Hot Rods DO YOU REMEMBER A TIME WHEN A HOT ROD WAS A RARE SIGHT IN YOUR TOWN?

When I was vacillating about whether or not I should try to get Dad's buddy's T, one of my two car guy friends said "You realize you live close enough to work that it would be a daily driver, right?" and that did it. Streets are dead. Nothing old. I can't remember the last car in town that wasn't at or on its way to a car show. I like to use the T as a truck as much as I can. It's hilarious. A couple of people that knew the owner remember it from the old days, which is cool.

 

Nice truck. Keep motoring.

 

I don't remember a time when it wasn't a rare sight. Old car / cruising culture in my little neck of the woods consisted of street rods chasing the latest trends, or muscle cars. I know real hot rods existed around here, but I never remember seeing them. The guys with the real hot stuff kept it on the track. It wasn't until the last 20 years or so that traditional hot rods have really become noticable here. Now whether that's a product of my tastes changing and actually noticing or the style becoming more popular, I can't say. I can say that having a traditionally styled 1955 Chevy at a local cruise night is a pretty rare thing. Plenty of tri-fives around, but definitley not in this style.

 

I couldn’t agree more with this. My cars are built with driving in mind. Car shows are secondary for me. Nothing brightens up my day more than hoping in my T Bucket to go grocery shopping or go pick up dinner, or any other errands. (Weather permitting) The past two years I have put more miles on the T than on my “daily driver”. As soon as I get my ‘47 Chevy roadworthy, I will start driving that to work and get rid of my modern(ish) car.

 

I’m nearly 56 years old and have been into cars my entire life. I don’t recall seeing hot rods too frequently at all and still don’t. I’ve always liked them but really knew very little about them until 10 years ago or so.

Now they’re almost all I care to look at. Unfortunately I got really serious about building one a while back and decided not to do it. I sold everything I had and I had some nice stuff. Including a super nice Model A coupe. I’ve regretted that decision ever since.

Luckily I made the decision to do it again and got myself into a 32 Ford Pickup a couple of weeks ago. I'll be busy this winter getting it capable of being a daily driver.

 

Plenty in the 50's and 60's but right now there are only 2 or 3 that you see out on the road and the Hundi people are not happy about it since they don't even know what "Arm Signals" are.

 

I remember it quite well in high school in the Hartford Ct area. around 1956-58. and the famous Berlin Turnpike. A lot of drag racing until the law basically stepped in and shut it down Tom

 

1951, I was in the first grade. A guy who lived right next to the playground had a ‘40 Ford Coupe. With duals, don’t know if much or if anything had been done to the engine (I was only 6). But I still remember the sweet sound it made when he got on it…and he was always on it.

 

NO ... I really don't remember a time when a Hot Rod was a rare sight in my town.

But then again ... I grew up in the '60s & '70s in Fremont, California ... home of the ... and there were dozens of Hot Rods within a 5 mile radius of my parent's house.

In contrast to my experience growing up in California ... when my father started building the "HEMI32" Coupe in his home town of Beach, North Dakota:

circa 1955​

... it was most likely the ONLY Hot Rod within a 100 mile radius of his parent's house.

 

Grew up with very few true hot rods around. When I lived in Michigan there was a glass duece that I saw being driven every day. Was great motivation to get my build done so I could do the same. After many years I am now that guy dailying a rod. Feels great. Hope it motivates others to drive theirs too.

 

There are quite a few cars around here (Nixa, MO/Springfield, MO), but not many that I know of being driven daily. That is my end goal with my 40, but I am not quite there yet. I do make it a point to drive it as often as possible when I run errands or grab dinner around town.

 

there has never been a time in my town where theres no hot rods on the street.
i'm in manassas VA. born in '69...
we had until recently the oldest drag strip on the east coast. old dominion speedway. built in '53 i think.
i'v met old dudes that were hot rodders and racers in the 50s.
we also had a huge cruise strip in the 70s, 80s, and early 90s. it was not as cool as california but i do remember Hot Rod magazine listing my town in their list of top 10 cruise spots in the USA.
my dad was/is a car guy so i grew up around old/classic car, so i've always been aware when i see one on the street or peeking out of someones back yard as i'm driving by

 

We had a dirt track in my home town, that had been racing cars at since 1927. Up until 1966, the standard car raced there was the 30s & 40s coupes, and a few 50s and very early 60s cars. I was 10 in 1966. They started running the "late models" in 66 and by 68, the old coupes were nearly gone from the track, but there sure were a lot of them that found their way to the streets of our town.

