Hot Rods What were you thinking?..you can't do that!

With access to all information on anything now at our finger tips, it makes me wonder if our creative juices have become stifled, or maybe influenced too much by all the expert knowledge that is out there.
Back in the day without all this information at their finger tips, there was that first guy who:
Installed a Hemi in a Willys' Coupe (you can't do that, they weren't designed for that kind of HP or weight), a straight axle in a '55 Chev (screw up the factory suspension to revert back to some archaic design?), a SBC in a Henry J (not enough room, too much weight, etc.), brush painting a car (that would look like crap, brush strokes, etc.), Liquid Nails as a seam sealer (it's not made for that), as some examples.
I want to hear about your original ideas put to use with success, that later thru our vast amount of information available found out that it couldn't be done, or it wouldn't work.

 

Ummmm now I have to think ? Ouch!!! Very good subject for a thread.

 

According to HAMB experts, independent front suspension will not work on a pre 48 anything. That seems to have been proved wrong over the years.

 

So a big V8 in too a Henry J ? ,Ok,I'll play;
In 1960 I got a old "J" for $75 ,but just could not leave it stock,I already had a open 28A roadster hot rod. The "J" was for dates,as much as the girls liked going for short rides in the hot rod,a date was not working in the hot rod,her hair blows,if rain gets wet an just no feel of privacy at drive inn movie or subraces. That's why the "J",but it had to be cool,so I stuffed a Olds Rocket V8 in to it { ya I was told no way ! I made it fit}and over the next year,a lot of custom stuff,no way you can't. . Got a 55 T-bird folding top given to me,ya I knew the "J" was a fast-back sedan,but cooler would be more like a T-bird,no way a 55 T-bird top fits right !
So chopped off the "J" top and found a 53 Studebaker little coupe dumped in the woods,rear window in it was nice,tinted too,low an looked like my new front windshield for the "J"{ Hay ,,you can't use a rear for the front !!}. The big hole over the trunk{it had been a fast back} I covered using hood from local body shop trash pile with bent covers,it was a 60 Chevy ,an gutted,bent right into shape backward over the rear of "J",the 2 ribs in the 60 hood match very well with ribs in body work of "J"= cool Custom "J"
A few of my buddy's would say,"ya messed that all up!" Mostly my Dad said,you can't do that,but at the same time let me do my own thing,kept out of the way.< that is help,even if it dose not seem like it.

 

How about using mechanical Hilborn on the street? Lots of guys on this forum said it cannot be done. WRONG!! Several guys, including myself, have figured out how to get one to idle, have great mid-range and enjoy instant acceleration. It has been on my son's Model A for about 12 years now.......drives like a dream. All that's needed is some engineering and physics knowledge, and the ability to make a few "special" parts.

 

NO MIG OR TIG WELDERS for the average enthusiast scratch that STICK

Lots of bodies were welded to the frame

Headers, crossmembers, etc made of random tubing, bed frames, whatever steel you could scavenge

 

Sometimes my memory is not what I would like.
I want to say it was a can of beans that made a infamous quote.

"We didn't know we could not do that, so we just went ahead and did it anyways"

Pretty sure the conversation was about splitting manifolds for dual exhaust on straight 6's and welding cast iron.

 

Lots of engine parts got swapped around between makes. Rods, cranks.. Somebody had to be the first to do those.

I put a one piece drive shaft in an X frame Chevy, right through the hole in the frame. That's about all I can think of.

That reminds me, I only ever got lucky in my Corvette once, that was enough, and wasn't all that enjoyable. I'm sure I wasn't the first. After that I learned to carry a blanket.

 

Amen to that!!

 

no one told EJ Potter that a car V8 could not be put in a motorcycle frame - so, he did it before the statement was made - ahead of the "curve", actually the 1/4 mile

 

I put a 283 in a 1959 Ford Anglia - they said it couldn't be done. Unfortunately it couldn't be done - well - by a 16 year old with a 110V stick welder! It did run and we drove it a lot...went straight just fine, corners and braking - not so much.....

 

Liquid Nails as a seam sealer! Who would’ve known.

 

Mic drop.

 

nobody said that a '49 Merc could not be beautifully chopped - so, Sam Barris chopped Jerry Quesnel's before the statement was made

 

I once bought taller tires for the front ( bigs & littles) to put the fender at "just the right height"............its for more roll out at the line so I dont red light.

 

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/norwegian-blacksmiths-36-coupe.222004/

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...-coupe-part-1-body-graft.236716/#post-2515447

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/willys-pu-build-from-sedan-panels.691791/

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/1934-ford-sedan-into-a-coupe.1092886/

there are more

 

I was being sarcastic..Hot Rodder A does something totally original, that works out beautifully/successfully, only later to read on the internet, that Hot Rodder B said what he did can't be done.
Sometimes the lack of knowledge leads us to discovery, and to prove the "experts" wrong.
Curious how many people had an idea to do something..then researched it, to find out the general consensus is it "can't" be done, so they abandon that idea to follow the proven path.

 

a lot of times I figure I'm on the right track when someone says that won't work or you can't do that or use that

 

If and when you have a vision and a plan that nobody else can see or they believe to be impossible ,,,, it doesn’t mean your wrong, it only means you’ll be lonely seeing it.

 

Yes, its off topic, but I have a stock pinto cross member in the front of my 36, must've heard at least a hundred times over the twenty years its been in there, gotta use an aftermarket one thats made for a 36. Trouble is.....got a 52 F1 frame under the truck, was told that would never work either. My old girl is set up to look period, not a bit of street rod in her.

 

I adapted a Tremec TR6060 6 speed to a B model Ford, difficult but not impossible, and that's the point, nothing is impossible, solutions can be found.

Set up a sway bar for a 36-40 chassis with original radius rods, rotated the ends of the sway bar so they were vertical instead of horizontal and with nolathane bushes bolted the ends to the perch bolt eye, effectively every time it went over a bump the whole assembly got pulled back to ride height, worked really well for 15 years until I built another chassis, I found out many years later that Land Rover used a similar technique.

 

What about a truck into a coupe ?
My signature has the link

@drumyn29 is doing a 33 willys coupe from a sedan.

 

Purely hypothetical question-
Let’s say a guy has a 55 Chevy car (ifs) and a 55 Chevy truck solid axle.
Now we’re going to switch them and put the solid axle under the car (applause?) and then put the 55 car’s IFS We took out and put it under the truck (boo?)

 

I always wanted to know who did the first roof chop ( ‘32 or model A or whatever ) and who channeled the first hot rod.

Probably a few standing around that said it couldn’t be done.

Or, as per some of these experiments, ( essentially the first of either was an experiment ), was there simply just too much alcohol involved ?
.

 

I'm not sure anyone back then said "you can't do that". In general people's realm of opinions were also generally much smaller for the vast majority.

People experimented with all kinds of things. They used what they had available. If someone in the 50's had access to a MII suspension I'm sure they would have used it. IFS swaps would have been common. They didn't.

As Mark pointed out no one is saying "you can't do this or you can't do that". Obviously you can do whatever you want to put the effort out to doing. This site isn't about putting a MII suspension under your car.

It's about stuffing the 50's hemi in a Henry J.

 

it’s not about permission
It’s about experts with a rock telling you that you can’t make a Bridgeport

 

I guess it depends on if you do whatever you want or if you think other peoples opinions matter more than your own. I'm gonna do what I like and if you tell me I can't I'll prove you wrong.

 

First chop was probably a 13 or 14 “T”.....