Art & Inspiration Here's to the Disrupters...

Jive-Bomber submitted a new blog post:

Here's to the Disrupters...

Continue reading the Original Blog Post

 

It was far and away a totally different build Rudy did with the 35 truck and as hard as it is to believe the majority liked what they saw and it didn't take long before guys started trying to emulate the style,a few hit the mark but others seemed like they were built more for shock value.

This truck shook up the traditional crowd but somehow fit in on the fringes but fit none the less.Rudy did open the door to a new way of thinking. HRP

 

'Dare to be Different' was a common phrase many years ago and being 'traditional hot rod builders' this group was different. But then different became the norm and a shift started to find the new 'different'.
I have a local builder that gets a little press because he doesn't look for it.
He builds cars and trucks with parts and styles that is not the cookie cutter traditional or street rod. Tractor paint is great for a vehicle that is stored in a carport, Duval windshield made of sheet metal works, good running motor and trans out of a donor car gets you down the road, repro Pontiac tail light work, two bodies to make one, small dents in the metal show its real age (I have a few bumps and cuts after 62 years) ..
So What Speed Shop, Shug and Irene Hanchard build driver hot rods and record land speed vehicles. Shug is from Scotland and dreamed of coming to America and building hot rods and driving fast.
And if all goes well, we will have one of thier roadster in our collection this weekend
And pictures will follow

 

Weird you made this thread. I was just going through stacks of magazines (scene zines) from the early 90's before the whole traditional thing took off. Magazines like TSRcustomes, grindstone, early gearhead when you got a record with it, etc. I was thinking on making a post about all the zines that were around then.

 

I like the concept behind this posting, I agree on The Purple People Eater and the Rudy truck.
There has to be more contemporary builds that do this as well.
I think one think about some of ones you mention is that they can be a budget build and look the same if you are crafty.
They also have aspects of body proportion and stance helping the look a lot.

 

Would love to know more about the "Duval windshield made of sheet metal"...

 

Nothing like this would last 3 minutes on the street before the fuzz wrote a whole stack of tickets & probably would impound it. Of course, that's how it would happen 5 or 6 decades ago. Now, if you can throw it together, you can drive it.
I don't dare start on the fenderless late model truck "Farm Rod" thing ....

 

There has always been an element of population that gravitates toward absurdities, and that phenomena is unlikely to change!

 

One guy comes to mind:
Ken Fenical
A pioneer of the "outrageous" style without the RR look.
Always classy.

 

This notion of dare to be different is risky. You named 3 cars out of hundreds, maybe thousands of guys who dared to challenge the status quo and failed.

With great risk come great rewards I guess.

 

The PPE is one of my all time favorite cars. I'd still like to build something along those lines someday.

 

Dan Hay hit the nail on the head. There have been a few cars that really stood out and worked great, and there have been a shitload ruined by the need to be "different". There are builders who hate on anything popular, even if it's popular for reasons of good taste, because the goal is to be radically different and stand out at any cost. Different is great when it works, terrible when it's the only end goal.

Although that does say a lot for the people who managed to make different really work well, it's harder than it looks.

 

Hipness is what it is.
Thankfully there is a cottage industry that turns many of these shitboxes into hot rods.
Shitboxes defined as unsafe, poorly constructed cars.

 

A friend in Indy bought the "Rudy" truck . There was nothing like it ever , at the shows you couldnt get near it with people looking it over.After some time he took the paint off the doors and tried to make it cleaner but that ruined the entire vehicle. Wasnt the same ever again , after some engine problems he got rid of it . Dont know where it went but it was never the same again....
One a "mark" has been made leave it along i guess????????

 

Some people like to think outside the box, not all are good at it, and some can't, won't or don't want too. Others love to stand outside the spotlight and point out any perceived flaws or things done "wrong". I'm sure glad there're those who push the limits, I can't imagine what it would be like without them. I don't think Hot Rods have to be "right or correct", these things change with the times..... Praise the Disrupters past, present and future who keep it exciting!

 

For me it was Cole Foster's '53 Chevy pickup featured in custom rodder. First time I had ever seen a "suede" paint job. Pretty subtle "disrupting" but it was different and cool, and not at all "done like back in the day". Shortly after reading the article, I painted my '61 T Bird in a suede eggplant and pearl white dash...

 

The Rocky33 was one of those rods.

 

"Out side the box" depends on who you hang with. The question is.... Which box? I have my own and try to stay true.

Funny....... a year ago, this thread and the vehicle would have been deleted.

 

A disrupters idea for building a T bucket in the 70's!

 

Nice headlights.^

 

"Out side the box" depends on who you hang with. The question is.... Which box? I have my own and try to stay true.

Funny....... a year ago, this thread and the vehicle would have been deleted.

My thoughts exactly.

 

The Rudy truck is what pulled me into the more "traditional" side of things. Even though it ended up helping spawning the whole RR genre it was, by itself a pretty traditional vehicle, just not so much a street truck as strip. Hell, it just looked so frickin' cool.

I saw a pic of it after the doors were repainted and it just killed the soul of that truck. Boo...hiss!


Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

It's funny, as a bug eyed youngster, the end all hot rod/street rod was seeing Larry Woods' Nash on the cover of RnC back in '73! I thought that antique/sleeper vibe was a mind blower! Still have a soft spot for resto rods, but I agree with those mentioned. Would add Jake's tub to the mix, by the way!

 

Is disruption traditional?

 

In my book it is.....but I get bored easy. Your book might have a different story.

 

Here's where alot of orphans/disrupters over the years hang out. Some don't register as palitable but there is a huge amount of interesting visually stunning vehicles that made a mark in the world of Hotrod /Custom even without the fanfare. Kudos to the men and women with the courage and creativity and the photographers that captured the moments when they happened or it may have never happened...

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/tired-of-homogenized-hotrods.1002926/

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/old-hot-rods-photos.1038554/

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/lakes-pictures-p-r-c.943878/

I do support the evolution in its entirety. Ugly and all.

Enjoying the Rumbling Art Show...

​

 

that's a big question, and part of the never ending debate.

I think the original Hot Rodders and Customizers were disrupters, but when you add Traditional it's a contradiction or oxymoron.

You can't Custom(ize) or Hot-Rod a standard practice or established pattern and it still be a tradition or "Traditional". But we can still try

 

All I know was I bought a lot of fenders and running boards during the Rudy years. I wish a 35-36 Ford pickup, cab less trend would take off next..............

 

An early disrupter model T from the golden years.

 

The original version of that car is what corrupted me from the get go A Boner. I couldn't tell you who was in the show beside Ed and I couldn't tell you about any plot of any show but I could tell you everything about the T. e
On the Rudy truck, when I was in my Teens a local Shell Station operator had a blue chopped and channeled 36 Ford pickup with a sbc in it. I'm pretty sure that the sectioned 36 pickup grill I have in the shed came off that truck at a later date. I bought it at a swap meet 30 years ago and it has hung in the shed ever since waiting for a cab to go with it.