My dad's buddy and his son raced those old coupes, and dad and I spent a lot of Saturday afternoons at his buddy's garage, his son, and his son's buddies were all hot rod teenagers. I was exposed to hot rods from about 8 years old on. By the time I was 13, I spent many Saturday afternoons visiting the local racers, and ended up helping a lot of them on their race cars. Most racers also had hot street cars, and many had friends with hot street cars.

My 1st real job was at a local gas station that was a major auto repair shop in our town. One of the mechanics was a hot rod guy, and there were often hot rods that came by for gas (we were one of the few stations in town with premium gas). Working at one of the largest auto repair shops in town, where one of the mechanics was a hot rod guy, and being one of the few gas stations with premium gas, yes, I saw a lot of hot rods in the early 70s, but the factory high performance cars had higher numbers then the older cars.
I turned my attention to dirt track racing, and the then really cheap to buy high performance factory cars. I was too busy to pay much attention to what kind of cars were running around on the streets. My stuff was pretty fast, but were not old hot rods.

After the dirt track days, I opened a welding shop. I did a lot of welding on old hot rods. in 1994, I started building my 1st 30s car, a 35 Dodge 2 door sedan. In the next 7 years we drove that car 77,000 miles, most of which were put on the first 4 years. We joined a car club that had a lot of really nice street rods, but those guys drove them hard, and they were pretty fast street cars. The club had 115 members, with 30-40 very active. One of the coveted awards was the 10,000 mile club badge. To get one, you had to document you drove your hot rod over 10,000 mile a year. I got 4 of those badges with the 35! The next vehicle was a 54 Dodge pickup, I got 3 10,000 mile badges with it. We were part of that club until 2008 when the gas got too expensive for us to make the 85 mile one way trip to the car club meeting.
The coupe in my Avtar has been on the road since 2012. We have pretty close to 100,000 miles on it since then. Its been driven to, through, and from 18 States. Tomorrow morning its heading out for an 800 mile round trip. The coupe now shares driving time with my winter beater, a 49 Dodge pickup. Last yer the coupe got about 6,000 mile added to it, but the 49 truck also got 4,000 miles added to it. I'm doing my part.

Our area still has hot rods cruising around, most are a lot more mellow then from days past, but you still see them, often one or two a day through the week, and several on nice weekends.

 

Back when I was a kid in the early 60's, I had to ride a bus into town to go to Jr. High School. Every morning waiting for the bus, a guy would drive by in a Red 40 Chevy coupe with Dennis the Menace painted on the trunk & "The Kid" painted under it. If he got stopped by the red light at that corner, I was at the curb just staring at it. I found out later that that guy was a mechanic at the local V.V. Cooke Chevy Dealership downtown. The car was Chevy small block powered, with a 4-speed. His dad was a mechanic at the same dealership. Then a buddy of mine's girlfriend had a brother who had taken the front half of a touring T & had made a t-bucket out of it with Chevy small block power. Those were the only hot rods I ever saw in Louisville, Ky. in the early 60's. Mid 60's I finally saw my 1st custom. A 1950 Ford coupe with Dodge dual headlights turned sideways & frenched into the front fenders. Taillights were frenched early 50's Buick taillights. It was painted powder blue & had white rolled & pleated interior with a pair of fiberglass patio bucket seats up front covered in the same material. Dual antennas were frenched into the passenger front fender side as well. No chrome trim on the sides, & shaved door handles. There were no chrome bumpers either. In the bumper area was molded chrome double tubes molded into each side for a total of 4 up front & the same in the rear. The roof was padded with white vinyl material to match the seats inside. Chromed reverse on all 4's on wide whites & lowered all around as well. When I saw it at one of the 1st Carl Casper Car Shows it said it had a Chevy V-8 engine & powerglide trans. hooked up to a 56 Chevy rearend. A lot of older guys standing around me complained how bastardized it was with the Chevy drivetrain in a Ford. That was all the old hot rods or customs in my area until the late 60's.

 

I do not think there are any really traditional hot rods in my area, at least none that I've run into. Some of them are at least older street rods or traditional inspired but nothing really old school... most are mag-wheel Mustang II SBC or LS cars. I'm hoping having, and driving, one of my own will help me find the cool shit. I know there have to be some around here.

 

I would place money on that.

 

I had the first hot rod, a T bucket, in my town after many years. When I was a kid there were a few, but nothing for a 20+ year hiatus. There were a few since, and now there's a couple decent ones, and a few more under construction.

