History Feeling Nostalgic about Nostalgia or remembering the Traditional hot rod boom of the 90's

Interesting to think wistfully about the traditional revival of twenty years ago.

Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.

 

The 90's was almost 30 years ago.

 

I reread some of this thread and thought I needed to clear some things up.
I am a purist I like car that look like they rolled out of 1948 or 1962 ect... I know some people who like the style of a traditional car, but wanted some modern parts "newstalgia".
These guys know and understand their cars are not period correct. I do not object to anyone building this style car.
My objection is to the people who have these style cars and then preach what is and isn't traditional.

I do not like to tech-no rods but I have respect for the work that goes in any build.

 

There is a Buick V6 in the T Tudor in my avatar. Not my first choice, but it was there when I bought the car. It runs great, moves the car pretty good and I see no reason to change it, but I do keep my hood closed.

 

Nothing wrong with that engine other then being non traditional for this forum. It had its origins as a Indy engine as an all aluminum block and heads and was later used in the cast iron version in the NASCAR Grand National Series which was the second tier behind the Cup cars. The turbocharged version was used in the production Buick Grand National. Later in life was used by British Rover in cars and SUV’s. Actually there is quite a bit of speed equipment made for those engines and they can make pretty respectable horsepower.

 

Great movie-

https://choppertown.vhx.tv/packages/desperate-generation/videos/desperate-generation

 

Insightful input from all posters, just the way a forum is supposed to work.....Lots of folks with their ears to the ground, so to speak. Opinions from just about every perspective in the game. It's always an eye-opener reading the heartfelt stuff from the guy opening the thread, and then watching the directions in which it travels, and the multitude of alterations which transpire. Makes this place interesting I guess, from a human perspective and I suppose it should demonstrate some sort of value somehow. The reality is that it's a highly focused sounding board, good for therapy, opinions, nostalgia for the love of "old" iron from the eras each treasures most. Don't turn yer backs boys.....I think there's a lotta cats out there not posting on this deal, or anywhere else, making cars , trucks bikes, trikes ......they don't give a rat's ass what anybody thinks, bout' what is or was, or how they built it. They wanna go fast, go hard, and shake our perspective so hard shit falls off us into their dust......................Just like you all have done.

 

Ahhh, the Doll Hut (R.I.P) and the Lucky Devils making a group run to Oak Glen during apple season..... I'm still going there (although never in a group ). Young Big Sandy and Jimmy White..........I'm starting to grow into my name.

 

Also the 90's is when I got to meet, Roth, Winfield and Williams at Pleasanton. Funny meeting your newly found heroes amongst a backdrop of street rods......I also found my first 3 Robert Williams prints there at the swap meet and my mom bought me a numbered and autographed print of his for my birthday there also.

 

Thanks for reminding us.....ugh. It seems like a couple months.

 

Petejoe with a little editing

In my old age...
Grant me the senility to forget the cars I never liked.....
the good fortune to see the ones I do like.....
and the eyesight to see the "build".

 

All I ever remember is street rods.
Here in the south, a trad looking car is super rare.
80s up billet laden rides. Some done in monochrome. Tweed insides (ewwww)
I see more flathead, nailheads, 6s ....... now than I did n my younger years.
I have since cast away my desires for gaudy tilt columns, cheesy billet wheels and accessories.
However, I enjoy a period correct car as much as a well built modern “touring” hot rod. There’s something cool about a car capable of 200 mph that handles like a Porsche and can idle all day in traffic with the AC on.
(I have no plans to build one like that for me personally but I enjoyed those in my former pro shop days)
The purist will always be in style now as that period in time has become appreciated again.
Will the billet laden, monochrome, pastel pro street look come back? Possible. I’m not looking forward to it but to each his own.
Whatever was popular in your youth will become popular again as that generation feels nostalgic about their youth.
That is happening with me as I build the mini truck I wish I could have when in my early 20s
Hopefully, after that itch is scratched, I will start on my Merc. My years of saving up old parts might get to be conglomerated into something cool. I wish I had built it earlier but as my tastes have changed I would not have been happy with that 90s era style build.

 

I'm 36 and I smiled at your post. That was my point of entry, too. When I was 15 I knew I liked olds cars and had an affinity for the 50s era stuff, but had no real direction. I liked Mike Ness and Social D and my girlfriend at the time got me HRD#1 with the Choppers and Mike Ness on the cover. Seeing Ness's '54 and the Choppers' cars was a watershed moment for me. It was like, this path of customs and rods is where you want to be.

