Are there any magazines left for people like us?

Hot Rod, Popular Street Rodding, Classic Truck, Car Craft, etc. take me about 10 minutes to read. Rod & Custom and Hot Rod Deluxe occasionally have interesting articles, but I'm just not interested in rod shows, readers' cars, really ratty rat rods, $250k rods, or advertisements. I like to see people building traditional cars.

Are there any magazines that focus on tech articles and traditional hot rods?

 

If one believes the magazine editors, the only ones building trad rods are old guys with enough money to pay someone else to do it for them.

I've been reading Hot Rod, Car Craft, etc, since 1961 and it's only recently there's been the shift to professional shop-built checkbook rods. Since the publishers/editors are in the business of selling as many magazines as they can, they're pitching to the subscribers as best they can define them.

I spoke with an editor of Popular Hot Rodding when their dyno-racing Engine Master's Challenge became the BIG THING. He said, "There's no drag strips left in SoCal and in many other parts of the country. Without a place to race, building horsepower is just for braggin' rights."

Hot Rod went nostalga/transformer/rat rod, "Look at who's at the rod shows now - most of the guys are over 60."

They're trying to keep in step with the Twatter generation. "Young guys have the attention span and vocabulary of a gnat. They won't read long technical articles. Lot's of photos and a few catchy captions are all they can handle. We don't know if we can attract and keep them but we've got to try. Old guys are already habituated, so most will keep subscribing regardless."

It is the way it is because that's the way it is.

jack vines, who's over 60 and still building.

 

"Rodder's Journal" and "Traditional Rod and Kustom Illustrated", and "Hot Rod Deluxe" are my three go-to's.

I'm just a 29 year old kid, but there is plenty of material for me to find out there, its just not on your local grocery-store magazine rack...

 

As far as the most redill available I would have to agree!

 

don't get me started….
it seems that all the mags are pushing some product
and lack the "sprit" of hot rodding, that is
IMO that you don't "buy" your car
you build your car
ok a little off topic, I feel better now..
one of my new faves comes from Australia
its called FUEL magazine
its pricey but worth it..

 

is "Rolls and Pleats" still avalable? Also some of the other new little books like Kustoms Illlustrated and its hot rod version I can not remember the title of. TRJ is only OK if you like 1932 fords that cost $$$$$$$ and nice pics (but I still get it). I recently looked through my back issues (over 50) of TRJ and could only find three or four cars I really could use as infulence on my car which is a fat fendered GM product (not one of thoes till the most recent issue with the buick).

 

Thats it maybe the H.A.M.B. should start its own magazine and then we could wright are own articles.

 

Great idea!
I'm sure magazine has been through Ryan's HAMB brainstorming before. The only magazine I'd find worthwhile, but since the tjjapp, I've got a lifetme of reading right here in the palm of my hand.

 

I don't buy any magazines,,I get my fix here! HRP

 

I stopped my subscriptions long ago. All the "how to" articles you could possibly want or show coverage are here or on You tube. Free.

 

American Rifleman is good.

 

I know people bag on them but I like ol' skool rodz, CKD because I like the show reviews, club features etc.....Do I like everything in them ? No of course not....I also like Rodders Journal and Rod & Kulture.

 

The HAMB IS the magazine for people like us. It's just in a different form now.

 

The only one I still subscribe to is the first one I ever subscribed to back in '61, R&C.

 

To repeat what Pat 'Too Tall' Gahnal once said: 'Never underestimate the stupidity of your readers'. That said look at what contents are predominate in the mass media machine today. Kinda like dumpster diving, yes?

 

-Not This Shit Again!?
x2!!

 

Fooey. No point in whining about the present. Go buy some '50's or '60's R&C or HRM or Car Craft... you'll never worry about the awful stuff on the newsstand again.

 

If you can read Hot Rod magazine in ten minutes, you must have tunnel vision.

 

As always Bruce's few words speaks volumes! HRP

 

i let my subscriptions run out. The only magazines I buy are pre'70's that I din't have. when I want to read I grab one out of the box of old ones by the crapper.

 

Playboy, Penthouse, and Popular Mechanics.......

 

Even those are not factory original or traditional anymore.

 

I don't mind the non traditional airbags in those though..

 

"BULLY"! I will contribute! I can handle a pen....I mean typwritter...I mean...shit....you know what I mean.... wright???

 

I'm 70 years old and fondly remember the magazines from the '50s and '60s. I still have a few tech articles on how to build a seat for your Bonneville car out of a shopping cart and how to upgrade Flathead distributors. Things we all learned how to do before you could just whip out the debit card and buy aftermarket stuff.

As far as new magazines I get the Good Guys Gazette and it assumes it's rightly position near the toilet along with American Rifleman.

 

Old Copies of the original Hot Rod and Car Craft, among others are available on Ebay, swap meets, garage sales, etc, and if you haven;t read them in depth are great reads, and the letters to the editor are a wealth of knowledge. They are not new, but available.

 

I can't read.

 

You can let them run out?..just kidding.
It gets so irritating to keep getting the reminders to re-subscribe. Last chance, last chance, last chance, last chance, really last chance.
Or, how about you take "the deal" and buy two years at a time, then they start sending out the re-subsription notices in a year.."or your subscription will run out", thinking you forgot, so you end up sending in again.
Or, you finally miraculously no longer get the mag, only for them to come back after a few years, to start the whole hounding process over again.
There is a reason the HAMB is such a popular place.

 

Especially the H.A.M.B. friendly issues, or should I say Era correct