Hot Rods Restored verses Hot Rod

My 4 door Buick Special does not fit ANYWHERE. Not even here. But I like ! Smile every time I fire it up.

Blond, brunette, redheads and black headed. Guess which I never dated!

Ben

 

I’m a hot rodder but i do like stock (ish) cars. What i don’t like is when they get all bent out of shape over the smallest detail, bolt head markings etc. For years i’ve played with vettes and trifive chevies mostly and there is a huge difference in those Groups! A few years ago i had a fake RS SS 69 camaro, it looked basically stock but had a hot drive train. At one of the local cruise nights a guy was picking it apart pointing out all the incorrect details. I asked what he drove that night he said his work truck. His camaro was in the barn waiting for it’s restoration. I just had to laugh at him.

 

I really do like this all original ‘51 Ford with a ‘50 grille and ‘49 hood.

 

I like restored classics, I appreciate the time, efforts of all car guys. I like ALL cars from model T's to new OT Corvettes. From my experiences there's always that one "expert" does not matter type of car or hobby for that matter, just "that guy" who shares his unsolicited expert opinion, insecure, unhappy parade rainer. My MOM had the best description of this type guy, "Always Remember, There's Many MORE Horse's Ass's Than There Are Horess" To this day when I come across this type guy, it makes me smile as I remember my MOM fondly.

 

This is an interesting topic for sure. I'm a hot rodder through and through, I don't think I could own a prewar Ford and be able to leave it 100% stock. I've had to tell guys I'm restoring a car to original to buy parts. But then again, I'm a traditional hot rodder, so the parts have to be early Ford, and even when building a car from scratch often the answer isn't too far out of the box, it's looking at what has been done for years as the solution to the problem. Not too different from restoring a car when you think about it, just a different end result.

 

Every now and then I will be told of the imperfections of my car or truck; I just give them the opportunity to buy either one for an outrageous amount so they could correct everything.

 

Here's a little different tack on the subject: A quote from Dave Simard - "You've got to restore a car before you can make a hot rod out of it," he says. "If you don't, you'll never get it to look right."

Pretty sure he is referring to making the panels and parts fit correctly BEFORE you go cutting stuff up for modifications. He seems to know what he's talking about, because all his creations look perfect.

 

I get a kick out of the so-called "perfect restorations" performed on pre-war Fords by some hardcore restorers. What they fail to realize is the car that they're bustin' their ass on, was mass produced by a company that didn't give a damn about a "perfect" anything except their quarterly bottom line.

 

I think we HAMBers have more in common with restores than with modern hot rodders.

We're just restoring our cars to a different point in time than the factory- correct guys.

For example, @Moriarity 's cars are "restored" to the 1960's.

"Real" hot rodders care more about performance than having the right period-correct motor. That's why modern hot rodders (and Hot Rod magazine) are putting LS motors in everything, just like hot rodders replaced their flattys with OHV engines 60 years ago.

 

Your Vette is killer, I wouldn't change a thing.
To hell with the purists.
If it wasn't for hot rodding all of our cars would look the same.
Boring......

 

When I first got my T Bird, it was about 6 different colors of primer and looked pretty rough (it's still just a beat up old T Bird). Not long after I bought the car, I was gassing up, and a guy approached and started asking about the car. He told me that he was the president of a local T Bird club. When he asked about the drive train, I told him he probably wasn't gonna like it, IROC 305 Chevy and a turbo 350. I was surprised when he said that didn't bother him, he was just glad to see another old T Bird out on the road.

20170520_083818-jpg by Mike posted Aug 29, 2018 at 1:18 PM

 

I work with a guy who belongs to the model A car club in Colorado but him and a few others keep the cars looking original and restored on the outside and in the engine bay but underneath they have better transmissions that are easier to drive with and more modern brakes and rear ends they pretty much changed everything you can't see to make the cars more drivable without taking the original look away, even a couple of them have air conditioning, and they love seeing the old hot rods I build. Whenever a purist comes by and says anything about my DeSoto I usually just tell them to each their own

 

Hello,
We all would like our hot rods and cruisers to have a pristine body, interior and wheels/tires. It would be like a hot rod straight from the factory, with a modification or two for better road handling and safety for the modern roads/traffic. If the ever present budget had no limits or at least high expenditures, those pristine model Ts, As, and following years of styles would all be rolling in our neighborhoods with a sample of both as a finished build.

The goal of most seems to be have the most pristine body and interior possible, then have the newest chassis, steering, brakes, suspension to make it an excellent daily driver. The added V8 motor just increases the enjoyment. Don’t forget to add in A/C for those hot summer months when the pandemic is over and we can all go out to do what needs to be done, masks and all.

As a teenager, having a nice looking car was very important. From those Model T Club fanatics that raced up that extremely steep hill side street near the old Stroppe Engineering Shop in Signal Hill, CA to the restorers. (It was Hill Street between Obispo and Temple from 1954 to 1977.) Now, those guys/girls were fanatics about their cool looking cars. But for us teenagers, the stock look was nice, but they all needed more power for everything teenagers do while cruising on Friday and Saturday nights.

Those fanatics just did not have the same outlook. We liked the pristine look and builds of those old Model T Coupes, Sedans and Roadsters. But, were itching to put in some V8 power and nice wheels to make our own version of hot rods.
Many years ago in a place far, far away...

When we watched the pristine, Model T cars go up that hill, it was exciting, but painful. Then on a dark Friday or Saturday night, we would take over that hill from a standing start at the bottom for our timed races up the hill. It was much more satisfying with our added power in our high school hot rods and cruisers. The thought of a stock 6 cylinder, but custom, 1953 Chevy Bel Air fully loaded with teenagers just chugging up that hill was hilarious.

But, the hot, dual quad 1957 Chevy Bel Air sedan and my 58 Chevy Impala left dust motes on the street when we flew up that steep hill, even with a full car load of cruising teenagers or dates. To us, we had to have power to match the look and style of our hot rods. Watching or being inside of a 1940 red 2 door Ford sedan with a high performance Buick motor was just as nice, too. The top of the hill on full horsepower, was another story with our passengers and even us brave teenagers. Yikes…
in more modern times...
Jnaki

So, there will always be the restored stock looking cars on one end and the same cars with high performance accessories, whatever they may be, on the other end. Combine both and we have a cool looking hot rod that would have been in our dreams as little kids. Isn’t that what hot rodding was/is in our own history? To each, his own…

Those restorers just have the pristine look, without the hop up accessories that we all tend to like and have installed in our vast builds. The combination of pristine factory look and modern suspension/horsepower is the goal of most builders and enthusiasts. Some go to extremes, but the look of the hot rods starts with what came out of the USA factories a long time ago.

 

It can be looked at this way also. If not for hotrodders who take original parts off to build their cars where would some of the original builders find original parts? My dad loved original and would only shake his head at some of my builds. Yet he was always interested and helped.

 

Noyb.
N...O...Y...B
None of your business.

Good for you, Danny, for limiting your reaction to his assholiousnessism.

My reactions vary.
Sometimes, I might be willing to explain to the poor misguided soul, and maybe say something semi profound...
"You have the right to your opinion, but you don't have the right to share it."

Sometimes I might not be in the mood for explaining, and maybe say something a little more basic and direct... something they can easier understand.
Like I said to the guy who parked his Mustang next to us as I was detailing my brother's car at an outdoor show years and years ago. He stepped out of his car, walked over and stood behind me without saying anything just long enough to get the hairs on the back of my neck standing up. He finally said...
"You're putting an awful lot of Armor All on there, aren't you?"

"Get the fuck away from me."

Of course, he protested.
"You don't have to get so mad!"
But he definitely understood... and left me alone. LOL

 

Somebody said somewhere... it might have been here.
It went something like this...

I had my car at a show. One of the spectators was expressing his less than flattering opinion.
I asked him...
"You don't like it?"
He replied...
"No."
I said...
"Well then get the hell away from it!"

Hahahahaha...

 

Thanks HRP for this refreshing thread. I could probably take a sentence or two out of every post here, for my own. In fact, I've said many of them myself.

I used to be pretty opinionated about the differences between the type of cars and people, especially when they opened it up past the worshiped, pre '49 only date. It wasn't bad enough that there were purists, butchers, hot rodders, customs, muscle cars, rat-rods (I still hate that term). you know the drill.

But, then I got to thinking about it, in my business, we work on them ALL. It would be dumb to be so narrow minded! I'm truly a car guy, and though I like them all, you can see what I drive.

