Around 45 years ago I had an American hot rod book given to me around half the page size of a magazine. It didn't have a cover and I can't ever recall the title. Unfortunately some 20 or so years ago I loaned the book to someone who wanted to build a belly tanker and he never returned the book. Now I would really like to: 1. Find out the title of the book. 2. Buy another one or a repro if such an animal exists. Clues: I would guess that it was published in the 50s/60s. It had a lot of information and articles chapter by chapter about flathead ford V8s. It had an article about how to build a belly tanker in it. It had a chapter(s) devoted to sectioning, chopping, channeling etc. Quite a deal of lakes racing information in it. Can anyone on the HAMB fill the gaps as I would be most appreciative. Cheers from OZ
sounds a little like the "Hot Rod Magazine" collection of how to's? mine are c1964 pretty sure there are earlier ones....
Great looking book but not the one. I can't remember much at all if any articles about overhead valve engines. I can remember articles on icons of the day. Eg. Alex Xydias, Barney Navarro etc
Could it have been a Floyd Clymer publication? He put out a lot of books like that in the fifties. His books had a distinct style about them. Here are a couple of samples. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14444936-veda-orr-s-new-revised-hot-rod-pictorial https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14444931-how-to-build-a-racing-car If you knew the author or publisher it would help. Clymer's books were printed on plain heavy paper. There were other books published by the magazine publishers of the day, that were more like magazines printed on slick paper.
Thanks Rusty, but once again not the one. The book lacked both covers and unfortunately I don't know the author or publisher.Never paid any attention to it. I did see the book for sale on The HAMB a few years back, but it wasn't important then. It had a great looking channelled 32 4 door sedan in it which stuck in my memory also.
Yes I do Flathead Dave, but I'm fairly sure it went to God somewhere along the line as he loaned it to someone else and he shuffled off a couple of years back. Rassum frassum!!!
Your pic is from Fawcett book #156: How to Build Hot Rods, published in 1952. The pages from the 'Build a Belly Tanker' chapter are posted at: www.bellytanks.com/1951/"how-to-build-a-belly-tanker"-by-tom-beatty-1952.
Another mystery on the H.A.M.B. solved with very little info to start with, and it happened within 10 posts. Tony
I'll keep my blood, thanks... It was actually quite an easy Google Image search. If you aren't familiar with them, here's a quick tutorial. I right-clicked on the image in post #8, chose 'Copy Image Location' from the window that popped up (I'm using FireFox, other browsers' wording will vary somewhat). I went to Google, clicked on the word 'Images' in the upper right hand corner, and a camera icon appeared in the main search phrase box. Clicking on the icon gives you the option to either paste in the picture's location or upload the photo you want to match. The image in post #8 was pretty distinctive, so the results were quite good. Not all Google Image searches give such good results, but it is a go-to tool in my online toolbox.
By the way...the early Fawcett hot rod books, published with several titles, are EXCELLENT books, at least as good as the various HRM '52-61 books. The are usually little noticed and are cheap to buy because everyone thinks Trend/Petersen are the only source of the Gospel!
Thanks SR100, that is a great tip. You never stop learning about computers while smart folks like yourself are around. Sent from my SM-N9005 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
A shout out to all, Thanks heaps for the assistance. You will all be very pleased to know that courtesy of Junkbay (Las Vegas) on Etsy (extremely good service) I received my copy of Fawcett's 'How to Build a Hot Rod'. I'm happier than a pig in poo! I had really given up on ever finding another one and this one's going nowhere. Cheers to The HAMB. It's a great community and now it's my turn to give back. My darling wife has chosen to give it to me for Christmas. Best present ever; apart from our five children that is. ad055
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