Hot Rods The car that changed your life!

in my life as a car builder I have realized that there were a few cars that molded me and my taste. Hellrod, California kid orange crate, and the cop shop coupe were very instrumental in my style of cars. What famous rides influenced your overall style of car?

 

That's an interesting question. I can't say that there are a few famous cars that influenced my taste, but too many cars to list that I've drawn inspiration from. I'm not sure I have a certain style, there are a few I appreciate, and different cars that are inspiring within those styles.

 

Wow, that is really tough. as a young model car builder got ideas from car magazines, some from now & then appearances of cool cars on TV & movies. Ed Roth's Beatnik Bandit was over the top of creativity.

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As a child the Ed "kookie"Burns / Norm Grabowski T closely followed by the Munster Coach and Dragula.. the Ron Covell article on crafting a tracknose for Tom Prufers T and anything written by Tom Senter,The Ardun White Paper especially... cloaking all of that was the discovery of the genius of Harry Miller... It's a wonderfully rich world out there.

 

Well said. It's certainly a rich world out there , and there is a lot of inspiration to still be discovered today. But you mentioned a great source of inspiration for me in Harry Miller. Purpose built cars that were also beautiful. I have a few things planned for the future that were Miller inspired.

 

For me as a young man any car featured in hot rod magazine.

 

The early 60's. I was 10 when these custom hot rods made the scene and I was hooked.
The silver one is the X Ray built on a Jag chassis and running gear (blower is a fake) by Ray Fahrner in '61.
The blue one is the Silver Sapphire built from a '32 Ford by Clarence 'Chili' Catallo. Word is he bought the car in '56 for $75. It became popular when pictures of it were on a Beach Boys album cover.

 

My uncle had a green 51 Ford that my older cousin put duals on with pacemaker glasspacks. In 1954 I was three and I remember riding in that Ford with my cousin and the sound of those pipes when he gunned it and it backing off when he down-shifted. That done it, I was hooked on loud pipes , fender skirts and flipper hubcaps! Later came 77 Sunset Strip and the "Kookie hot rod" , model cars and go karts and working on any kind of old cars I could . I am 66 now, still have loud pipes on anything I drive ,my wife and some of my friends that don't get it ask me if I am 16 or 66. My 5 grandsons love my cars and trucks and other car "junk"

 

I've been at this old car stuff a long time. My likes, builds and styles are still changing. Grew up in the muscle car area and have had several before worrying more about my marriage, career, housing and putting two kids through college. Did the usual family activities like camping and had several boats. After the kids graduated in the early nineties I had a very stressful job with the Federal Aviation Administration and went to my first NSRA Nats with over 15,000 cars. The more I looked at all these street rods I began to ask myself why not? I thought working out in the garage making dust and dirt would be just the stress relief I was looking for. My first street rod project was a 37 Chevy coupe, a 350/350 combo, 8 inch Ford rear and a Mustang ll front suspension, your typical street rod. After this I was once again severely hooked into the old car hobby. After a few years and several street rods later my tastes reverted back to my youth and I built a clone of a 56 Chevy BelAir tudor post car I had once owned. After that I totally morphed in Chevy X frames 1958-1964 of which I've just completed my ninth a 63 Impala a nut and bolt frame off restoration that right now has 600 miles it. I've also enclosed a picture of our 36 Ford drag care built back in the sixties built in my Grandpas garage and raced at New York's Westhamptons 1/4 mile track. The picture was taken by our local newspaper. It was originally flathead powered but swapped to a 327. Talk about styles changing. I'm the skinny guy in the middle. GaryATTACH=full]3624552[/ATTACH]

 

As a kid in the 60's I loved the Ed daddy Roth's cars and shirts, Drag cartoons, The Hot Rod shows at the { armories } and also building model cars. But the one Hot Rod that made the biggest impression on me, was an old Hot Rod that ran around our town. At the time I didn't even know the make. The two brothers that owned it, drag raced it. And did some massive burn outs at the traffic lights in our small town. As I set on my hot rodded bicycle, I told myself that I would get that Hot Rod some day. So I never quit until I got her. Now I do burn outs around town. {sometimes } Lol Here is photo of the day I brought her home. She was in pretty rough shape by this time. {1978} Ron...

 

If you haven't seen her. This is a photo of her now. I'll never part with her! Ron...

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"There's a very wicked '55 Chevy lookin' for you."

