Hot Rods ***Hot Rod Idiosyncrasies (What are your favorite things about old cars?)***

Building an old car whether it's a Hot Rod or custom I think we all run across particular items that we think are cool. Most people won't get why we run the particular things but it's these things that make Old Hot Rods and such so damn cool. Even things like using a Flathead Ford V8 can be considered on one end of the spectrum. I mean we don't use them because they're the fastest or because parts are so readily available. We use them because they are cool and we love them and that's how it was done.

Being THAT GUY, I've always appreciated the tricks and parts that aren't always the most pleasing to the eye but were common back in the day. Things like rubber flex radiator hose instead of mandrel bent stainless ones, Banjo rears instead of 9" Fords, cloth wiring, knurled thumb screw type hose clamps instead of the newer versions and so on and so on. It's almost like Folk Art to me and I feel like a bit of it needs to be preserved. So when I noticed that my car's exhaust had been routed with flex pipe from back in the day I couldn't help but to think it was pretty cool and wanted to keep some of that with it's new incarnation. I mean I think it's pretty easy to water down what these cars use to be by using better looking stuff and smoothing out welds etc. Not easy in terms of actual work but the restraint I guess to know that a particular part would look better design wise with "our own take" but knowing that in it's entirety it would be better left as is.


SO what's your favorite Hot Rod Idiosyncrasies or Folk Art type part?

Period Aviation Hose Clamps?



Motorcycle Front Tires?


Old Timey Flex radiator hose?


Flex Tubing or Spaghetti Exhaust?


Plumbing Pipe fuel lines?


Matching Cotter pins through out a build?


Cloth wiring?



Odd looking hand made bodies?



I plan on running Spaghetti duals on my '35 whether it's a great idea or not. To me it make sense because there's precedence. My car as well as a slew of others had it at one time and I'd love to keep it going. Will it sound good? I'm not sure and will have to see.

So what's the oddball stuff that makes you obsess over Hot Rods and Customs? What makes sense to you and most of the HAMB but not to outsiders?




.

 

one of my favorite old car things isn't visual, it's the whine of an early ford transmission. I've abandoned the turbo 350 for my '32 pickemup and bought a '39 tranny.


***edit*** anyone need a fresh Turbo 350 trans w/kickdown linage and torque converter?

 

I am suddenly diggin on old rivets, of all the things in life, rivets.

 

The '39 trans is a good one. My neighbor from across the street who's around 66 years old comes over all the time to see the progress. When he asked what trans I was running I told him and he gives me the "uh....Ok?". Being a muscle car guy he says why don't you put a TH400 or something in there instead. Sometimes I just want to say " listen you were there back then I wasn't. Why am I explaining the way you did things back then you should be telling me!!!"

Anyways the '39 trans is a perfect example. Not something you run for strength and such. You use it because it supplies the ever so pleasing sound. And rivets....yeah I love those too. I punched a bunch of them out old frames when I can so that they can be rosette welded back in one day on a newer frame for the look like say on a new 32 frame.

 

I'm with ya on the '39 trans noise, I even like the sound they make when I miss a shift, haha! Although at times it's hard to hear over the straight pipes yackin' and the ever-present quickchange whine! What a beautiful cacaphony of noise they make together.

 

i like the way the cloth interior of an early to mid '60s chevrolet smells. cant quite describe it, but its even better with a green tree air freshener hanging from the cigarette lighter.

 

ive got a thing for art deco decorative, functionless features. dose that fit here?

 

Oh yeah, road draft tube blowby, heavenly odor!

Squeaky old convertible tops...

Bias ply tire screech in hard turns...

Nickel plating...

 

I dig louvers that were done in the 50's ..and also get a kick out of some of the cosmetically non pretty welds, by today's standards, which have held strong for 50+years.

I love when an old barris or winfield car is brought back to bare metal...it's almost like a time machine looking at the patchwork...you can almost visualize each step..neat stuff indeed

 

I like the sound of the tailgate chains "clanging" against the body of my two old pickups. With all the new gadgets that eliminate chains, I choose to keep them. I remember riding in the back of a friends pickup and hearing the chains as a kid.

 

SWING OUT WINDSHIELDS, just cool, literally, and they will never be ever again. Gives our old rides- soul. BDM

 

I understand why he said that.

Back in the mid 60s we were dreaming of a 4 speed with a Hurst, but only had non-syncro 3 speeds. Never in my dreams would I have thought that someday I'd be wanting an ancient non-syncro 3 speed

 

Nice thread idea, JJ.

I'm a sucker for saddle leather, those aviation clamps you posted, flathead screw heads, simple solutions (like putting a cork in a hole in a firewall), and I love restraint for the sake of function. I actually really REALLY love restraint... I think it says a lot more than a ton of desirable goodies strewn throughout a car.

 

Safety wire...........swoon.

 

I love the smell of an old car, must be the mix of oil, dirt and exhaust. If I live to be a hundred I will never forget it.

 

Lots of good stuff in here! The not so perfect welds that Homemadehardtop57 mentioned is a good one as well as the rest of them. I also never heard of the cork in the firewall trick and I want to see it!!!