But, there is one line here that stands above the rest... wicarnut gets the "End all, to End all" award for the best quote... #64 (I just might have to borrow it some time!)

 

Different strokes different folks.i like hot rods.

 

All I'm gonna say is this Vette looks awesome!!

 

I build/ modify my junk to suit me, nobody else. Some of it is restored, some of it is changed, some of it came from different vehicles. I like to look at original vehicles to see how they were done, but have no desire to own most of them. First mod I did to my first car, a 67 Mustang, was add a tach. Been adding and taking away ever since....

 

I remember being at Donut Derelicts right after I bought my 56 Victoria 8 years ago. An older gentleman in Chandler Arizona had spent 12 years on it and it was very nice, but not as high a point car as I think he thought. No matter I was very happy to have bought it and had been thru the judging BS with the restoration on my dads 1939 Indian Sport Scout he purchased in 1943 and was long done with all that crap. I wanted the best one done I could afford and drive it and that's what I got..

Anyway a guy came up who drove in a very nice 57 Sunliner that even had factory air and looked at my car as I was getting out and said the carpeting "pile" was wrong... I was flabergasted at such a statement to someone you don't even know or ever met. For some reason I looked over at his wife and she was rolling her eyes and mouthed "I'm sorry".. I don't even remember if I ever said anything or not. I kinda wonder what the rest of my "judge" sheet looked like.

I still see the guy once in awhile and just avoid him. The world has all kinds I guess....

 

Hot rods have special personalities.........pure-restored cars are great, but are kind of boring to me. I have had both......one was a numbers matching '60 'Vette with a 315 HP 283, power top, power windows, etc.......the last owner got $190K for it at a Barrett-Jackson auction 2 years ago.

A few years ago I put my '40 coupe in a local show.......a guy started to read me the riot act for "depriving a Corvette restorer the fuel injection that would be needed for a numbers matching Bloomington Gold". I just smiled and said, "But it looks great in my car, doesn't it?" He walked away in disgust......

 

I like both and have had both. Had a numbers matching 340HP 62 Corvette we did. It won lots of awards but got to be boring after a while-sold it and kept a 40 coupe-wife said the 40 was a much better car to drive etc. My 57 Fuely was dead on right too but then what do you do with it? Can't modify it and too rare to drive but we did. Got real tired of the resto crowd and their attitudes. I'll take a modified 40 or others any day over dead stockers-just my opinion.

 

I am kind of in the middle,I do like a stock looking body and interior but cant stand those anemic drivetrains and brakes that a old stock vehicle has. I am a member of the AACA and suprised a local chapter wanted me to join and was in the VCCA but got turned off when the old timers in it got their panties in a big wad when the club officials wanted to allow modifieds in.

 

Most who talk trash have never actually built a car from top to bottom.Check writers never make the connection a builder has with his car,nor do they accept those different from their beliefs...they buy the right to be an asshole

 

It's the same as traditional hot rodders bitching about a street rod in my opinion. I'm more of a purist. I like restored cars as much as properly done traditional hot rods. I'm definitely in the camp that likes 40's and 50's style hot rods done the way they actually were back in the day, not just a modern take on that style. That's just my taste though. Can't say that I give a damn about how anyone else feels about it. I'm also not the type to tell the owner of any car (even if they ruined a nice car) that I don't like what they did to it. Obviously they like it and why the hell should they care what I think?

 

I actually had a discussion with a restorer clown who felt if you do not use NOS original clips to hold on the chrome trim it is something other than a restoration. he was dead serious.

as for "Corvette Restorers" the proper name is Corvette weenie.

 

I go to the Hershey PA show every fall, few years back I was looking for 26 t stuff for a roadster hi boy project. One of theses purists started offering me things like fenders and stuff a hi boy wouldn’t need. Through his questioning I let it out it was a hot rod and the guy turned his back and walked away from me mid sentence lol... I have learned to avoid the small talk and focus on buying the part...funny thing is I tend to like cars that are hot rods but have a date in mind and stick to it down to the last bolts... say 1942 parts and method etc. like those historical replica sailing ships people build or something like that... we probably had way more in common than he realized...


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I like em' all...........and if i could only win the Lottery, I would buy em' all!