Projects My new project...Survivor channeled Deuce Roadster

The bottom line to this "debate" is the fuckin' car doesn't fit the tall drink of water. Since the purpose of owning any car is to drive it, the resolution should be a no brainer. Make it fit YOU so it will be a joy to drive, and shove the negatory comments up anyone's stack who disagrees. See you at the Lonestarroundup in Austin next year. Great find ! !

 

A hot rod you can't drive just isn't much fun. It is cool that it survived intact but maybe the reason it did is that it just wasn't a pleasure to look at or drive, which is probably why a thousand other guys walked by it. When we see a car that is built that doesn't please the eye, most of us voice our opinions and would change it in a heartbeat. Just because this one survived still doesn't make it the equivalent of a trend setting hot rod that did. Offer it to those that want to preserve it as is, and if no one steps up, make it your own. It's not like you are going to change the flavor of it all that much, you are just going to right the wrongs of the past!

 

Great find! I'll go through all my Hartford Autorama programs and see if there are any photos. It is what it is, everyone wants to upgrade of modify a car to fit them and their idea of how it should look. Your car and call, but I sure wouldn't get rid of one piece you remove from it, down the road someone may want to change things back. This is part of the "Caretaker" roll owners of documented period pieces have IMO.Bob

 

One question, do you currently own a hot rod that is a comfortable driver? If yes why not just preserve this roadster as is and be a custodian of a true east coast survivor? and say in 1 year you want to change it, change it.

Otherwise you just bought a less than 22k gennie '32 roadster project.

 

I wonder if 50 years from now, someone will be agonising about the best thing to do with an ugly-assed channelled to death Rat Rod pick up truck that was built in 2010?

 

I Like it Cool

 

The fender law was strictly 100% enforced right through the late 60s in CT where it was built. That is likely the only reason it was built with some sort of quicky fenders lacking style.

The bumper law was "almost" enforced as much, and some guys just ran a piece of 1"dia. straight water pipe to beat the law. Often painted black, so it would not show as much.

The fenders and nerfs on that Ct car, might not have been added, if the builder was not forced to do something here.

 

So exactly how much would you have to unchannel it and make it fit you? That thing must be channelled about 10 inches or a foot. Imagine if it had about a 4" channel - not even the depth of the frame. With careful seat construction you would be able to drive it in comfort, and it would still be a channelled east coast car.

The windshield is really goofy and could be improved a lot, it wouldn't need to be so high if the body wasn't channelled so much.

I personally don't like the oddball spring in front look. It spoils the whole aesthetic of the car. A dropped axle with reversed eye spring over could sort out the front end and increase the wheelbase and look a lot better. It's only bolt on stuff.

You could keep the car essentially the same, fix some of the overdone stuff (the extra deep channel and the setback axle) and if you kept the paint and other identifiers it would still be recognisably the same car.

In essence, think of it this way, what would you have to do to it so it would sell immediately at $42,000 bucks at a major show, let alone struggle at $32,000 or even $22,000.

I love it, but even I would have to change it and I'm a shortarse.

Mart.

 

Bob,

It's your car and you put out the hard earned green for it so you can do as you please. I know you are agonizing over what to do but if YOU can't drive it then change it. It's your car.
I wonder if all the naysayers of change even own or drive their own cars. Too many opinion heads here.

 

One thing is for sure in my opinion- thequietwon, you are being pretty cool about the whole ordeal. My hat is off to you. Thanks for providing us an avenue for lively debate and keeping it amicable.

 

Not to derail this thread but MART that is an awesome website you got there! The Pics are amazing!

 

^ this is a great point. I wonder if the laws weren't so strictly enforced back then if the fenders and nerfs would have been left off, much like today? But I suppose it's a moot point, they were put on and I can appreciate the concept of preserving the build/look. I can also appreciate the new owners' desire to change it up to suit his taste/needs.....after all, he threw down some serious coin for it.

 

I crawled all over that car on Friday, and thought the price was reasonable then.

Whatever you decide, good luck.

Rich

 

I am really thinking both sides of this debate are 100% correct, even though the car was built in my home State, and I thought I was a true purist

I love old builds, and rarely ever see one in perfect orig condition, but honestly, I really don't like some features of that car.

I can see the logic of buying it for a cherry orig body and frame, to use as a "new build", especially at that price. But for me, it is in such rare condition as a survivor, I could not cut it up.

The buyer has no plans to flip it, but if it were me, stuck in his sea of mixed thoughts, I'd run this thread for all it's worth. I'd put up any old original pics of it back then, if I had them, and find a dedicated buyer.

If I wanted his car in that perfect condition, and knew he was making 15% instant profit, I would not be thinking he was a scalper. I would say; "thank you for selling me your car, and thanks for not changing it"

 

I'll add some more things to think about...

With the talent on the hamb and the incredibly talented builders with the eye for design and proportion we are limiting our creativity in the hobby. Not everything needs to be preserved, Christ some of us are sounding like the restorers who hate hot rodders who modify a car "that should be restored to stock". I would be more interested in seeing a build with an eye for improving on what someone else started and came up short on. If this was really that significant, somebody would have stepped up and bought it at the swap, or someone on here would have stepped up and bought it over the past 2 days of it being at the top. To me the best parts of hot rodding/customizing is the build and the drive. You guys don't want this to be built and since its uncomfortable it wont get driven. So it will sit in a garage and no one will see it...how does that benefit the hobby?

