Yesterdays hot rodders: Heros, upstanding citizens, or full-on scumbags?

It, as it always has, takes all kinds. Most hotrodders are fair, legal minded people. Unfortunately, some are not. It's part of the world we live in.

 

hot rod
"hot" as in stolen.
You're all a bunch of thieves !!

 

Yesterday, as well as today, there are heros, upstanding citizens, and scumbags in this hobby and most others. I'm sure meth hasn't helped the situation.

 

I remember that article with the blue roadster. I think it stuck in my mind because of the matter of fact way they revealed some of the parts were stolen. It does take all kinds as Beep had stated. I think it may be a little like how the news works, no one wants to report all the good stuff, they want the low down, dirty stories, so those are the ones you hear about, even if the good may out weigh the bad.

 

heres what i was told (I had it in another post too)...along the same lines...but desperation leads you in a different direction i think sometimes with rationing and all...so im not holding this against the guy

"during WWII you had a sticker for your windsheild and you would get cupons for gas, when you ran out of cupons you couldn't get any more gas, unless you had a bucket and a hose in the middle of the night"

Zach

 

Tell that to the American in Germany in a fox hole. "Despiration made me do it."

 

Every once in a while, you'll find a biography of one of the hot rod pioneers that lets you in on some of the little known facts about them--they weren't all stand up guys! It makes me think of the current thread about Henry Ford biographies; just because he made your favorite car doesn't mean you'd like to have him over for dinner.

 

OK. My take. It's a youth thing. I did a lot of crap when I was younger that I wouldn't even think about today. Couple years ago Toyota Camerys were the most stolen cars in the US, Because everyone wanted the wheels and parts off them for their tuners. Just like back in the day the youth were stealing crap off new cars then. Some people just don't grow up either.

 

I remember a story about a roadster wiping out hitting a earthwork bomber target at El Mirage and all three occupants died in the wreck. The car was soon stripped because the owner 'wouldn't be needing it any more'. I'm sure most rodders weren't so sleazy, but that sort of thing surely helped create the 1950's Hollywood rendition of hot rod hooligans and 'Faster Pussycat' hot rod girls. All the 'original' rodders I've known have been pretty honest stand-up guys.

 

I believe the movie "The Choppers" was based on actual police files,where a group of juveniles were put up to stripping cars that were left unattended, by an unscrupulous wrecking yard owner,for cash on the barrelhead. According to the narration,it was a big problem then (1961).I think we all like to believe people were more upstanding back in the day. But unfortunately, it wasn't so.

 

Hot rodders, and by hot rodders I mean the type of guy who builds his own cars with little cash, have always been out of the mainstream. I think lots of folks today don't realize the extent to which early rodders were vilified, often for good reason. These guys weren't choir boys and as such I'm sure a certain portion of them acted accordingly. Being the type that was drawn to street racing, building fast cars and generally thumbing their noses at authority, larceny wasn't too far behind.

Rodding is in the public eye now and has never been more popular. As with any trend, there are those who seek to cash in on it, even if the means are nefarious. Popularity equals cash flow and cash attracts miscreants. If a tweaker can swipe a rod or some old parts and turn a quick buck, they will. I think it's opportunity meeting desperation.

The flip side is that often some of the most generous people I've met are those with the least and I know plenty of rodders in this boat. They're driven by passion and the burning desire that afflicts us all and they'll often help you out even when personal means are thin.

I suppose, like any faction of life, your behavior is driven by the type of person you really are. They are good and bad folks in this hobby, just like there are in sports, banking, law enforcement, medicine, the clergy, and any other walk of life you care to think of. It's the Jungian thing, you know, the daulity of man.

Most rodders are decent as I believe most folks are. Most of us just want to do what we want to and be left alone in peace to do it. Most of us aren't involved in illegal activities and I'm sure the bulk of rodders since it all began weren't either. And just like today, with anything, the bad side of it gets the press.

 

We were scumbags.

Hot rodders were not the most popular folks in town even when I was a kid and the fact that we were often called hoodlums was not totally unfounded. That is not to say that all rodders just ran around stripping cars or stealing money from the pin ball machines but there has always been a fair amount of that going on.

Sometimes it was all in fun for instance we pulled the mill from a SOC kids brand new car when I was in highschool and replaced it with a sand bag. in his mom and dad's driveway while they were asleep. Just to prove that we could. We did bring it back and leave it in the drive the next night.

But on the same hand I paid 25.00 for 3 97s on Wieand aluminum a full syncro 3 speed and hurst shifter for the 312 in my Vicky. I didn't ask the twins where they got it, but they weren't Ford guys.

Now there were also things that made us good folks, like helping each other and what have you but in general we were scoundrels.

Hot rodding didn't become acceptable until bussiness men started buying pro built cars.

 

Several stories from around my town about certain rodders that were around back in the 50s (and are still here). They werent angels and that comes up to this day when they are talked about.

 

Quite frankly I would rather have my whole car pickied apart by scumbag hot roders on the side of the road then by the by the low life guys in the impound lots. Then they tell you .. gee that wansn't on the car when it got here... can you prove it ... sorry I digress

 

They called us "You fuckin hotrodders"..the general public, that is....OLDBEET

 

Got Tools ?

