I hope the younger guys don't get the idea that all the cars back then were jacked up like a rabbit in heat, there were just as many that were VERY tastefully done, unfortunately it seems it's the more outlsandish ones we remember the best.
I lived thru and was driving in that era. It was just like nowadays - kids did what was cool for the times. Stuff like cutoff pipes that ran out in front on the rear tires, 8-track below dash mounted tape decks with stereo speakers in plastic wedge-shaped boxes in the package tray that melted at temps above 75... I had a '64 Comet & remember jacking up the rear end and wiring cut off coils between the axle & frame for a cheap, 'hi-rise' look. Nobody thought it was stupid at the time - including my buddies who wore bellbottoms and sported Bobby Goldsboro helmet hair. . Maybe it was just a pre-donk fad that fortunately ran its course.
No worries man! More than once someone has had to remind me of what I'm doing too...it sorta goes with being a hoodlum I suppose P.S. I think your car is bitchin'.
Yeah, that was THE thing to do in the mid-70' here in So Cal too. I had a '67 Chevelle with the Hi Jacker "stink bug" look. One night while cruisin' Whitter Blvd. an air line burst...PPppsppsssttttt. Oh the awful lop sided agony! We limped back to Santa Ana and "borrowed" the line off of a family members Ranchero and went right back to the Blvd! Thank you Midnight Auto supply. (well heck She was not even driving the Ranchero!)
Guy I went to school with had a jacked up 69-70 Torino, had the little cone shaped trailer marker lights bolted to lower rear shock mounts, we called em "brake fire lights" best part was the switch, an Ivory colored household light switch screwed to the dash! John
I believe the limiting factor of how long the shackles could be was based on how much you could adjust the headlights. The hot set up has multiple positions. So you could have your springs mounted at the bottom of the shackles of some where in the middle. this yielded a curiously agricultural implement look. I think the rule was that the longer you car was the longer your exended shackles had to be. Its Ironic that the car shown was a mopar. If I recall correctly their springs were so weak that no matter how high the rear was raised within a week they had sagged back down to its original height. The pictured car is likely a result of this sympton is those are the 5th version of the shackles. Of course this trend played hell with all those kids who had been handed down thos pesky full sized GM cars with the damn coil springs...........
The late 70's early 80's guys jacked their cars because the tires had no traction and the wider was the better. The style went out with their lambchop sideburns...
Man this has to be the most OT thread ever and it's freakin 10 pages long!!!! Down here in N.Z. we would never treat an automobile in this manner, it's just not right, meanwhile over in Australia this style is still THE thing to do.
It's an old Hessian wagon. prolly had the blue feathers with roach clips hanging in the interior and 5lb of junk swinging from the rearview mirror a kraco radio with a 50 watt booster and several sets of junkyard factory speakers pinned in the corners of the interior with wood screws, a cb radio with a whip antenna, a felt headliner, a tach where the automatic shifter used to be and a camaro floor shifter srewed to the floor and covered with a console manufactured in wood shop. there's be carpet samples and plastic bags stuffed in the quarters to keep stuff from falling out and Journey or ac/dc T-shirts over the backs of the seats and bead or wicker comfort mats on the torn seat buns , round cigarrette lighter burns all over the interior mostly in the dash pad, visors, and door panels. sun faded in-transits in the window and an old magazine on the dash to cover the vin when illegally parked. for what it's worth I'd still like that old car back I'd drive it before being seen in a formula one f150. back in 96 I saw a young gal driving an 87 z28 that had airshocks lifting the tail about 12" and all the Hessian regalia and figgured she was dating an old man
The " 'n' shit thing really blows me away! I am from the west coast of Canada, and we said that too! I had completely forgotten about it 'n'shit. And as for the general 70's bashing, well all that stuff really was considered cool at the time. Most fads and styles revisited out of their era tend to look questionable after the fact. 'n'shit
I'm a little late posting on this, but I was there also. I might not have gone to the extreme that some of these cars posted were, even then we knew some were over done or hack jobs, but I did go with big shocks for some larger junkyard tires. Times were different then, we didn't have the internet to share our opinions on other cars. It was more of a local thing, we didn't have the wealth of tech info and part availability that there is today. It may have been a fad, we were just hot rodding in my mind. Talk about budget building, I was makin 1.10 an hour, if I could afford to do anything to my car I was happy, I was proud to even have an 8 track in my car. Yes, I have fond memories of my cars from those days. Love the HAMB.
Talk all the shit you want. Jackin the ass end up, air shocks, and wedgin L60's back there was what was about, and was cool as shit. It was an era. A lot better than the era we are in now I might add, with fiberglass japanese toys that have 10 foot spoilers, and "just add stickers" street racers. I dig the look. But that is just my opinion, and we know what those are like.