 

i live in a small town, theres sometimes a group of old guys getting lunch at the local diner, classic hot rods, a 56 chevy, 39 pontiac, and such. all other cars that hang around my town are 90s hondas with the muffler cut off...

 

in the '50s when i was a kid, st. louis had the infamous "hot-rod" moore, who had a '36 (?) ford that was set up like a dirt-track car, and his life function was driving that thing on the street and "giving the cops something to do"!

 

If there is five in Tellico Plains TN!! I'm three of them!!

 

Hello,

As long as we were little kids, there were old trucks in abundance, but very few hot rods. The Westside neighborhood was a working class area, the U.S. Navy Housing was just down the street and the government owned multi-family housing, too. From 1946 to 49, we were just hanging around the neighborhood and walking all over the area, exploring. Back then, it was safe to go on walking adventures.
Two brothers holding parts of our dad’s giant 4x5 camera.

The lure of Weber’s Bread Factory and Bakery, the Coca Cola Bottling Company and a myriad of junkyards were all within walking distance. We were even OK to walk along the L.A. River down to the ocean and harbor. The always fun Pike amusement area awaited us just steps away from the river and harbor. There was even an old drive-in restaurant on the corner of PCH and Santa Fe Avenue, but at the time, did not go there when we were walking around or bicycling to various places.

We did not usually stop at the drive-in restaurant, as we thought it was for cars only. So, we knew of cold Cokes and snacks at the local Bait & Tackle Shop of our dad's friend. those vehicles outside were mostly family sedans and work trucks. There was even a "beatnik" coffee house across the street, but those cars looked like they came directly from the scrapyards just around the corner. No hot rods to speak of at the time.

But, once my brother got some model cars kits to build and some balsa wood to carve/sand, it was now a car oriented version in our household, in between playing baseball, basketball, and football. Then as more trips to the magazine racks with our dad, we began to see and know what to look for in our neighborhood area.

Jnaki
But as we got older and in 1953, moved to our last Westside of Long Beach house until 1998, we were now in hot rod/custom car territory. What was a rare sighting near out first house was now almost a daily sighting of custom trucks, lowered sedans, hot rods and custom cars. If it was not painted, we called them junk cars. The term hot rod was not used until we started reading all of the car magazines. As we got older, we started expanding our range of locations and began to see more hot rods and customs.
Similar in look, but the front grille had tubular bars, delete those slot wheels and add in chromed reversed wheels with small smoothie hubcaps.

The front had multiple straight chrome bars across, from headlight to headlight. The chopped top was at a slight angle with the front windshield taller than the rear. The roofline was slightly sloped. The view out of the front windshield was still wide and open. It did not feel like being squashed. Although, being a little kid, I would not notice the view difference.
old Friday Art
Since our dad was a Buick guy, he always liked going to drive-in restaurants in Los Angeles and our own neighborhood. We figured out later was that he liked being served by those cool looking waitresses in the short tops and skirts on roller skates. He just could not get over that fact that they came out to our cars for service and bringing the hamburger, fries and cokes.

That is where we started seeing all of the older, young guys/girls sitting in their custom cars and hot rods. Since it was walking and bicycling distance, we went there a lot. Some lived in our neighborhood and because the drive in (which was popular but remains nameless, even today) was located on the busiest intersection of the whole Westside of Long Beach, it was popular for "car" people. Folks from the L.A. South Bay beach communities and other places had a direct access to the drive-in if and when they were driving South on Coast Highway 101 and came to the intersection of Santa Fe Avenue.

As we got older and married, we were in several different communities along the coast. When we were on the Coast Highway, it was still a rarity to see hot rods in the same traffic as our cars. Even when we were on our weekend cruises down to Balboa to our favorite café/bakery location, there were less hot rods and more custom motorcycles.

In our final house, we have several neighbors that have stored in their garages, old hot rods, trucks, convertibles and one woody that keeps showing up in the general vicinity when we are out on the roads. So, they are out there. It just takes normal good weather situations for those cool hot rods to come out and enjoy So Cal cruising around like it has been since the 50’s. YRMV

 

It still is a rare sight.

 

Hot Rods could be seen, every once in a while. But I can't recall ever seeing one custom, cruising around.

What's funny, to me, anyways.. the local car club meetings, aren't about dragging out the reason for the gathering, in the first place. Nothing but new junks and plastic corvettes, in the parking lot. Quite ironic