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Projects I'm having thoughts...

Discussion in 'Traditional Hot Rods' started by Ryan, May 6, 2025.

  1. Miller used em
    IMG_6195.jpeg
    When hoods were strapped down and drivers wren’t
     
  2. Kevin Lee
    Joined: Nov 12, 2001
    Posts: 7,656

    Kevin Lee
    Super Moderator
    Staff Member

    Cool people can look cool wearing anything... even a hubcap? Haha.
    But I still say keep Grandpa's belt away from your hood and in your belt loops.
     
  3. 29Sleeper
    Joined: Oct 25, 2023
    Posts: 393

    29Sleeper
    Member
    from SoCal

  4. corncobcoupe
    Joined: May 26, 2001
    Posts: 8,485

    corncobcoupe
    SUPER MODERATOR
    Staff Member

    I lost my belt the last time I saw you at the HAMB Drags, glad you could put it to good use.
    Just kidding - my 2 cents is do different stuff like belts for a couple months, then switch up try something else.
    That's what I do with wheels - n -tires.
     
  5. Ryan have you thought about something like this?
    Bob Workman 1950-51

    cal-neva-8.jpg
     
  6. Nacifan
    Joined: May 19, 2011
    Posts: 378

    Nacifan
    Member

    Hey Boss,
    Not the best picture of a Black coolant recovery tank but worth a look. A vintage WWII canteen I build for Ken Gross' bitchen Blown Flattie High Boy Roadster. He wanted it black so black he got.
    IMG_3147.JPG
     
    Last edited: May 8, 2025
  7. jetnow1
    Joined: Jan 30, 2008
    Posts: 2,193

    jetnow1
    ALLIANCE MEMBER
    from CT
    1. A-D Truckers

    I get extreemly nervous whenever my wife starts a conversation with i'm having thoughts.
     
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  8. Ryan
    Joined: Jan 2, 1995
    Posts: 22,491

    Ryan
    ADMINISTRATOR
    Staff Member

    I'm doing something very similar. Somewhere in my loft I have an old boyscout canteen from the 1940's... This isn't mine, but similar to this:

    canteen.jpg

    If I remember right, it's fairly small. Like 1qt.

    My plan is to weld in 1/4 barbed nipples on the bottom, paint it black, and then hang it low just as you did... I gotta go dig it out, but I'm hoping it's not too big.
     
  9. theHIGHLANDER
    Joined: Jun 3, 2005
    Posts: 10,581

    theHIGHLANDER
    Member

    Ok, I'll be nice. It's you after all so...;)


    Anyways, I can see this a year from now. You did it, came so good you went in the corner and...wait, I said I'd be nice. Anyways, all done and used to it. Now you decided to take one of many excursions like in the past and made a story that generates a dozen pages of comment. But a wrinkle, that wonderful motor gave you some minor grief and you had to take the hood off a time or 10. Eventually you got sick of it and it rode home somewhere else. Or, you could still give it a hood top with a center hinge and not worry about where it's gotta go when it comes off. I'm also not a fan of straps over in broad terms but every so often they do look good. Hanging off the side of a hinged top feels more appropriate in my visual perspective, and mainly because it's a bruiser not a sports car. Even a steel hood left in primer or a completely different shade of black does the same vibe. You were kind enough to share thoughts with us, those are mine.
     
  10. Ryan
    Joined: Jan 2, 1995
    Posts: 22,491

    Ryan
    ADMINISTRATOR
    Staff Member

    Totally possible. I mean, historically, hoods have never really been my thing—it took me damn near four years just to throw one on the ’38.

    But the older I get, the more I figure out that you’re not worth a shit if you’re not willing to try new things, shift your perspective, and take a few blind swings. I love traditional hot rods and race cars to with every bit of my being, but I fucking loathe tradition.

    I don’t want to get old walking worn paths—I want to burn new ones in every direction I can. And that means I’m gonna screw up, a lot, probably in public… but I’ll do it grinning. This hood might be one of those tiny screw-ups. So be it.
     
  11. oldiron 440
    Joined: Dec 12, 2018
    Posts: 3,799

    oldiron 440
    Member

    After watching Jay Lano’s Garage for years now I’m a fan of the early cars he has. Cars of teens and twenties with the belts holding the hoods down it seems to be a time stamp from that time.
     
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  12. corncobcoupe
    Joined: May 26, 2001
    Posts: 8,485

    corncobcoupe
    SUPER MODERATOR
    Staff Member

    Did I hear hood anyone?
    IMG_4347.jpeg IMG_4539.jpeg

    Don’t think so….
     
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  13. theHIGHLANDER
    Joined: Jun 3, 2005
    Posts: 10,581

    theHIGHLANDER
    Member

    I'm not trying to be contrary, but tradition isn't really a material thing is it? Isn't that which we honor or preach the gospel of something more than a wheel, a clamp, a cloth covered wire? Bag of M&Ms cap'n! Loathe tradition while traditionally conspiring to slap an aluminum hood top in a traditional fashion on a traditional Model A with a flatty marinated in traditional speed parts rolling on traditional wheels, and holding it on with some leather straps, like has tradionally been done on dry lakes and in early sports car venues. Traditions are the aesthetics, it's the "know it when you see it" vibe that needs no words. It's the smell of a junkyard. It's the stance of a car. It's a sound. 50 years of restoration has shown me what worked, what didn't, why something was used, or how service in the future could be managed (why that went away pisses all of us). Doing it at all is THE tradition. The pieces and parts are the individuality.