I too was at the Road Agent's shows in the early 2000s with my car and club. It was fun then! But we were kids, just learning the way. The rat rod thing hadn't blown up yet, and even the chopper thing was just getting going, which I think sort of went hand-in-hand with the cars at the time (Motorcycle Mania with Jesse James had only recently come out). Guys who were into rods and customs then were lifers. It wasn't trendy yet, so the people there were living and breathing it. It wasn't a fad. Now there is a trendy, hipster element to hobby, especially the very early stuff. We're also all older now and have been working on stuff for 20+ years now. We're not newbs in the hobby. We also have more access to resources in every way. More access to information with the internet. More access to aftermarket parts and access to used vintage parts from all over the world. More access to resources in terms of tooling and modern build quality. And since we're all older and established, more access to money to make it all feasible.

But is was fun then, for sure.

 

I was in Walmart today and there was only one car magazine on the rack and I don't mean one publication. A single copy of Hot Rod there were no other automotive magazines on the shelves! That was it one copy of Hot Rod!

If it hadn't been for seeing Hot Rod Deluxe in the store twenty years ago I wouldn't have been exposed to period correct Hot Rods.
In about '99 or '00 I was flipping through a Street Rodder magazine and saw an article by Rob Fortier about the Choppers, the Shifters and other people my age or a little older who were building period correct car!
I live in a very rural small town ( 700 people) as high school kid who wore engineer boots, cuffed blue jeans listened to Buddy Holly and wanted to build hot rods that article was a "Holy Shit" moment "I am not the only one."

I started reading Street Rodder, which is how I discovered Rod & Custom and that there were east coast hot rod events.

 

About ‘99 was when I found this place and lurked for a few years. I think I have the first 3 HRD issues and a letter from Aaron. It was pretty overwhelming going to the early Vivas, all the cars you like and everyone dressed up in vintage attire, total time warp.

 

That was a lot of fun! I think that was the first time I’ve seen it! I remember seeing some of the guys and there cars around.
I was never part of the “scene” but was on the out skirts. I got my
License in 93 so I was a little younger than some of the guys. We would hang out at Bob’s (both Glendale and Burbank) and looked up to the choppers and the shifters who were a little older. It was a little hard because my mentors were “old” late 30’s - early 40’s Vietnam vets who were jr stock and gasser guys who consequently thought the rockabilly stuff was dumb and weren’t shy about saying it. I at the time was more interested in street racing than flatheads but still liked the looks of the cars.
By the time I had a car that would have fit the “scene” 21 yrs old and off to the Navy I went then war. Came home, Glendale Bob’s was gone, never made it to Paso but moved from the Valley to Bakersfield where the March Meet and HRR was big! Things have slowed down quite a bit, stuff got way expensive and the guys in that video got old (not me, just them! Lol) and now that I can actually afford some of the stuff I don’t seem to have time to do anything!
Anyways, rant over. Loved the movie!

RIP John D House! He would have loved it!

Scott


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Here is some nostalgia. John (left) wasn’t much of a car guy but he was a big part of what was going on in Southern California! He had to get a waiver to join the Navy because of all his tattoos! Lol

It’s never fun to have to burry a shipmate but we did. John didn’t make it home. Every one was suppose to bring their cars......if I remember right we were the only ones that did.
Glenn on the right was part of the north east scene. He Parked his 57 Buick in front of my house on base until they made us move it. Apparently you were not supposed to restore cars in the street on a marine corp base....who knew




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The revival was a total 180 degree flip from what the hobby had become. It was so pure and basic. Real, too. So many rods had become fat with add ons and trendiness That the basic car and it's build were lost. ''Less icing, more cake'' became very appealing. HRD opened a lot of eyes.

 

Magazines set the stage and trends that were the rage then. I remember alot of the trends... Easter egg paint, tweed interiors... barf... I always laughed at 99% of them. I know my tastes have changed alot over the years, but 30s stuff ever since I was a kid always peaked my interest. The revival here in houston back then wasn't much vs what happened elsewhere. Few cars at autorama came in with tradition pure basics and some were laughed at for a while. You can put a hit and miss engine in the middle of pro street cars and I will watch that hit and miss run for an hour vs the dumb stuff that was the rage, still the same to this day. The RR phase at the first was the revival phase 2, started as low buck jalopy's, unfinished cars, no easter egg paint, I remember watching people with jean shorts and velcro shoes thumb their nose at jalopy's... I think that reaction made that phase blow up to now rolling trinket store cast away's.

