for your cowl steering. Get it? A.D.D. There are quite a few threads on the HAMB that I've sat and looked at the pics of their build, but days, sometimes weeks later, I look at the same pics and see something that the builder did that puts it just one step ahead of all the rest. That one..... thing. That extra effort. Sometimes by accident. Sometimes by circumstance. So...... show or tell about that thing you did. Explain the extra bit of thought that went into a front end set up. In short... what's the little extra you did to your ride, that no one can ever take away from you.
I've made a lot of those long parts runs for "that specific part" My wife calls them "go for a ride and get to eat some place new" trips. I'd agree though that the difference between a good build and a great build is usually the extra hours spent and not the extra dollars spent.
Funny...... Not at the level of most, but have my own way, and it's mine........A.D.D. Started with the have to have=car, then got a lil " I have to make it mine, and unique..... Don't we all......well, some of us. Started with a picture, turned into a tattoo, then an emblem...... One of a kind.............
I've driven many miles to swaps and searched long and wide paid exorbitant prices for Baby Moon hub caps that are 1/2" deeper than I can buy new for much less and not even Ganahl notices.
The beauty of working on your own project is the ability to make things right, and NEVER have to listen to someone say "Who cares, that's good enough, you're never going to see that". Well you will see it, in real life and your dreams for as long as you live. Bob
I like to see the frame and running gear all assembled with every detail that I put into it. A show piece in itself that is begging to be taken to a car show without the body, because every detail is perfect. Even though it will all be covered up in the end I still like the beauty and simplicity of the mechanical aspect of it.
i really wanted a dual gage like the original so i cut three new gages apart and built one. took some time and effort but it is what i wanted.
And when it worked....REALLY worked, you said to yourself...... "HELL YEAH!" That's what it's really all about. That's why on Monday, in traffic and if you're lucky, you'll spot an old car dealing with the bull shit traffic and you'll think, "He's living the life." And he is.
I was looking for some windshield posts for my 36 and found 1 rough left one at a swapmeet, but couldn't find a right-side one. And the price for a pair of repro ones landed here was a small fortune. So I decided to enrol at the local trade college and do a casting course, and my practical project was- yep, a pair of windscreen posts. I borrowed a right side post, and cast a pair. And it didn't hurt so much when I had to chop out 3" and weld them back together. Also cast some club plaques and other gizmos out of aluminium.
Fred Like many here that have been doing this for many years, I think it would be like trying to say which of your kids is your favorite, by saying that one little part you have made, there just have been so many of them over the years, some I'm proud of and some not so much. I was a machinist for thirty years, so yea, I've had the "sickness", but unlike going the extra mile on somthing that won't be seen; it was just a fact of life, it was either right or it wasn't. It's great being retired because now I don't have the feeling like I have to be "on" with everything I do. I can pick and choose where to direct my efforts. The best thing about this "sickness" is not only saving a lot of money, but also having the satisfaction of making something dfferent from the stuff in the 1-800 catalogs.
grind out a weld in a spot that no one will ever see that will be covered by another panel or seam sealer because it didn't look good enough for you... ( or what I used to do with cars that I replaced panels on grind the backside of the weld down smooth even if you couldn't see it unless your a spare tire or a mafia corpse
Every day, not just my own, all of my client's cars too. I restore and specialize in Packard senior models from 32-34. I'm not exclusive to Packard but it's my main focus. I know what it looked like new having seen so many and their original details that few would ever notice. Where the A.D.D. kicks in isn't my stuff or my restorations, it's the other cars. It's somebody painting the firewall body color vs the shiny black it was on all the cars. It's a fully chromed wheel on a 33-4 when the rim should be body or frame color. It's black fender welt vs body color and the use of bright fasteners. Round head screws instead of fillesters, crooked headlights and interior trim parts woodgrained in full burl vs the 2-grain with the straight grain accents. I mix and match details from the great American classics (as defined by the CCCA) and use then in my own stuff. My current 39 Ford, the O/T hot rod I'm building for a client, even used some inspiration on my old 72 Camaro bracket racer in the 90s and will probably apply some to the GTO when that moves up for finishing. Often it does seem like I'm the only one who notices the wrong details. Some of my clients say it doesn't matter to them but I know it really does or they wouldn't be here. It chaps my ass when the car with 1/2 dozen wrong details still scores 100 pts. I can't bring myself to tell the judges and seldom do I mention it to the owners unless they figure out who I am and ask questions. I think it's unfair to the clubs and owners if it's not right but scores like it is. All of that aside I really get knickers in a twist when someone plays the "...could order whatever I wanted..." card, as if there was 1 Packard customer that demanded black fender welt, or a body color on the firewall, or some loud excessively metallic color. You see it here too when some "traditional" argument takes off, or that some hack-slop-fuck-shit build is found and so many wanna blow the guy because he has a car "...the way it always was..." when in reality shit builders existed back then just like they do today. I guess my A.D.D. is bordering on abnormal because it matters to me how things were, hot rod or stock restored, and that any and all the info you need to inspire your build is so easy to find. Anything less is disrespect for tradition or disrespect for a car's place in history. Sure, you can build what you wish because it's your car, but don't present it like it's something it isn't. We see that a lot, no? Dammit dude, why did you pick that scab!??
I don't have ADD like that. But I got it in some other way Can you see those tension straps on both sides of the rear? From the factor they was made out of webbing, with a hole drilled in them. That meant under hard driving and hard cornering m, the bolt would tear the webbing. And it's not good enough for me to have them like that. So I used twi top brackets from a three point seatbelt, and a suitable seatbelt sewen together to do the same. Or I was tired of it to leak oil, so I swapped out the rope seal with a better solution. And the list goes on. But my doors got the gap they had from the factory, the side trim ain't custom perfect, but it's a hot rod. Made to look like it was a 2 or 3 year old car, and I only took extra care in the "Hot rodding" stuff. Engine, transmission, handling, suspension and upgrading in general. And wheels and tires. They are paint with industrial paint, so it looks Seasoned, but not faux patinated. Just to make it look like a survivor, if that makes sense. I know this car is not true HAMB material, but I have wondering thoughts. And over here that's a traditional hot rod, like a 55 Chevy is to some of you.
It doesn't have to be just one part. Hell, it could be the whole damn car! I just admire the guys that go that little extra mile. See, I'm not a fabricator and I don't have anywhere close to the amount of tools and skills a lot of guys have. So, unless it's something fairly simple, I end up hitting the internet or catalogs for the bulk of my car stuff. I have a TON of ideas, but I don't have the resources to do them. So, when I'm at an event, I tend to notice the things a builder has done to his car. Shit, sometimes, they're so good, it takes a few looks to spot them or the owner has to point them out. I just admire home grown talent and innovation in a hi-tech, "just buy it" world. That's all this thread is about.
Being a second son and having a younger sister, " The Princess". Yes I am a middle child that craves recognition. I do realize that that is a loosing battle. The HAMB is my therapy. "bowie, We called them "trailer caps" after my late older brother Bill talked me into stealing two of them from a trailer near our home in Oakland to put on his 47 Ford below in the late '50s (is the statute of limitations up?). Don't know why they don't show in the photo I might have had them on the front wheels and my legs are blocking them. That's Bill on the right. Pat, I do appreciate you noticing and kidding me about replacing the Mustang engine with the Cad. Maybe next time you could look inside and notice the old chrome Ross steering box that replaced the reversed Corvair when I rebuilt the roadster in the early turn of the century. Yes their is a kool story about it too. By the way guys Bill did gift me the '47 when he graduated high school and bought the '55. I did have to replace the rear A spring he had put on it with the original, and shorten the six inch lowering shackles he had on the front before mom would let me drive it (yes all five ft. one hundred lbs. of her had that much power). It was both of our high school ride. And the shiny image below (sorry pictures taken off of 8mm home movie film) is the engine from the 1955 Oakland winner Frank Rose roadster but that's another story. Wish I still had it though. I am gifted with perfect 20/20 hindsight. Gary
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