What's with the tri five shorty cars?

Foot in mouth

 

I remember some kids in school rode the "short bus" for various reasons. This car looks like it should be behind the short bus. The shorty cars just never did much for me but this Ford looks good from the windshield forward.

 

I'll betcha without that sweet wing this car would be a handfull on the track!

 

On this line, there was, for many years a nice double-ended 49-50 Ford a short block off off Harrisburg Ave. in the East Side of Houston near the Hughes Tool Works. I tried several times to by it but there was a son, cousin, etc. involved in ownership and it just couldn't happen.

 

They've never looked right to me. Here's a Chevelle that's had that done

 

"What's with the tri five shorty cars?"

Uh....people with way too much time
on their hands, more money than brains,
a total and complete lack of any sense of
proportion, - as well as not having even an
inkling of common-sense or sense of
esthetics ....and who have a brand new
cutting torch and/or a 'Sawz-All' they just
can't wait to try out on something????

Now...do I get a cookie and a gold star
beside my name for having the correct
answer??!!

Mart3406
==================

 

Search is your friend

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=514331&highlight=ackerman

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=263809&highlight=ackerman

This shit has been covered many times over the years. NO, it is not cool to shorten a Tri5, make a family go getter or a hauler for your HA/GR dragster.....................

 

Yeah, that about sums it up.

Here is your cookie:

 

Now you guys are making me want to cut up a nomad and make it into a double decker....with tandem axles... in the front.

 

I wonder when the first one was done, so when the time machine is ready someone can go back and bitch slap the guy that thought it up.

 

----------------------------
Excellent idea! Can't wait to see it! But don't
forget to keep it at least a little bit "traditional",
or you'll really catch hell here. I suggest for
the "traditional" part, you run wide-whitewall
slicks mounted on chrome reverse wheels - on
all three axles - and you power the front
tandem set with a *pair* of genuine '60's-vintage
rocket-powered Turbonique "Drag Axles"!!!
What the hell....go for broke (and in all
probability, a Darwin Award as well!) - and
use three "Drag Axles" and power the single
rear axle with one too!!!

 

Saw a short 55 at Yello Belly Drags. On the rear it said "Wanta Race? I'll spot you 1/2 a car"

 

Im not diggin it, but..............at least they finished the first one shown,

 

I respect the hell out of the work that went into that, but it looks horrible. Just my opinion.

 

the only shortened tri-five i've seen in person is a local 55. the work is top notch, but it looks atrocious. the dude also puts the little tray in the driver's window with the plastic hamburgers and crap.

 

Bad taste never goes out of style.

 

That's funny!

 

I always thought this was done by people with short garages, thus enabling them to have a classic car that otherwise wouldn't fit. It's the only answer that makes sense to me.

 

My teen years were in the 60's. Fordors were for your parents, if you drove one you were a real loser. The tudors were so abundant there was no excuse for not having one. There was really no excuse for messing with a fordor, they should all be scraped. And thats how I remember it!
P.S. to this day I still wouldn't be caught dead in a fordor. Do they make tudor Hearst's????

 

Oh look, a turd with wheels!!

 

T-bird
Continental

 

That's what you deserve for getting drunk and washing your car with hot water.

 

My uncle who is now in his late sixties used to shorten Tri-Five Wagons constantly back in his hot rod days. Of course this is when these Chevys were "Bellybutton Cars" as he says you couldn't give a four door away. So my uncle and his buddies would get together. and hack one apart and have something different. Im thinking you are forgetting that these cars were not worth anything but scrap when most of them were done. so.... why not? There are still a few of his shortened wagons wandering around so my dad tells me.

 

I remember several in the 70s, I thought the first few were kinda cool, but they got common after a while. Keep in mind this was a time when rodders were making corvettes into station wagons, camaros into fastbacks, we wore high waisted bell bottoms and platform shoes, etc, and it was oh so cool. I even remember a few shorty vans, kinda defeats the purpose of a van. It was simply a search for something new made out of something that had become common and mundane. My high school parking lot in 1975 had about a dozen tri 5 chevy's, all pretty similar. At that time a chopped merc with wide whites would have been just a car that was a leftover from 20 years before, totally uncool. 20 years later we dug them out of barns and they were cool again. In the 80s a straight axled car was just an oddity that someone hadn't made into a pro streeter yet. I understand if you don't like it, some of us laughed at them then. What surprises me is that we're 3 pages into this thread and not one person has said" I always liked those" or " I had one, wish I hadn't sold it". We have gotten accustomed to the profile the factory gave our cars, which was a compromise of function and form, and hate to see our favourites messed with. Personally I think the shortened 2 seater Imperial is freakin' awesome. Retro is cool, but its the search for a new way that keeps the hobby moving forward. Now for my double decker Nomad, should I chop the top, bottom, or both rooflines?

 

I have nothing to say, just leaves me speechless and glad i don't own a chop saw!!!!!

 

Never liked 'em..Now Shorty VW Buses now thats another story...

 

In the great city of Seattle, back in the 70s, a couple of guys shorted a VW bus....looked OK. Neater than that...they sold the center section to another buddy, and they built a LOOOOOOONG VW bus...reinforced pan of course. The long one had a Denny Akers 1800 cc engine with a couple of d/draft Webers....ran like stink.

dj

My neighbor shorted a 56 4dr wagon - he did an excellent job - still looked stupid but the workmanship was flawless.

 

Couldn't think of a better way way of destroying a Tri5. Must take brain damage to waste your time building a Shorty. They have absolutely NO resale value. That ought to tell you something.

 

Darrin, from Warrens Rod & Custom was building a 56 shorty in 96-97. I don't know if he ever finished it, thought. I bought a 57 shorty wgn, just for the rear bumper.. wasn't much else there to save, if I remember right.

 

I'll one up your shorty tri-five... with a shorty tri-five 4x4...





Seemed to be broken down at Nashville goodguys last week...

The airbrush work seemed to be of high quality....