How many of you guys are using tractor grilles on the front of your rod .

Deathtrap Kustoms? How is business? Seems like the sign out front might scare them away.

 

Yeah I second that, They belong on a tractor not a car

 

No no no no no...ugh.

 

Im sure there are a few "traditional" experts on here. This is the reason for the forum...and not for the flavor of the month FadRodder. I claim to be an expert on nothing but I think that traditional would mean the way they used to do it. The best I have heard it told was on a movie...I forget which one...but it was Mercury Charlie saying that if you took a picture from 1955 and put the car in that picture and it didn't look out of place the car was right. I guess in other words a car in a picture from 1955 wouldn't have a crate 350 and Boyd Coddington wheels.

 

I used to think that an Oliver grill on a rod would be so cool but now I think that tractor grills usually end up on craprods and they aren't all that cool.

It may be one of those things that if you were the first guy to ever do it it was cool but if you are Joe Followtail it isn't cool at all.

 

I don't think people put ridiculous looking zoomies on their cars, or skulls and cheetah print everywhere. How is that traditional? The truth of the matter is that anyone can build a rat rod, even fad followers.

 

I think Death Trap hit the nail on the head in post #17.

 

just picture it this way - are you gonna put a 2007 john d. grill on your 94' honda accord? just because it got xenon lights? - NO! tractors are tractors and cars are cars. If you wanna be custom, fab something own to impress chicks

 

Guys used to make tractors out of their old Model A's. So use a Model A "tractor" grille.


By the way, if I hang a toilet on the front of my car and then put a mounted buck's head in place of the seat, does that mean I have a John Deere grille on there?

 

I cannot remember anyone around my area ever talking about or saying the seen someone having tractor grilles, fender, hoods etc on hot rods back in the 40's-50's-60's. A couple years ago my dad and I went to a show that had more than a fair share of rat rads....and my dad thought they were nothing more than junk shit that should not have been allowed in the show, let alone someone actually drove the damn things. He said there may have been a couple of farm guys who built doodle bugs out of either a tractor or mix of tractor and trucks, but never anything that was to be considered a hot rod.

Stop and think about what was around in the 40's and 50's and even into the sixties, and there was no ned to put rediculous shit together because there was more than enough of it still around. My dad told me about buying A's and T's for 10-20 bucks, you could get the bigger 30's coupes for 35-75 bucks. There also was not as much rust in everything back then, so just because you find some old shell lying around, through together a little hot rod without fenders, more than likely an A grille and whatever drivetrain you had, it wasn't a rusted out POS like a lot of the crap being touted as an old hot rod today. I'm all for some of the cars being built in an old stlye, but at least have enough pride/decency to do a little bit of body work and fill in the rusty shit.

Hey, if you have pictures or can find some of cars that were built in the 40's-60's that are like todays rat rods or whatever you guys want to call that stuff, PLEASE POST IT TO PROOVE THAT WAS THE WAY GUYS BUILT THEM BACK THEN. It would be interesting to se just how many were built that way in those days.

 

i just didn't see how panhead pete could say without a doubt that "no traditional style rods wore tactor grills". and for zombie on post 29 great sketches. i don't think a lot of people would even know they are tractor grills without being told. and yes antny i liked death traps reasoning in 17 also.

 

why is this still open?

 

Some of you guys have no imagination. It may not seem traditional, but a lot of old hot rods didn't use car grills. A lot of guys custom built their own just to have something different, so what's the big leap to finding something that looks good and using it? If a tractor grill looks good on the car like it does on many of the above examples, who cares where it came from. You can only look at so many 32 grills before it becomes very boring.
I think some of you are so sensitive to the whole rat rod thing, that you're letting it cloud your imagination. In my opinion, a tractor grill does not a rat rod make. just 2 pennys.

 

...because Ryan's still working on the server.

I wish I had a nickel for every thread where the question "What's traditional?" is brought up...I'd have a lot of nickels.

The sketches with the tractor grilles looked nice, but you can tell they're tractor grilles, the difference is that they are formed into the tractor hood into neat little single seaters, not some hacked up, hawked up piece of junk.

 

Ok time for me to bow out of this thread. I will say the pics I put up were of a hot rod built by 2 mates out in the shed, using parts on hand. It has some trad elements, but is not a trad build in the sense that you would see one like it in the 1940-50-60s. <o>
..
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</o>

 

First of all what does a 94 accord have to do with anything? Would you ever put a 94 accord grill on a 32 Ford? No, that's just stupid. If you have grill that flows with the body lines and the style of the car or truck what does it matter what it came from? What's the different from a one-off custom grill and a grill that was not meant for the specific application? Most people who bitch about stuff like this are mad they didn't think of it.

