Art & Inspiration Sighting your first Hot Rod

I have vivid memories of a "32" 5 w, channeled, full fendered, white, a Hemi with two fours that cruised around the Turtle Creek valley area. I loved that car. That was the late fifties, very early sixties.

 

It was 1950. I was 12 years old, I had recently discovered Hot Rod magazine and was beginning to notice cool cars. It was a sunny fall afternoon and I was riding my bicycle to my buddies house. And there IT was. IT was a beautiful powder blue 34 FORD 5 window Hi boy coupe. This car was BEAUTIFUL!! Chrome up front, Chrome on the engine (I thought it was an Offenhauser engine because it said Offenhauser on the heads and 2 carburetors) It had BIG tires in back and little tires in front and really cool race car wheels. It even had cats eye tail lights. After my third pass around the coupe two older guys walked up (they must been 19or 20 years old) and got in the car. The doors opened from the FRONT!!! The car seemed to swallow them up as they got in!!! The car started with a really neat rumble sound, not real loud but great sound. The car pulled out in the street and was gone. No flash, no fire, just gone. I'll NEVER forget the first time and I had a wet spot in my Levis to prove it. BILL RINALDI

 

Bill--Just a wee bit TMI
Funny thing about the Offy comment, I had a similar deal when I was a kid, two local hot rodders that were a couple years older had cars with Hurst shifters and I always told them when I got my first car that I was going to put a Hurst transmission in it.
To this day; I bet they think of that every time they see me.
I eventually got a 61 Impala with a 348/3 speed on the column and the first thing I did after I bought it I found a used Synchro-Loc shifter in the local ads and tried putting it in, ended up not being the right one and it always had a reverse shift pattern.
I never bought a used shifter again, and I think I've bought at least a dozen new Hurst 4 speed shifters over the years.

 

1960, we were on vacation, headed to Niagara Falls from Kirkland Lake ( way up north). we stopped in Toronto to buy gas, there it was at the pumps, a chopped and channeled 32 five window......Medium blue metallic, white interior............what a dream! Found it in a magazine in 62 and still have that issue on the shelf in the garage!

 

Must be around 1953 (I'm 12 years old) the "big guys" across the street were building a jalopy. Deep channel, no chop, Eastern style. I'm there every day, getting in the way. They were cool, but I must have been a pain in the ass. I asked "will it have fenders"? The reply was yes, the front ones will turn with the wheels. Afraid to ask, I puzzled for days on why wouldn't they be crushed when the "wheels turned". Finally, when they were mounted I understood. Later, in high school I worked at their gas station for free for access to the shop to work on my 1956 Chevy.

 

I was born in to a oval track racing family in the end of 81. (I was in the pits at my first dirt race at three months old.)

Prostreet was the rage at shows and the car that stood out to me was a 20's style T speedster with Roof O.V.H. 4 valve per cylinder.

Latter in my late teens (when I understood what I was looking at) I got to ride in that car!

 

Hi Robert, we are here in Oregon but I grew up in Lockport, New York maybe two to three hundred
miles west of you. There were few hot rods but many customs. The first time I was aware of the fact
there were cars out there that were different was a chopped black '41 Ford convertible. It was tail dragger
with skirts and nosed and decked, wide whites etc. Saw it stop and turn around a corner and never saw
it again, but it is still in my mind. Many moons later I finally got one and it stayed in my garage for a
season and went down the road. Still love im !!!!
Da Flash

 

I had an intimate relationship with my 1st - it was dad's 1951 Ford Club Coupe w/ Corvette grille, '49 Merc taillights and bumper and powered by a Olds Rocket 88 303c.i. and massaged by Styler's Body Shop in San Diego, CA. We vacationed across the USA in the Ford but remember dad made more than his share of roadside repairs on it. I think the 6-12 volt conversion had some issues one time but the bulk of the downtime was due to the Ford rear axle bearings. We broke down in Salt Lake City one time-maybe 1963 or 1964 and another time I remember in Texas somewhere. Each time dad found a garage or dealership that let him use their press to get the old bearing off the axle on a Sunday. I know the fellow in Texas offered my dad a job after that episode.

The car was painted a couple of times to get the look dad wanted. He finally traded it for a piece of property that ultimately was sold to open our family business, one that lasted nearly 40 years.

