Art & Inspiration Inspiration: Someone's great idea that made it into your hot rod.

Over the years, I've saved pictures for inspiration and ideas for my own build. Out of all those pics only a small portion made it to my car. In some cases, I reached out to the owners and got to chat about how they did it and such. For me, it adds to the soul and story of the car.

Looking through some pics, tonight, I thought it would be neat to see a couple inspiration pics and how the idea made it into my car.

35/36 Ford Dash in a Model A - @MR. FORD

This may be the best executed 1935/36 Ford dashboard in a Model A. If not, it's certainly the best image! Look at the ends, the way the dash fits, it looks like it's supposed to be there. Mark says he just trimmed the sides and popped it in. Haha.



My dash (bad pic) is a bit different. We flattened the sides and left a little more upsweep. I didn't keep stock gauge holes, either.

John Davies' A Coupe - Specifically the stance/rake:

Now, this one is a late addition. I've had pics and an article of this car saved a long time because, let's face it, it's nasty. The rake, the simplicity, the hammered chop, etc... it's got that vibe that I connect with.


(Image of my coupe is flipped. It's the only one that I could find that could match the direction of the Davies car)

For my car, I always planned a little higher in the nose, but an aggressive rake is something I want in the final result of the build. No hood or shell on my car to accentuate the nose-down look, but it's there. In many ways it's so different, which is something I enjoy. I love taking inspiration and then making something of my own.

The Maratta Missile (aka The Rake) - Fenders:

@HotRod28AR saved this car. I'm thankful for that because he helped solve a mystery I've wondered about after seeing a few old pics. When Frank Maratta made changes to the Show/Drag A known as The Rake, he made some changes. The most unique attribute - the narrowed fenders.

While there can only be one Maratta's Missile, I wanted to take queues from this legend and work them into my car. Dean was also kind enough to help me out with details that went beyond what I could figure out from all the new photos of the car.



Just comparing our rear fenders, you can see our differences. Frank trimmed the inside of the fender so some of the width of the rear bobbed section wend beneath the body. That is such a neat modification. While the narrowing is something never seen, the section beneath the car is a modification most would walk by and never realize. I really dig that.

All that said, I'd love to see a pic you used as inspiration and how you did it on your hot rod.

 

My plan was to have a flat trunk floor and cover the stock Model A crossmember.

I ended up with two different covers (I'm not yet sure which I'm going to use.) but in my search to see what others had done (because it's pretty much all been done before), I found this:



That got my wheels turning. I picked up a Model A spare tire fender well and we chopped it up to work. My floor is flat from front to back (unlike the example above), so mine ended up a bit taller... and a little goofy looking. It still needs the flange trimmed so to show the floor beading.

 

A while ago, mj40's did a tech week article on putting an old 70's Mopar speedometer into a '40 Ford instrument cluster. Worked out great.

 

Cool!

Here a link to @mj40's thread.

 

I know I've told this a few times here before but the inspiration for the rearend in my roadster was generated by @Marty Strode.
Not something seen very often in a hot rod but this is a nine inch housing out of a Ford F100 (57 half ton only) pickup, the beefiest of the Ford housings.
The first one I had ever heard of or seen was when a friend of mine put one in his drag car in the late 70's, Marty did some work on it, he may have even told him who had one.
They were hard to find even then but I vowed to have one some day.
In the late 90's I was talking to a guy at work that had a 57 Ford sedan he drag raced and I mentioned I was looking for one of these housings and he says he has one.
He said it was under an old utility trailer he bought just for the center section, he said bring a six pack over tonight and I could have it for $5.00 if I helped him take it out.
Oh yeh, I drank half the beer too!

 

I saved the pic of the '36 years ago as I too plan on running one in my coupe. Hard to beat that look!

Love that you borrowed the Rake's slimmed down fenders, the Rake is such a rad car it's hard to NOT want to emulate a lot of it's styling. I love that he notched the rear fenders to sit under the car as well.

 

I actually picked up a 36 dash cheap at the Fitchburg swap a couple years back. It's not pristine so I have no qualms cutting on it to go into my 29 pu. Those waterfalls sure are EXPENSIVE though!

 

Liked Ray Brown's louver lay out on his 32 a lot.

 

Great thread idea!

 

Yes sir. HRP

 

A lot of the style ideas on my truck are purely my own, but the nerf I built is a copy of so many you see on 50's and 60's style cars. And I like stainless.

