How to Build a Hot Rod With Your Mind TECH!

Yep, every newb ought to read this post. As I work on my first build, I realize how much discipline and mental exercising it requires and I love it. My wife can relate when I explain that its like playing chess or solving a puzzle.

 

Sam, what a brilliant post - the mind IS the most important factor in not only building high quality rides, but in planning/executing your LIFE ITSELF.

You MUST be able to visualize the finished car and keep focussing on that mental image as you put it together. If you focus on the potholes, you'll probably full into them.

But this is NOT enough - you MUST have the technical ability to carry out that visualisation to the letter. If there are some aspects to the projects construction where you feel your competency level is not as good, DO NOT attemp to do it yourself if you don't have the skill - its much smarter in the long run to either learn the skills or PAY (thats right PAY) someone else to carry out what you have already visualised to the LETTER.

Too many guys havent cut their teeth on stuff and find it all gets too hard and their focus gets diverted by other"endeavours". BTW, my ride "cost" me two girlfirends who werent sympathetic to my dream at all. Guess they were'nt for me anyways.....

Rat

 

Franks, I think it might be because you tend to overlook dates. You know how we women are about dates.........birthdays, first dates, when this thread was originally posted.

 

Hahahaha

 

Hey Brandy...no overlookin dates here.

Never forgot birthdays, anniversaries etc....were just the wrong ones for me thats all....saw the ride as competition, not as a part of me.

Oh well,Cie est a vie

And thas Frankie to you little lady !! lmao

Morire solo è di morire due volte wtf ???

Rat


Rat

 

I build hot rods just fine I dont even need a square or a tape.. I need someone to teach me how to brush my teeth and make my bed ??? and tie my shoes.. brush my hair and color match my clothes.. well not really all my shirts are black tee shirts..

 

I know you sons o guns missed me.

 

Hi guys!

In the last year and three months I've gone through some changes to my stable... jeez... and if you would have told me that I would own the cars I own now, a year ago... I would have said you were NUTS!

I finished the '65 truck... the owner loves it.

I've vowed to NEVER EVER EVER take on a restoration/rodification of another vehicle for another person... again.

I sold my Model A that I've owned for 11 years, and my dad 6 years before that, and my grandpa owned it 15 years before that!

My dad built a model A in 1972, we rode around in it as kids all over the country, and then he sold it 15 years ago... which was 4 years before he passed away... well, I found it on e-bay earlier this year... and bought it! (that's why I sold the other one) It's STOCK, and will stay that way.

I started on the '55... got it running for the Kingdon Drags in October, and have it down for some upgrades right now.

I am currently working on a Model A speedster to sell for a little car money... it's an old chassis that I had... and a buddy framed out the body and then lost interest in the project.

My good buddy Tim bought a '40 convert that we'll start in at the first of the year... get it going for the summer...

I bought another bobber project, and will sell the unit motor one... to get it going... I'll tag-team this with Tim's '40...

And I've been saving/finding some juicy parts up for the Model T build.

Sam.

The '55... more to come, when it runs again.

Here's the Speedster pile... it'll get the '29 shell, and a skinned, then sold

The coupe the day I sold it... I miss it.

The Model A... sitting next to Tim's roadster... basically un-touched since '73

The Model A in 1973 after dad finished it.


And you'll have to wait to see the T...

 

Still consider this Thread to be the best TECH ever on this forum.......can't believe you sold the coupe.....

Cheers,

Drewfus

P.S. if you ever want to sell the chev.....

 

i missed this initially. ...and just what i needed to read right about now. the only thing that's missing is a mention of the roach rod. i still think that was one of the most influential builds i've seen. i stored this video someone made some time ago - it speaks for itself....

http://raaf.com/hamb/donut.mov


thanks.

 

The Roach Rod was a great car.

Just last night... after a rough day at work, I thought to myself "I sure wish I had the Roach Rod" to drive around to get my mind off of things.

 

Sam-

I like your posts. You seem like a sharp guy. But selling that A coupe was freakin dumb!!