I have had a few vehicles, my builds somewhat normally fel into 60s style, big motors, aluminum wheels etc. Then as time has gone on the 50s style grabbed me, did one that way, now im big into pre war or late 40s style...

Its funny how I always wanted a model a with a flathead, but never wanted to spend the money on a built flathead. Yeah I'm a cheap ass in some ways, but now I have a flatty powered A. What's funny is the guys with 6 figure cars, mostly 32-36 cars now pulled sbc out, or have flatty's that have 20k of parts sitting on top. Its the new rich mans game, Arden Heads etc... I respect em for what they are, thankfully people are keeping things going etc like this. The big money builds are cool to see. I myself love a car that doesn't cost more than most peoples 401k funds.

End of the day, even those "prostreet" builds can be reversed to a traditional car, most things can be fixed or changed back, its not easy, but if the love is there, most people can resurect a pile of rust off the floor to a car.

This shit is timeless.... The age gaps these cars bridge is a beautiful thing.

 

I definitely remember the older guys from the Burbank Road Kings kinda looking down on the guys from the Burbank Choppers. I don’t know for sure but that might be where the term “rat rod” came from which was far from the truth. I’m no expert on any of that stuff but I was there for some of it. It was fun to watch!


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I agree with your statement about resources, my skill level, income and access to tools has greatly increased from when I was in my teens and early twenties.

However they have been far out paced by my access to early parts. Between June 2000 the year I graduated high school and October 2002 when I started Modern Welding School. I worked part time delivering auto parts, and latter full time as a parts runner/lube, oil, filter man at a Ford dealer.

I don't think either job paid $8.00 per hour, in that era I remember F-1 steering boxes in the $10.00 to $20.00 dollar range same with speed equipment it was not uncommon to see a multiple carb intake anywhere from $75.00 to $100.00.

Today the F-1 boxes are around $100.00-$200.00 and intakes are starting at $750.00 to over $1,000.00. I have a good job with good pay but to keep pace with what these parts are going for today I would have to be making $80.00 per hour and I am no where near that rate of pay.

I am not saying they are out of my price range but that inflation is huge on these parts.

 

The 90s were much like the 60s. People were making money and building cars and houses..

 

I hear you. I don't think the same inflation has held true for post-war cars and parts though. For those of us who really dig on that era, it has made some really nice cars very accessible.

I remember one year (2004?) some dude trailered a really decent 32 5W roller to the Road Agent's Rumble in Hartford with a for sale sign on it. Basically complete car with a non-running flatty in it. Was asking $10K and I thought he was out of his mind. I guess that was an easy conclusion when my broke ass had about $200 to my name.

 

I, too, remember The Road Agents shows. Two of my sons were members of The Road Agents car club.
Now at age 81, I enjoy speaking with the younger crowd. The younger guys are just late model versions of us older guys. They have their acts together, and are not afraid to listen to what we have to say. I recently attended an auction in York, Pennsylvania, and after the auction, another old timer, 76 years old, a former car club mate of mine from the 1960's spent about an hour with three early 30's guys shooting the bull, and telling old stories. When we were parting, the younger guys thanked us for the time we spent with them. They told us that most older guys looked down on them, and wouldn't spend time talking to them. You other old guys should get with the program, this is the future of our hobby. I know that I appreciated their thanks for spending our time with them.

 

Or that you trailered your car. Trailers were (still are) for horses. Other than racing events there are too many trailers at events today.

 

I found many of the older timers hot rod and oval tracker to be stand offish but never rude or felt like I they were looking down their noses at me.

Once I showed the old time guys (like yourself @nickthebandit) I knew and understood the history behind the cars, and that I wanted to know more they were more then happy to talk to me.

 

Thanks for the compliment Robert. How are you and your father doing ? I miss seeing you two at the the swap meet at the dealership in New York.

 

And all thanks to a bloke from the UK who brought the concept he started at Hemsby 10 years earlier to the USA with him
I was over in LA in spring '97, and spent a couple of days with Tom catching up on old times since he'd moved from UK to USA, and at that time he'd just got back from Vegas having booked everything for the first Viva in '98. I couldn't make it over for the first one, but came back over for the 2nd one in '99, and came back again with the missus for VLV in 2005. Saw a big change in the event though between '99 and '05

 

We are doing very well he and I are still hunting parts and building.