Projects Survivor Hotrod Found!

i don't usually tell other people how to build their cars. the numbers matching and old school anal attitude people have is tiresome. build it how you want, because most people won't even know it's history anyway. here is a thought, how about getting the same car you built back over 35 years ago when you were in your early thirties? do you fix what you did wrong or do you drive it around so you can call it a survivor and possibly kill yourself?

 

For me there is no fixed degree. It's related to the final ride profile of the Chassis. Nose of the car up is totally different than Nose down. I like to program for 6 degrees of Caster when done no matter the chassis profile on a street car. Drag racing I step up to 8-10 depending to tire patch. Decide everything about tire size and profile then set the crossmember accordingly.

 

Thank you! I restore cars full time so I get pretty tired of it myself, I literally get hate mail for everything, guys getting mad because I’m putting a ford in a Chevy or a Chevy in a ford, my inbox was full when I chopped a 34 Ford but the worst one was when I chopped a 56 Bel Air, people freaked out, I never get it, this is a business and I pay my bills with these projects, if they wanted to pay me more to not do these builds I wouldnt do them haha, people are just over sensitive about cars that aren’t even theirs and I don’t mean the guys in this thread, and I do getting pretty tired of it

 

You will always have people that love what you've done and people that will appreciate what you've done even if they don't care for what you've done and then the haters. I'm pretty sure you don't want people that don't say anything about what you've done because they don't care!

 

This resonated with me because a somewhat similar thing happened to me a year or so ago.

I had a T C-Cab in the 1980s which I thought I'd never see again. I moved from my home city of Christchurch in the South Island of New Zealand in 2011 to Kerikeri in the far north of the North Island, then to Whangarei an hour south of Kerikeri in 2017.

I went to a local car show a year or so ago and to my amazement, I saw it... my old C-Cab. But now it's a T-Bucket.

Photo 1 is 1983, Photo 2 is how it looks now…



It had a bit of a change after my ownership. At some point, the top was just cut off apparently (I never saw it like that but my brother did) making it more like a roadster pickup or tub. Then someone started the full on T-Bucket transformation and the current owner finished it. Such a coincidence that he painted it almost the same colour as it was when I had it… and that it was red when he got it, which is the colour I was going to paint it.

And there’s more to the story too. When I owned it, it had the front spring wrapped in tape. I didn’t think much of it (I was only 19 when I got it) and just drove it like that. One day I was leaving home and suddenly I was in a power pole. Turns out the main leaf had snapped causing me to veer to the left. The tube axle was bent as was the chassis along with broken hairpin, shock, exhaust… a bit of a mess.

It was stripped down and a local rodder straightened the chassis and fabricated a new axle and hairpins, and repaired the exhaust. I got the new parts chromed along with the rear coils, then got it back together and put it up for sale in unfinished condition.

Also, when I had it, it had a home made radiator surround as can be seen in the 1983 photo. When the new owner got it, it had a fibreglass one which was damaged apparently, so he built a new one… almost identical to the one that was on it all those years ago…

I’ve since given the current owner all my old photos of the car as a C-Cab for him to scan and keep. He had no idea that it was ever a C-Cab, now he does.

So the moral to the story is… it’s a story. These cars have a story and each owner is a part of the story. Because I met the current owner of my old C-Cab, I now know the names of all 11 owners from original builder to current owner. I know it’s being cared for and used… and even though I preferred it as a C-Cab it’s still around.

I think what @Wired Customs LLC is doing is fantastic and can’t wait to see the end result.

Glen.

 

Awesome story Glen! I’m glad it’s not sitting in a field or junk yard somewhere! I’m glad it’s on the road and still being enjoyed! That’s what it’s all about.

 

I love the little Martian guy.

 

Me too Daniel! Mark Hose drew that in the mid 60s after he painted the truck blue! Here it is a little closer

 

Remarkable.

 

That looks like my boss on a good day. Lol

 

Almost didn't see it but really dig the license plate light. What a cool detail.

 

Me too, I hope I can get it working, I haven’t checked it out yet, but thanks to the guys on this forum for ID-ing the taillights so I can get some more of those, it had 4 originally and only has 2 so I need to find some more

 

A little chrome polish and elbow grease can do wonders on the taillights and the license plate light. Lol. I would use them if I was you.

 

nice little fella! He's giving the whole story even more personality

 

I really like this build.

There was a thread a while back about "The Etiquette of the Survivor". I made a comment that I think this place is getting to be like the AACA for shitty, unfinished projects that have sat around for decades. I still feel that way, maybe moreso than ever, and I feel like this car is exactly the kind I was thinking of. Aside from the fact that this car was built "back then", it has no significance whatsoever. No magazine or major show history, no big trophies or awards, no high quality craftsmanship for even the times it was put together in, and no big name pedigree. The only history it has is with the owners and builders, which let's face it, every car that's managed to not get junked in over 90 years of existence has. Even if it were a bone stock Model A, SOMEBODY, somewhere along the line, did a load of work to it to keep it going and on the road. I personally don't look at an old hot rod like this really any differently than an old restoration of the same car, which in my eyes, makes it ripe material for whatever mark you want to make on it. YOU get to write a chapter in it's history now.

I think we can all agree that the build quality of this car is subpar to today's standards, and certainly for significant use on today's roads in today's traffic. If someone built this car in this fashion today, they would be justifiably lambasted for building a rat rod, or worse, a completely unsafe car. So to change the car from the way it was found to a substantial degree like is occurring, makes it not a survivor. But that's totally fine, and totally awesome. Like I said, the builder here gets to write a new chapter in the car's history, which could be the best chapter yet. This car could go from some home-built experiment, to a serious finished hot rod like a hot rod Cinderella story. What would be super cool would be to heavily influence the build with elements of the past, like the martian character, proportions, etc. That way the end result is both a killer new build, and pays homage to the car's past.

I love it.

 

I put some tubing inside of the boxing plates! All wiring will be ran inside of the frame!

 

New front crossmember from Millworks Hotrods is in! I want to thank Dave from Millworks for sponsoring the build and supplying us with such great parts!

 

Ok, since I started this shitstorm which was taken the wrong way is I don’t have a problem with what he is doing. I had a problem with the terminology. That’s all! It is not a survivor anymore, nor is it a restoration. It is basically a new build reusing some key components from an older build. That’s all. Now can this go away and let’s follow along on the build?

 

And we both found some kind of common ground so everything is good with me

 

What do you guys think about the new kick ups?!?!?

 

I welded a plate inside of the frame for structural integrity! Should be super safe and strong!

 

Here is a picture of the original frame for reference

 

Substantially beefier! Who did you have bend the rails up?

 

They are from Boling Brothers Early Iron, I told Derrek how much if a kick up I wanted and he did the rest, here it is before he shipped it to me

 

They do nice work, looks great

 

Yikes, that doesn’t look safe ( non life threatening that is)

 

Finally back on the ground and out of the jig!

 

much safer