Ha ha dont forget the super wide bell bottom pants or the ones that went halfway up her stomach ...the folded piece from a pack of matches stuck in the side of 8 track tape so i wouldnt drag playing....mid to late 70s no one ever heard or could afford to tub a car so lift it up ..thrush can mufflers ..and poorly mounted hood scoops mind you Miss Hurst was all the rage ..lol so was Farrah..lmao..man i miss those days
Man, you guys are killing me!! Bringing back all those memories of my stupidity!!-MIKE Guilty on all counts
NZ RODDER . You are wrong !1974,Queen st Auckland .ch vs down one side ,Fords parked on the other .Down the main drag,round behind the post office ,back up the main drag,turn right behind Civic and repeat ad nausium! 60 and61 ford tanks jacked so high they would sway on corners .plenty of laughs when a guy in a 59 fairlane went hard left and his multi drilled shackles bent45 degrees !The there was Beaumont st.lots of good times but lots of unroadworthy rigs and dangerous antics .Hell yea , chrome that diff !
By the way, mi ride was a 60 dodge pioneer ,so I just wrenched it down to the bump stops.thats what the Mopar boys did .Fastest double bed on four wheels .
You guys are killin' me. I've been having weird flashbacks since this thread started. I was told that if you could remember the 70's you weren't really there. I'd forgotten all this stuff and now it's back. I'm guilty of most of the style and safety violations listed earlier. At least my Pinto was V8 powered.
In 1967 this was as cutting edge a look as anything is now..My 55 Chevy had as big a cheater slick as I could get inside the fender well. Jacked up in the back with traction bars to prevent horrible wheel hop..Slightly lower in the front with kidney bean slotted mags..I couldn't afford anything but a steel wheel in the back..and I had shaved all the chrome off of it except the door handles..everybody had door handles..
I was there and jacked the back of whatever I had! I don't know if it was any worse than putting giant rims with no sidewalls on your 4WD PU or a spoiler on the back of your front wheel drive car though...It seemed like the thing to do at the time..
Man I hope this look comes back. It will be considered 'old school' soon enough. I have a set of NOS 5" spacers for my '65 Chevelle, but the wife gets mad even talking about putting them on. Soemthing about never riding with me again or something... Words... Words... Words... I even have a Mullet wig to go with it, and I'm sure I can find my 'ol jean jacket around here somewhere... Oh well, good to know someone would be bustin' my balls if I did it.
As others have said, been there, done that and got the tee-shirt in the back of my closet. Reversed the spring shackles on my '59 Ferd four-door. Am I the only one who was scratchin' his teenage pimple-face head when transmission tailshafts began to bend because of the fuked-up pinion angle?
My highschool years were '77 to '81... so this brings back alot of memories. I worked in the automotive department at the Bismarck, ND Sears. I sold alot of air shocks to kids my own age who were using them outside of the 'warranted use'. We took alot of damaged ones back. I would see the shocks maxed out on Saturday night while I was 'cruising Main', and would be taking the damaged ones back on Monday or Tuesday... For the time, this was the formula for most of the local cars (most anything 1960's, muscle cars, and the 70's sport luxury cars - T-birds, Cougars, Monte Carlos, Cutlass', Magnums, Cordobas, Gran Prix)... * air shock assisted ride height in the rear * bigger your tires or rims were, the better. Runnin' 15x10's and L,M, or N 50's was a badge of honor * another badge of honor was having a 'double pumper'... * your brake drums and rear pumpkin painted either white, or a color-keyed day-glo orange, red, green, yellow, etc... * you either had Cragar SS or Keystone Klassics AND white lettered tires- some had slots, but I don't think they were taken seriously. The Cragar vs Keystone camps were pretty evenly divided like Coke vs. Pepsi, or Ford vs Chevy. BF Goodrich radial T/A's were the top of the pecking order * you got bonus points for side pipes OR chrome tailpipe tips, traction bars, Jensen 6x9's, and the chrome or plastic splash guards (with brand/model logo or name on them) and a sunroof. * most cars had a bundle of those 'tree' airfresheners hanging from the vent handles * few people popped the hood, so engine dress-up wasn't a big deal - seemed like most made it look good first (chicks) and go good second (if you could afford it). Seems like the only guys who ran a chrome pumpkin cover, were also the guys who had something under the hood to brag about. * if you had a vinyl top car, it had that wet look from Armor All * a well apointed interior had a briefcase sized cassette storage box full of AC/DC, Ted Nugent, Cheap Trick, VanHalen, BTO, Supertramp, Lynnerd Skynnerd, Rush, and Styx; a garter hanging from the rearview mirror' and maybe velour or crush velvet seat inserts One thing I didn't see mentioned, maybe it was a regional thing was either having a sticker made out of that chromey, prismatic, rainbow sheeny stuff; or using that stuff to detail certain parts of your car to draw attention to it, like covering up painted inserts in stainless/chrome trim. I'm glad much of that fell out of style... some of it was down right tacky!
It was to get big wide tires on the back without hacking the 1/4 panels before narrowed rear ends became the "norm"