The whole Hot Rod IS the sum of its parts.

The ’29 Roadster came together many years ago, when I was a just young man with big dreams but very few spare bucks in my pocket. There was a dog-eared copy of Mike Bishop and Vern Tardel’s book ‘How to Build a Traditional Ford Hot Rod’ on the shelf and a newly-acquired Model A project in the garage as I built my first real roadster on a budget. What I did spend the bigger portion of the funds on were the ‘bits’ that were really important to the car in my mind: Gennie parts like a steel ’32 grille shell and insert, BLC headlamps, ’40 Chevrolet tail lamps and a 1930 Buick dash filled with vintage SW gauges. Heck, the 3X2 Edelbrock Manifold with Stromberg 97s cost more me than the whole $500 running Cadillac 331 engine I put them on!

Slowly the car building funds started to dwindle, and I ended up settling for an early 9″ rear end rather than a Halibrand QC diff, and an old school bus seat was installed rather than a properly upholstered bench. The entire body was painted with spray cans (nicely), and the wiring harness was a swap meet special. Despite all these compromises, the roadster came out pretty good and looked like a fairly traditional hot rod to the majority of parking lot critics.

The moral of the story? The key to any budget build’s success is picking all those particular special bits that can outweigh the more mundane ones.