Hot Rods Customising in the 1910s and 1920s

Here is a more straight on shot of a Buffalo to compare with the Bugatti above. You can clearly see how much more the spokes cross, providing the torsional strength.



Motorcycles use these same principles even to this day. Front wheels are typically straighter spoked like the Bugatti, while rear wheels have much more angle (or crossing) to support the drive torque.

 

Great little movie and proof that there are no grumpy old men in traditional hot rodding

 

In high-end classics you come across "rebodied in 1936" stories all the time. That seemed to be a great year for fitting new coachwork to older chassis. It was a completely different mindset, even as late as that, one which people today struggle to get their heads around. People struggle with the idea that many early cars weren't exclusively the work of a monolithic corporate manufacturer, so that it's common to hear on Facebook Art Deco groups such things as, "Surely Rolls Royce would never do something so clumsy?" (of the coupé coachwork by an obscure coachbuilder on a 20/25 for an eccentric country doctor) or "That's unbelievably advanced for 1925!" (of a car rebodied —for some reason invariably— in 1936.)

The history of the automobile can be seen as the process of separating maintenance, repair, rebuilding, etc. from manufacture. In the early days they flowed into one another, and it's hard to say where one ends and the other begins. I tend to think of 1989 as the year the separation was finally completed, due to no event in particular (perhaps the end of Citroën 2CV production?) but the aggregate of many factors. I think the entire point of the HAMB is ultimately to rail against that separation.

 

My father is somewhere in that movie. He’s seen driving a truck.


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

 

Been doing a little more thinking on this project, what do you think of the direction? Playing with Willys Overland suspension with a twist and a simple bonnet not disimilar to the original.

 

What did the original bonnet/nose area look like? Any idea?

 

Not dissimilar, but narrower and with a little flair down low