You better have something good lined up!

take care
dv

 

really really old... but BTTT... this thread is a goldmine for the mind

Really lights a fire under the ass!!

 

Thanks for bumping this to the top. I was not a member when it was first posted.

Words to live and die by if your a real Hot Rod enthusiast!

 

Nice to see this post back again, there's a whole new audience for it now. I can't improve on Sams original, but I'd like to add that FEAR keeps a lot of people from building their dream also. I found that if you're afraid to do something for fear that you'll screw it up, or not do it the "correct" way or someone won't like the way you did it, then just start doing it. If you have the basic idea of what you want to do just do it. You can fix any mistakes you make. It scares the hell out of many people to take a Sawzall to a real car!!. Just cut the friggin' roof off, then you GOTTA fix it!. When my wife and I bought our first house we decided we wanted a door in the back of the house where a window was. One day I took out the window and cut a door size hole in the house. I told the wife' "Well, now I gottta fix it, might as well put a door there", I was 23 then and it still works for me now...

 

Yep, gotta agree, great post!

 

Everybody says for the young guys to hangout with the old guys and learn, well I'm one of the old guys and I like hanging out with the young guys because they help me get motivated to do things. I have as much fun watching them learn as they do learning. Without them around I wouldn't be getting as much done as I am. Thanks guys !!!

 

Great Post, but Take the time to do things with your family and get them involed with cars. It will help make time to work on your hotrod. As far as money to work on it with DRIVE an OLD CAR and don't make a new car payment and you also save on insurance. Use the money your not spending on car an insurance payments on your hotrod...........

 

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!!

I used to do that one night a week thing but fell out of the habit when I moved and kinda never got back into it. Then I started working killer hours at the custom shop building everybody else's dreams. But since reading it I got a few of my local car guy type buddies (not Hamb guys but car guy's none the less) and put together the Wed night Beaver Co. car club. We take every wed night and go to one of the guys shop and build his junk!! I then work on my junk every Sat. Well since I first read this post about 1 week ago I got my shop all cleaned up put the cab up on a body dolly, built a frame plate, bought the steel, got it all cut and fitted for the frame, got it mounted to the plate and ground all prepped for welding, one of the other guys has a CNC plamsa cutter at work so he is making me all the gussets and fish plates for the frame. and this Wed is my junks turn so I should have a cab sitting on a frame by the end of the night. Thanks again for helping to make my hobby/obsession, into my full time bill paying job, back into somthing i just LOVE doing again!!! Keith

 

Great post!

You might add that knowledge isn't something we are born with, we aquire it through mistakes and acomplishments!

All of us expiercend guys and gals need to take the time to pass along some of our knowledge.

 

I think C9 just compared Sam to Jesus? I don't remember Jesus concerned about keeping the "pussy gods" happy. But hey, it made me chuckle!

 

This is just what I needed to read to get back out there!

 

excellent timing, I was starting to run out of steam. This was mostly due to last week I came to the realization that I have to start my rod all over again. This time I will get it right, safe and exactly as I want it. I hope. Thanks for the inspiration!

 

AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME, this is such a great post. I cant say how many times I have gotten frustrated but just had to step back and see what the problem was and if I couldnt fix the problem not be scared to ask for help and to learn.

 

Execellent post. Much to ponder. It kinda describes my path in hot rodding life. Nobody in my family was into cars or mechanical stuff. I made the effort to learn the skills needed to create the type of car I wanted. Still learning!
One point I did not see was that in addition to learning the skills you need to be able to recognize your limitations as well. Not everyone will be able to do everything on a build themselves so you need to be able to step back and realive it is time to call in help. It is not a crime not to be able to do it all!

Tim

 

Time to resurrect an old post...BTT!

 

this is some of the best.

 

It's PsyCARology.

 

Well said MiKEY!!

 

Extremely old thread brought back to life,but isn't that where most of our builds take place.

Day dreaming about them or dreaming about them they all start as a idea and you can build it over and over till you visualize the right look.

The hard part is duplicating what's in your head. HRP