Hot Rods This ain't no disco, this ain't no rat rod, this ain't no fooling around!

Kinda like my old Model A pickup,,after I painted it the try seems to lose something,,it no longer was my old reliable beater with primer and moon disc but a shiny example of a street rod,,,after I sold it the guy took it to a level that you couldn't pay me to own it,,even added a wing! HRP

 

A wing? Dear lord.

 

Yes, well - kinda... See, it was sold to guy that had no soul. He cut the top off, yes, but then started trying to "market" the car as something it was not. Our buddy TOM Roth had done a simple cartoon doodle on the dash, and not in an attempt to copy or forger signed his name Roth. Next thing we know the car is making the rounds as a former ED Roth "shop car" and was advertised and featured in print that way. When that didn't pan out and bring the big bucks, the car was slicked to within an inch of it's life and what was left of it's simple lovable soul was removed completely. Somehow in all of that though it's identity was changed to be the work of several top craftsman in the industry, instead of the car we put together that was later painted and smoothed. There was just a basic dishonesty in the whole deal that really did it in. I guess you could look at it as the new owner making it his, but the manner it was done in was my real objection...

 

Not much...

 

Not very nice

 

I grew up on a ranch, so everything was beat to hell. everyone looked down on us for the condition of our cars. so when we did a build with my brother we painted it the deepest green we could get. After paying the almost 10k for paint, he was afraid to really drive it and it sat for about ten years. Now he has it out on the road and is having a blast with it.

I plan on painting my current build, but it is so much fun to have a driver that you are not worried about little nicks and scratches.

 

If it makes any sense, I have never built a car to fit into a certain group. My Plymouth has always looked the way it has simply because it has been driven relentlessly for the last twenty years or so. It has gone through times when it got cleaned up and prettied a bit, but it's kinda like my schnauzer, clean it up and it's dirty again in ten minutes. "Back in the day", it certainly didn't fit in, 'cause back in the early nineties, it was the time of the painted, finished, worshipped car. I actually got kicked out of a cruise night in Scottsdale for not having paint. I have always dug it for exactly what it is and nothing more. I know that it will never be straight enough or nice enough for the kind of paint job that I would consider putting the effort forth to do, and I wouldn't want less. So I guess it sort of sits in a happy go lucky limbo...

 

Pat(Anderson) you are right on this...Clifford Campbell hung out at my house during the early 60s.Pat Barnhart was his best bud..

 

Yep, pretty much.

Most of my cars and trucks have anthropomorphic qualities.

Anyway, the new owner (now dead) Dennis Eaton turned it into a Guards Red billet barge just to get the attention of a new owner. Chopping the top off of it and calling it a "Tubster" was insulting not by the action but by the quality of the work. It was horrible! Trying to put lipstick on that pig afterward made it a soulless belly-button rod.

 

Thanks for the answer and it does make sense. As I wrote, my car needs paint to fit what I grew up with, but it's not me today. I drive my T everyday, except when it rains hard. I HAVE to drive it. When I'm not tinkering or driving, I literally get depressed. Just this morning, I reinstalled a carb spacer. Not because it needed it, but just to tinker and try to find one more horse power. Then, a nice test drive. I do that everyday.

I've slid into it, scraped my foot on it getting in and out. Scratched the hell out of it removing the body, all the while thanking God I hadn't had it painted. If it was painted the way I imagine it, I'd be sweating bullets every time it wasn't in my sight. I'd hate to live that way. I have minimal chrome and hate polishing THAT.

I grew up going to shows, reading the magazines and always wondered how the cars stayed so nice. Then, I found out that a lot of them stayed parked. Some didn't run at all. When I hear someone brag about putting 3,000 miles on a car in a year, I laugh inside. I do that in a month and a half.

So, I guess my T is a beater. But in the real world of daily driving and life, it's what it's supposed to be.

 

I get it. Thanks.

