Hmm....................... Lets see.. Things traditional.... Fuzzy dice curb feelers wolf whistles Hula girls whip antennas ************* eight ball shift knobs fake spotlights moon roofs long shackles ladder bars lakes pipes winking cats blocked off carbs spray on vinyl roofs lets not forget billet and bumper babies. And now we can add flat black paint and red rims to the mix. "Remember those flat black red rimmed cars back at the turn of the century? " goddam things were everywhere. Yeah, thats now part of "tradition" So many traditions, so little time. We should always keep a sense of humor about the work we do.
Yeah , I was thinking about it today, and we are really influenced by what we see in the mags and at car shows. Some of this stuff translates to what we're working on at the current time and some of it does not. Skirts and lakes pipes work on certain cars. as do raising or lowering. There were some cars that were pivotal in changing the thinking at the time -- taking our heads and snapping them. The Hirohata Merc, Lil John Buterras billet rod, and yeah, even the first Boydster. We rodders have an interesting history Things that look great today may be tomorrow's laughing stock.
I've not seen much talk here about "sleeper" cars, which would be un***uming looking until you pulled away from a traffic stop and all you saw were tailights.
There's a few more you didn't mention. Baby moon hubcaps Corvette knock-off spinners 53 Chevy grille teeth 59 Caddy tail lights Chrome chain steering wheels Chrome reversed rims Fox tails Bolt on tube grilles Fake fur Angel hair Chrome bare foot gas pedals 6 carb log manifold set-ups And finally the legendary, but never seen, 100 MPG carburetor.
Not much talk about "sleepers" because a lot of people are making cars that look fast but ain't. Maybe they're called "Wakers"? Or mebbe ****ers?? Faux G***ers? The exception to the uncool fake is Tingler. Only because he's an Artiste. On to the Tradition parody: Bongos in the package tray necker knobs skulls on everything blue dot tail lights Felix the Cat stuff Bellflower tips 1 foot beyond the rear bumper Faux patina pin striped primer chicks in 4 doors
WTF? Man, you got some sort of unhealthy fixation on my car. Every friggen thread I open is about this ****.
Chili, Wait for a few years. God willing, I'm going to turn my car into something that'll scare the **** out of you. Why do you think I'm building a '58 Chevy Apache tow vehicle? It may take me decades, but I'm going to fix my car up just to please you. Its my life's goal at this point to make you say "Tingler's car RULES". If you die before I get done, I'll find where you are buried and bring my car to your graveside........'cause when I'm done with it, you WILL jump up out of your grave and say "Holy ****, Tingler's car RULES". ..........So not only do you get to look forward to Tingler's car finally ruling and being truely fast, but you also get to look forward to resurrection.
wearing your pants hiked up above your navel, hey, if it works for Peter Gunn it works for me man, he was beyond cool..
Chaz, A lot of us open an old magazine and say, "Gee that's what all rods were back then." And that becomes traditional rodding to us. The truth of the matter is that those magazine cars were uncommon, sure a lot of folks were influenced by 'em and probably wished they could own one but they were not common traditional cars. Face it if everything either had a hemi or a nail head in it or 45 Fin drums then there was never a Buick or Chrysler product ever built that had a drive train or brakes. Tradition is something that has been p***ed down to you and you carry it on or its something that you have built yourself and kept going for long enough for it to be a tradition. Oh and BTW "Sleepers" are a tradition where I come from. But if you tell everyone then its no longer a sleeper now is it? Uh, see you briefly at the next light.
Chrome Tape Pinstripe Decals Spray on window tint Scavenger Pipes Cris Cross+Bennies.....................OLDBEET
not to drift too far from this topic, I recently bought a two box set of four dvd's of the old Peter Gunn TV series, been watching almost nightly, damn near a tradition in itself the other night we watched the episode Sisters of the Freindless? I think it was called the one where the kid in highwaters almost gets run down by none other than Norm Grabowski in his famous T 'hit the rewind about ten times to replay that short scene very cool, too short but still way cool a scene or two later and Peter goes to Rock-a-Billy's roadhouse where Norm and his partner in crime are sitting in their matching stiped T shirts, trying to look tough these were all filmed in 1958 with lots of Chrysler supplied cars, great music, beetnicks, tough guys and cute girls now back to your regular program
Going along with the era....... Sock hops in the gym. "Mouse-trap" shoes. Chinos. Wearing your watch upside down. Wearing your belt buckle to the side. Foozles. Am I dating myself ?????
Them "destination" stickers on your windows, showing where ya been... my old Fleetline (RacerRick's now) had a bunch of em. unfiltered Camel packs on the dash, garter on the mirror. A bunch more I'm sure... Jay
A couple more "traditional" items I haven't seen mentioned: Organ pipe speaker grills. Speaker grills with musical note shapes stamped into them. Chain steering wheels. Ra**** tails on the antenna. Angel fur. Crushed velvet. "Rainbow Tape" (that tape that looks like engine turned aluminum) 8-track players. Record players for cars. Diamonds in the back, sun-roof top, diggin the scene with the gangster lean woo woo woo.
About red wheels... I don't know why it was done but a **** load of old-timers seemed to think that popping off the wheel covers and painting the edge of the rims in bright red was a kool thing to do. The many I've talked to said that they "just did it that way back then..." and not much else for reason. Now mind you these are mostly Motor City geezers that talk this ****. I really haven't spoken to some of the guys from other states as much about it. My ol man never did it, maybe on 1 or 2 re-salers he'd scarfed up but not on his daily or hot rods. Any insights on that? The whole red wheel, no cap deal might be something that has "morphed" from the interest in past kool? Other things.. Cuffed blue jeans (I did that when others were wearing flares and bell-bottoms) How 'bout "STP" stickers? Totally kool. Styrofoam antenna toppers. Hey, does anyone remember the Gulf lil plastic double horseshoe stick-ons? Bright orange with sticky foam pads to attach. From the "...give your car an extra KICK with Gulf NO-NOX" campaign. What about shrunken heads? Aight that's enuff for now.
They didn't sell much Gulf around here, but I remember the "PUT A TIGER IN YOUR TANK" ad campaign for Esso or Enco or whatever it was back in the '60s. They used to give out little tiger tails for your antenna and stickers and ****.
what isnt tradition is billet wheels,pink,or orange lighting bolts,painting evey chrome grill you can find! electronic fuel injection,digital gauges,ripping out a perfectly good vintage dash and replacing it with some piece of **** 80s plastic **** oh yeah dont forget 80s bucket seats! should we mention fibergl***,probably not. give me flat black,red rims anytime.you could do alot worse
hows about black wheels with white paint on the lug nuts? Or upholstered running boards, bobbed A and deuce rear fenders, shortened pickup beds, car club plaques in the back window package tray, chrome tissue dispensers under the dash...factory, pegged pants for guys, cars had nicknames, using your left arm to signal, no seat belts, ethyl gas, push or nerf bars....on and on it could go.. Tradition is what I make it to be for me...and if you dont like it....MOVE!
cherry bombs flame throwers fender skirts tunnel antena frenched lights flat paint chopped tops ....................and they call us hot rodders........hmmmmmmmm
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