Art & Inspiration Hot Rod and Custom Books: The Essentials

I certainly agree with a couple that have already been mentioned...

All the Don Montgomery Books.

Street was fun in 51 by Albert Drake. (Had a chance to meet Mr. Drake at James Dean back in the early 90's and gave him a tour of our shop. Very neat guy.)

A couple of others...

Hot Rods and Custom Cars with photos by Strother MacMinn and commentary by Ken Gross and Robert Ames. Got this for a belated birthday this year and have worn it out. More info here...
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=384883&highlight=rodders+journal

Cool Cars and Square Roll Bars by Arnie Shuman - More of a east coast drag racing lean, but many hot rods as well. Got an autographed copy of this on on Amazon after Ryan's post here....
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=338272&highlight=square+roll+bars

 

I'd really suggest a good carb book and a good electrical book too, considering the number of questions that come up.
Check out old, out of print stuff, cause I haven't seen any good new ones.
Peterson used to do good stuff along these lines.
Southard's Hot Rods of the 1950s.
Montgomery's series.
Rodder's Journal complete set.
Spotter's guides and the encyclopedia

 

Now I'm home and can see the titles.

Edelbrock Made in USA, I was aprahensive about this one. Shouldn't have been, it covers the enire history from day one. Recommended.

Kustomland, the photos of James Potter, not as good as the Southard books but some great never before published images of LA area Kustoms of the '50s and early '60s.

Land Speed Louise Noeth's 'Bonneville Salt Flats' is alao another one to have, as is 'The Legendary Kustom Cars and Hot Rods of Gene Winfield.

There's also a couple of others I really like that are not just about the cars, Rockin Down The Highway is more about music but a good thing all the same and Billy Gibbons- Rock n Roll Gearhead also hase some great stories as well as pictures.

A couple more that I wasn't sure about but are well worth having are Hot Rod and Custom Chronicle by Thom Taylor and Consumer Guides Hot Rod Chronicle.

And if you want to get a real insight into the man that was henry Ford, there heaps of words and not many pictures in Robert Lacey's book simply titled Ford. But man it is a great read.

On that side of things the Fordiana series if you gan find any of the titles are absolutely fantastic, worth the money for the images alone.

Another I got recently that blew me away is River Rouge, a fantastic insight into Ford's masterpiece of manufacturing.

Another favourite of mine is Lucinda Lewis' Rodaside America, a photoessay on exactly what the title states. Cars by the roadside.

And whilst it may not be what many would consider HAMB style, there's the bible of auto engineers for those who want to understand the ins and outs of everything about auto mobile theory and technology - The Bosch Automotive Handbook.

And there's more......

 

That Kurtis-Kraft book has some very cool old pics of the HAMB's very own Dean Lowe! Wonderful book...

 

Hey Gang...

I'm into the old vintage stuff that was printed back in the 40's and 50's. So much so, that I took on a research project and found the Dan Post materials - going back into 1944. While these are not newly available, you can find them on Ebay, and some may be republished soon. The story on these materials is in the current "The Rodder's Journal" and shows all of these items.

Also...Ed Almquist started publishing in 1946 and you can find his early hot rod / soup-up books on ebay too.

The Rodder's Journal is just now selling reprints of the "Throttle" magazine from 1941. How cool is that! The first hot rod magazine printed in America.

And...there's the "Hollywood Hot-Rod Manual" printed in Hollywood California in 1947 - that's on ebay from time to time too.

That's the full list of materials I know of from the 1940's....

They're great for any library on early stuff.

Best...

Geoff Hacker
Tampa, Florida.

 

As far as suspension books go, I've read most everything I could find, and Allan Staniforth's "Competition Car Suspension" is still one of the best all-around volumes on the subject. The author is a little pre-occupied with his pet rubberband project, but he does a good job of explaining the basic workings of just about every type of suspension out there...

 

What a great thread AND just in time for Christmas!

I've been thinking of starting a social group here on the HAMB for automotive related books. I just haven't figured out quite the right format for maximum exposure though. I'll keep thinking!

 

I have a library of books that I pride myself on. Looking at three book shelves in the house and after taking a sweep of the bathroom stack I realize this is pretty extensive. My older brother and I always get each other books for birthdays and christmas so they're not all "mine". I'm sure the investment in our library and the periodical collection adds up to a nice hotrod if that's how we would have spent this money. My library includes many, many subjects but these are the auto related ones:

Racer's Guide to Fabricating Shop Equipment
Holley 4150/60 Carburetor Handbook
Fiberglass and Composite Materials
How TO Chop Tops
How To Build Horsepower Vol 1
Street Supercharging
Supercharging, Turbocharging, And Nitrous Oxide Performance Handbook
How To Build And Modify Intake And Exhaust Systems
Pro Engine Blueprinting
Blown Flathead
Ultimate Sheet Metal Fabrication
MSD Ignition Wiring Diagrams And Tech Notes
Performance Welding Handbook 2nd Edition
How To Tune And Modify Engine Management Systems
Racing The Small Block Chevy
Power Secrets by Smokey Yunich
The Fast Lane History of NHRA Drag Racing
Hop Up The First Twelve Issues
The Hot Rod
How To Build Hot Rod Chassis
Hot Rodder's Bible
Coll Cars Square Roll Bars
How To Build a Traditional Ford Hot Rod
Classic Hot Rods
Holley Carburetors, Manifolds, And Fuel Injection
VW Beetle Performance Handbook
Chevy TPI Fuel Injection Swapper's Guide
Building Ford Short-Track Power
Building And Tuning High Performance Electronic Fuel Injection
How To Diagnose And Repair Automotive Electrical Systems

Actually since typing this I can think of a few others I didn't see when I looked on the shelves but you get the idea. We probably have it or a plan to acquire it. And we realize some are hit and miss so there is a variety to use for cross reference.

 

Look up Flat Out by Albert Drake guys.
Lots of early history and loads of lakes racing details. 1930 - 50.
Priceless.

Paul