Folks Of Interest Robert Williams on Hot Rodding behind the Scenes of "Rides"

Thanks for the video. Was worth watching and entertaining.

 

I also found the Burbank Chopper episode of "Rides" on Youtube, they get into more detail about their cars at the 32 minute mark than I remember form the original airing

 

That was good, very correct description of the 50's. I met him once at the 2019 GNRS, while Pat and I were displaying the Spalding Copy. I seem to remember that he grew up with Metal Ace, Jerry Weeks, when they both lived in Albuquerque.

 

He{ R.W.} about 60% full of his own BS, but interesting the way I see it.
The rest of about 40% ,I'm 100% with. In the end,most of us are on part of the same page,with others.
Thanks for posting,was fun to watch.
In part that he was happy with being a kind of 1/2 *** it, guy*,he didn't see it though. { Little too lazy to really clean up things*,using excuse's you hear him say*, you can see it in the way he talks,I think }. Don't misunderstand me,I don't dislike him at all. I see most of hotrodding in a better way though.
I'm very close to same time line { I'm just a little older} racing all around me,engineering, an doing my art, back ground,yet didn't leave anything ruff or poorly engineered. Found away to nicely finish things on low $'s.
Plus I was in 3 great hotrod n custom car clubs.no one I knew, and ,I knew a lot of rod n custom guys, being total car nut,and puting my rod n custom in many shows,50s n 60s.
Only point was,not all things said by any one*,is the total run down on any of it.
I think the key,is to enjoy the parts you like best,of anyone's views.
I almost ,just deleted all my note,but then thought maybe someone needs some extra wider view.

 

I don't agree with everything he says, I think some of what he paints hot rodding in the 50s with a broad brush based what he saw and experienced.

I see it with auto racing there is the Driver A fan side and the Driver B fan side, there is the grandstand side of events and the pit side of events.

There have been several times over the years when a grand stander has come up to my dad and asked him about an event he was involved in and the grand stand side of events is completely different from what happened on the track or in the pits.

I do however agree with his view of what hot rodding has become.

It was at its core a blue collar working man's p*** time or at least that is where its roots were based.

While there may have been white collar hot rodders they got out in the garage wrenched and built their own cars.
However, over the last several years it has become a money game, and it is spend, spend, spend, buy a finished car pay or someone else to build it and as a result the current "traditional" cars have lost their soul!

Every early hot rod, stock car, drag car looked different as did the cars of the mid 1990 to about 2010 because they were built by individuals in home garages not huge shops with teams of machinist, fabricators, body/paint, and upholsterers.

 

Maybe he is describing things as he remembers them where he grew up. If he lived in a different part of the country and grew up with a different set of people he might have a completely different story to tell.

As for me, I enjoy these old stories but I don't expect them to be exactly accurate or sworn to under oath.