ANYONE CAN PUT A ROD TOGETHER WITH INSTRUCTIONS AND BOLT ON PARTS. CAN YOU REVERSE A STEERING BOX? CAN YOU CHOP A RIDE? CAN YOU MAKE A RADIUS ROD THAT DOESN'T COME OFF THE SHELF? INGENUITY IS WHAT IT'S ABOUT. FINDING NEW WAYS TO DO THINGS. IN 1958 WERE GUYS BUILDING 1932 FORDS FOR STYLE OR "TRADITIONALISM" OR WERE THEY BUILDING THEM TO DRIVE AND TO DRIVE FAST?

People need to re-define hot rodding if they want to be in their own class because as far as I'm concerned hot rodding is about building a bad ass car or truck that you can drive the shit out of!

Hot Rods, Street Rods, Rat Rods... there all rods. The question is how much did YOU learn from building YOUR rod because if you think you know it all YOUR WRONG!

 

Fuck tractor grills, I'm using one off a Jet ski. Its gonna be the new rage, I know I'll be shoveling the poon off my car like snow then. It'll be so sweet!!

 

Is that how you put it to the guys over at Killbillit.com where you are a "Senior Member"?

It's a traditional forum here, meaning, quite simply, that cars built and designed as they were during that era, not how they would be designed today.

We're given a lot of latitude within that definition, but not so much as to find ourselves at the end of the spectrum so brilliantly illustrated on your other chosen forum.

 

electrodude, he asked how many people are using tractor grills. not how many people are looking to talk about hacked up hawked up pieces of junk. also it seems that vintage sprint cars are welcome here, i have a neighbor that raced in the 40's-50's and he used the aluminum hoods that came on 8n ford tractors. he said most people that had them didn't care if the tractor had aluminum or steel so he would swap them out. "necessity" the mother of invention. and yes if he has pics i will post.

 

Can't tell a joke when you see it eh?

33Half Evil I'll have to go out in the shed and dig out that special that show the photo of the guys pushing the "shot rod" I think into the grounds of one of the speed shops of the era and back up exactly what you said.

 

he asked a loaded question. anyone familier with this site could dig up any number of closed posts related to this same subject. Even more have probably been deleted.

We here at the Hamb dont care about tractor grills on cars. We think its dumb. If you think otherwise thats ok too, just dont post it here.

 

I know this is a traditional sight for I have taken my lumps for asking questions that don't apply here. I don't think tractor grills apply here........... BUT I'm still curious as to why the "traditionalists" as you call yourselves chat on a site called JALOPY JOURNAL. What is the definition of a JALOPY? Yet if your ride's not built with chrome suspension parts and a $10,000
motor then your not welcome.

Maybe they should rename this site to fit the crowd.

 

Being a newbie I also wonder where is the line drawn or is it blurry? I'm not a fan at all of rat turds but what's traditional. Right now there is a multi page thread on S10 frame swaps. No S10's in the 40's and 50's. No Mustang II's for front ends. What about fuel injection? Is it just what it looks like from the outside? Just curious.

 

blt2go, if you are talking about the original poster, yes he did, and you might have noticed that I never responded to what he wrote, because honestly, I didn't have anything to contribute.

I stepped in when you asked "What is Traditional?" If you've read around here much you'd know that your question is a loaded one that always ends in drama.

My response to Kelseydum was because he's trying to define "traditional" in a manner that fits those "hawked up junkers" under the umbrella of the Hamb, and it isn't going to happen. I'm not the one who will stop it, the owner of this board will. This is his house, not ours. I don't know about you, but when I'm in someone elses house I don't kick his dog or piss on the toilet seat.

 

maybe the crowd that doesnt get it should move on to the next fad.

 

Ryan could you pause working on the servers and end this bullshit pissing contest.

 

Not to pick a fight or anything...just thought I would use some of my tractor knowledge...but an 8n never had an aluminum hood. It was the first few hundred of the 9n's in early 1939 that had an aluminum hood. Henrys steel stamping tools weren't ready for production yet. Just thought I would use that bit of trivia I just saw an opportunity.

 

Ryan..knock,knock....You out there????

 

Let me ask again... What is the definition of a JALOPY?

 

clap clap clap, about time. too much bickering thank you for saying this