Taking The Stand...

What still amazes me is that people who never drove my car claim to be authorities on how safe it was or wasn't. Fact is, the brakes were one of the things I really LIKED about driving that car! It had power brakes that took only the slightest touch on the pedal to stop. The rear brakes were COMPLETELY NEW, and functioning prefectly. The pedal moved maybe an inch total.

I let a 19 year old girl drive the car and never mentioned to her that it had rear brakes only. I just told her to take it easy because it wasn't her Lumina. Of course, I was right there in the passenger's seat, but I never had to warn her about a thing...she drove the car as if it were her daily beater and never locked up the brakes once.

To me, that just reaffirmed my own conclusion that the car was indeed safe to drive. If a young gal with no special knowledge about braking systems, hot rods, 49 Chevys or what the masses consider 'right' could drive the car without incident, than I felt that I had indeed put together a roadworthy old heap.

Would it have been better (and safer?) with front brakes as well? Undoubtedly so!

But...and I say this again...I drove that thing in stop and go traffic, on the freeway, in the city, out in the sticks and everywhere in between without one close call or accident. Luck only takes you so far.

I would be THRILLED if my current car (64 Olds) stopped HALF as good as that old Chevy! It's got four wheel functional brakes with what passed for power assist forty years ago and a single reservoir master cylinder. You leave lots of room and you keep an eye open for escape routes.

As a matter of perspectives, I would not let that young gal drive this car...it takes a real practiced touch to stop it, and even then it can be scary!

But...it's okay, right? Because it's a factory engineered car with four wheel brakes, it MUST be safer than a homebuilt heap with rears only, right?

Fucking BULLSHIT!

I guess nobody but the very few who ever actually DROVE my 49 will ever honestly know how good it stopped, but they are the only ones with any right to comment on the matter, as far as I'm concerned.

If people listened to all the naysayers, we'd still think the world was flat and that aviation was something out of science fiction! I went through the same fucking thing when I built my motorbike a couple years ago...armchair experts swore up and down that my design was flawed and would NEVER work.

Sent them fuckers home with their collective heads shoved right back up their asses when it worked FINE! I had to build the thing to prove it would work, and I spent the whole summer enjoying it just to rub their noses in it.

Now...as to whether or not my 49 was any kind of a HOT ROD? Who the fuck knows?

It weighed far less than stock, got better mileage by a LONG shot, and I'm sure it was alot faster than even a hopped up old Shitbolt 216 could ever have DREAMED of being, but it didn't have that dick-stroking attitude about it that some people long for above functionality.

Funny thing is, the exact same car with a generic small block Chevy and disc brakes up front would have been widely received as "cool"...even though it'd be just another belly button "me too" waste of metal and rubber in my book.

To each his own, that's what RODDING is about!

Make sure you have a leg to stand on before you point fingers at someone else's work and call it out as unsafe, though. Having never driven my car, nobody here, aside from me and RacerRick if he drove the car at all (and maybe DirtyT, I can't remember?!) are even qualified to speak on it's driveability or lack thereof, so it amazes me that this whole 'debate' even had to take place.

Whatever. I think I'll build a rear brake only T-bucket...they were all the rage in the 70s and that was cool, right? Along with the gay ass vertical steering columns and dopey ragtops!

 

Exactly!!

(And no, the lack of front brakes wasn't something I thought was cool, I actually intended to install the ECI front disc kit, but sold the car before I got that far. It was always a 'work in progress'...like so many other HAMBer's cars...)

 

Hack's decision to drive the 49 was a CALCULATED risk... just as driving any car is. Volvos have better brakes than a Corolla, but people still buy Corollas.

 

Of course, having front brakes is safer than not having them. Laws of physics and all that crap.

BUT, having disc brakes all round is better than having stock '49 brakes, and having anti lock ABS all round is better than having just disc brakes all round.

So, where do you stop? At what point does one decide 'I'm feeling safe enough'?

Truth is, you can never be safe enough for some people, no matter how hard you try. That's why some clowns spend their lived developing front air bags, side air bags, motorcycle air bags (yes, they have them ready to go ?!) auto seatbelts, side crash bars, automatic collision detectors that stop your car for you, lane departure alarms, that tell you when you're changing lanes... Jaysus H Christ, where will it end.

I personally would not drive a car without front brakes, as I know what sort of clowns I share the roads with, and I know front brakes will reduce my stopping distance by 200%. That might save my life, and my car.

 

I have to admit I'm a little suprized at this post. I assumed (perhaps wrongly??) that everyone takes the steps to make sure they are building/driving the best car they can, a safe car. The problem is, I think that most of the people that aren't building safe cars probably don't know any better. I guess they are just not mechanically inclined enough to tackle building thier own car, or they are just stupid Maybe they think thier weld will hold when it won't. Maybe they think something is good enough when it isn't. Fortunatly these cars will probably never make it to the streets. I think everyone strives to build the best car they can, unfortunatly some aren't too good at it and think they are. Telling these people to think extra about saftey will probably not accomplish anything.

Besides, after scrutinizing the auto manufacturers, then looking at builders and hot rodders, what about all of the shops, garages, and dealers that are trusted to properly maintain the average vehicle? We've all heard about quicky lube not putting enough oil in engines, or how some bonehead left the oil filter off, but what about the brake jobs that happen every day.

So why worry about it. There's nothing you or I can do except do the best work we can, and if in doubt ask hambers for help

 

I'll this about that.LOL
FWIW
Not having any front brakes at all is certainly a hell of a lot safer than having less front braking action than rear.
A car without enough front brake to lock the fronts up before the rear will go asshole around tea kettle instantly and with no hope of recovery or control in a hard braking situation.
At least with no fronts at all the car will still slide to a stop in a reasonably straight line.
But four is still better all things being equal.
T.OUT

 

Let's look at the real motivation behind most people's criticism of other people's work and cars. It's about ego, and the implication that if they criticize your skills, their skills must be superior. I call bullshit on all of 'em.

And if someone buys a car from me & criticizes me for the "unsafe" nature of it, I will tell them to get out of hot rodding & buy a golf cart so they can hang out on the back nine and talk shit with the rest of the old worn out pussies. To me, hot rods are about hauling ass, not sitting around with my wife on some lawn chairs with our matching windbreakers talking bullshit with other like-minded couples about cry-baby dolls and other pathetic shit. Why not just go ahead & cut your nuts off and let your wife carry them around in her purse?

Safe hot rods? What the fuck is that all about?

Hot rods and choppers aren't about safe dependable transportation, they're about CHEATING DEATH, and whenever I see one that's about "being safe" or "fuel economy", I just want to punch myself in the nuts & puke blood.

And as far as being an ambassador for the hobby? Fuck that. This isn't a public service I'm trying to provide, I'm in this for me. I like hot rods because standing on the loud pedal on an empty road in a dangerous car SCARES THE SHIT OUT OF ME. It makes me feel alive. And the further hot rods get from scary, the less I like 'em.

And that's all I have to say about that.

 

How many different ways can you spell gay?

 

I don't get it at all....who cares. If you don't like Hacks car then don't buy it or ride in it. Everyone on this board has done something to there car/cars that they have done stupid at some point or another in their lifetime..nobodys perfect.. And if you think you are then thats a whole different thread. Ask any biker if running a front brake back in the day was cool.... drama queens

 

I'm sorry, but that is one of the most fucking ignorant things I have ever read. Are you retarded?

 

Just from reading this thread I've descovered a whole lot of people that I don't want to be on the same road with, HAMBers or not. I'm 61 and would selfishly like to see what it would be like to be 71. No more explanation necessary.


Frank