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Why traditional rods and customs?

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by Ned Ludd, Sep 28, 2010.

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  1. 5window
    Joined: Jan 29, 2005
    Posts: 9,517

    5window
    Member


    Nah,cuz I'm kool! :)

    There is just something about the look-and the time.
     
  2. For most people it's because it's the most popular thing right now.

    While I think traditional hot rods are cool and all... I'd rather just have a hot rod.

    Sam
     
  3. photofink
    Joined: Apr 14, 2007
    Posts: 651

    photofink
    Member

    I like old junk...including old people.

    When I was a teenager in the mid 80's I was anti anything new and fully into the whole 60's garage/mod/Vespa/ thing and once my mom told me "You would probably hate those people if you were alive back then". She is probably right... Im always into things before my time.
     
  4. mustangGTS
    Joined: Sep 18, 2010
    Posts: 28

    mustangGTS
    Member

    For me it is the foundation of everything that is todays (just for you guys ) Kar Kulture. Without the hot rodding of yesterday there would have been no muscle car wars in the 60's, not current day "modern Muscle", and for the loss of my world, no drag racing.

    If you don't know where you came from, then you know nothing. I am not as hardcore about traditional as many are here, but I respect them for their feeling, and know that if it wasn't for the first reground cams in flatheads, Navaro intakes, offy heads, and guys wanting to burn down the street, gassers, front engine dragsters, deuce coupes, highboys, roadster pickups, and jalopys of all kinds that I would have very little to love in my personal life.

    That being said, I may be new to this board, but the tradition is a part of everything that I do even with my modern drag car.
    So thank god, and those that have gone before us for the tradition, and those that still hold on to it, for the days ahead, and the reminder of where motorheads came from.
     
  5. stanlow69
    Joined: Feb 21, 2010
    Posts: 7,348

    stanlow69
    Member Emeritus

    When your a little kid- you`re drawn to the candy in a store. When you`re a teenager you`re to the X-rated magazines on the magazine rack. When I was a kid I was drawn to Traditional Hot Rods and Customs. I was born with this feeling like some people are born to be Firemen. When Billet wheels and Vibrant colors where hot in the late 80`s(I was a teenager) and 90`s, I was drawn to anything with whitewalls. Can`t explain it, So why fight it.
     
  6. VonKool13
    Joined: Feb 16, 2008
    Posts: 1,039

    VonKool13
    Member

    I got into traditional stuff in the 90's before it became popular culture again. I got into it because it WAS low buck, and pretty Punk Rock with all of the rusty "rat rod" type builds. Now it's gotten pretty mainstream and expensive to have the really cool stuff. I consider myself a Hot Rodder, but I would definitley like to build an early custom some time. Fenderless and some fendered Hot Rods give me chubby just lookin at them, it's been like that for over a decade now...
     
  7. RichG
    Joined: Dec 8, 2008
    Posts: 3,919

    RichG
    Member

    You couldn't go out and buy a hot rod 60-70 years ago, you had to build one, or help a friend build one. There were no rules, no speed shops, no guidelines. You took what was at hand and you made something out of it, preferably something fast. The tools were crude, the parts were rough, but the cars had soul, something that is sadly lacking in everything today. I'd rather spend a week working with my hands to produce something that is uniquely mine rather than wandering into the local "mart" and buying what every other dude with a wallet has... There's nothing creative about writing a check, even if you do choose the ones with the cat hanging over the branch.
     
  8. falconsprint63
    Joined: May 17, 2007
    Posts: 2,358

    falconsprint63
    Member
    from Mayberry

    fads change, but timeless good looks never go out of style
     
  9. my two cents...

    For me "traditional" means paying homage to the guys who did this with only the ideas in their heads not what they just saw on the cover of a magazine. True thinkers, true rebels. Our history so to speak. It is an honor to build and drive these cars keeping the passion alive. Most if not all the folks you meet at "traditional" shows built their rods and could tell you anything and everything about their cars and most likely all the other cars at the show. That is traditional hot rodders. We love these cars, we love the history and we eat, breath, and sleep they old school rides. Go ask the guys sitting next to their $80K billet clad, $15K paint job fiberglass "street rods" what their favorite part of their build was and if he has any great stories how he and his friends pulled an all nighter to get the old banjo rear end together before a ride the next day. They are hollow in search of the glory of the $10 trophy. There is not heart and no passion. So in closing traditional is.... love of history, love of the build, love of the pals, respect of the fore fathers of the hobby....
     
  10. mcisneros
    Joined: Sep 9, 2005
    Posts: 93

    mcisneros
    Member

    lets just pray we could keep this"tradition" going for another 20 years!
     
  11. KIRK!
    Joined: Feb 20, 2002
    Posts: 12,031

    KIRK!
    Member

    I like all the cute guys with pompadours.
     
  12. 39cent
    Joined: Apr 4, 2006
    Posts: 1,569

    39cent
    Member
    from socal

    traditional! we arent traditional! This is the latest stuff! don,t know what ya mean? This all about how ya build a hot rod!

    Oh Oh gotta take anothr pill, dam it aint easy being old.
     
  13. Ned Ludd
    Joined: May 15, 2009
    Posts: 5,026

    Ned Ludd
    Member

    Thanks Baggs, but I do know the answer. I entirely get it. But it's occurred to me that my answer might not be the same as other people's answers, hence the question.