 

1957 Chevrolet. Not one in particular but I had a three-year old '57 150 two door as a junior in HS in 1960...in the years since, I've owned 36 of them, at one time in 1966/67, I owned 31 of them all at the same time simply because I could buy them for less than $200 each with the exception of Nomads or converts. No one wanted them since "muscle cars" were all the rage. I've never been without a '57 Chevy in my whole life.

R-

 

In 1968, I was an impressionable kindergartener and worshiped my cool uncles who wore Ratfink T-shirts.

One particular monster image simmered in the deep recesses of my brain for over 40 years and now I'm building my version of it:

 

My current race car ... errr ... truck.

When I was 11 my cousin showed up sometime around my birthday and smacked me in the head with the first 2 car magazines I would call my own. The first was the 1973 Hot Rod Funny Car Pictorial but the 2nd was the one that paved my way to automotive doom.

That fateful magazine was the 1973 Hot Rod Year Book and inside was a 426 hemi powered 63 Scout from my home town of Winnipeg Manitoba Canada. The Scout was built as a street racer and part time drag machine. It disappeared from Manitoba by the mid 70's and I would later learn that it was pieced out (engine and roller) and sold off a few years later. But that street freak stuck in my mind my whole life (I still own the original magazine) As I grew up there were rumors, stories and legends told and re-told about that Scout, but I never actually saw it in person. But that machine sure got the motor running !!

Fast forward 35 years and I am wandering through a car show when I stop at the Richard Wood Photography booth. Richard shot that 1973 feature and he had one of the prints from the article hanging on the back wall. I asked - "Whatever became of the Elephant Hunter". He answer - "it's for sale right now" ... 20 minutes later we found the ad online, 2 minutes later I'm talking with the owner, 2 days after that I see it for the first time and 2 days after that... I'm dragging what was left of it home...

 

Hmm, well there are cars that set the hook.
There are cars that I'd clone if I could afford to.
There are cars that when I think "hot rod" or icon.

But cars that changed everything?

I'd be a liar if I posted anything but this.

 

I think I was in awe of the '32 Ford coupe our neighbor had and I bought at 12 years of age,it was short lived thanks to my dad but the die was cast and it would be years before I got a hot rod but the dream never faded. HRP

 

I almost hate to mention it, because it's almost a cliche. Milner's coupe. After I saw "American Graffiti", I knew I'd never own a new car.

 

Oh man, as a kid, I was mesmirized by the opening credits of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Five minutes of open wheeled race cars! Half a century later I have a long-hooded boattail. Ya think there's a connection?

 

Not sure how famous it really is or was, but the Willy's in "Hot Rod" stands out as one that shaped my taste. Although the car that ruined me and made me want to go fast was just a random T bucket that came to my next door neighbors house one time when I was about 12 or 13. It had a blown SBC and he gave me a ride. When he launched it and the left front tire came up off the ground about a foot in the air in front of the house, I was hooked for life...

 

Not famous to anyone but me. When I was 12 I saw a woman pop a wheelie in a street driven 55 chevy gasser. I saw the only 1950 Ford Crestliner of my life that year too. When I was 13 my grandpa gave me his 1937 Ford pickup. Today 55 years later, I have all three of those cars.

 

and despite it's short comings, the pharoh's merc too.

 

The Lynn Yakel coupe has always defined "hot rod" for me.

 

Growing up, my father built a 350hp 289 and put it in a 60's TR4 with a narrowed 9 inch. That motor found it's way into another hotrod of my dad's making, a 1960 Falcon two-door ranch wagon (red). That was my first car and it's all been 'go-fast' ever since.
r

 

I am not sure that there is really any once car and certainly not one famous car that is instrumental in my build style. I just scab crap together and if it gets me around and is fun I'm happy with it.

I do prefer '60s style cars to most, probably because that s what I grew up around.

 

The Hirohata merc is one reason I decided to learn as much as I could at metalworking.
I was already doing body work in high school, but the image of that car haunted me.
I started studying how to go beyond collision work.
I purchased a merc 20 years ago and have never started on it, but every time I cut, welded, hammered something I was building that merc in my mind.
May have to just start that build soon one day.

 

I saw the Ala Kart and the Hot Rod Lincoln at shows in Vancouver . Been a hot rod freak ever since!

 

oh
and any thing ED Roth built

 

these three. the jalopy is my dad's in 1956, the roadster is like one his friend Jack Mendenhall had in 1960, the 36 is one his friend Bob Joehnck raced in 1954.