Its tall so you can reach it without bending over. To tall and it pops out of gear going over the railroad tracks
I will probably have one... Why? Because I like it and I don't give a flyin crap what anyone else thinks. As for me, the attraction is influenced by Roth and other art work with the shifters sticking out of the roofs. Read a lot of issues of Cartoons when I was younger.
Although we didn't discuss it's origins, I had a conversation with an old Custom guy about the tall shifter. He said when customs guys would park they had to make sure it was in 1st or 3rd so the 8 ball was visible above the dash. Later he said people would put human head characters on the shifter and face them forward so when you parked it was looking out the windshield. I suspect this part is the Roth influence.
The one in my 40 comes to the top of the dash, like some have said I like it that way so thats how it is for now. I was also heavily influenced by the old Cartoons and all the old stickers, some of which I still have. Maybe some day I'll grow up, but I hope not!
Rat rods may look like they have them, but don't need them because rat rods are pieces of shit that only have one working gear if their lucky.... Customs have them because the folks building them like the look. Done a certain way on a certain car, I do too.....(i'm putting a tall floor shifter on my '60 Caddy project.) Kinda a silly question though, imho.... No different than trying to ask "Why do people put custom paint on their car?" -scott noteboom
totally agree with hotrodhon iam a big ed roth fan and in all his artwork and even revell models,had greasy monsters popping out of tha roof with giant shifters...who knos tha way he thought but i think his stuff is way kool..now days people are influenced to weld shyt together an see who can have tha tallest shifter with a beer tap on tha end...im runnin a 11in lenco so it serves it purpose...
Syncromesh gears on the floor....Roth....Leverage....Eightball visible above dash or whatever...yep...Whole lota fun! Lots of fun to put the shifter between a gals legs when she scooted over to sit by you....just sayin'!
Gee, this was worth dredging up. On the other hand, it was good to re read some of the posters who used to be here.
Guiding an 18 wheeler down the road for 17 years gave me an appreciation for having the shifter "In your Hand' without reaching for it. When I built my car, I wanted something to remind me of my years on the road.When the car is in drive-the shifter ball is right at my right hand.
FNGs will never figure the 5 year old thread thing out I guess, I always enjoyed hearing from C9 though! RIP
Maybe it was a west coast thing. Norm and Roth just followed the trends of the day. the short shifter came after the 4 speeds made them popular in the 60's
Yea this is correct to the best of my knowledge. I think its a goofy trend but I've been cutting mine off for a shorter throw for a very long time so what do I know. Jeeze lewize I just noticed that this thread is almost as old as I am. DOH
Long shifters have always been around since way before rat rods were considered something beside a rolling junk pile. If you dig out old rod or custom magazines from the 50's and 60's you will often find a car with a tall shifter and often with some sort of odd ball shift knob such as the car owners's favorite brew's tap handle. I think it was more prevalent after Roth started drawing the tall shifters on his shirts though.
The first tall shifter I remember seeing was in an Annette Funicello,made for TV movie,with a T-bucket in it. This was on the Mickey Mouse Club. Not the Spin-n-Marty movies,another one,that I can't remember the name of. Anyway the shifter in that T-bucket looked real tall to me,and I thought it was cool. When I built my own T with a 39 trans I realised that it may have been a stock Ford shifter. I use a real lawn mower piston for a shift knob,and I use it like an arm rest while cruising around.
Tall shifters are not neo-traditional! Here's why. I knew a guy that had a Twelve powered packard that had a tall shifter. High enough that it was above the plane of the window sills. He was old school. He built cars from the 20s to the 70s. Anyway, he was racing a bunch of kids that were driving in a modern car pretty fast on a straight flat road. Both cars side by side. The kids all freaked when he reached up on that tall shifer and pulled it into the next gear. Whoosh. ......they were gone and the Packard pulled way ahead. Vintageride
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