I never realized what a great car this was until it was long-gone!

 

I used to hang our at the local Skelly station where about 1965 or so the Landwehr boys built a hot rod. Not a tri five Chevy or old sedan but a model A roadster pickup with a bobbed bed,no fenders, and an Olds J2 engine. I immediately fell in love.

They later screwed it up with a 327 with Hillborn injection and went drag racing but that car is really what started it all for me.

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In 1950 I delivered news papers and passed a shop where a high school boy was building a chopped and channeled 32 5 window. He got it on the street that summer after he finished high school. I finished high school in 55 and after he got out of the army we became very close friends. He was my high school hero, he had a hot rod just like the ones in the early Hot Rod magazines.

 

1974 Houston Autorama. The show was held in the Astro Hall back then, right next to the Astrodome. It was a couple days until the show and my dad and I were just driving through the area. We got to the stop light at Kirby and Holcombe and this Candy colored '55 Chevy pulled up to make the turn headed to the Dome. My dad had to physically restrain me.

GAWD! I love this shit!

 

I'm with you Fred, It's my drug of choice.

 

It was in the late '40s and I was standing on the sidewalk in front of my house (it was a regular neighborhood with narrow streets) and a open fendered roadster came sliding around the corner. It was followed a few seconds later by a cop car lights flashing. The cop car was either a '48 Plymouth or Chevy and I've always wondered if the caught the guy.

 

My 1st sighting in our own backyard, 36 Dodge pickup stuffed with a dual quad Eldorado engine. As I grew up I don't recall a race he lost on the street except for a time when his front brakes were dragging, he'd lost to one of the fastest kids in the Southeast Detroit area, a 57 Chevy, but only by a fender. He asked for a rematch and the kid said "...bullshit..." when he said the brakes were stuck. Dad put it in drive and got out, the truck didn't move. "Gimme a minute and let's go again." He bled the brakes and ratcheted the adjusters, away they went. No contest. The kid wouldn't come back to the "cab stand" in Melvindale afterward. I was too young to be involved, born in 57 and that was 62, but I'd heard of it and remember riding in that truck as a little kid. I never knew the cab stand but maybe some local elders do? There was a cavalcade of race cars and hot rods in our yard growing up. No wonder I'm such a mess now...(!)

 

A week or so ago the wife and I took my 5 window Deuce a couple of miles to the little mon n' pop ice cream store and while we were sitting in their rockers enjoying our cones a kid, probably about 7 or 8, walked up with his Dad.

Kid sees the Deuce and says in an excited voice to his Dad, "WHAT IN THE WORLD IS THAT?"
Obviously the first time he had seen anything like that car in his whole life.

Dad says, (wait for it)....."That's a Rat Rod."

This is the car in question. I hope somebody will explain what a RR is to the kid before he gets much older...

 

Euclid, Ohio is a Cleveland suburb, about 10 miles from downtown. Filled with factories, during the 50's/60's/70's and blue collar workers buying and building Hot Rods and Detroit Muscle. Next door nieghbor twins, 11 yrs my senior, always had their friend's driving up in cool machines. This Gold Coupe, is on my ultimate wish list to find. Built and owned, by Roger Antonich. This is the one, that ruined me, for the rest of my life. Then Bad-Boy Mike Faletic, moved into a house, up the street. Brought with him, a bitchin' '36 327 Vette powered Ford Coupe. And also went on to build that little '34 Ford truck. Would give my left testi' for either one of them right now. Mike and I went on to become very close friends. The name "Shorty" was given to me 40yrs ago. Anytime, we talk, he still calls me that. sniff sniff

 

Yeah, seadog, I'm afraid the RR thing has entered the lexicon of the great unwashed masses, who could not tell a hot rod from a street rod from a r@t rod to save their lugnuts. Like bailing against the tide to try and explain the difference to a lot of folks. K6


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Saturday night I was at an event in our town at the Firehouse and a guy about ten years younger than me asked if this is the way the car came from Ford back in 32

I guess I am just getting too old! It's a F@#$*% up world for sure!
I cannot remember the first hot rod I had seen. I just remember all the hot rods back when I was very young. Actually this may be my first!

Some things never change. Still have a cool car and a gun! Yes that is me.

 

ST. Joe MI., Late '70s It was a late'40s,early '50s orange Thames Panal, that belonged to a local photographer. Every time I go home, I drive down to the bluff to see if its still there.

