Featured Hot Rods Early Hot Rod ,Period Correct ?

Four bars suspension has been around since the '40's. Some of you need to get over that. So has some types of independent front suspensions.

 

I agree that using a bunch of new catalogue bought parts that did not exist is period incorrect, but innovating and thinking outside the box is 100% period correct. However, if one wants to replicate that style, they need to use parts available in the era.

Jim Frankland ran a 4 Link pre WW II


Duffy Livingstone's Eliminator had a 4 link-



AK Miller used a 40 Chevrolet front suspension in his roadster

 

Jim kept that car long enough to restore it. Saw it at Hershey in the 1990's, color was PINK.

Bob

 

I built a 32 five window in the 60’s. It was a traditional build on a budget. I did use some very wide rear tires, that look was coming from the west coast at the time. I had just returned from California and liked the new look. After selling that chopped and channeled coupe. I built a 30 sedan in the late 70’s. I did use mustang front disc brakes. Yes hot rods were moving towards the street rod era of the 80’s. It did turn me off at the time. Anyway I stepped back into the Hot Rod building when traditional style and The HAMB returned. I know four bar and disc brakes were around a long time and better from an engineering perspective. Although most back yard builders were using what was laying around or cheap. As a kid I looked up to the guys from my home town in the 50’s and their backyard builds.
So for me that is the era and people I like to emulate. What ever everyone else does is fine.
I admit, four bar , modern disc brakes and radial tires are not my cup of tea. Just my old man two cents.

 

Bob, you asked for it!

 

Thanks! Did you ever get a ride in that Roadster?

 

Corvettes got factory disc brakes in 1965, so I think disc brakes could easily have been done soon after.

 

Period correct has a lot to do with what part of the country you're talking about. The west coast was about 10 years ahead of the East coast in the 40's and 50's so the cars were very different, so period correct depends
on what coast and time frame you are talking about.

 

I'm surprised more people did not do this back in the day since the suspension comes out as one big piece. I saw a 32-34 Ford pickup at Turlock once with 49-54 suspension under it, definitely an old build

 

I went the other way on my '39 Chev Master Deluxe coupe. Took the whole crossmember out and swapped in a solid axle.

 

My contribution to the this and the HAMB is to see if you were sleeping at the wheel.
It looks like you are still alive to me .
You can call your project or car whatever you want , put it in any category you seem to think it belongs. That doesn't mean its true or resembles the spirit of the category .
We have one HUGE category for modified cars . HOT RODs. Over the years and still today there are some guidelines or boundaries or whatever you want to call them to create sub categories to differentiate the rides from others.

I'm not the Law or Gate keeper of these guidelines or categories. Never the less they are out there. That's what this discussion is about. There are things in each category that are generally acceptable . Then there are also tipping points.
I aired out mine to get people talking .

 

The master cylinder is about the only give away on that car that shows that it didn't directly come off the drag strip in the mid 60's. A guy who slides under it to nitpick what he doesn't see as "period" correct probably should get a boot up his ass unless he is a Judge at a period correct show where the cars are being judged as the most authentic for an exact time frame.

 

To be truly "period correct" one would have to pick and exact build period. Example 32 roadster built in 1946 with only what components or exact reproductions were actually available in 1946. That would mean that you best be able to document that each component was actually available in 1946 and you aren't using heads or intake or a transmission that didn't show up until 1951. 50's and 60's builds are easier simply becuse we can come up with car magazines that document what was used or what was available.
I haven't come up with an exact cut off year yet for my 48 although I am leaning for late 50's in the nothing visible that screams newer than ____. unless you really snoop into it. The alternator is so far down on the side of the 292 that you have to lean over the fender to even see it and I intend to paint and decorate the engine so that the think they knows will argue that it is a modified 235 or 261. Plus I just figured out that I can buy an electric ac compressor for less than a Sanden and the Davis speed bracket and not have the AC compressor show and block the view of that finned valve cover I have a ton of money in.

Agree 100% that way too many old car terms get abused all too much.

Here in Washington you can get classic plates for anything over 20 years old meaning that one vehicle in my driveway isn't qualified for classic plates. Every time I drove my 48 and stopped somewhere some guy would come up and ask about it and then say that "Next year my car will be a classic because it will be over 20 years old".

 

'Scuse me...
Just lookin' for the bathroom...

 

Coil over four bar rear, hair pins, Vega box disc brakes. Rocket motor tri power, t400 trans. Radials on torque thrusts. . Single stage paint, full fenders. Traditional-esk

 

As far as automatics go, I have two hydramatics, 1 being in my roadster. Both are still bolted to the factory flatheads they came on... plenty of rods went auto

 

I think Hot Rods are a few different eras
1928-1945 gow/soup jobs
1946-1954 hot rods (basically street legal race cars with the majority of them having little fit and finish by modern standards). 1955-1965 golden age where Young people were building hot rods and street rods, It even made it into pop culture with movies, music and mainstream Americana magazines showcasing early street rods and hot rods,
1966-1980 era there was two kinds of street rods and hot rods were pretty much dead, there were the wild show cars, wild t buckets and resto rods (The cars look restored ish but had really high tech for the day underpinnings)
1980 -1996 The pastel rods, billet rods and pro street yucky
1997-2015 traditional hot rods, fake patina rods, rat rods and beautiful customs
2016- present I haven't figured out our era we are living in now I think there is a resurgence of this 1966 to 1980 era vehicles and a little bit of the '80s and '90s styles too.
Myself I am good with any of the hot rod stuff, My personal taste is usually pretty hamb friendly but I can definitely give credit to the 1966 to 1980-ish vehicles as having a certain cool factor to them especially some of the C cabs and and phonebooths That were being built in that era.
My big thing isn't keeping the car perfectly era correct because unfortunately that era is gone but it's keeping the essence of the era alive. Where to the casual observer the car looks period Correct.
Most importantly for me it's about getting out and enjoying the car and building it yourself.
If your car has bias ply white walls, fenders and underneath it has disc brakes and an 8.8 instead of a banjo along with an overdrive 5-speed or God forbid a four-speed automatic I'm not going to criticize you It's your car.

