Projects BUILD WHAT YOU'VE GOT or listen to others

My opinion doesn't count on this because I'm Old, Different and biased.

This a traditional board but some of the traditions suck!

I've always built what I have, with what I've got in stock.
In the early 60's my family car was a low mile 48 plymouth. running a 331 Cad with Forged 10 to 1 pistons, Cam and mild head work. with a stock Hydro, hooked to a 61 dodge rear end with 2.91 gears. had the stock cad drive shaft adapted to the dodge pinion with a piece machined from the top of an old piston. had 60 buick power brake unit and 56 Mercury ram style power steering. and a under dash Mark lV air conditioning. the car had incredible top end and got over 20 mpg with the air blowing cold. original paint and interior looked new. had chrysler imperial rims and white wall tires it sat at stock height and only had one exhaust pipe showing. it was a sleeper. wasn't that much of a drag car. equal or better than the 289 4 speed Mustangs (except the 271 horse model)
beat an E-jag and a ss396 chevelle in some top speed bouts. had a CHP pull me over on the 605 Freeway just cruising at 112 mph ( I had an emergency at home but tried to keep the speed down) he couldn't believe that old car could roll that speed. I told him I had plenty left and was just trying to get home to take my 2 year old the hospital. he let me go after looking under the hood. that was the good old days.

I had a 56 ford with a 360 327 chev. that was a 9 year old car with a brand new motor pulled out of a low mile Corvette. that's like a new vette motor in a 2000 ford

I had a 51 Olds with a 56 Packard engine, Cad Hydro, with a 58 pontiac rear end with 4.88 locked rear end

I've owned over 200 cars and trucks and only went with the ford in a ford, gm in a gm or mopar in mopar when I just happened to have both in stock at the time of the build. and I've never thought of buying a crate motor.

Question is. why is brand loyality so important when building a HOT ROD which traditionally is a light car with the biggest motor that on can afford period!!!

 

Well, I am not sure quite what answer you want-actually you've asked a rhetorical question that doesn't need an answer. If one is interested in traditional builds, then asking for traditional car opinions is important. On the other hand, if it's traditional, then that really means it has been done, perhaps many times, before.

I guess I am here because I like traditional cars, but I build what I like and routinely get blasted by more traditional folks here. Don't care. Build what you like.

 

Its a personal thing, same as supporting a sports team.

 

everything you build sounds traditional to me.

 

This is a loaded question....no pun intended,very interesting never the less.I think i will just watch the progress of this thread.Might just learn something myself

 

Hey Jim you are thinking to dam much.
Here's a thought I guy that looks a particular car likes either the looks of the car or is into that brand of car.When he looks a the ' Brand' of car he is into just to find another companies motor in it bums him out .

 

I just keep seeing post like putting a chev motor in a 57 ford. or a Hemi in a 41 chev. it got me thinking.
why spend extra cash buying something over using what you have. anything can be made to fit. having said that. my current projects are a Lincoln in a Ford. a Cad in a GMC a Dodge in a Plymouth.

 

So, where does the "listen to others" come into play here...??? Sounds like you're doing more telling than asking ...

R-

PS, I put a 500" Caddy V8 in my '55 Caddy...does that count...???

 

got any pictures of the 48?

 

NoName

There have always been fellas who were pretty basically brand loyalists.

I like you have always been a run what you brung type. There is a down side and an up side to that. The down side is that there will never ever be anyone seeking out an old car that I have owned to restore it to its former glory and the up side is that I have had way more fun than at least 99% of the fellas alive today.

Its a trade off, build something that fits in the box totally for frtune and glory or build what you have and enjoy it.

That said there is a lot to be said for the fellas who can and do build period perfect cars. It takes a lot of patience, cash, and skill.

 

I usually do what I want. I did refrain from putting an Olds in my Ford , mostly because I lucked up on a nice 390 and some cool old parts at the same time.

As far as brand loyalty , I've done a lot of swaps in differant cars. I get a lil gripy when people stuff a SBC in everything " because it's cheaper" , when it's not unless you have everything there which most people dont, they buy a crate motor which I agree with is the lamest thing you can do .
Have you ever listend to the excuses people give ? "It's cheaper" when they already had a running motor in the car," I dont know nothing about pontiacs" and they probably dont know nothing bout chevs either , "I couldn't afford a chevelle so I bought the skylark " but spent the differance converting to a chev . I guess I'm trying to say people are ignorant and lazy

 

haha! the first line of my post said I don't count because I'm OLD, DIFFERENT AND BIASED.
I just wonder how many people dare to be different!
I have a rebuilt 500 Cad also out of and Eldorado. the last 500 I had went into a 914 Porsche. I'm not sure where this one belongs. most likely it will go in my old UPS Van

 

I'm putting an SBC in a '53 Stude. Not because its cheaper or because someone thinks its cool but because I like small block chebbies.

Rodding is all about being yourself. I've never been very good at being what everyone wanted me to be but I am damned good at being me.

 

Please don't mistake this for bashing 350/350 install there are more of those than any other combo, in every kind car ever built.
and that's a good thing. if I had one on the floor I'd put it somewhere for sure

 

Brand loyality? I like Rainbow Bread...........

Brand loyality? Bull shit. Be loyal to yourself. Nothing is more important as working with what you got, doing it your way, and not worrying about what others might think.

Asking others for advice? There isn't a place in the whole wide world where that works. Even on the HAMB. You will get absolutely opposite opinions on virtually every (opinion oriented) question you ask.

HAMB is, on the other hand, is very good for specific questions where the facts are the answer.

Keep on keepin' on...........

