Do you prefer east coast or west coast (socal) style hot rods. What draws you to that particular style?
Customs...West Coast, for sure. Not a fan of triple-tip side pipes, bubble skirts, odd ball modifications and Ben Hur looking hubcaps. Hotrods...depends on the car. There's good and bad built on both coasts.
It's really hard to pick one style , East Coast/West Coast car. It varies so much. There was a thread a few years back, Your favotite Mercury?. That's like asking what's your favorite color? People like different things.
I don't like over blown customs with all of the junk on them. They remind me of Pee-Wee Herman's bicycle with all of his adornments. I don't see a difference in west coast and east coast rods. What exactly is a "west coast, So-Cal" style hot rod? And what in the fuck is an "anti-So-Calist"? Have I been missing something in my years of hot rodding?
Neither, the "Ohio look" that Barry Lobeck, Bob Oney, etc. were known for. https://www.hotrod.com/articles/1932-ford-roadster-personifies-ohio-look/
It rather depends on what actual time frame you are asking about and the cars actually built in that time frame. To me the "East coast look is the severely channeled early 30's car with the 40 Ford style front suspension installed as a unit. West coast more the traditional dropped axle under the spring, brakes swapped rigs that the majority see as "traditional" hot rods. Customs I have to agree with Bad Bob, West coast cars are normally slick and clean cars with few extra fru rru pieces or added doo dahs while east coast cars tend to have far more bolt on fru fru and more "I can get 5 show points if" modifications that don't add to the looks of the cars but racked up show points. I remember that in the late 50's early 60's the further east you went the further behind in certain trends the cars were for the most part and by the time someone there picked up on something it was already out of date on the west coast. A lot due to the long lead times for when articles on cars got published after they were done.
Most of the cars I drooled over in the car mags when I was a teen were cars from the West coast so as far as I know, thats the style I prefer. I am not really sure what the difference in East and West style would entail.
Mr48chev hit it right on the head,,,,(,severely channeled ),,,,,I could never get into that . The proportions just don’t match up ,,,at least in my opinion . California just always looked a little smoother,,,I guess that goes with having sunshine all the time and plenty of time to modify cars . Nothing personal,,,,also,,,,a lot of really nice hot rods are built on the east coast now . I have seen many on here,,,really talented guys for sure,,,,but,,,,,they also have very good modifications that are proportional to the body lines . There is at least one guy on here from the Carolina area that ,,,,,if I had the money,,,,,,I would contract him in a heartbeat to build me a 33 or 34,,,,,just with a Hemi,,,,and not a Pontiac . Tommy
What coupe did Doane Spencer have. Knew he had a killer '32 roadster and early T bird, but never heard of a coupe.
I thought the dark brown chopped 32 3-winder was his, full fendered? Plenty of coverage of the car, here & magazines. Could be another noted gent.
I spent the last year of my Aerospace life working on the east coast (Maryland). I grew up and still live in SoCal. Every other weekend was a "trapped" weekend and I was stuck looking for something to do. While I did hit most of the local museums and two trips to D.C., etc., many of my Saturday afternoons were spent at a large, indoor shopping mall's (Marley Station Mall) parking lot. The parking is huge, and one corner is sectioned off for a weekend car show gathering. I really didn't see a lot of difference in the cars that showed up there vs. SoCal gatherings. It did seem that mostly different cars showed up, per the weekend. Not everyone was making the trip...every...weekend. Still quite a few car did show up, every weekend. One thing I did sorta notice, was they don't seem to be afraid of driving their high dollar, high powered cars (various styles) like in most SoCal, weekend / weekday gatherings. The high dollar SoCal cars only seem to show up for the larger shows, like a two day gathering or an indoor show. Unlike the east coast guys "drove" their "Power Tour" style cars. Yea, I did see a few trailers every now and again, but most of them...you could see them coming off of the big, 6 lane highway into the parking lot. Otherwise, pretty much the same, styles, overall quality...somewhat the same. The people, friendly enough, not a lot of difference there either. Ha, even the speaking accent, very little different in many cases. Mostly only transplants from above Maryland or below, could accents be recognised. Seemed like there were a lot of folks from different states living there. Mike
Man. Am I the only one who like both? I have been trying to decide whether to build my 30 coupe as a highboy on 32 rails or channelled. They're both so awesome I may have to find another coupe!
West Coast style Merc, Jeff Nepl's. East Coast Style Merc...side pipes, too many do-dads.... If this is your car, sorry, hahaha.
Are you talking about Doyle Gammel's chopped full fendered, American five spoke, with fuel injected small block and 4 speed? I believe it was in Rod&Custom in the early 60's. I remember Gammel's coupe very well. Drooled over it as a kid. Perfect nasty stance!
I've seen many East Coast Hotrods. Most are channeled alot! Had a friend here on the HAMB who bought a East Coast 32 Coupe. Channeled 6", chopped 4"! Don't know how he even fit in it. Just like mine.
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