I know that most of you know the answer to this, and i may look stupid for asking. but i have heard two different descriptions, and i want to know if one or both are true. the description i first heard, was a "highboy" was a 30's car that was not channeled the frame. a car that its body sat on top of the frame. then i heard a "highboy" is a car that was produced before the war, and fenderless. which is it, or are both descriptions accurate. baggs
fenderless, unchanneled. oh yeah... and i think the cut off is generally accepted as 1934, because nobody would think to run a 35 and up with no fenders....
I would. Yea my understanding is not channeled fenderless. Now into the question a little deeper. Highboys are usually dropped a little on one or both ends Rackish so to speek. Can it be a highboy if it has a major suspension drop? IE Big Z and or major dropped axle?
Jason . . . my roadster is a highboy . . . As well as my 31 Tudor . . . But my 30 Tudor is not a highboy even though it sits on top of the rails, because it is full fendered . . . But it would have been considered a highboy in this early mock-up pic. Clear as mud?
My new roadster is a 30 body that sits on top of a 32 frame, except at the rear where the body is channeled over a heavy kick up, so the rear actually sits quite low. This is how it was done in 52.....so can I call it a Highboy?
high·boy [hahy-boi] noun U.S. Furniture . a tall chest of drawers on legs. Also called high chest. Origin: 1890-95
Historically speaking, the term high boy (or highboy, high-boy, hiboy, hi-boy, etc.) referred to a fenderless, un-channeled, pre-'35, Dry Lakes Roadster ... it really wasn't until maybe the '80s that the term was also used to describe Hot Rods with other body styles (i.e. fenderless & un-channeled Coupes, Sedans, Tourings, Phaetons, Pick-Ups, etc.). The same applied to the term low boy (or lowboy, low-boy, loboy, lo-boy, etc.) ... a roadster like Jim Khougaz' famous channeled '32 Roadster was often referred to as a "lowboy roadster" ... but a '32 Coupe like ours was never referred to as a "lowboy coupe" (i.e., it was more likely to be labeled a "chopped & channeled coupe").
I've got to agree with this definition. This is what I have always thought it meant. My '29 is going to be done in High Boy style, but it wouldn't be a High Boy because it's a sedan.
Thanks guys, i got the clarification i was looking for. All things said is what i thought. Bull-yes you are clear as mud for sure ;-) i always knew that unchanneld was a highboy, i guess my main wonder was would it still be a highboy if it had fenders and unchanneld. Thanks fellas
It was a question my Dad often asked me as a kid when I came home stoned......... "Are you High Boy?"
Francisco Plumbero - What CruZer said! Sorry if my "chopped and channeled" label confused anyone ... I was only using our Coupe as an example of a fenderless & channeled Hot Rod built in the '50s (the bobbed rear fenders were added in the '60s) that was never called a "lowboy coupe" ... but was called a "chopped & channeled coupe" (because its body was channeled 6" - 8+" over the frame and 2.5" were chopped out of its top).
Don't matter what you call em. Build what you like and drive em. Wish I had the money for a nice high boy roadster though...... Some day.
So I guess I am wondering a few things a chopped un channeled coupe on an A frame dropped axle with a slight kick up in the rear is a highboy like the last pic^ right?
WOW, three years later and it's still the same. If you didn't get it from the first 25 posts, you probably never will........
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