Hot Rods Can fiberglass be traditional? At least in appearance.

That's some funny stuff right there, but a Alu corvette would be awesome!!

Wasn't there a stories about some die hard drag racers drilling as many holes as possible in there Willys and big bad tri-five. Going after every last available ounce to make it faster. Down to grinding of essential parts to make them lighter.
And wishing they could have had a 454 in a FG 41 Willys, just to have a leg up on any other racer. And now they can, and every body and his dog goes: sigh, it's not a real 41 Willys, it's one of the knock off Tupperware things.

Come on, to me a real 32 is build in 32. Not in 2004-2015. But that doesn't mean that a brookville 32 ain't a real car, it's just not a genuine ol' Henry body.
I've seen butt-ugly genuine 32, and i've seen beautiful FGs, that are so beautiful that they should correct the term auto-erotic to mean, a car so hot/bitching that it will make my "real slim shady stand up"!!

But the term traditional hot rod may change slightly from decades. At one point a ford or 32 would only be driving from the time it take to seal the deal, until one finds a 28 roadster body and sparks starts to fly.
To day they are fully accepted.
To day a coupster is not a compliment, it's an insult. In the fifties a coupster was just one way to get a roadster.
And nobody had any questions if the anderregg roadster (AMBR winner) was a reel hot rod.

Nobody ran truck head lights on a hot rod, smaller was better. They didn't have to be black with red rims. They didn't have to be spray painted, but very few was "patinad up".

We should not bitch about a FG car that looked era perfect, and sing praises to faux patina!

I almost got worked up here, but I mean every word, although it's hard to prove if the irony was intended, and some of it has to be taken with a grain of salt. ️

 

Steel or glass? HRP and I both know the owner and it's glass. Personally I've had both and think glass can be just as traditional.

 

Does not matter what it is made of...........somebody will pick it apart and find fault with it. Bottom line, buy and build what suits your desires and budget...........smile when you drive it, cause you sure are not going to let anyone else drive it once it is yours.

 

Is there anyone, besides me, who likes the car in the original post?

I would daily drive it everyday if I could find the proper gloves and headgear.

And it wouldn't take that long to improved on the stuff that I dislike.

I hope he bought it and make a buildtread about de-uglifing it.

 

I like early 'vettes (XSonic) and Kellisons...They're traditional?

 

The only drawback of FG Hot Rods is the resale value. Expect to lose money if you build and sell.

 

BINGO! jcmarz hit the nail on the head.

Gary

 

If you're in this to make money, then it's no longer a hobby.

 

I build cars and sell them with the intention of making a profit and have done quite well at it. Sure don't do it to lose money. Anyone building a car to lose money needs their head examined. Lots of Hamber's in the car business to turn a profit.

jcmarz speaks the truth. I believe his post was to bring out the fact that steel brings in more money then glass. He's right about that.

Gary

 

My avatar is glass. My Grandpa molded it by hand in 1960.

 

The key words here are 'business' and 'profit'. Very different motivation compared to an owner who is trying to build his dream. I'm not saying that's bad, just that different build decisions will probably be made depending on how 'personal' the build is. As well as whatever budget the builder is working with. I'll agree that you sometimes need to spend money to make money, but not everyone has that luxury or is all that worried about it.

That statement is so wrong on so many levels.... I always thought that innovation was the heart and soul of Hot Rodding. To hear that 'a handful of cars doesn't make tradition' flies in the face of cars like the Speed Sport roadster or pretty much anything built by Ak Miller or Tex Smith to name just two icons. To tell the truth, many of the 'ultra-traditional' cars being built today (and fawned over) display fit/finish that's leagues above what was done 'back in the day' on those '99 plus percent' Hot Rods to the point that they look like over-restored museum examples done by OCD patients, so does that make them 'non-traditional'?

Don't get me wrong, I like the 'traditional' look. The excesses and blurring between types that became prevalent in the late sixties changed the cars and they lost much of their distinctiveness and appeal. But that also doesn't mean that only slavish reconstructions with period-built parts are the only cars that are 'traditional' either, there's still room for the innovators....

 

AND TOO HARD TO WELD ON

 

Fiberglass welding!! Pete http://www.jamestowndistributors.co...me=WEST+System+Six10+Thickened+Epoxy+Adhesive

 

Now there is the rub, I have seen glass deuces with faux-tina, and seen steel ones the same. If I were to build a glass stripper while it may be in primer for a while the ultimate end would be a good paint job, maybe I would neglect it and it would get butched with time but it would have to have nice paint at least once.


There is an up to glass, it doesn't rust, so the fellas from the rust belt who think that they can't drive in the winter could drive year round.

 

There ya go. Glass cars are older than half of these HAMBERS. Can't get any more traditional than that.

 

I guess Norm Grabowski and Tommy Ivo didn't know what they doing, eh, silent rick, since they ran 4 bars in the FIFTIES. And since you are the world-renown expert on ALL things traditional and you have INFORMED us that a handful of glass cars in the pre-65 era DON'T make tradition, how about you let all of us ignorant dummies know exactly how many glass cars would have to have been made for you to call them traditional, you know, since you know it all and all of us old guys are just a bunch of clueless wannabes. I want an EXACT number, "Mr Expert" silent rick. Give me a number, or SHUT UP!

 

3. Did you disrespect another user? We believe verbal battles through the internet are bullshit and as such, we delete all that we can. Further more, if you can't express an opinion without bagging someone else's, maybe you should rethink the validity of your opinion?

Hey arkie, this ^^^^ is taken from the HAMB rules sticky.

 

I have no idea if that car is steel, fiberglass, or the product of a 3D printer (yup, that's coming)...all I know is it makes me want to scrap my plans and my FG '23 body, and find myself a good quality FG '26/'27 body to start over with.

JMHO, but to me the turmoil comes from confusing traditionality with period correctness.

Before I stumbled across this site a few years ago, if someone asked me to define a traditional hotrod, I probably would have said something like "A separate rear fender body style car, built up mostly by the owner, to his liking, with the parts of his choosing.". The only reason I use the separate rear fender qualification is that to me, separate and integral rear fender construction is the dividing point between hot rods and street rods. Now I find myself coming back to that simplistic view of traditionality. To me the traditional aspect of hot rodding is making a vehicular statement of individuality.

I don't feel period correctness needs any further definition.

Even though the period look I gravitate to is from the post war through early 60s, building to period correctness is not for me. Will my fiberglass bodied, disc braked, radial tired car be a traditional hot rod? In my mind, yes. Will it be period correct? Not even close. But it will have a lot of styling cues from my chosen period, hopefully packaged in at least a somewhat pleasing cohesive manner.

Having said that, I have nothing but admiration for those that choose to follow any particular period to painstaking detail. It takes a lot of work, and they are to be commended for it.

 

tradition is the continued use or action of which, in that by using or doing something over and over again, it becomes convention or the norm.

sort of like me talking over your head half the time. that would be a tradition for me. but in the grander sense it would take more than just one member out of 200,000 plus with the ability to say something you can't understand for people to start calling you a dumbass. do you want an exact number on that one also?

what i was trying to say is by the time fiberglass builds became prevelant enough to become considered convention or tradition, we were past the timeline ryan has set forth on the hamb. i never denied their existence before, but their occurance was just that, an occurance and not found in large enough numbers to ever warrant being called traditional.

now on that exact number, i'd say 40,000. you got any proof of that many pre-65 fiberglass cars?

i'm still an asshole.

 

Man all this bickering SUCKS......This is not what this web site is for, so let's drop all the bull shit as this is what has turned a lot of past members off from coming back to the HAMB.