Here's one that I think I might be alone on but a single 4bbl Cadillac carbed 331 in a hoodless hot rod. Grawbowski's Lightning bug messed me up on that one. Don't get me wrong I love mulit carb intakes on Cadillacs but I almost think I equally enjoy a single 4bbl. I even will give extra points when someone uses a Cadillac carb on a early chevy or what not because it was a trick used back in the day.

 

I have another, how about the old black-n-white analog gauges, speedo needles dancing around like a hula girl, am I goin 40 or 60, who the heck cares I smell 50 wieght burning

 

I am completely enamored with the old car interior smell, the mix of exhaust fumes that have made their way into the cabin and permeated the upholstery, some previous owners' spilled cologne/perfume in the glove box, and the sun baked vinyl dash aroma.

 

I think its all the rough edges of a driver that really gets me going. I mean, even with a finished car. Unless its a trailered show only primadonna, it has rough edges. The smell of gas when its warming up. The smell of oil and exhaust going down the road. The breeze from the turned in vent windows. The almost lockup from four wheel drum brakes on a quick stop.

More than that, what does it the most for me, is a well tuned and raw exhaust note. No mufflers fo' sho'!!!

 

Drum brakes and cable activated electric overdrive amongst many others.

One of the things that I enjoy the most is when I'm in one of my cars it's like stepping back in time for me. It may not be the fastest, the smoothest, the "greenest", the safest but it is a piece of American history. It's what our families all experienced and was all there was. To me, to feel and understand the car is theraputic.

I personally don't understand why so many choose to "modernize" their old cars. If it is your only form of transportation and you feel it needs these items to make you feel safe then I understand but I notice many, many cars that have been updated and are rarely driven. To me it's about the entire experience of driving a car the way they were back then, including modifying them in the traditional sense.

These vehicles were built by Proud Americans to last. They have been rebuilt and will continue to be rebuilt many times. They are not the disposible cars that dot our roads today. It's not quite a proud America in my eyes anymore.

I feel like I have a foot in the past everytime I drive mine. I'm very proud of my cars and the pleasure they bring to others.

That's my favorite thing about these cars.






BloodyKnuckles

 

Yes, Brandy, I should have added that too... It's something I want to learn how to do correctly.

 

a little off topic but some of the newer ones still have the smell, just got this 90 Towncar on the road, it still has that cloth interior smell, reminds me of old buicks, aerodynamic as a brick , sucks gas, and enough electrical gremlims to scare mr. Lucas, but I sure like it, nothing today has that slam the doom WHUMPH! sound like they used to have on these tanks

 

I like the fact that I am 40 years old, but feel like I am 16 when I am driving it... like when you know it ain't a good idea to roll the power on but you can't help it, opportunity knocks... you do it and say to yourself, damn that was dumb I ain't gonna do that again.

Two minutes later and a street that looks like a ghost town, here we go again!!

Or driving a stock Model a pickup and messing with the spark to get top speed(48mph if you must know). Something about being able to adjust your performance on the fly, just kinda cool.

I don't think this is what you were after in this thread but it is my favorite thing about old cars.

 

I like removing an upholstery panel after forty or so years and seeing the still fresh-looking original body paint underneath.

Also, the signs of earlier owner's craftsmanship, whether good or bad, and especially the special stuff that only they could do. Things like a copper exhaust pipe, or a harness with immaculately soldered terminals and splices, wrapped in friction tape or laced together with butcher's knots. Or in the more modern times, a tile from the space shuttle fashioned into a starter heat shield (j/k).

 

Now it's definitely what I'm after. I think originally I was looking for tricks and items that you like incorporate on your cars but couple that with the sentimental things or the things you cannot buy, weld or slap on your car and that's right on the money.


Another couple things I like are...

Dressed Down flathead with plain old stock heads (or cheaters) with original type nuts instead of acorns. Couple that with a 2x2 intake and that's the perfect engine. You can keep your finned heads because I don't think it gets any prettier then the ones Ford supplied. Actually I love aluminum heads but for some reason I have a hunger for a really subdued looking flatty lately

Moon Caps and White walls.

Stock Wheel bases on early ford Hot Rods because it make the tires look larger and the car look smaller. All in trying to get that ever important Weesner proportion.


But here's one that's an old trick that I'd love to try one day. Welding cut off spoons onto Valve Covers to clear the adj rockers. Sometimes called Knuckle Covers or Knuckling their covers...

(note these are probably not spoons but give you the idea)

 

Funny you should say that; whenever I smell an original (dark green pine scent) tree air freshener, I think of the '62 Impala my older brother had in the late '60s.

 

remembering the sound of that big old Rochester 4 barrel with out the air cleaner
sucking all the air it could winding out those zephyr gears my 50 Olds coupe

 

ditto!

 

i also enjoy the sound of tailgate chains....

 

For the longest time I was only intrested in high quality, very finished(if not over done) hot rods. More and more lately I have walked this very line of less is more.
Remember the three R's of traditional hot rodding;

Relevance

Retrospect

Restraint

I can't stress the last enough......