 

My thoughts exactly!! Hotrodding is about using what you have or what you can get cheap and make work. I did a thread a year ago stating pretty much the same thing but then was closed by someone that didn't like what I had to say.

 

Going back kinda on what I said, I'm a Ford guy, always owned Fords.
Though now I'm building an Austin with a Nailhead in it, thats gotta be a little different?
Doc.

 

Wouldn't matter if it was an SBC bash or even a 'Beaner bash. I'd still stick my Ho Hum motor in there.

I guess my point is that's hot rodding. Its not about making anyone happy but yourself.

I owned a Buick with a Buick once. After I wore the body out we put the Buick mill in a '34 coupe. My buddy with the '34 was estatic, not because he had a nailhead in his '34 but because he could cruise his '34 and cruise it fast.

That same year I pulled the 6 out of a '41 Chebby and dropped a 312 in its place. Then we put the 6 in an A sedan. Someone is going to say that it would have been way more cool to drop the 312 in the A. But you see the '41 was mine and the fella with the sedan was happy as a duck in mud to get the chebby 6.

Its just roading anyway you loook at it. Not something someone read in a book. Just good old fasioned hot rodding.

 

I like your style you must be old and Baised too

 

The first real hotrod that I got worth building was a retired amateur 38 Chevy gasser.
I was saving for a Chevy drive train for it when a friend said..." you have a coupe that needs an engine on this side of the garage and a 383 Chrysler with a torqueflight sitting on the other side. Why not put them together?" So I did. I spun a bearing at the track and ended up putting a 327-340 in it later.

 

When you have nothing but Ford parts laying around, a Ford is naturally going to be built, lol. Except for a 345 IH, that's been laying around for quite awhile, going in one of my F1's, lol. I'm cheap, I fail to see the point of going out of one's way to impress others with looks before proof of backing it up, so to speak.

 

from one old guy to another i am 62 years young i couldnt have said it better myself tom

 

I'm a Chrysler guy with a Chevy truck. I damn near put a Mopar into the Chevy truck, too, but Chevy parts are cheap and available, so I stuck with that in the truck.

Everything Mopar I own gets a Mopar, everything else is a tossup between Mopar or Chevy. I like Pontiacs, but since I don't own any, that's not usually an option.

I would only put a Ford in a Ford if I had to, like if the engine blew up in my girlfriend's Mustang.

 

I don't understand the whole premise of the question...since when isn't brand loyalty traditional? When my brother started racing it was with a friends' 32 coupe with a SBC in it. Then he used my Mom's '59 D-500. He wanted to race and happened to be dating the daughter of the owner of the local Chevy dealer, this was in'63; and he wanted to buy a new split window Sting Ray. Dad told him we always ran Mopars, so let's go see what Dodge has, and we ended up with a new Max Wedge. We've always run Mopars, since the early sixties when we started. Does that mean we aren't traditional?
BTW, if I had a SBC sitting around on my garage floor, I'd use it too.
(for a boat anchor)

 

You bet you bippy.
I'm not sure what a bippy is but somefolks must have one.

Actually I prefer jaded.

 

My two cents...

Both tradition and brand loyalty have a place in hot rodding. Ingenuity and creativity are important also. While I tend to be brand loyal personally, I like to think I'm combining the parts best suited to my objectives.

When you choose a motor from column A and a body/frame from column B I'd like to think its more than they were both in the same shop, and that the combination of those two pieces will result in some thing that will out perform other cars in at least some respect.

To me an important part of this hobby is thinking through how the various pieces will combine to produce superior results.

So I'm putting a Cadillac 500 into an old GMC because I want to pull a trailer with it. The massive torque at relatively low speed means it should perform much better than a SBC, the original Jimmy six or most other gasoline options in the same application. Swapping motors should be about achiving those superior combinations of pieces.

And since I had both the GMC and the Caddy motor, why not?

 

Here's my motto: build whatever you want, not what other people think you should build.......unless they want to donate the cash/parts.

 

Question is. why is brand loyality so important when building a HOT ROD which traditionally is a light car with the biggest motor that on can afford period!!!

Its not important to everybody, Build what ever you want.

Lots of people will spout an opinion based on what they know, little or vast and everything they say is based on a "filter" if you will, built from past experience, knowledge and assimilated beliefs or ledgends. Alot of that depends on the type of folks they hang out with.
The more well rounded the individuals experiences are the more they understand .

However I do notice that your projects are somewhat brand orientated and segregated in such a way to keep the big three together. Lincoln in a Ford (fomoco)a Cad in a GMC (gm)a Dodge in a Plymouth.(mopar) Thats pretty conservative.
Mix that shit up !!!!

A man who has owned 200 plus cars surely has sold some, and everybody knows that keeping brands together and pretty close to original preserves the value and helps in resale, yes?

 

First let me say I have no problem putting a SBC in a Studebaker. I'd rather see a Studebaker on the road than sitting in a field or junk yard, and if the SBC gets it there, it's alright with me.

When I bought my '64 Daytona, it was a roller and the idea was just to put a SBC and a T5 in it. But after joining the Studebaker club, I will admit to drinking the Kool-Ade. And after seeing all the SBC's in them, I decided to be different and get a Stude engine for it. So I have a 289-4V to be different. Not a restoration by any means, but still a Stude in a Stude.

Without a lot of spare parts in my garage, I can put in what I want. I will say that the script "Chevrolet" and "Corvette" valve covers are the best ever. Makes a Mopar guy a little jealous.

 

Well I get rip for this.. But I hate to walk up to a old ford or mopar and see a Chevy in it.. If it a Chevy well that's fine.. putting a SBC in you old ford is just a cheap cop out.. sorry that's just how I feel.. OK go ahead beat me up...