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.
It'll clean up the aero a little and keep the rain off the distributor........ I've picked up a stock hood top someone louvered (no side panels). I've been pondering using Duez fasteners on it - the butterfly ones https://www.speedwaymotors.com/Butt...MIvLPs3tCSjQMVXzlECB3hRxzZEAQYAiABEgKDCfD_BwE
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.
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.
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: 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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...
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.
@Ryan you sorta said the same thing I did. Although I'd say you went wordsmith and I kinda went blacksmith...
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
I like the no-strap look. With the belts, they become the instant focal point which IMHO is not good.
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.
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...
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.
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.