Would You Consider A Component "Traditional"...

No kidding. I never saw a black primered car before about '94, so how traditional is that? Yet every one of the new "traditional" cars is black primer. Flat black is the new red.
The Ala Kart had air bags back in '57, so no new groundbreaking there, either. Don't let some 20-something with head-to-toe tats tell you what "traditional" is or isn't. Think for yourself, do a tasteful build and be happy with your car.

 

Bottom line......"IF IT FEELS GOOD, DO IT!"

 

Getting a disc brake kit out of a Catalog is not Traditional.
( and the big vented discs with their huge crude calipers look like **** anyway... )
Carefully adapting the Disc Brake setup off a '50s Jag is.

A Mustang R&P isnt ( or worse, the whole MII IFS )
But using the R&P off a Morris Minor is.

70series Radials ( or even 60, and 50 series ) are not.
The skinny Michelin X off a pre war Citroen Traction Avant can be.

And even then, I probably wouldn't put all of those on the same car...


Just one guy's opinion...

 

All good points...
Metalshapes, Great ****ogy! Exactly what I was trying to convey!
Rusty & Totallycustom, I agree, but we're not arguing, just discussing...
Robster, great point!...that's what I was talking about...
Zookeeper, right on about the Ala Kart,...again, that's what I was trying to point out...
Coldwar, I would have said something about the rock-a-silly, pompadourous, posers, using ratrods as a fashion statement along with their fellow members in their "jacket-clubs"...but it wouldn't have sounded as eloquent as you put it!

 

That's not very traditional...





Dude, do what ever you want...Don't worry about what another keyboard jockey is going to think about your ride...****in' hot rodding is about building what you like...if ya start throwin' rules at it, it's not fun anymore...yeah some **** gets boring, and some **** is just way out there, and then there are cars that just nail it no matter what "style" they are built in...build what YOU like, break it, then rebuild it, and have fun...If you worry about what "Traditionalguy32" thinks ya ain't gonna have fun...

That's my 2 cents.

 

I absolutely agree with that one.

And one of the things I like is a good challenge.

Like building car that performs well out of hard to get, vintage parts.

Trying to eliminate all the easy to get ( and ugly ) 1-800 **** is part of that challenge.

I do that to satisfy my sense of Aestetics and History, not to please somebody else.

Those are just the parameters I like to build cars by.
And like I said, just one guys opinion.
Easy to dismiss, and not worth argueing about...

 

Traditional is doing it the hard way. Which is the satisfying way. Which means not bolting on catalogue parts at every step.

 

....plus, if a guy built a hot rod in 1954 and kept it for 20-30 years, chances are he made some upgrades on it as better equipment became available. How many rods started out with a flathead that was later replaced by an Olds, or Cadillac, or a 265? Lots of three speeds were also ditched when four speeds became available and affordable.

 

Ak Miller put an independent front suspension ('39-'48 Chevrolet style) under his '32 Ford in the late '40s---if he were still around and drove it to some rod runs today, he would be made fun of for it.

 

you have to make your own rules when you build a car. everybody follows different rules. i got one friend who will not buy any part off ebay for his cars. another guy doesnt buy any brackets or parts that he can make himself. i build my stuff with whatever i can find that suits my vision. is a component traditional you ask? by itself it may or may not be. its all in how you apply it.

 

Very wise words, indeed. Everyone does it differently, but some get it right and some don't. I hate the term "rules" as it applies to hot rods. Rules are for racing and sanctioning bodies, not for such a supposedly "freestyle" hobby as hot rodding. A freind of mine is currently building a '32 Ford p/u. I've machined some parts of the project and went over last saturday to check it out. He's build 99% of the thing himself, and personally I'd call it a "traditional" rod. It's got painted steel wheels, steel body, mild chop, '56 Dodge Hemi mated to a Ford Top-loader 4spd with a Jeep top plate/shifter so it looks right. It sits low thanks to a dropped I-beam and the whole thing is painted a non-metallic blue similar to a stock '36 Ford blue. But is it 100% "traditional"? It has TCI brakes on the front, coil-overs in the rear, radial tires, a Demon carb, Sanderson headers with Jet Hot coating and Edelbrock mufflers and worst of all, a heater!! Does that make it non-traditional? Hardly. It's a *****in' truck that anyone in their right mind would be proud to own, and knowing the builder, I'd bet it works great and will get driven plenty. I took some pics and need to post them, since it's a great example of what can be built by one man in his own garage.

 

hardened valve seats werent around bake in the day , you gonna run unleaded with out them? lots of saftey things just wernt there back then but my rods got seat belts dont want my kids to fly throught the window. traditional is a style not a part, better believe that if disc brake conversions and hei s were avlible back then they would have used em!

 

Traditional?? Back in the 50's when we got a car we changed every thing we could afford to. Dad use to ask me why in the hell I would work so hard to buy a nice looking car and then turn around and screw it up? Easy answer-I wanted it my way and my way was not traditional to the grown ups then and sure not now. I spent 13 months on a frame off on my roadster and some down under clown on here said it might piss some one off and I shoulld think about re doing the car to conform to more traditional -I say **** em-Its still my way and thats my defination of traditional. If they dont like it dont look at it.

 

I bet even the ****pyest pieces of garbage are built to some kind of "rules" ( My guess is Boogerwelds, lots of Iron Crosses, and Shock Value... )

 

When it comes to stopping and possibly preventing me wrecking something I just put hours of work into and plenty of $$$, I don't give a **** what anybody says.
I put discs on anything I get that may have drums.

