Projects CUSTOM OR HOT ROD

Probably a dumb question, but are 49 - 51 Fords considered hot rods or customs? HRP

 

Depends how you build it...but I use the terms a little more loosely than many. Alot of those raced and they were no customs.

 

45 thousand posts and you ask a question like that. I think 32 Fords make cool customs. It needs a hood.

 

Kustom....especially a coupe...think Lee Prattts now Ryan’s shoebox

 

Post count has absolutely nothing to do with asking what I feel is a legitimate question. HRP

 

I guess I am stuck in the old school way of thinking as it has to be 48 and below to be a hot rod. That's not saying they can't be customs but you just know a real hot rod from a custom 48 and below. To me, 49 and up cars are either stock, customs or the dreaded " street machine" I know , opinions are like aholes, every body has one, so that's mine. I grew up in the era of 49-51 Fords and it seemed like a bunch of them were mild customs- skirts, dual straight pipes or at least glasspacks, blue dots, www's, flipper wheel covers and on and on. We even had a few around my area that looked like they had unlimited gift cards from the J.C. Whitney catalog with mudflaps with lights, dingle balls, hood ornaments, port holes, bobble head dogs, mirror muffs and so on.
Danny, I am thinking from reading your post of late there is a shoebox Ford in your future

 

Hot rod? No, to me the choices are custom or street machine.
Then again the NSRA allows 1988 and earlier cars so what the hell do I know?
It’s sad that the slogan for the NSRA was “Fun With Cars” when it was started by Bruce Miller and Cotton Werksman, and now it’s “Let’s Count The Money.”

 

Nose up = Custom

Nose down = Hot Rod


Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Tomato, Tomoto The answer depends on to whom you are speaking, IMO it does not matter, your car, your call, Enjoy your new toy !

 

You tell him Danny!!!

 

I personally do not think that technically it is a hot rod. I still think 1948 is the cut off for that. Not a custom unless you customize it. Just a cool old car that you can make to run like a bat outta hell.

 

That`s why I posted a 32 Ford and called it a custom. Depends on they way you build it.

 

Your right,I bought one today. HRP

 

Congratulations. Pictures.

 

It is what you say it is.

Build it your way. Build it well. Be happy.

 

It's a swing car. It could be done either way. If it was a merc in the same year it would need to be a custom but a ford has potential either way. Rod custom gasser.....

 

I think its a great question. every day someone here complains about a thread or car because its not a Modified Production, its not a Super Stock, its not an altered, its not this, its not that, yada, yada, yada. He's just asking. Hells bells, I'm not sure if my 57 is a custom by someone else's standard.

 

This is an absolutely stunning photo depicting many cool things and its in @desotot's part of town (The BC Badasses...just kidding...)...that aside it highlights my take on a custom versus a hotrod shoebox.

The Obvious Custom running hoodless highlights a bit more Badass for the day...hey perhaps the hood was being louvered...But Custom aside that was a pretty wild V16 Caddy engine in it.

But look at the other one in the background towing the 34...it looks its ready to rumble and it ain't no spiffy show car but a bit of a rebellious Hotrod look to me including Hoodlums looking the part to boot...







https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...genized-hotrods.1002926/page-70#post-12647345


​

 

So here was mine from back in the day (1958 or so) ... it wasn’t much of a hot rod and not much of a custom. But it didn’t really matter, ‘cause like I said, it was mine.

 

How it's built determines whether it's a hot rod or custom... Hell, they had "Custom" right on the side trim stock from the factory, but that doesn't make it custom! It's determined by three factors:
1. Stance.
-Nose down, 99% chance it'll be labeled as a hot rod.
-Sitting level, the perfect stance for a custom rod!
-Nose up, 99% chance it'll be a custom, unless of course it's a gasser.
2. Number of body modifications.
-I'm not talking tattoos and piercings here, if it's chopped, has frenched headlights, a custom grille, and skirts... It's a custom. If it's all of those things and the stance is nose down, you've got yourself a confused builder.
-If the body is basically stock, well, it's probably not a custom.
3. What is it powered by?
-If it's a hopped up flathead, it could be either hot rod or custom.
-If it's a SBC it could be either a hot rod or custom.
-but if there's no hood, it's a hot rod (See Brian Bass' shoebox)
If it's an LS1 or a billet-y SBC or SBF it's a streetrod. Grab your lawn chair, it's going to be a long weekend of trying not to fall asleep in the park!

 

You cannot mix rod and custom. You will need to pick one.

 

351 Cleveland and a C4, and its a coupe--Yea its a Hot Rod...

 

Custom Rodder

 

Back in the day a friend of mine had a tudor Shoebox Ford that had a great paint job, nosed and decked, no other body mods and a very healthy Cadillac motor and a 37 LaSalle 3 speed. It was a pretty fast car that was run regularly on the NY Westhampton 1/4 mile track. To me there was never any doubt that it was a Hot Rod. You'd have to have something pretty quick to beat that B/G Ford. I've never seen a custom run that fast.

Being as HRP's Ford already has a OHV V8 engine swap I'd call it a Hot Rod as well. How could you call it a custom if its stock bodied?

Gary

 

also depends on the age of the person you ask and gender.
Up to say five years ago I would of said with utter and total certainty that hot rod and custom was just different words for the same thing. Old cars with good paint. Bad paint was a Ratrod. Never had heard of Traditional and I would of guessed that was another name for restoration no modification.
All I was interested at the time in was Muscle cars and Jappers to drift or race about the gravel.

Due to HAMB I have been shown the errors of my ways. But I had thought it was 48 and newer to be Customs. Older to be hotrods. and im still trying to sort out Bombs i guess.

Do like above quote of nose up custom, nose down hotrod >

 

Small Block Ford and an Automatic... It's a street rod! (Real hot rods have 3 pedals!) Nothing wrong with the car besides needing a good cleaning up and maybe a fresh look. It's definitely a good start to a fun cruiser!

 

Well, I can't say I disagree, but that 351C does add a 'hot' component..

Personally, I feel that a 'traditional' pure Hot Rod has to be fenderless. Even before or without hop-up parts, stripping all 'unneeded' parts off the car was the fastest and cheapest path to performance. IMO the defining feature...

Everything else is a custom in some degree. Adding fenders to a fenderless car isn't movement towards 'hot rod' but is a styling statement; it's certainly not a performance enhancement (more weight/wind resistance) so it must be styling... and styling is the province of customs. How 'custom' it is will vary... a lot.

And the shoeboxes have a performance heritage; they were among the first post-war 'commercial' engine swaps available (Fordillacs) and the fledgling aftermarket offered all sorts of swap parts for these. These got a lot of larger overheads fitted to them, and they weren't all in customs. I'd submit that they're the first post-war 'hot rod', big engine in a light car.

 

Pictures?

 

Danny -
Once you get the shoebox on the road and stand on the loud pedal, you just might call it a hot rod!
Often, when a 4 barrel equipped car sits, the secondary fuel bowl doesn't get used & refilled much. Things are cool on the 1st test ride. Until the inevitable ''opening it up''. Then the stagnant spoiled gas goes through the engine producing clouds of smoke. Your car sat long enough for this to happen. Something to watch for.

 

Check out Jeem's old thread Danny:

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/early-50s-cars-as-hot-rods-not-customs-gallery.620684/

Can't be a hot rod post-1948? Can't be a hot rod with fenders? What? Where in the world do these preposterous ideas come from?

Here's Jeem's OP: