Ryan's Article: Tradition Takes Sacrifice

Yep.

I'm not a big fan of it either, but I am a big fan of the energy and ideas behind it.

I'm a huge fan of using whatever to build whatever.

However, many times that mindset does NOT produce the cleanest or most harmonious machine.


Personally, I think the roots of the rat rod run deep. I think they go back to the beginning.....right along with the roots of the "traditional rod".

Both ends of the spectrum (rat rods and traditional rods) are just the natural progression from those roots.

There is UGLY in both camps. There are rat rods that suck ass and there are traditional rods that are so friggen boring they make a fella want to puke.

 

i just dont care anymore..i just wanna drive!!!!
wanna build my 29 c-dan trad as possilble....but the mot/trans is 62 cad 390..so in order for that to be in period, wouldn't i have to build it say 65-68 era??i dont want that so thats one of ton's of change's i will have to make!!!!cant help it.. the clearing house hasnt rang my door bell yet !!!! my 53 will be kinda trad to but to my liking!! no manual brakes on her and more modern i-6..my kid's will be in this one so saftey trumps tradition everytime[ or should] for me!!!!

 

I feel this arguement can be further fleshed out when comparing to other issues of design... because we are taling about design right? Mechanistic and aesthetic, they go hand in hand.

In the world of architecture... there are a lot of discourses about what is architecture and what is not. many architects and theorists concentrate on the definition of what is architecture.... is a shed in the back yard architecture? is a best buy architecture? Is a the Pa state captiol building architecture? To answer this question then stems from a way of thinking and reasoning. It is said that architecture is when it embodies "Firmness, Commodity and Delight" it is also said that Architecture "embodies the total sum of a culture's values and mores in built form" it is upon sound reasoning based upon statements such as these that one defines what is architecture, and while this does not speak dirrectly to the design and building of "hotrods, etc." i think a similar logic can and should be emplyed.

It is also said that in architecture "style" is not so important. "style" is only a name, a badge, a signification that is placed upon a work of architecture so as to understand that work in a greater spectrum of time and change. (example, "greek revival" "post Modern" etc.) Likewise, perhaps in the automotive world, the "style" example "60's custom" or "Ed Roth revival" haha, or even, i hesitate, "traditional" have less to do with whether the vehicle is a "hotrod" or a "custom" (sim. architecture) and more to do with placing these vehicles in a frame of reference from which to fully understand their value and noteworthy nature.

ok, back to work, just my humble opinion, please feel free to criticise...

 

Nailhead PnG... its called the ENTER KEY...

Your thoughts were a great read and showed some real thought... but damn hard to read straight through!

Maybe go back and edit it with some breaks so the guys and gals can get the full effect?

 

I saw the last issue of 'Ol Skool Rodz and I thought that it really, REALLY sucked. Not the mag or the writing or even the ever controversial abundance of ads.

It was the cars that made me sick.

No craftsmanship, regardless of budget.

And building something wild just for the sake of being more wild than the last guy.

Crap.

I was just telling my brother the other day that the early Hot Rod Deluxe was far better. Then I tripped over a new issue (guess I didn't know they were back) and I was horrified to see the same sensationalized style found in the other rag.

I felt very alone.

I thought to myself - am I the only one who thinks this? Am I being too picky? Have I lost direction?

I won't settle for good enough - just to get it on the road in time for the upcoming rockabilly-hipster-pomade-fest 2006 event.

I won't skimp here and cut corners there, just for the sake of getting my car on the road.

It's got to be done right or I am not putting my name on it even if it takes me 15 years to build it.

Ryan just made me feel like I fit in somewhere.....just like he did when I tripped over the first version of the HAMB years ago.....

I just got done re-reading "The Birth of Hot Rodding". And while going through it I saw a lot of neat-o stuff that I hadn't noticed before.

I don't really need to go over all of the details of every lakes car I like, but the point here is - I get my inspiration from those cars! The roots of the hobby. It's what I like. That's where my head is at.

I know the HAMB has softened, and I realize that there are a number of members here who have, and love "rat rodz". I won't shit all over that, it's still better than some alternatives (like sticking a few decals and a wing on the back of your parents car and calling it done). But I will say it's not for me.

Ryan is right, we're not main stream at all. In fact we are a diminishing few....

 

I've gotten to know a guy in the last couple years that had some real nice hot rods from post-war & thru the 50's. One thing I'll always remember him saying , "we sure as hell didn't build cars to look like shit and have rust & filth, the idea was to be working towards a nice car with finished interiors and the best paint & bodywork you could do or afford".

 

I was planning on driving my slant six powered 52' Plymouth to Missouri for the HAMB Drages from New Braunfels, Texas - guess I better stay home - drove my 56' Buick up there last year - but I guess that wasn't a traditional car either. Would my 47' Harley Flathead be traditional enough? What, my slant six has 2/1's and zoomies - that is just freakish not traditional, oh my god it is channelled and sits on the ground without the benefit of air bags, oh lord he could have afforded it but he went without. I think the point is being drastically missed by the influence of a few, with pride and fear derived from something they haven't experienced but hopefully might.

I love traditional cars and I hang out and work on my cars with a bunch of old codgers that drive "street rods" but understand where it came from because they did it, they don't do it anymore, but they did, and they love to see people do it again.