 

Around here we had two classes of mini-truckers.
First there were the lowrider mini-truckers. These were the guys that simply built lowriders out of mini-trucks. Wire wheels, clean paint, nice sound systems, sometimes hydros, and if they had the cash bed dancers with crazy, modified hydraulic dancing beds. These guys were cool, took a lot of pride in their rides, but all seemed to graduate into REAL lowriders when they got older and got the cash.
I always respected those guys.
The other group is who I'm referencing. These are the guys who would take any shitbox mini truck, do half-assed body work trying to mimic whatever they saw in the truck magazines, with no intent to do it correctly or even finish doing it. roll pans were installed that didn't fit. Caddy tail lights were installed crooked. Paint wasn't even a thought, but should have been because it would have helped keep all the bondo they used from cracking off. Beds were gutted to allow for the "laying of frame" but never reinforced, so when you saw them out cruising the bed would shimmy and shake on every bump, or sometimes even come off as they had cut off a mounting point or two (seen it!).
These guys graduated to one of two places: ricers (not tuners, there is a difference!) or wanna-be rat rod shock rods. They brought their build quality, ethos and skill over and suddenly started ruining shit that people cared about.
But I must admit, not all of the shock rodders/art rods came from mini truckers. I've seen some of the shit on some of the other websites. I've seen people that are old enough to know better doing some stupid shit too.
One that sticks in my mind like no other was this dude who took a perfectly sled-able late 40's caddy, removed the front sheet metal, built some short straight tube headers and then welded a cherry bomb on each one and had them sticking nearly straight up. Pretty sure he also put a tractor grill shell on it of some sorts and some other stupid shit. He wasn't young and dumb either, so I was at a loss to explain it.
To me a car has always been more than just transportation, it's been an extension of my personality. I'm more about the show and less about the go (which is why I like kustoms and lows). I think that's part of what irks me about some of these folks; you look at a nice ride that was painstakingly built by a proud owner and it shows. You've gotta put some heart into your ride. Those who don't either just throw shit at a car or pay someone else to do it for them. In that case you either end up with a rolling abortion or a car that's got no soul.
That's just my take, but for others it may be different. I build more doors, and don't car about the "investment" or "return". I do it for me and the family.

 

Honesty hurts sometimes! Truth be told I WAS a mini trucker for a brief time back in the eighties. Bought a new Nissan in '85 and didn't even drive it home before hitting my shop and lowering it. Even then though, I went about it differently than my fellow club members. It wasn't about "quick and dirty", or "outrageous", it was about making look better and handle better. The mad dash race to "Lay Frame" and be the lowest has produced many a stanceless, hacked up pile of dung that isn't worthy of driving.

 

Ding, ding and one more big fat DING!!! I agree with this 100%. I was a mini-trucker and Cal-Look Vdubber too (still like a lot of these cars). I liked my cars very low, but none were ever on air or hydraulics and we didn't cut big holes in the fenders/hood to make huge wheels/tires fit and we didn't narrow the Beetle's beams too much either. Having the correct wheel/tire size and fit, plus the correct ride height, is what it was all about. Still is...in my mind anyway!

 

I'm loving this thread. Unfortunately, I was still in elementary until '99 so I don't remember any of this. But keep going..

 

Your beard must have been short then

 

I remember that '48. I think I may have seen it at Louisville in the late '80s/early 90s. I agree, unless you were in tune with the hot rod scene at the time, it's easy to dismiss the photos as just some wannabe car today. In the context of the time though, it was a huge deal.

 

This is way off topic, but whatever, as a non hack minitrucker I take a bit of offense to the generalization. A hack is a hack, doesn't matter what they build. A good friend of mine is on this forum, every time he updates his thread everyone here drools (as well they should, he's a ridiculously good fabricator), and he's a minitrucker.
I sold a very clean, very cool little bobber a couple days ago. Flake paint, polished metal, glossy black frame, chrome, etc. The 59 year old gentleman that bought it proceeded to tell me that he will be painting it flat black and having it pinstriped in red and white. Kinda made me sick, but he bought it and can do whatever he wants. He also told me about other builds, model a's with webs and all the typical rat rodder shit. This guy didn't begin as a minitrucker. And he loved him some rat rods.

 

I don't see how you take offense to it if it doesn't pertain to you. I was stating what I've seen in my area, and what I grew up around. I also alluded to the fact that the hacks were TRYING to copy everything the saw in the magazines. That would mean that someone was doing it right for them to be attempting to emulate.
You are correct though, a hack is a hack, no matter what automotive "scene" he's in, it's just been my experience that all of the one's I've met have either been ex minitruckers or ex ricers.

