Hot Rods Have you ever passed on a rod because you didn't want to be that guy who changed it.

Well one that I don't think HRP has come up with but looking at the little Track nose roadster that Jimmy White is restoring to one of it's former lives and question of climbing in over the doors got me to thinking on a roadster that I passed up on buying about six years ago.

Jean and I were headed back from the East West Fathead run one Saturday a few years ago and I spotted a well known roadster for sale about 12 miles from home.

The car had belonged to a well known local custom painter and man of many talents for quite a while and he had put it together and showed up at local events with it for years.
The price was more than right for what was there including the roadster with a clear title and a mainly new or fresh chassis. A number of not so HAMB friendly items in the mix that would have to go but good basic bones a fresh stroker small block built by a good local shop and it drove great.
Doors were welded shut but I think the hinges were still there. I didn't get under it but it was said that the body was welded to the frame. That part didn't bother me and getting rid of the white letter tires and rally wheels and the T bucket headers didn't phase me but I decided that I did not want to be known as that guy who had stripped that painter's murals off his old A and repainted it.
Far as I know the car didn't have much of a notoriety outside this local area and wasn't one of those famous rods that had done this that or another.
Anyone else been there?

 

I don't mean to sound cruel but I would not want that hot rod even if someone gave it to me, its ugly, why weld the doors close and rear fenders.

Maybe I should not post with a hangover but looking at it I almost threw up!

the answer to our question is no

 

I get what you are saying completely, I would have felt the same way.......
A wheel and tire change and I think it would be popular at the shows etc.today because of its nostalgia.

 

Yeah I have, and when I saw what a mess the guy who bought it turned it into I wish I'd just sucked it up and bought it and did what I wanted.

Probably in a junk heap now

 

I've only ever bought unfinished projects..

 

The sister thread to this one should be "Have you seen what my unfinished project looks like?" after you had to sell it.

Bob

 

Personally I have seen cars like that,in the late 60's and the early 70's many Model A roadster had the door welded shut,coupes had there top removed,this was the hay day of T buckets and this emulated that style,the painted panels and wild paint was also indicative for the times.

I recently posted a photo of this car at a gas station a few years ago,when I went pack hoping to talk to the owner it was gone.

These cars are cool and are just a example of what was being built at that time. HRP

 

I would have repainted that in a instant....

 

That's the curse, isn't it? A hot rod, by definition, is modified from whatever it started out as, with little to no regard. But we see, respect, and regard the history of what came before.


Sent from my iPad using H.A.M.B.

 

Well, I didn't exactly "pass" on the car. I did end up buying it, but only owned a little over a year. I absolutely loved the car and didn't want to be the guy to screw it up. In my eyes it was perfect "as is".

 

I've passed on cars because the seller wanted to be paid for custom work that I would have to redo because it was a bucket of ugly!
Think of the guy who expected $10g's too much for his car because that's what he had spent on billet or pastel paint.

I've been upset a few times when someone has taken a nice car and ratted it up. Saw a nice A hot rod that the buyer applied fauxtina over a nice paint job.

Otherwise, once you buy a car it's yours and you can do what you want. There's usually room for improvement.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Probably should have saved it and added your changes to it.

 

A guy just approached me about a trade for the linda vaughn tub that was famous in the 70 add campaigns of hurst shifter fame. If i was a collector of this kind of car I might have given more thought of doing it, but with the 2000 cc pinto engine and automatic that it was built with. I might have hurt the history of the little car. I had to pass.

 

I wish the "guy", who bought Norm's T Bucket, would have passed on it. I guess for this thread, that would be a signature example of when things go horribly wrong.

 

That,s the problem with my car. I love it but there are some things I would like to change BUT I don't want to be that guy either. It has a lot of history in the Denver area so I don't really want to change it for that reason. I would love to chop it.

 

I go the other way round: Buy cars that are already F'ed up, and un-F 'em (At least that's what I think I'm doing...)

 

I've only ever seen one of my cars/trucks/projects be improved when it popped up on craigslist later, and it was the truck Lowkat built. the later owners added a grill that worked even better than the one it had (which I was pretty fond of) and some different exhaust and a tripower with some subtle body mods that fit.

Everything else I've ever sold has shown up in pieces, mangled, missing things, or with some just awful changes. An off topic car I sold showed up with 22 inch chrome low profile tire wheels on it. I hope they kept the correct ones that shipped with that car when it was dealer customized as they were still on it :/

I dunno, I like this little painters rig. I'd have left the paint myself. I love old art like that, even if it's weird.

 

As far as I'm concerned, anything goes once you own it. And that's precisely the point of hot rodding...

 

I have seen it on a Sunday morning with a hang over a couple of times years ago and that doesn't help a bit.
I actually had a list of changes I would make running through my head when I was looking at it and talking to the seller. One was figuring out if I could open the doors up after it went to the sandblaster and hoping that there was something usable left when it came back and it wasn't built out of bondo. The wheels and tires would be the first to go along with the panel filling the grill. Then some different engine trinkets to age it about 30 years. Outside of what was under the paint the killer was still the simple fact that I would run into some buddy of the painter (who I believe has passe away) who was pissed enough to fight because I had "destroyed" that paint job as bad of shape as it was in. If I was the guy from three states away looking at it to take home and redo that wouldn't have been an issue.

 

I agree.