Things Weren't Always Better Back in the Day!

Very scary looking.

One more very important thing about this golden age of hot rodding is the information thats available.
Back in '49 if you didn't know how to do it, and your neighbor didn't know how to do it, you figured something out.
Today with sources like this, you can figure out options for what you want, what you can afford, where to get it, and what's safe to do.

 

Ahhh - looks like it held....

 

question : when was "back in the day" ?????????????

 

In the 50's and early 60's you didn't have as many people who knew how to weld or fabricate. Sure a few actual welders were out there. But it was a lot harder for an inexperienced lad to learn how. Now it much easier to come up with a structurally sound weld with Mig guns. They used coathangers for rods back then for christs sake. As far as fabrication... they didn't have the internet to tell them what is safe and how to properly fab a frame. Those pics are scarey.

 

Part of the equation is that in recent decades tools that were once mostly professional-only like all kinds of welders, sandblasters, specialized cutting tools, etc. have come down in price radically in relation to typical incomes. This has allowed amateurs access to more control of things, for better AND for worse.
Most of this stuff was out of reach in the '50's...people had to cut and fit, then haul the bits to a real welder, or sometimes use less than optimum type of welder for a job because that's what they had.