I also alluded to that when I spoke of the old fellow and his hacked Caddy.
The flat black/spider web/skull hate thing irks me. It's not a rat rod thing. it's a shock rod trend. Like I've pointed out earlier, there is a difference. What irks me about it is that was my style long before the shock rodders picked it up. Now that they've made it their own I have to hear non stop rat rod comments about my Galaxie (for starters it's a kustom, not a rod..) due to my red metalflake switchbox, black and red interior, black body and red roof. I ditched the red steelies a long time ago in hopes that it would help, but it didn't make much of a difference. Thanks to the shock rodders my favorite color combo and the sinister look I like are now trendy. Lucky for me I don't really give a shit enough to change MY STYLE because of some bandwagon jumpers.
I know what you mean about the bike though. The moron that I got my Galaxie from (minitrucker, too by the way) couldn't wait to turn the Dodge Warlock I traded him into a rat rod. Apparently he thought he'd done a bang up job on the galaxie and couldn't wait to hack something else. I never saw the truck again, but I feel sorry for it.

 

I saw that car in person I'm Mt Clemens Michigan at the enormous show/cruise night they held for the 2nd annual Hot Rod Power Tour,and that car was just so damn cool....that car was a major influence in the swing back toward actual hot rodding,and not building monochromatic puke.


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That's bitchin.

 

For the rest that do not understand lets use a skateboard reference. Need louvers car and somewhat my coupe is like that gator gonzales board that was your favorite to ride the pools that you drain of water in that house that has been vacant for years. I miss the 80's when it was a awesome underground car scene with us vw kids just learning about hot rods and getting our first hot rods together. It was great to get the gold chainers all pissed off with our cars that did not fit the norm and they did not like our music as well. Now with X-games and the whole old school rodz scene it has taken the punk rock out of it and now we are the grumpy old guys in the back of the punk rock reunion concert with arms folded wishing no one had found out about it.

Now I will go back to watering the lawn with my black socks and white legs and G & S shorts yelling at kids in the street that ramp sucks and grow a pair.

 

Another in-your-face we're-having-fun car was a 4 door Mopar which used to swim around thru the sea of billet rods at NSRA shows about the time Pat and Cliff were. I first saw it at OKC Nats (remember when the Nats was in a different city each year?). I heard it first, thundering around and around and around ALL weekend, FULL of funseekers. When it did stop,the number of people that would crawl out reminded me of a clown car at the circus. The rusty exterior seemed unusual but the amount of fun that was being had was infectious. Another factor that was unusual was that it was NOT puking coolant all over the HOT fairgrounds like all the other cars that were not being driven might have.

 

A 4 door anything is your grandpa's car not a hot rod.

 

Well, as one of the lowest rods I've ever seen, Gary Cushenberry's Deuce Fordor out of Wichita in the early 80's has always been one of my favorites, Chip. Wish I would have shot it. But generally, you are correct.

 

no no its not a 4 door its a crew cab....and ive seen a few "crew cabs" that i thought were cool..

 

While I would normally be the very first to agree with you on the four door deal, I remember well the car he is talking about and it WAS glorious! I don't remember what was powering it, but it was nasty as all get out, and imagine my car's stance, but a bit crustier patina and full polish Halibrands with that long assed Chrysler nose... Besides, I can't say four doors are for queers and little old ladies anymore, 'cause have you counted the doors on MY wagon lately? 'Course, wagons have always been exempt in the door count thing 'cause you just know the wagon people are weird in general, and a wagon driving guy isn't getting any anyway...

 

This car was built by a friend (he sadly passed away a couple of years ago) of mine during the worst billet-rod era here in Sweden. He might as well had built a spaceship, it was that odd in that time.

 

Some of you guys never miss a chance to take a shot at 4 doors do ya?
I somewhat agree when it comes to an actual hot rod though. I can't think of but 1 actual hot rod with 4 doors that I've ever liked:

I'm also not really a fan of calling anything post war a hot rod anyways...

 

I think I know the car you guys are talking about but I remember it being an early 40's Hudson. I was a americruise in Springfield when it came thundering into the host hotel. I just stood there like a slack jawed yokel thinking WOW that is the coolest ever. Here I was the only dude there in a vw trying to fit in, thinking I should have put a thumper bug motor in it.

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