 

I don't know if that's an oxymoron or not look at the guy on the IronTrap YouTube channel. That Matt fella restores or preserves the forgotten hot rods for the 1950s bringing them back to the glory of their past or preserving their earned patina while making them safe for the modern world (You know fixing bad welds, cracks or other sketchy stuff that young people do when they mess around with cars).

 

I would say 2016 on is the unobtanium era. It seems like in recent years our primary focus is to find the rarest parts to use.

budget builds barely exist anymore.

in fact I’ll say the car that I’ve been most excited about in the past 10 years is the one my buddy Holly built a few years back. It’s a super basic stripped down heavily chopped A with a merc flatty and a winters v8 quick change. It oozes attitude and is bad ass. It’s refreshing to see a car be cool because of its chop and stance more than its ultra rare parts. It gave me the feeling that hotrods did when I first got into them. I’ve missed that.

now that said, for any of you that actually know me on a personal level, I recognize the irony of me saying this because I love hunting and digging up rare parts.

And seeing Hollys build reminded me that while rare parts are great, monetary value doesn’t mean your cars going to have the look…

anyways sorry that turned into a rabbit hole but I do think the era that we are in now there is a constant one upping each other on the rarest or most valuable parts.

 

The 4 bar suspension on the front end of the Spade Carrillo car from 1947

 

At the risk of adding fuel to that fire, I find the term traditional hot rod an Oxy-Moron, because every hot rod was different everyone had their own ideas styles etc...

I have told a few people about my project, which is a Model A sedan (oval track car) with 261 Chevy and had several people tell me "No one ever put a GM inline engine in Ford" or that "Inlines aren't hot rod engines" (mostly the trend chasers)

Iacono ’33 Ford



Chet Herbert 4 Door
270 GMC (Horning head)
Buick Dynaflow transmission


Spalding Bros Roadster



Ford 226/254 flathead 6 which was replaced with a GMC.

 

But guys you have to admit there’s a way to do 4 bars that’s traditional and there’s a way to do them that’s speedway.

I think the crux of this argument is more about the devils in the details and we are nerds that care about those things.

with that said the thing that always interests me is that modern manual transmissions are an acceptable deviation but automatics are often not.

But there’s always the exception right? hothead Lou’s verde roadster is as bad as they come and if I recall it’s got an automatic in it. I’d wager that no one cares either

so I guess the thing is just do what trips your trigger

 

Also I have always had a vision in my head of a heavily chopped 30/1 sedan highboy with a full hood and a ROWDY stovebolt in it. So I’m 100% with you on this build!

I love a hot 235/261!!!

and as JJ used to say about small blocks, the proof is in the pudding! There’s TONS of evidence of those engines in early hotrods

 

Unfortunately no. However I may have gotten lock jaw if I did. They called that roadster “The Jagged Edge”. Another piece of history about this roadster was, Boggie (the owner/ builder ) had a cigarette lighter mounted underneath the car , since he was there so often. Now you know the rest of the story!

 

Mine since 1956!!!

 

As far as being period correct, why let it be an issue? There were plenty of things done way back when that are just plain ugly. I'm currently helping a friend work on his car and the things he likes are in that category. Do whatever you like - it is sure to not appeal to everyone.

 

You are correct you can build a car however you like, but in the case of the first post it was for car posted in the classifieds being listed as "period correct" and it was not, and that is the problem.

If someone builds vintage style cars want to use modern parts, and they point out those parts are modern I don't think anyone has an issue.

The problem these modern parts have been passed off and are started to become considered period correct to the point where cars that are built 100% period correct are started to be considered historically and period incorrect!

I see and hear all the time; I have started a couple of photo history threads were people who clearly knew nothing of the history came in and pontificated and bloviated and continued to do so even after multiple people disproved them.

I have been told by people with billet tilt columns, disc brake, coil overs on cars they call traditional that my 53 Chevy isn't period correct for the early 60s because is has a 261 because "Everyone had a small block Chevy"

I agree to a point, around here many of the NASCAR Sportsman that ran Fonda back in fairly early days were running Heim joints this was because of Fonda proximity to G.E. (General Electric) of Schenectady, New York

At one point G.E. was making and heat treating complete Ring and Pinions for the old Timken Split floater rears....

...until management found out, and required all projects to have a blue print, at which point people began to slip a draftsman a few bucks to draw them a print for their side projects.

 

Bottom line: Build what makes you happy, you’re the only one that needs to be happy with the outcome. Just keep on building!

 

Hotdamn -mentioned a lot of the same things I've been trying to air out. There are unwritten guidelines that are generally acceptable whether you like them our not. Most people look at someone shooting for a period or era and if its pretty well put together , it gets the nod. Some are big tipping points and some are not . For me Mr48Chev 's gasser looks the part. It gets the nod from me . Some gasser people may try to pick it apart. To me he hit all the big stuff. That's me . There are a lot of examples on this thread. Examples and specials don't mean they were part of a particular trend / era . To me some of it is stretching and blurring the lines. How far are you going to stretch ? That's the $10,000 question .