Tradition Takes Sacrifice

“Traditional hot rods and customs are mainstream now. They built one on Overhaulin’ for gods sake… And I hear John Favreau is doing a movie on the subject. Hell, a pixar movie actually has the words ‘Von Dutch’ in the dialog. And have you been to a swap meet lately? Prices are out of this world because demand has gone crazy!”

– A good friend who will remain nameless for now

It seems like every year we hear about how traditional hot rods and customs have crawled closer to the minds of the mainstream public. Aside from the references found on tv and in the movies, the most obvious pointer is the price of the parts we use to build these things. While I have been witness to this seemingly huge inflation of prices, I don’t agree that this thing of ours is mainstream and I don’t believe it ever will be.

Why? The hurdle to jump into traditional hot rods and customs is just too tall. To truly understand the passion of a traditionalists takes time. A guy fresh off the streets has to do a ton of research, reading, thinking, and soul searching to really understand what it is that makes a traditional car what it is. Why use early Ford juice brakes when modern discs are cheaper and work better?

All that being said, the general public has taken a liking to what they perceive as being an “old time” hot rod. They saw the primer, the patina, and the character of some traditional hot rods and jumped in with both feet – naive to that hurdle I mentioned above. The result? The ever popular “rat rod”.

This low barrier to entry creates a car with little regard to history. By most definitions, a “rat rod” is a car put together on a serious budget and by any means necessary. The goal for most is to build a car with as little investment as possible aiming at having the most fun possible in the shortest amount of time.

Forget body work. I don’t want that kind of commitment.

Get it stupid low, because all cool cars are low.

Use that slant six in the corner, simply because I have it.

I don’t know what it means, but I love the shape of an iron cross… Throw that on.

It has to have whitewalls, right?

These “rat rods” have very little to do with traditional hot rods or customs. Some of them come off as a soulless shell inspired by a traditional car but with very little relevancy. Others come off as interesting design studies that simply need to be blown apart and detailed. Both probably provide their owners with a ton of fun. Neither are traditional hot rods.

Traditional cars and ideas to build them take time to incubate. There’s a reason, be it historical or stylistically, that a guy uses a certain set of steel wheel covers or a rare intake on his flathead. A ton of time and money is invested into the overall vision and statement that the car is to make. These cars have a soul that is only developed because of the sacrifice that goes into building them.

There simply is no way around that sacrifice. And it is that pain threshhold that the general public will never be willing to leap over.

Photo from: ahrf.com