Now if you're building for a compe***ion to where what you put on may mean the difference between winning or not, to where there are rules involved, then you may want to consider the old school stuff...judges are picky people. Or just go straight to the source and ask whomever is holding said compe***ion.

Aside from that, do your own thing bro.

 

I've been around hot rods since the late 50's & early 60's, I was just a kid 10 or 12 years old. Got my first car a 54 merc. 2 dr. in about 62, I was a freshman. We did'nt think about what was "correct" we just used what we could get our hands on to make it go faster, did'nt worry about if it could stop until it was time to stop, I say if you can make it look cool and it's SAFE do it. Have some fun, thats "traditionally" what we did.

 

LMFAO!! Ain't that the Gawd's honest truth? I love watching the guys they interview on TV blather about their "one of a kind", "Old School" ( I HATE that term!) rod. "Yep, I built it JUST like they did, "back in the day" (another term I'm apalled by) and it's the only one like it. I don't know how they manage a straight face as they stand by their car, which looks like every other car in the parking lot (flat black and rust, mexican blanket, "east coast" channel job, etc), while they look just like ever other person in the parking lot ( head to toe tats, black, greasy hair, black T-shirt, sungl***es, smoking a cig and talking about running from the cops). Individuality ain't what it used to be...

 

X2. Just build a Hot Rod. If I like it I'll look it over, if I don't I'll keep walking. You worry if it's traditional or not, I know what I like.

 

if you have some disk brakes that were around back in the day. then believe me someone with the money used them as you already know because if they didn't then you wouldn't have them in your hand.

 

I LOVE a challenge and the way you think...and am not a fan of the 1-800 **** either...but they are the only hot rods I get to work on at the shop(except for mine after 5:30)..."I want this part here...."(guy in straw hat and kahki shorts points at speedway catalog) Me..."Well I can build that myself...a hell of a lot better..." Guy in hat.."But this is just a phone call away!" Me..."Sooo?"

I Don't love it!!

But it's not my car...

I love the fact that there are people who build cars with vintage parts and they can give most 1-800 cars a run for their money.

Hey that's me...I took all the undesiarable **** away from it though...

I don't get the whole "Rock-a-billy life style"...at all.

 

Dude...build it however you want.

 

To tell you the truth I do not think about this anymore..but that's me.......HotRodders from the start alway's wanted the parts that would enhance all performance.......Why should today be any different ?.................Too me the bigger crime is all the slow ''HotRods out their'' the watered down version of a HotRod.........Build it-Drive it-Race it!...........Littleman.....The brakes stuff that came w/ your Chevy is good stuff for that Pontiac rearend....post a pic of it....

 

"traditional" is the new "ol skool"

 

One of the best replies I have ever seen on this forum, fits my thinking to an absolute "T".

 

I don't care how another person builds their own car until they make false claims about it. Vintage cars should be built with vintage parts.... The real answer is everyone wants to join the bandwagon without the effort in finding the right parts or making them work. Its just not easy enough for everyone to play too so you have to lower the bar and complain about the guys who are really into this stuff and know what they are looking at, to make yourself feel justified in taking the easy way out. If you want to still say you are building a period car with new parts on it then you have completely missed the point of building a real traditional car or never really cared.

You want the look without the effort that is you no problem, it makes the guy's car who knows what is right and builds it as such even cooler. Just don't ******** people that the old stuff doesn't work well enough because you couldn't figure out how to fix it or were too lazy to adjust the drums on the car.

 

I would like to see the 57 G***er .........please

 

I'm in the process of finishing a 27 T roadster pickup build now. I opted for the following: early Chevy 283 with cast iron ramhorn exhaust manifolds, "early version" tri-power, hydraulic brakes, points distributor, genuine 50' Merc wheels & center caps, 3 pedals on the floor, etc;.....because I WANTED to. NOT because I felt like I was SUPPOSED to! The single factor I like best about this "hot rod culture" (only for the lack of a better description) is that you're pretty much free to do whatever you like! What I'm looking forward to most, is driving this thing to places where half the people looking at won't have a clue as to what it is or how it got that way!......... Go for it!

 

I think the word "traditional" is actually being misused.

Hot Rodding a Ford in 1948 would have been traditional...a Terraplane not so much.
The modifications you made to build your Ford Hot Rod in 1948 would have been the modifications that were in acceptance AND available at that time, but obviously not later.

They would be considered "period correct" modifications, because they are based on modifications that were common at a certain period of history.

Perform modifications that were NOT invented at that time or use parts that hadn't been available and you move the project out of the era you wish to simulate in your build.

I wouldn't worry too much.
Build in the style of the general era, but don't get overly hung up on nailing it exactly.
That can get really difficult, and costly too...so its not a job for 98% of us.
It takes extreme dedication, knowledge and an effort almost beyond comprehension to pull off such a build successfully.

You don't really need to go that far if your just in it for the joy of building Tra...I mean, "period" Hot Rods...

 

If it enhanced the performance and was available during "the golden ages" then certainly it's traditional. Hotrodding has always been about enhancing performance, whether with common speed and handling parts, or with unusual oddball stuff you may have just happened across that woll do the job. Slapping old parts together is a different story...model A cable brakes on a 41 Willys coupe=not traditional, Kelsey hayes disks on you're 34 vicky= traditional.
That said my car is less than "traditional". I'm not scrurred...
HEHE... whaddaya know- I'm a philosopher!

 

Well put Algon.