Hot Rods To Hell with Hot Rods!!

Hey Poppy ! How about you buy me a whiskey and lets see how deep you can get into me ?

 

Sure some are, but the "real thing" may not be. I can't imagine what it would be like, or indeed the costs involved, in trying to drive something with a '70 LT1 installed, or how about an FE with 11.5:1 pistons. At $8.00 and up a gallon for race fuel? Imagine being in a traffic jam with a 3800lb clutch. So if we're going to say "hot rod" and mean it maybe some don't make sense and should be used lightly vs driving to and from work daily. And that too, leaving your mechanical pleasure craft in the parking lot for 40+ hrs a week? I drive 5 miles 1 way to the shop now so a couple days here n there in a stock (but stripped down) Model A pickup was fun once in a while. Still, being big, 1/2 crippled up and old, without some serious remodeling of the interior real estate I could see it becoming a pain in the ass for all but the occasional novelty. The latest, a 39 sedan, stock engine (no need for race fuel), fits me so much better, should drive exponentially better, and perhaps more a custom than a hot rod, I'm not only in I'm all in. It's like an old Panhead. Sure there's so much to love it defies words. But here it is, another heat wave, takes traffic 1/2 hr to move a mile, imagine all that engine heat when it's 95+ out there. Make turning on the A/C in the D'max pretty appealing, no?

 

I had a "Kenosha Cadillac" several years ago-a '61 Classic with the usual straight 6 and 3 on the tree. Everybody should own at least one at some point in their lives. Good luck with it...

 

I am pretty sure that my Caddy powered '46 coupe falls dead in the middle of "Hot Rod" category. it is still getting driven everyday in the San Francisco Bay Area and has been driven that way since the '70s. I imagine that I am going to have to freshen that motor (again) in the next couple of years.

I have never owned two cars, I actually have owned a bike more consistently than a car if the truth be known. I have owned and driven more modified cars than stock. Some of them were more than fast enough to be classed as a hot rod. Actually the closest thing I have ever owned that could even be remotely classified as a custom was the 421 4 speed '66 Grand Prix that I owned in '76. Uh it was originally a 389 automatic car. But it was a boat so I guess it could have been classified as a custom.

These days I usually rely on a 400+ 355 that runs on pump gas. But I do understand to a point where you are coming from, my 394 would not survive on pump gas. granted it is an old drag motor but it could be driven if you could buy fuel. I don't think that anyone has to have a 2x4 Chet Smith Olds to classify their car as a hot rod. Lots of them are running 8:1 flattys.

Hotrod obviously is a little hard to define, but some of us just don't have the luxury of owning more than one vehicle. It is not a cool thing it is just a life thing. Some of us just get by anyway that we can.

 

What did you do, bump your head too hard while diggin stuff out of your lower level? On the up side, that Rambler might be fast enough to catch a blue haired gal with rusty walker wheels!!

 

I like it, got a side shot? How's the body -is that primer or faded paint? Pics say 2007?

 

it's new to me as of last Friday. I don't know how to change the camera date. 13,000 mi, supposed to be orig., came from Arizona. any HAMBers from there recognize it? just got my old purple PA antique plate registered for it. gonna start the chick pick-up thing Friday. " Hey, you come here often?"

 

do the seats fold flat? my '61 did

 

The seats on my 63 -220 didn't have the recline handles on the seat sides. But the mechanism was otherwise all there and could be operated with a thin flat blade screw driver. If I recall right the other thing missing was the two small brackets that the seat backs would rest on when the seat was fully reclined. Those could be had at the parts desk.

 

I think there is a handle on the seat side. this car keeps gettin' better n' better.

 

Ramblers rock

 

Fold flat seats and a candle on the dash. A little bit of romantic music and
It doesn't get much better than that

 

I do come here often. But as you are already aware I am homely as a mud fence.

I probably wouldn't say this on a public forum where everyone could read it but I like Ramblers. Not all of them but some of them just have their own sort of class. Have fun with the little car, that is the best thing you could do with it.

 

Slow yes, but I got a ticket in one, 65 in a 30. It was the same color but had 4 doors. sometime around 1980. nobody even thought I would go 65!