    I'm not asking for excuses! Nobody should have to give an excuse for being into stuff they're into. I myself wouldn't stand for someone demanding that I justify being into this stuff to them. But it's clear that a lot of people on the HAMB have given some thought to the question, and it's good to hear what they've been thinking.

    There are a couple of themes running through. I'll see if I can put together a sort of summary in a while.
     

  14. For the thrill of it. i put real Hot Rods in the same category as say a Harley.

    the wind in ya face , the vibrations. the roar of the exhaust

    the smell of a hot engine.

    if i wanted power steering , air con , i would drive a Hyundai
     
  15. 40fordtudor
    Joined: Jan 3, 2010
    Posts: 2,503

    40fordtudor
    Member

    He nailed it---in 1956 I bought my first "little pages" and read it in my history book in study hall. Been hooked ever since. I break with tradition on the '40 from time to time---a/c and L.E.D. turn signals, but for the most part it's pretty traditional in it's looks. One of the most traditional parts of the car is the seats upholstery and the door panels---it's from 1959. Is that traditional enuf for you? And it's staying that way---black 1" tuck and roll. I'm thankful for all the younger respondents to this thread--the hobby lives on. Thanks guys.
     
  16. Born in the 40s raised in the 50s these are the cars i dreamed about. Now that I have enough money to build what i admired that is what I did. Not some rusty piece of shit but a real safe, Very fast "Hot Rod"
     
  17. its a valid question.
    for me, i grew up over the back fence of the local hot rod club in the 70s. i was into cars by age ten, but didnt discover hot rods untill aged eleven. i got well and truly into it, but when the eighties came around, billet and stupid graphics put me off the whole thing.
    in the late 90s, i discovered rat rods and thought they were pretty cool. then they got plain stupid and about that time, i discovered the hamb. great, my hot rod addiction was rekindeled and it cant be changed with dumb paint or shonky engineering. it has become trendy which is something i dont like, but ive been around it for so long that i dont give a damn what others do anymore. its my trip and im in for the long ride.
     
  18. skidsteer
    Joined: Mar 19, 2007
    Posts: 1,251

    skidsteer
    Member

    For me, it's building something myself or with my friends, with what is readily available, at a price I can afford. When successful businessmen in their 50's and 60's started having high-dollar $treet rod$ built for them by somebody else, that was not how it was done back in the day. We only used to see those kinds of cars when the custom car show came to town once a year or so.
     
  19. James Curl
    Joined: Mar 28, 2006
    Posts: 370

    James Curl
    Member

    When I saw my first hot rod in Dallas in 1948 when I was 12. My big brother, just back from 4 years in WWII took me to this shop where the car was parked outside, it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. Black 29 high boy roadster, I took a picture of it with my "Dick Tracy" camera which I still have here someplace. Was hooked on Rock and Roll when I heard Big Joe Turner singing "Shake, Rattle and Roll" at the Bowling Alley in the '50's. Its not traditional, its all that I know, that's just the way it was. Still stuck there in time in my mind.
     
  20. You ask "why am I into traditional rods and kustoms"... Well, I was born in the 40's, grew up in the 50's and came of age in the 60's, all in socal...
     
  21. Jalopy Jim
    Joined: Aug 3, 2005
    Posts: 1,867

    Jalopy Jim
    Member

    I grew up with Hotrods in the 50's and 60's. Streetrods seem to have no soul they are to much like my wifes Camry or my friends PT cruiser.
    Hotrods and old customs were works of art and craftsmanship.
     
  22. I tried bein' a biker but the leather chaps left my ass out in the cold.

    Seriously... after giving it a little thought... I like the pre-50s cars because they were mostly utilitarian. They were meant to do a job and nothing much more. It wasn't until people (like us) started saying, "This could be so much more... so much better". It was the time when personal innovation was born. It was when the extremist factions came into being... from stripped down speedsters on one end of the spectrum, to plush luxury cars on the other end. For me, I find comfort at the greasy underbelly.



    JOE:cool:
     
  23. roddin-shack
    Joined: Apr 12, 2006
    Posts: 2,512

    roddin-shack
    Member


    PRIDE, I was speaking to a young guy last night, who had just purchased a 36 Ford Pick Up, Hot Rod he called it a Rat Rod. He had called me to do an appraisal and and told me a story about a little red coupe he had followed up the highway a couple of weeks previous and was amazed how it stood out in traffic and hugged the road. This car helped him with the decision to make the purchase. I asked him more about the little red coupe as to where and when it occured. I then realized the little red coupe was mine and I was the driver. :cool:
     
  24. Well I grew up in the fifties and sixties being a car crazy kid. I always liked both hot rods and Kustoms, but it was difficult to do both in one car, so I never had a kustom. Now being mostly retired, I just enjoy doing a lot of the same sort of car building I did as a kid, but now I have better skills, tools, and space. The style of cars I grew up with are just what I love. I am not a traditional purist as I prefer some of the safety improvements that have come along over the years and will not sacrifice safety if I can help it. I try to do as much work as I can, because it gives me satisfaction, but I am willing to use a pro shop to do stuff I can not do with confidence of it's safety. The rodder in me says to continue with allowing some innovations in performance and reliability, but I still have strong leanings for the traditional styling, even if under the skin is a little too modern for the taste of some here.
     
  25. metalshapes
    Joined: Nov 18, 2002
    Posts: 11,138

    metalshapes
    Member

    In other words, the Street Rodders approach to Traditional Hot Rodding...
     
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