The Hot Rod Way Of Thinking

typical of writing from the previous decades ... a lot of overgeneralizations. IMO the hot rod "way of thinking" occurred by way of America being the first to perfect the process of making a "crapload of cars" before anyone else, and then having a lot of them left and available for cheap just as all the boys that came back home after the war was over, needing something to cure their tinkering fix. still, an interesting find.

 

Great article...... today, beyond the craziness of it all, many have come forth and said "you've got a f*#king disease!!" when refering to the passion to find and use original parts, when catalogue parts and fake bodies are readily available.

And so, to the general public and most......they don't even know what they are looking at in the finished product whether the part they are looking at was made last month or 70 years ago.

As far as what Siegle said about: "furthering the American standard of life" maybe it doesn't do this so much today, but hot rodding preserves a historical part of american life that represented a time period that some feel is important. Without this continuation (furthering) we might all be messing around with the rice-rocket/tuner cars of today...........

 

Google Peter Siegle and you have to wonder what Pete was thinking when he published his writings.

 

I have had a topic like this floating around in my head for a while. I really think Hot Rodders are just different in some way. I compare myself to people in my university classes or my friends who aren't into cars. I think there is just a basic core difference or ideal that makes us different and makes us improve and work on old stuff.
Is that article online somewhere? someone please scan it at least!

 

As for our need to drive, build, hop up and modify all of this old shit, Nads summed it up pretty well a while back. I'll paraphrase:

"We all know that a single four barrel will cost less and work better, but still we soldier on tryng to make 6 twos work because we are retards.

 

I'll have to take time to read the article but I did want to say congrats for the "one on the way".

 

I totally agree with us being crazy. Some of us more than others. I've no other way to describe the drive and even what trips our trigger. Do I need a dragster? Heck no! I've got a blown hemi coupe for heavens sake. Can I afford it? ... barely... maybe. Am I building one? You bet your life I am!!! Can't help myself. My dear wife struggles to understand it all. Kinda tough for her to except I'm just plain nuts.

And then there is the obsessing over the combination and each detail. No good reason other than it just needs to be. Kinda goes to the point of explaining what is "right" about a combination or machine to some folks. If you have to have it explained to you you aren't crazy like the rest of us. I don't think it's subjective either. While there are plenty of things and styles I don't like I can respect why they are "right" for others. They are as compelled as I am to tilt after thier own windmill. Now I'm rambling.

 

It worked for me Ryan...
Four years ago it was time to trade my late model pickup in for a replacement.
I decided I was going to buy a 50 Chevy pickup and install a late model drivetrain into it. My wife said "NO WaY!. If I feel the need to build something then buy another hotrod to putz with." We are both HAPPY!
I come to the conclusion that I must be crazy.
I will never be happy with any of my dream cars I have yearned for since I was a kid.
Its not having them that really attracts me. Its building them that fires the flame.

 

Its gotta be a type of artistic expression, this insanity we deal with. I see the parallels between our world, and my daughter's dance class. The teacher has that strange artistic bent - the one where perfection isn't good enough. She has her ideals in mind and strives for it.
Isn't that what we do?

Ryan, ya have to keep something late-model around the Cochran Ranch. Warranty, A/C, comfort........... keeps the ladies happy.

 

Our babysitter DID drop me on my head...I have been a doodler, Monster drawer, sidewalk surfer, take the lawnmower apart for a bigger engine for the go-kart kinda guy all my Life..For me its pretty simple, its a personal artistic expression that I can drive!..please overlook the dirty chinos and bloody knuckles...

 

I remember three years ago when I bought my Honda (Hey at least it was built in Ohio) the reason I did it was for some basic reliable transportation. My job frequently takes me out of the country and I was getting tired of working on my daily ride DAILY!! or the night before I needed to get to the airport.
The 66 toronado with the hot cam and ported heads, got like 8mpg
The 30A had no heat
The 27T had no top
The 72 F100 4X4 has a top speed of 60 and gets 10mpg
So I thought I needed a Honda

Lately though I've been thinking about selling the Honda and building a 60-61 Falcon with a 312. Good Basic Transportation

 

I guess I look at it from a different angle.......My hot rod sure runs good with the four barrel on it, it would look a lot better with 6 twos, but fuckit......it's good enough for now! Same with the disc brakes....they work very good, but the car isn't wrecked......it's just a couple hours of bolting on the better stuff away from looking perfect.

 

Those who can't get through the week without watching Football or playing a game of Golf are the ones who are crazy, NOT me.

 

We're just out here trying to stave off the complete pussification of the American male.

 

You forgot trying to put a cox airplane engine in a pine wood derby car to see how fast it would go..hehhehe Kind of like the little Tim the tool man taylor in all of us

 

"Siegle concluded by saying that the continued development of this movement is beneficial to society because the activity surrounding the hot rod culture is: CREATIVE, EDUCATIVE, COMPETITIVE, CONSTRUCTIVE, MASCULINE, all of which are desirable elements in furthering the American standard of life. And yeah, he typed in all caps like that."
I for one, am much more masculine because I am a rodder. I know that my penis would be quite short, otherwise.

 

It's a form of creativity. I have one foot in the professional art world and one in THIS world... and I see the same forces, actions, and thought processes. The hard core are living in their shops just like many focused artists live in their studios - craftsmen, sculptors, painters, musicians etc. if you're struck with the need to create, then it's futile to fight it.

 

I built and drove three traditional hot rods in the 60's - "the good old days" when tires routinely blew out, and oil was crap and batteries died and antifreeze didn't. It was fun, but then I never had to go more than a few miles at a time, and lived at home. Today, I commute 60+ miles a day and have a $2500 mortgage on our version of the old Haney Place till I'm 73 years old. Since '76, when I bought my last new car - a Monte Carlo, I've had at least a dozen rods in the mix, but only a couple that were daily drivers and none were long-haulers. I envy you guys who drive 'em long.

My big block Burb can light the hides but gets 8mpg downhill with the wind & would have been a costly ride even when gas was still thirty four cents a gallon... The Mustang has 4" skinnies up front, 10.5" slicks out back. With 530 ponies at the flywheel and 12 miles of farm road to travel twice a day, it would eventually kill me, and my wife can't afford to let me die. Yet. My '44 English Fordson & '51 Farmall tractors are way too slow and bouncy to putt around , and the 5.0 Ford powered MGB and the 51 Henry J are both at least a year behind sked.

So, like Scofflaw, to keep the job that pays for the farm and the big shop, I drive a dead-nuts reliable 28 mpg $1800 97 Nissan pickup every day. On the upside, it has wind-up windows, a stick shift, no cruise control, manual locks, a spartan, semi-uncomfortable seat, and a harsh ride. That's gotta count for something.

Eventually I'll turn the J into a comfortable, and economical cruiser/commuter using the driveline (and aircond) from a small pickup and airbag susp. I'll drive it till I'm eighty, or till they quit making gas. Then maybe I'll put an electric motor in it and drive around on our fire roads till they pry the wheel from my cold dead hands and put " A rodder till the very end" on my urn...

 

I bought a new truck in 2005 cause there is no way I'm leaving my roadster that doesnt own a top in an airport parking lot for 2 days

 

Crazy!? Yea, that's me. How else do you explain a person building a hot rod that's going to be about 5 times what he paid for his daily driver. True, my daily is a '96 Buick 4DR, but no matter how I try to explain it to my girl, I still get "the look". The look that says she's one step away from calling the twinkie truck to come and take me away.

Damn, I love being crazy and I hope to get even crazier in the future.

 

Ryan, brother....
Don't sell the dually. keep it, and buy the wagon anyway. you aren't suffering from any disease. it's the equivalent of the hot rodders mid life crisis. see...
Average joe drives a station wagon to work every day. -seriously!
99.9 percent of America drives a crappy econobox-everywhere.
Chalk it up to not knowing any better. but the Superbowl is still huge.
When the "average joe" decides at the age of "thirtysomething" that his life just ain't where it's supposed to be- He's getting Paunchy, balding, never was a rock god or a Bajillionaire, never got the super hot chick, and actually owns one of those silly ass golf outfits, they decide ( for whatever reason) that a brand new Corvette,Viper, or Mustang Cobra is thier tickit to "The Big Show!" yessir, They're gonna get themselves a convertible Corvette, and the Budwiser Bikini team is gonna parachute naked into the car with them as they go to pick up thier lotto winnings.
But I digress.
Joe Hotrod has already had these things. WE know that 110 miles per at 4 a.m. on a sunday night is pretty bitchin. We have seen the sunrises and sunsets through the windshield of something we built. We keep these metal monsters in thier habitats near to us at all times, for out there in the driveway lives simplicity and salvation with the urging of but 1 pedal. Then one day it ocurs to us. we have a family. or a dog. or the budweiser bikini team, and they need to go somewhere with us. hence...KILLER STATION WAGON.
It is not new. This has happened in the past. We now want to involve all that We were attempting to drive away from at high speed with us in our journies into salvation. They need to understand us better, but it's hard to do in a 2 seater. Alas, this cannot be a simple "Family truckster"...No Sir! This must be the single greates 4 doored long roofed masterpeice of all time. be it the stock appearing fire breathing big blocked wagon of death, to the smooth , elegant, Customized Wagone D'Elegance....the desire is the same. We just want to share "Us" with "ours".

After all, unlike the unfortunate 99%, we chose this.

 

Halelujah! Brother Blue..Amen to that..swing Low sweet Chariot...

 

This strikes a chord with me. Insane? I don't agree, even though some of us have been doing this for so long that it almost seems automatic I feel there is underlying intentions that even we don't understand.
First I'll say that My father raised us as an artist he did pottery and steel sculpture(insert shameless plug www.funksculp.com) as a youngster he raced dragsters and gassers so perhaps this hot rod thing is in my blood stream.
We traveled the country selling his wares which were functional,yet satirical and sometimes just down right dumb. What i've learned from this is that there is an inherant need for a man to DO something. maybe even back to caveman times when everyone played a part and had a role in the tribe. "there goes Joe,he makes spears"
being a creative spirit and the son of an artist I understand the need to be known in "the tribe"
Sure I do the hotrod thing because I can't help it. in modern society it's the only thing that I can control the outcome of from start to finish. and it brings me great satisfaction to drive around in what is truly a mobile art piece. hot rods and dare I say rat rods at this point in society take away from the pre fabricated ideas of Ikea and Starbucks.
people often want to know "what year is that car?" and instead of saying it's a 29 with 32 rails and a 48 engine I just tell them it's a hot rod. maybe someone will google it when they get home and learn something. if not it doesn't matter to me I've made a connection with a viewer and my ego still loves to know that I did it. not ordered special wheels from Toyota for my Scion.
Consumerism is ugly but america is built on freedom of expression,and choice.
this is what I've chosen and if that makes me crazy then at least it's my inaliable right to be so.

 

I often feel that the recent (last 5-10 years) massive increase in old cars is due to a slow realization and rejection of the sales mantra that 'NEWER IS BETTER'.

When society looks back in 50 years, I hope they'll see that NOT EVERYBODY believed they needed new cheap plastic crap every 18 months.

Its also a rejection of 'credit'....most rodders are building "pay as you go".....kinda different to the car loan SUV/lease hire 6000 inch TV crowd.

Dangerous, rebellious thinking !

 

I don't know how to live any other way.

 

Down here in oz its been the mining boom, everyone likes some sort of old car, and cars that were worth nothing 5 years ago are suddenly worth 10s of thousands of $$$ and the worst bit is the fuckwits of the world are buying them!!

Were seeing a whole new breed of wanker.

People buying anything from GT Falcons to hotrods because there a good asset and then tellin me "I shouldn't be driving my Caddy down a gravel road because I could scratch it"

 

Me crazy?
Man I always considered myself insane !
IMO it all has to do with the sense to be able to grasp at least one little aspect of life.
As in: as long as I can get this carb to sync with the other two, everything will be allright !
That you're not realizing that you are seriously pissing off the Princess cause it's allready 2am and she still has to listen to the lousy idling hot-cammed Big block Chevy while she's trying to sleep must be contributed to a serious mental condition and is something you cannot be held responsible for.
That Hotrod you're building is the only way you have to keep your brain from disintegrating completely.
Although you might think its the other way around, that Rod is not driving you crazy, its actually giving your braincells something to focus on !
Without it your brain would wander off thinking about the last PTA meeting, the mortgage, the wife's worsening bouts of PMS etc.etc. and you would be a blobbering, whimpering, foaming-at-the-mouth mess in no time !
So take my advice, in (the unlikely) case you ever finish that hotrod, be sure to have the next project already in the driveway or you'll find yourself expending that precious Testosterone in ways that are Illegal in our civil society, and you facing the consequences !!

 

You cant be crazy if you are aware of it.

 

Interesting posts all. But I think that we...the guys that tinker with old cars...inherited "the itch" from a father or friend, and it has stayed with us all of these years. Or perhaps while strolling through car shows, we told ourselves "one day". But we had to be mechanically inclined to begin with to KNOW that we could restore an old car or bike and have some success at it.

But our generation, which is fading fast by the way, don't seem to stop at just old cars. We like the older shit because for one, we could never afford it when it was new...things like tubed stereo amps, American made Fender Strat guitars, reel-to-reel tape decks to name a few (the stuff my 18-year old son calls "old skool"). :-( So we now satisfy that "want" amist all of the new-fangled stuff, which is why EPay is so popular.

But in the end, there are two lives...the real world where you've got to make a living and have to drive a somewhat dependable, serviceable, and comfortable car; and the nostalgia life where we tinker and build those cars of yesterday that still stir our blood.

But with that being said, I'm getting older, fatter, and lazier, and no longer have the desire to drive a hot, uncomfortable 427 vette or Cobra for 7 hours in sweltering Texas heat, with good odds of breaking down between Henscratch and Bumfuck, Texas. (Been there, done that). No...give me A/C, comfort, and peace of mind that I can get there and back.
(And it ain't pussification as my wife does not tell me what to do)

And so it goes.

PS: It could also be that in a world and federal government that has gone absolutely friggin' haywire, hot rods are the only thing that keep us sane and under OUR control.