 

Do microds count? Most people seem to call them kart racers, but in upstate they were called microds. When I was a kid they didn't have roll bars and were a lot more dangerous. My brother raced them for a while in the 70s. I didn't follow in his footsteps. the first real hot rod was probably the two old 40's cars in a garage off the highway where I grew up. Never saw them more than the front and the back, but I understood the guy that lived there built and sold them.

 

A Model T called Revenge. Saw it when I was around 12 years old, built by Nick Butler was around 1977/1978. I think it's still in existence today.

 

As a 2nd grader in Hawaii, the first " hot rods" I saw were the oval track modifieds that ran at the old Hula Bowl, in down town Oahu. Next up were model kits like these. I was hooked even before I saw one in the flesh! Gary

 

About 1955, older "hood" guy picked up best looking ( older ) babe at school - early '50.s Merc in primer, nosed and decked with loud exhaust - squeaked the tires shifting to 2nd. I was blown away. Then my older brother brought home a magazine called "hot rod" - I was hooked for life.

 

I'm pretty sure my Dad had some sort of modified car all his life - When I was in Jr. High he bought a quarter midget that I wasn't supposed to drive except when he was around - I quickly figured out how to lift the rear up (live axle), get it going down the driveway, hop in and hit the mag switch and away I'd go to a local park where I made my own track running round and round, until this "old" lady (probably almost 30) running the local kids programs turned me in to the cops. Busted!
He bought a '55 Chevy hardtop, salmon and gray, and dechromed it, painted it Corvette Honduras Maroon, put on glasspacks and shorty lakes pipes and chrome spiders on the wheels, and drove me and my girlfriend to the movies in Geneva, IL many times.
Damn, I miss him.

 

It was 1958, I was fourteen and my family had moved to York , Pa. I was just walking the ally's in the new neighborhood when I came upon at guy working on a Model A coupe with a Sbc . That started my juices flowing and till this day 57 yrs. later I'm still messin with Hotrods. I can't explain the feelings I get building , driving and just plain showing off in them.

 

Nov 24, 1946 I was three days old, wrapped up in a blanket and rode home from the hospital with snow on the ground in my dad's 41 Ford ragtop with dual steel packs.


First "official" hot rod was my then stepfather's 52 Ford Victoria with a 56 Thunderbird Special under the hood in 1957 or 58 The car ran in the 14's in C/Gas at the Ellensberg Wa drag strip lowered all the way around and all. That car was probably my downfall into hotrodding even though I was about 9 or 10 at the time.

 

Hutchinson, Kansas Bob Fast and his orange with chrome reverse wheels forty ford with a leaping frog painted behind front fenders . When he came down the road the world stopped.

 

It was 59 or 60 when a local guy came back from the Navy In CA and had purchased a custom tail dragging white 46 Ford custom coupe with a turquoise and white Tijuana tuck and roll interior. My first sighting of a real hot rod other than in little pages. I knew what direction my life was going.

 

Great stories. Mr 48 chevs' story about coming home from the hospital reminded me of a photo I have [I'll have to scan and post it some day] of my dad holding me up in a blanket while my mom took the photo. It's the day they brought me home from being born..There is a 37 Dodge nosed into the photo. My mom told me she insisted my dad bring his dad's 37 dodge to bring me home because their own car, a brush painted white 33 willys coupe shown in the background and parked on a hill had no starter and she didn't want to take a chance on getting stranded with the willys. My dad always parked it on a hill to coast-start it. Damned scared women! I almost got to say I came home from the hospital in a 33 willys coupe instead of a stodgy 37 Dodge sedan..

 

While my Father was station at Offutt AFB, Bellevue, Nebr. the guy (who was a Airman) next store had two 1957 Chevys. One was a hard top and the other was a conv. Down the street was another guy with a 50 Ford painted some sort of Army green with louvers on the hood. Last the bad boy on the block was the GTO Kid, (as my father would call him) running a 66 GTO. We had one more guy running a 63 Corvette fastback with the solid rear window installed. My Father at the time had a 1952 Nash conv. which did not look so hot compared to the rest of the crowd, but myself and my brothers put a lot of work, sanding, on that car along with my Father (always seem to have a beer in his hand, watching us).