Projects CUSTOM OR HOT ROD

Hey HRP,
You have a nice new/old car. Sorry, the situation for your friend was not good. We will all come to that point one day or another… But, your Ford Coupe has all of the stuff to make a cool hot rod. Your friend did a good job, Halibrand Mags included, making it an authentic 60s hot rod.

Custom or hot rod? It is a hot rod with custom touches. That is what most cars are, unless it is a pure, custom show car, not a daily driver. No daily/weekly shopping for parts or groceries in a lowered, fully skirted, chopped, Ford Coupe.

After our fiasco in trying to buy a 46 woody in San Diego, we wanted a daily driver hot rod. So, I found a black 50 Ford Coupe about 20 minutes away in Santa Ana. It was black, had chrome rims/blackwalls, a three carb flathead and a 3 speed LaSalle trans with a long shifter handle. It was a nice coupe. The seller thought it was a show car (clean, but a daily driver, not a show car) and we bartered back and forth. The guy would not sway much, so I walked away. (Plus, my surfboard would not fit inside)

Here is one of the best looking and coolest 50 Ford Coupes in So Cal. It is owned by Steve Gibbs and can usually be seen just about everywhere, including car shows, Cacklefests, or his authentic Nitro Revival shows.

It is a cool hot rod, with custom touches. The stance is one that shows coolness, but slightly aggressive, lowered look. A flathead motor, beauty rings with small hubcaps and many uses as a push vehicle for the nostalgia drag racers, including the color matching, Speed Sport Special.



Jnaki
This is one fine, street, hot rod ready for any cruise, short or long distance.
Seal Beach Car Show… hotrodhotline

 

Ron Bristow, a former alcohol funny car driver and very nice guy painted the car once, but there may have been more than one repaint.

 

YES - the answer is YES. They can be Hot Rods OR Custom (And even Stockers )
and YES, it was a DUMB question

 

Aren't all of our cars customs? We have all changed them to suit our custom taste. Then again we did it to make sure they were hot rodded and could go fast. Now i have confused my self!

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Your Choice "3 in 1" . I like your new ride.

 

they make good Hot rods or customs.

 

not a done deal yet

 

Hope to know something next week. HRP

 

Stuff in a Desoto grille and ask the question again.

 

3 pot and toss the hood = Rod, lower all the way around, fender skirts and bullnose = Custom.

 

As said it depends how it's built. There was a guy a couple houses down from where I grew up who had a 49 Ford with a Caddy motor LaSalle Trans etc. . It was Black with a monster painted on the trunk and he was a crazy bastard.
To me that was a Hot Rod. and here is a picture.

 

Hot Rod = Really Nice Body Lines

Custom = 2-3 times the surface area to block sand...………….. and was it worth it?


Bob

 

Here's my criteria, for what it's worth.
If you can remove the fenders and it still looks "right", it's a hot rod.
If it looks like a parts pile with the fenders off, it's a custom.
Either of the above 2 types can be a jalopy so there is some gray area.

 

Hot rods require performance improvements. Customs are limited to cosmetics.
"So let it be written. So let it be done.

 

Danny,
With a 351 Cleveland, it’s undoubtedly a hot rod. Hot Rods have improvements to add more performance and your new car most certainly qualifies for that!


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So what do you call a custom, with a 6-71 huffed 354 Hemi, on slicks?

 

After reading all of the responses, I finally know what my '57 is...

Its a traditional custom hot rod... thanks guys.

 

What would YOU call it?

 

Late to the party as always, but was really interested to see HRP ask this question. As someone who is still learning all the nuances and ins and outs of all the different types of cars on the HAMB, I pondered this myself but would never have thought to post it here b/c I figured I'd about get tarred and feathered for asking such a question. Thanks HRP for taking the heat instead!
My 51 appearance-wise has virtually no modifications, which seems to definitively exclude it from the Kustom class. And even though it has a variety of modifications to the flathead 8 and a C4 trans, no one is mistaking it for a hot rod either--it'll go when you give it the beans but it for sure isn't a racer, street or track. Now I am learning that years are part of the equation....
I'd chime in with the others and say just call it what you want but if it were me I'd always be worried about the time someone disagreed and wanted to pop off about lack of knowledge of rod/kustom history, being a poseur, whatever. Who needs that. So I usually call it a cruiser, which probably makes some of you guys crazy because it means nothing, like calling foods "natural" or something. But it seems to me the best way to describe both the build and how I drive it.

 

I call it an expensive (at times), temperamental (at times), challenging (at times), hurtful (knuckles etc.) bitchin car that I love to drive and have fun with

 

I think they make better mild customs than a hot rod kind of like a 49-51 merc nice custom not a hot rod imho.

 

They quit making hot rods around 1940. After that they made customs and street machines.

 

Do not know who owns it. But if I was building your car , this is the stance and wheel tire combo I would use. But since I am more of a custom hot rodder . I would keep the side trim and door handel's { hate solinoids!} , but I would shave and deck it and french the headlights and taillights. Of course me being me the paint would be dark and sinister, Most likely black . With a black and white interior similar to the one I did in my friend Chuck's old 34. But that's me . What ever you decide will be cool also. These cars are pretty hard to screw up! lol Larry

 

Hi Danny!
Just to further confuse the issue...lol.

 

The answer to your question is...
Yes.

 

There are Customs with Hot Rod modifications done to them. And there are Hot Rods with Custom modifications done to them.

 

Bought this in '93, sold in '94, bought it back in '95 - been sitting at least 15 years.

 

That is a cool car Rick and there is no doubt in my mind that is a full blown Custom with all the bells & whistles, I can appreciate the style & work involved to build a car like that but I want a car that can be driven daily & parked in a grocery store parking lot without worrying about door dings and scratches.

At my age I'm done with chopped tops, Brenda's wagon has convinced me the '50's cars are a lot more comfortable and that's what I want from the coupe.

I love my old Deuce sedan and the coupe won't replace it, the coupe is just a itch I had to scratch and I'm enjoying having another project. HRP