Ryan, Great blog on a sweet old fashioned hot rod! Several of your lines like ...." There’s nothing fancy, fussy, or vain about it… It’s just a casual hot rod built to be driven hard." in your blog describe exactly my goal in building my old school 32 coupe that we recently finished and posted here. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/street-rodder-features-my-32-coupe.945829/ Thanks again for your support & encouraging words on my build too! 32 Spitfire- High Noon Speed Shop
I like it a bunch, but I personally couldn't hang with the flat tall stance. Historically, the un-dropped axle and tall flat stance was part of the immediate post war era, and back at a time when coupes and sedans didn't run at SCTA type meets. 'Course, these was Russetta and Cal-Neva up north and such that did, but to my mind that stance would be better served on a roadster. Coupled with a deep chop, it looks a bit ungainly to my eye. I'd probably slide it forward and era to the early fifties and a dropped axle and such, but that's just me.
Love all the small touches that set this thing apart( the firing order heads, the column drop, the rawness on the backing plates, etc.), lotsa thought and scrounging instead of cubic bucks. I guess it's called effort (aka work) and it works for this little bugger!
To build a car in order to appeal to "the magazines" is an excersize in futility. There's always somebody with longer green and better connections. That's why many of us resort to the earliest of magazines when hot rodding was a reflection of the owner's ingenuity, and such hardcover publications as Don Montgomery's History of Hot Rodding Series for inspiration. This coupe could easily fit into either publishing venue. I just spent the weekend at the DFW Goodguy's event and came away somewhat disillusioned at the almost total lack of traditional hot rods in the vast sea of street rods, contemporary customs and street machines. Is this a comment on the success the publications have had shaping the hobby into a "culture of consumerism"? I think so. It does my heart good to see a car such as this one, built with few commercial pieces relying instead on modifications done the old fashioned way in the old fashioned style. The H.A.M.B. as its been recently redefined is a great refuge for those of us who just don't "get" billet, high tech and bought'n stuff any more than is necessary on our cars. It's also a great place to come to see cars we can honestly identify with - not as drooling window shoppers but as active participants in the nearly forgotten hobby of "hot rodding".
My kind of Hot Rod too, truly nostalgic and stylish , that's kool...Thank Ryan for the blog,true inspiration for me !!!
I'm with you Ryan! I always refer to cars like this as "real hotrods". Hey ... what's this riddler stuff anyway? Isn't he the guy in Batman that always has question marks floating around his head?
As far as hot rods go, I see stances as such (from lowest to tallest): 1. Slammed 2. Low 3. Super Athletic 4. Athletic 5. Tall 6. Stock I'd call this one "Athletic" as it has a nice rubber rake. Either way, I really like how she sits and can see it tearing ass down a dirt road or something...
I love following him on instagram! The fact that he drove it way out to the hotrod hill climb, came home and only a few days later hit the road for another long trip to TROG makes it a million times cooler. Something like 7,000 miles on that car this month alone!
Ryan, I'm sure I can say without reservation that the Keith Tardel built cutie you have parked in your garage had absolutely no influence on your attraction to this superb example of early hot rodding.........Right? Frank
and to think I am pulling an 8BA out of my '39 convert and replacing it with a rocket... "super athletic" hell...I am aiming for "sweaty jockstrap"...
Yikes ! For real ? There is another that looks like this one ?? Did I miss that somewhere? Damn it, I'm always so friggin' late...in this joint ! Yes sir, that is a righteous ride there. I'd lick the door handles for sure.
I like it, to me it says " I'm building a hotrod today, and I'm going to do the best I can with what I've got". Chip,I think you just dont like it cause he only sprung for one row of louvers. LOL.
This car proves again. Traditional period Rods from the 30"s -50's were cool, are cool, and will always be cool. You can have all the parts but you gotta feel how they go together.
"There’s nothing fancy, fussy, or vain about it… It’s just a casual hot rod built to be driven hard". Very nice coupe.
The magazines continue to lose circulation, this is a perfect example of why they have lost touch with the people who really care about cars, and don't build with a credit card instead of tools. Ryan- you have an eye for quality, and that is a car that will always be in style.
Well... There is that! I do like it, I just think the stance is kinda in the wrong era for what it is built to be.
Lets not leave out the fact that Jim hand brushed this paint job in his garage using a oil based paint. The brush he used cost more than the can of paint! Great guy, great skills! Well done!
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