History So, you think this is not Traditional?

the narrow thinking of how "they" thought street rods should be led to folks saying screw you...I'm building what I like how I like with zero regards to fit and finish and paint etc....early choppers car club stuff
basically early HAMB
today a guy could post a pro touring beautifully crafted built at home car, and Ryan, and I've seen this a few times, would tell him thaty while it was very nice, it does not fit the editorial focus of the board. He is correct.

The "sheep" on the other hand would bitch about how they would change the wheels tires paint etc and basically call the car crap...I've seen that a few times too...

 

Dooley, if you're reference as to time/style means what we see today vs the 'tweed/pastel' days, you're right. The early vibe now rules, and it's almost sad that it's nearly sneaking up toward mainstream. Frightening to think such a thing, right? Look at the AMBR winner from John Mumford a cpl years ago. Ardun v8-60, track roadster, belted tires on steelies. No billet, no EFI, they even joked among themselves about winning it on "used tires" since the owner had saved them from another car. Look at in-print show coverage like in "Street Rodder" and such. The early look is exponentially more prevalent. If we're not careful WE will become mainstream "Oh, the humanities...!"

 

Time for a collective deep breath before this thread heads downhill in an ugly way. Most cars are a blend of what the owner/builder has available in parts and funds and I don't think anybody here is dictating what you can do with your money.
I watched Steve Moal's Wayne Carini build on TV and saw what was distinctly a T5 shift handle poking thru the floor in what was otherwise a hand-built period-correct car. If it had stuck to tradition, it should have had a '39 trans with Zephyr gears. I think this board would give it a pass anyway.
If every car on this board was strictly constrained to pre-'65 components there wouldn't be many cars here, and a lot of cars here are basically stock, so they don't even qualify as Hot Rods or Customs at all.

My take is that this place is Mel's Drive-In. If a car would have qualified as a movie car there, it fits here. If the forum owner, moderators, or even members feel that it doesn't fit, then it doesn't. This isn't a general Hot Rod or auto enthusiast forum. It's a nostalgic playground themepark and you gotta play to the theme here. If you decide to show off your MII suspension in a thread, it breaks the nostalgia and will likely be deleted.

 

Outside of this site, on the street, at cruise-ins, etcetera, I feel a little barf in my throat at anything that came with a catalytic converter. 1975 was the absolute cut-off date for me. It was the year government put a stake n the heart of hot rodders. I was watching Ass Monkey Garage the other night where they put a Hell Cat engine id a 67 Dart and had to pay air-fare to fly in a team of computer gurus to get the engine to run without the whole factory harness. BARF! BARF! and more BARF! All this electronic crap makes me want to turn on my headlights with a mechanical linkage to an igniter.

 

Speak for yourself. mainstream is something I have never achieved, not that I have ever wanted to.
I'll give you an example, I went to a formal wedding once, I rented a tux and everything. So I was dressed to impress just like every other Tom, Dick and Harry there. Someone remarked that I cleaned up well and the preacher looked over and said, "nope he just looks like Benno in a Tux."

So just to veer off of the tit for tat here, I am trying something that is totally untraditional and once I get the kinks worked out I am going to get rich on it. Yesterday in an effort to keep things real when I was welding on my sedan with my untraditional wire welder I took a USB cable and made myself an adapter with two alligator clips on it. One to each ear and I discovered that I could access the HAMB in my brain. I am still having a little trouble with the search function though.

 

^ Search function? Wait till you try to post pics that way!

 

Hahaha! Great trick 'beaner, but it will only work if both cars are HAMB friendly.

 

Appreciate you expressing your opinion, Mike, and your comments seem to be well thought out. But there is no reason why this thread needs to turn ugly. I like theHIGHLANDER's analogy of us all sitting around the shop, just talking. That doesn't turn ugly, does it? The yayhoo who tries to turn it ugly will simply get run out of the shop!

 

Yea there is one non traditional thing that we can use and no one has to get their nose bent. its called the !REPORT! button, hell I have even used it on me before.

 

The way I see it, a '70 Funnycar is Traditional, in its own way.
And a 80's goofy graphics pastel colored Hot Rod is too.
Even '90s Boyd Billet...
They are all obsolete as buildstyles...

I don't think its ever been the HAMB's mission to define Traditional for the entire world.

But we did pick a period and buildstyles we would like to concentrate on.

 

This actually brings up an old argument that I made once (OK several times) we all come from different traditions. If you use me for an example, its all about improving the performance. looks are a byproduct of function. Someone else may come from a different place and time and the look is more important than the function.

That simply does not change the primary focus of the site. What we call traditional is a specific era in hot rodding and that is our main focus. We are actually pretty broad in our scope when you really think about it, we pretty much span 5 decades anyway.

 

LOL there are always fellas who would like to change the rules and think that they have compelling arguments.