This guy looks like he's protecting the wreck with a M-2 Machine Gun,......( yeah, I know he's not but you gott'a admidt it looks like a "Ma' Deuce")

Holy smokes! sorry about the size of the pictures,.. didn't know they were that big.
​

 

I'm a "Hot Rod-kid" of the 70-80's era. Born in the late 60's. Grew up around Triumph's and Harley's through the 70's. Uncle's racing sprint car's all my life. I went the route of low buck building, anything to make mine as cool or cooler than the next guy. That is until "street justice" wisened me up. Who'd of thought big cowboys slept in the backseat of cars? Three hubcaps into a four hubcap job, said cowboy wakes up and decides to "influence and educate" me of my wrong doings. I sucked as a thief and think is the reason I always seem to overpay for most anything Rod related nowadays. I'm still reminded of that fateful day everytime I buy a part, complaining of how much I had to spend to my Pop. Justice.............

 

couldnt agree more. im a hot rodder and i dont even own one.money trouble seems to hit me right when im about to get one or start one,then i gotta sell it or use the money for other stuff,so i just build everyone elses! it sucks ya know? rollin up to a show in my 96 chevy lumina.

 

I agree .....well at least with parts I understood. You kinda lost me with that last sentence.

 

I don't know how youth oriented it is or was.

My old man was 30 when I was born, we were at a race in Orange County in the early '60s he was tuneing for a guy. This guy walks over a lifts an injector pump out of the Ol' Man's tool box. I told hi m and he said I saw him, we'll get it back later.

So the Ol' Man slips into the other guys pit and removes his spindle nut.Puts the dust cap back and winks at me. the guy didn't make it to the stageing lanes. The ol man walks over with a hacksaw and a wrench. He says I guess you won't be useing this anymore, cuts his lines and removes the pump.

They were both probably crowding 40 at the time. the funny thing is that the Ol' man probably would have given him the pump if the guy said he needed it to run. I recall another time that he removed parts from a Land Speed car so another guy could make his runs. The Ol' Man was on the crew of the donar car and everyone was good with it.

Stealing isn't anything to brag about for sure and I would think that for the most part the bulk of the guys I run with these days are basically honest. but you need to keep one thing in mind, rodders for the most part have always been a pretty crusty bunch.

 

Karl Jung, a contemporary of Sigmund Frued, theorized that man has an inherent dual nature and therefore the capacity for both good and evil, and that we must make conscious efforts to choose the side we allow to be dominant. It's the Jeykll (sp?) and Hyde thing.

Some (most) folks make the wrong choices sometimes but that is the nature of the beast.

 

Very well stated.

 

"back in the day"...ahem

the guys running at the flats, or racing around town probably weren't well off, they (it appears) sunk almost all of thier availble funds into going faster. and if the funds werent up to it, then there is the next option...

the guys that ran the flats seem to have developed a mystique about them. but it really doesnt surprise me that if a guy wrecked is car and got toted off in the meat wagon that every salvageable part was stripped in a matter of minutes. how long does it take to strip a set of Sharp heads and an Eddie Meyers intake?

guess there's a dual meaning in hot rod.

 

I remember the car. It was the McDonald(?) Brothers' '26 Ford roadster. The wheels are actually factory wires off a then-new '32 Plymouth. I also remember being a bit aghast at that and the offhand way it was mentioned. However, messing around with old cars has traditionally been kind of a poorboy thing. If you were rich in '32, you didn't muck about with hopping up a Model T Ford, you bought a new roadster and it was just fast from the factory. Kinda like in the '60s you didn't bother hot rodding an old '55 Chevy, you just bought an SS-396 Chevelle.

Not that it justifies anything, really. If I were willing to steal parts from farmers and junkyards, I'd have a whole car by now, instead I'm slowly accumulating bargains. At the rate I'm going, I ought to have a whole car by the time I'm 70.

-Dave

 

There are probably more thieves now than back in the old days - it's been my experience that, in general, irresponsible people tend to multiply faster than responsible ones. I'm sure that someone has done a study on the ratios of criminals in the 50s and today, but I'm not interested enough to look for it.

Obviously crime has increased over the years. It's not because criminals are doing more crime individually, it's because more individuals are doing crime. Add the technology that has allowed media to spread the word on news, which usually focus' on crime, and it seems like things are totally out of control.

I place part of the blame on the attitude of the general population when it comes to punishment. The lapse in punishment started with the 60s, and the permissive atmosphere that developed, and has progressed through today. When a kid can tell his parents that he will call the police and have them arrested if they spank him, then there is nothing to control that kid later.

Even on this board, when people post about someone hoarding cars or parts, the suggestions that the cars and parts should be "liberated" start to fly - some in jest, and some not. Either way, it can lead to someone losing their property, if the reader takes it seriously. Is there a difference between taking a $25 part, and using someone else's pass to get you in a show and save you $25?

I suspect that Hot Rodders are not much different now than they were in past years - a mix of good and bad.




Mutt