 

Copied Project X's radiused wheel wells.

 

An idea I borrowed that I had never seen before but I thought was great was to get suspension stuff electroless nickel plated. Cheap, no polishing, does not rust, easy to clean.

 

Excellent, Joel.

Sent from my VS835 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

This photo inspired my hood full of louvers



Inspiration for my tailgate



Inspiration for my white engine compartment


The '58 has several other styling cues borrowed from other folks builds...

 

Flashing headlight lo-beams. Saw in Rod & Custom in 70s? ben on every car I have built since.

 

Is that to flash the headlight when the turn signal is flashing as well?

 

^^^^^^^^inquiring minds want to know...........

Ray

 

What do the resistors do? how does that circuit work?

 

Mazmanian's 3rd taillight...did that on mine...stopped at the wheelwell "radius". .

 

I concur!

 

Only things I incorporate is my Dad’s favorite word “Solidify “ and do it right the first time .

 

Once saw a '57 where the hood ornaments had been removed and the opening filled with bondo. Not pretty, but I thought it was a nice touch.

 

Ladder bars.

South City Rod & Custom's bars on a recent Willy's build and @Kiwi Kev 's bars on the Nasty Habit Willys (top and center) were major influences on the ladder bars on my car (bottom pic).

 

Ohh I like the zig zag pattern of the bars on the top set. That would look smart on a set of hairpins on the front as well.

 

My 60 Pontiac Bubbletop has a 400 C.I. engine with a 2004R transmission. To lockup the torqu converter at speeds above 45 MPH I have a second dimmer switch on the drivers floor and a small indicator light on the bottom left of the dash that tells me the converter is locked up. This way I don't have to take my eyes off the road going into over drive.

 

If I'm reading the schematic correctly, what it will do is flash the appropriate headlight whether the lights are turned off or on. The key to the circuit is that neither side of the relay electromagnetic coil goes to ground, but rather to a 6/12 volt source (turn signal switch or dimmer switch). When the dim lights are turned on both relays are activated from the voltage at the dimmer switch to ground through one of the two resistors on the right. When the dim lights are turned on and the turn signal switch is activated, the result is 6/12 volts on both sides of the relay coil, and it cycles the relay coincident with the turn signal flasher. When the dim lights are turned off and the turn signal switch is activated the relay is operated through the 50 ohm resistor on the left to ground, again coincident with the turn signal flasher. You need the high wattage resistors because there is always a voltage drop (ie., heat) across them when the lights are on dim, or when the turn signal switch is activated.

 

And while we're talking about electric stuff, one thing I've borrowed is sort of an anti-theft feature. Use the cigarette lighter to complete the ground side of the electric fuel pump circuit. Pump won't run unless the cigarette lighter is pushed in. If you're totally traditional and don't use an electric pump, it can be used in a starter or ignition circuit, it just takes a little bit different wiring.

Or you can connect it to activate the horn when the ignition is powered up and the lighter is pushed in. When you turn the car off you just push the lighter in. Some thief hot wires your car, the horn will blast as soon as there is voltage to the coil.

I could go on, but the other options are more dangerous and may be life threatening.

 

I've taken little pieces from some of my favorite 55s and added touches to my car. I've got gold flake inserts in the side spears, and a gold flake wheel and shift knob as a nod to Blasphemi. I was running the same scoop on my old hood that Bob Falfa had on his 55 in American Graffiti, but it's got a Thunderbolt hood on it now because I love those cars. I mistakenly put Torq Thrusts on my car as a nod to the Two Lane Blacktop car, later finding out they were 200s wheels. Happy accident, the torq thrusts still look great. I put an "Adios!" on my trunk lid as a nod to the Badman II Monogram model I built as a kid that was the beginning of my love affair with the 55 Chevy. Yeah the Badman says "Adios Mother!", that's why it's a nod and not as total ripoff.
My dad and I used to talk about having a speed and machine shop (he was a machinist his whole life). The guy loved hamburgers, so his nickname was Wimpy growing up. He died back in 2015, but spent a lot of time helping me with my car (and me helping him with his). So in his honor, I am putting "Wimpy's Speed & Machine - Claymont, Del." on the fenders. Sorry, no pics yet. Just thought I'd share. Hop this fits the thread.

 

Awesome, @Mr. Sinister !