To me it is easy to call something a rat rod or a true traditional car and it is not so easy to build either and end up with something enjoyable and fun for you and those around you. My 56' Buick is a traditional low buck custom, it has narrow whites, but not too narrow because it would have been all wrong, it sports original sombreros with added bullets, slicked handles and emblems, a little sheetmetal added to the hood vent and some more doo dads, it is flat black not Hot Hues with a flattner, it is pinstriped, and sits nose high with the back down from heated springs, it sports an origianl tuck-n-roll interior somebody gave it in the 60's - it is traditional - show me how it does not look like it came out of a highschool parking lot in 1959-61 - it is a ton of fun to drive and I love it for what it is.

- But it is not a really cool, true blue, traditional car - it didn't cost me $2,500 to build and didn't cost me $25,000 to build.

Because you are talking about pre-war and early post-war cars that were built by the owner's of speedshops and rich kids, or at least kids with a pocket full of money, most of the most famous traditional cars ever built were built for somebody not by somebody for a large sum of cash, I have seen very few true pre-war tradional hotrods done correctly unless they were done to copy a speedshop's race car.

My old man grew up in a machine shop and he drove a 51' Studebaker 4 door with a 56' Goldenhawk V-8 and cut-outs that he pulled open with a cable on the dash (like the ones out of J.C. Whitney) - and he won a few races around town - much to the competition's surprise - now explain why this car today is a Rat Rod Jalopy and not Traditional, I call bullshit!

You need a better term for Traditional and you need a better term for Rat Rod - there is no label for any of these cars except that somebody took the time and imagination to put it together and had the balls to drive it so that someone could write or talk about it and hold it to a certain standard or sub-standard of conformance.

My 52' Plymouth is a Concorde Business Coupe and it is not ugly, it has an original spider-webbed flame job done on the South Side of San Antonio in the late 50's to early 60's and it has never been painted since, I pulled it out of a creek in a pecan orchard, now let's get down to the details before we judge it. I chose not to paint the car so that the original work would remain intact and unmolested, I did not acid etch it or hand paint rust on it, it is the real deal. I purchased a 1953 Oldsmobile Rocket 303 to go in the car but soon realized that if I channelled the car as I wanted I would more than likely have to clip the car to make it work, out of the question I told myself, it will forever change the car from what it was. I looked around and saw that I could order dropped uprights for the front end, and I could always just block the back or pull a couple of leafs and reverse the eye to get it down, yes it is a 52' plymouth and it would be ugly if it weren't on the ground, rather than order the aftermarket crap, I channelled the car 4" - a full fendered car - I recessed the firewall 5" , shortened the steering column and did it well, I rolled the tunnell in the car and built the floors and now she was on the ground, I rebuilt the frontend and brakes - the two cylinder per wheel lockheed style - this was not cheap - but I get to drive it as it was and that is what mattered to me. The engine - the dreaded slant six - not cool but available and I still have the rocket on the stand, what could I do to make it better - 2 one's - damn that offy 2/1 intake is expensive - cost more than the motor and tranny - but for pride what the hell - now exhaust - hmmmm, what to do, my buddy Paul has a bender and my buddy Gates can cut a flange, Zoomies !!

Now this abortion that I call my hotrod is not fast but it goes down the road, it doesn't go down the road like a pile of shit and it doesn't go down the road like a Cadillac, it goes down the road like an old car, it is loud, and it is different, it is fun, and it is my way of bringing back to life an old car that retains much of it's charm and much of it's function but is an extension of what I think is cool, that is traditional to me.

I don't want A/C, I don't want disc beaks or power steering, I don't want anything that wouldn't have been available or used by the guy back then, like I said the 52' was flamed in the late 50's or early 60's and the slant six came out in 61' -

Imagine..... It is 1962 and I am the broke kid down the block that got his hands around the baddest ass hot rod in my neighborhood but the motor is blown and my cousin shipped off last week and left me his shiny new 1961 Dodge with a slant six, hmmmmm........ I get all the girls, fast forward today, 45 yrs later, this car is now a rat rod and not traditional.

I know it is just an explanation of the term, but if you own the car and you built the car, and you actually used your head, and you acutally drive it, and you love it, and someone calls it a rat rod, tell me you wouldn't want to kick his ass and hold his head over those six zoomies for about 3 minutes at 6000 rpm.

This is from a guy doing it, not starting or building a car, not sleeved, but lightly tattooed, running a mortgage business by day, and building cars/bikes and pinstriping his ass off the rest of the time, explain to me again what is traditional and what is rat ???

This is not about a scene to me it is about honoring and preserving the past and loving it for what it was, and is, because guys like you and me put in the effort to live it again.

You are correct that tradition takes sacrifice, and that it will only go so far because only so many are willing to give what it takes to end up with a running/driving piece of history, but it doesn't have to be pre-war history to be traditional, it takes alot of money to be pre-war traditional, it takes some ingenuity and digging around to be traditional post-war, but it is still traditional.

Traditional to me is taking the time to make decisions about your car or bike that will allow you to go back in time and do what others did, when I am in or on any old car or bike I am not driving around so people can stare. I am smiling from ear to ear and I am 16 again and everyone else is in another world, my traditional cars/bike are time machines and you can call it what you like, but if you run into me at a show don't call any of them rat rods or rat bikes, it just pisses me off.



Peace-N-Grease

-JD[/quote]

 

I've got a traditional Hot Rod. (Old Rusty).
I just spent two weeks fucking with the carbs and ignition - struggling with worn out obsolete parts. And because I didn't fit a fan it's just boiled over while tuning it on the drive - How traditional is that?
Mart.