Somehow it attracts more interest then someone's project totally trad or not.

 

I think it's because most of the guys are old farts with too much time on their hands and a fully stocked medicine cabinet, which they put to good use.

 

Hey I resemble that remark.

 

"I try to live perfectly in an imperfect world, aware that my effort will be less than perfect yet undismayed by self knowledge of self failure" Professor Bernardo de la Paz

 

Thank you, this is one of the main points I wanted to make with this thread, believe it or not.

It may be boring to the Boss, but hell there may not be a subject left, by now, that he hasn't seen beaten to death.

 

See? This guy gets it.

 

Thanks Ryan for putting up with this stuff and not pulling the plug. Most of us are non-conformists, but we love this site anyway. Keep up the good work.

 

OK, so we're all just sitting around the virtual shop, sharing thoughts about what traditional means, what the 1965 cut-off date means, and the Boss opens the door from his office and says "Enough bullshit! Back to work!" Seems to have scared everyone off, and that's understandable. I'm the wiseass in the back who has to get in one more comment . . .

No shit, I struggled for a few days trying to figure out what this even means. Gets what? I finally settled on "gets what traditional really means", however unsatisfactory that is (as far as settling the question.) Then I was looking at Ryan's latest JJ post, and back through his thread about that cool Lew Thompson hot rod, from last month, and found what "gets it" means.

Well said, Boss . . . I leave you with that. Peace, brothers and sisters. Man, I love this place!

 

I understand that SBC's are good engines. I understand that they make twice as much power than a Flattie for half the money spent. And I understand that lots of y'all have them in your Rods and like it that way. That's fine with me. But I have seen so many thousands of them in Street Rods that I don't care if I never see another one. I'm with Beaner -- you won't see a Chevy in one of my cars, ever.

 

After looking again at the pic of Beaner and the car he's building, I guess I'm with what he says, more than what he does.

 

I like it mixed up a bit too I have a 27 T with a caddy a 29A with a Pontiac a 30 A with hemi a 34 dodge with a chevy and a 56 nomad with a WHAT YOU THINK L.O.L. I love them all. Chevy the most dependable and easy to get parts cheap So best for road trips and the wallet .

 

I wonder how many MILLIONS of Fords came with V-8 flatties in them? Just wondering... LOL

 

If Henry Ford had been alive in 1955, I wonder what would have pissed him off the most.
A small block Chevy or a Y-block.

 

Ford tough with Chevy stuff! That is basically how my T is built. All ford parts except for the frame, front brakes, motor and transmission. Not quite done but I love it.

 

Now this left turn, engine choice (SBC for all the right reasons) in the car of choice (most prolific is certainly vintage Ford), is one of those that's never on the map. I love when the turn is made without the use of hand or turn signals too. Being a "brother loud mouth" to Mr. B. Hair (his topic) should illicit some form of response that accepts tried and true ways, that supports the individual choice. But seriously, what fun is that? I'll take a more sardonic approach and include my observations over 10 years, and that would be the "aggravated hypocrisy" that flares up like 'roid rage (the senior citizen kind ). Add that uber sensible SBC choice and all those self-proclaimed-striped shirt wearing-yellow towel toters blow their whistles toss those towels with cries of "BORING!" and "BELLY BUTTON!" and the few loyalists who insist on 'Ford in a Ford' soon follow, their observations typically pointing out how little respect you have for your car. The aggravated hypocrisy comes when the engine choice is an early Nailhead, early Cadillac, early Olds, and of course the most vaunted and regal choice, the early HEMI. Pontiac and Chevy "W" engines get a pass, and even on rare occasions a MK IV BBC choice gets at least a tip of the hat. But those 1st 4 choices? The Ford loyalists and the boring belly button types will nearly offer you a tug for choosing them. The tradition of ball busting on your brother hot rodder is older than Henry Ford's 999 racer. It's a form of brotherhood us gray bastards have lived with and still exercise with predictable frequency. Give it a few more years and SBC smack talk will also become a notable tradition. It may be nearly a HAMB exclusive because I don't see/hear it as much anywhere else. In all fairness, and in keeping with the spirit of the topic, I'm happy to note that it's not nearly as vocal as it used to be. Still there, just less of it. There's a cure too. Utter 2 simple words: "Wanna race?"...

 

When I whined that for the price of building a banger was twice the price of a SBC crate motor, I was corrected that it's actually three times!

 

LMFAO how on earth did I miss this. This is rich.

I for one am glad that the boss gets is, I would not want to have to carry my sorry self down to Austin to straighten him out. Aside from everything else he is probably tougher then I am.

So a quick question have we got this whole what is and what isn't sorted out yet? The reason I am asking is that it is cold here and if we are still cussing and discussing it is nice and toasty here at my console and I could certainly find some other foolishness to add to the discussion.