    I can see in-your-face red oxide primer. I can see it age with who gives a shit real patina over time. If I'm outta line you can tell me, but I feel sometimes like things become cliché and that the thing you probably loathe is that. Gotta be a beehive oil filter. Gotta be (name the brands) aluminum heads. Gotta be Strombergs vs 94s. Yeah man, we're standing in that line. A raw aluminum hood and leather straps can be that too. Am I guilty of cliché?
    Maybe a little.
    20210423_194548.jpg
     
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  14. 36cab
    Joined: Dec 2, 2008
    Posts: 939

    36cab
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    As it should be. I love this.
     
  15. Ryan
    Joined: Jan 2, 1995
    Posts: 22,491

    Ryan
    ADMINISTRATOR
    Staff Member

    This is spiraling way past a simple hood choice—and deeper than it probably has any right to—but here we are.

    What I’m really getting at is this: when it comes to hot rods, I’m chasing a feeling. It just happens to be that aesthetics are a very important part of that feeling. I want to tap into whatever spark some punk ass kid had in 1948 when he lit up the night in his hot rod and made the neighbors nervous. To get there, you’ve got to understand not just the hardware, but the headspace. What made those cars feel alive? What made those guys tick? That, to me, is the soul of traditional hot rodding.

    But let me be clear—I’ve got no interest in tradition for tradition’s sake. I have zero patience for inherited thinking. Hand-me-down ideas with no thought behind them? Useless. Just because someone’s dad told them to do it that way doesn’t make it gospel. That’s not education—that’s stagnation. And if my kids ever parrot my opinions without questioning them, then I’ve blown it as a parent.

    So yeah, all this rambling comes down to one simple point: why wouldn’t I try a hood? I’ve never been drawn to them before, but I’ve got an idea that’s worth chasing. Curiosity is reason enough for me...
     
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  16. corncobcoupe
    Joined: May 26, 2001
    Posts: 8,485

    corncobcoupe
    SUPER MODERATOR
    Staff Member

    That head space and feelings way back when was a result of a young fellas coming back from years of a World War and finally able to celebrate freedom through putting Hot Rods together with whatever they could find.

    They earned it and raising a little bit of Hell was part of it.

    Go for it ( hood or whatever comes to mind, vision, feeling) ….. they did.
     
  17. CSPIDY
    Joined: Nov 15, 2020
    Posts: 883

    CSPIDY
    Member

    Will a hood make you a hoodlum?
     
  18. theHIGHLANDER
    Joined: Jun 3, 2005
    Posts: 10,581

    theHIGHLANDER
    Member

    @Ryan you sorta said the same thing I did. Although I'd say you went wordsmith and I kinda went blacksmith...:rolleyes:
     
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  19. BrerHair
    Joined: Jan 30, 2007
    Posts: 5,091

    BrerHair
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    Haha! Love it, keep 'em guessing.
     
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  20. G_Don
    Joined: Feb 17, 2017
    Posts: 226

    G_Don
    Member

    Why is it always pre 1950 for "the look"? Flatheads are very cool but does the number on the side, no drop axle and leather straps or no hood get old for anyone else? I like 60s and 70s rods but maybe I am outnumbered? Anyway its your car and you have every right to do whatever to it.

    Gordy
     
  21. I need to hear more stories about Mal Hooper
     
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  22. glennpm
    Joined: Mar 29, 2015
    Posts: 228

    glennpm

    I like the no-strap look. With the belts, they become the instant focal point which IMHO is not good.
     
  23. Vic Walter
    Joined: Jan 21, 2018
    Posts: 172

    Vic Walter
    Member

    I like the hood top, without the leather straps. I would do dzus fasteners.
     
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  24. Silva
    Joined: Apr 28, 2005
    Posts: 521

    Silva
    Member

    Follow the unbeaten path, if you feel like your headed in the wrong direction, make corrections...
     
  25. Ryan
    Joined: Jan 2, 1995
    Posts: 22,491

    Ryan
    ADMINISTRATOR
    Staff Member

    Because that’s the era that hits all the right notes for me—visually, mechanically, and historically. The 1940s through the early ’50s? That’s the golden age of hot rodding, no question… and that’s exactly why you see so many people drawn to that style of car.
     
  26. theHIGHLANDER
    Joined: Jun 3, 2005
    Posts: 10,581

    theHIGHLANDER
    Member

    Where's the pics? Don't tell me you didn't at least photoshop a little. Well, that wouldn't be traditional tho would it. Should be a pencil and piece of typing paper...:)
     
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  27. TrailerTrashToo
    Joined: Jun 20, 2018
    Posts: 1,399

    TrailerTrashToo
    Member

    I'm a little late - I nominate this for the "Quote of yesterday".
     
  28. Stan Back
    Joined: Mar 9, 2007
    Posts: 2,634

    Stan Back
    Member
    from California

    I vote (am I registered?) for 1/2-straps -- just from the bottom of the hood to the frame rails, but surely without those fussy silly springly things.
     
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  29. AeroCraftsman
    Joined: Jul 29, 2004
    Posts: 336

    AeroCraftsman
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    The single piece hood is a pain after a while. I ended up splitting it and using an original style hinge. Easy to open and easy to completely remove for more serious access.
     

    Attached Files:

  30. Ratchet strap is the modern day leather strap….
     

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