I look at this car and see great potential to build something great. It reminds me of the Willys Brian Bass found. He's hoping to find the history on it and build it back to how it was...but honestly I would rather see what Bass would do with a willys as a blank canvas. He would make more history for that willys by building something new than restoring a willys that had little history.

I appreciate all the history in this hobby don't get me wrong, but not everything needs to be preserved, things can be improved on.

 

I have a similar dilemma- but on a much smaller scale. On my coupe body, the drivers side roof insert was leaded in by my Dad and his best friend Chris when they were kids. It really looks terrible by today's standards. But no way will I remove it or skim over it if and when I ever put some paint on my coupe. Someday when someone else owns it, and doesn't have that connection, they can redo it if they want to.

 

Even if Sam turned around and sold it at a 15% profit to preserve it he couldn't then turn around and use the money to buy a 32 hiboy project in the same condition, so he would lose out. Strip it down, use the parts and build a trad car using as much as possible from it but starting with an unchannelled body and stock but lowered suspension.

I've wavered back and forth on this one but am now completely in the cut it up camp. Look upon it as raw materials for a kickass trad build. In fact you wouldn't be cutting it up as such but RESTORING some parts of it back to their unmodified condition.

Mart.

 

Its a bitchin car "AS Is".. But I'd take the goofy shit off and make it fit so I could drive it.. What do I know , I own a fuckin Kustom 4 door from the east coast and live in Arizona..

 

A couple pics that I took on Friday.....

 

If Sam posted this car as his latest buils he would be crucified for it.

 

You guys crack me up. I've been on the HAMB for many years and watched many a debate about what to do with a car, some were very short ones. Many times someone got a new car/project and politely asked what to do with it or offered their suggestions or plans for public consumption, all to improve it's look, safety, or overall construction. Everyone that did, made it their own, which is what every builder did over the decades, right or wrong.
First off, this car, although a fine example of East-coast style, was goofy looking from the start. I understand some things were done to satisfy the legal code of the time.
One could paint the fenders and lights the same color as the body and it would dramatically improve the looks of this car. Narrowing the nerf bar would also go a long way to cleaning up the lines of this car.
Neither of these would correct the problem of it's lack of drivability for the present owner. He is the last word since he is the only one to step up to the plate and drop the green for it.
Look at the interior shot. I drive a T roadster and thought I had little leg room. Was this car build for Bilbo?
If this were another 'Doane Spencer' car, it might be right to leave it as-is, but it's not. The problems the now-rightful-owner has defined are real. Although it is a reasonable example of an old hot rod, it may not be a good enough example not to change things for the better. We do that all the time, don't we...

If someone were to step up and offer the right price to 'preserve' it. I'm sure Sam would not have any qualms about letting it go. Until then, last I checked, it's still his car and if he wants to drive the wheels off of it, then some changes will need to be made.
r

 

Well said! ^^^^ It's not the most beautiful car in the world and (gasp!) not every survivor should be spared. JohnnyA

 

I kind of sympathize with the OP. I got a 34 coupe a while back that was somebody's chopped and filled old hotrod. At first I wanted to keep it as is but as I look at the quality some of of the gas welding and shackles cut with a torch I am going to redo most of it.

 

Im a naysayer,and yes i own a true survivor that im keeping as is.
I Think this roadster is really cool and NOT ugly,like the fenders and all that stuff.

 

Every time a thread like this comes up, and people champion leaving the car untouched because "it's an example of how young guys built cars back then!" I have to laugh. Nobody ever puts things in perspective.

Today, there are hot rods built by Roy Brizio and Troy Trepanier, and really quality builds by guys we've never heard of.
There are also thousands of 5.0 Mustangs and Camaros in high school and college parking lots that are wearing 14-inch rims with bulged tires, or worse, 3-spoke aftermarket 15-inch wheels... functional hood pins, but in the wrong location because the kid couldn't fab brackets to put them in the right spot... shopping cart rear wings... under-car lights and rattle-can Lime Green accent paint inside and out...
In 50 years, someone is going to find one of these Mustangs in a garage, under a pile of cardboard boxes and half an inch of dust, pull it out, wash it off and say "Look what I found! A real, customized 5.0 Mustang from back in the day! I remember these all over when I was a kid! I'm going to..."
and a bunch of idiots will say "NO! That's history! You can't change it! That's the way people built cars back then! Not everyone could afford 17-inch wheels, a good exhaust, a good 5-speed a round supercharger and a good paint job! You have to keep it unproportioned and gaudy and poorly constructed because that's how the kid built it back then!"

Ugly is ugly. Poor craftsmanship is poor craftsmanship. Poorly proportioned is poorly proportioned. "Well, it made it 20 years...30 years... 40 years... 50 years... without being corrected, so now it can't be touched."
Correcting someone's mistakes or skill limitations doesn't have an expiration date.

-Brad

 

I don't think this particular car was poorly built, it looks to be nicely built but it has poor proportions.

 

CONGRATS...I spent quite a bit of time checkn this out at the nats. I also noticed the sound body...GREAT CAR! ENJOYYY

 

A lot of valid points both pro and con,,but from my point of view if you can't drive it which I'm afraid the original builder may have realized after many hours of work,,and parked it never to drive it again.

If Sam doesn't change it to suit his taste and make the car drivable all it becomes is a static piece of art. HRP

 

If it were mine.....

I'd have to make it a hiboy and then keep as much of the original stuff as possible...

paint
interior
dash
engine
wheelcovers
etc


Ditch the fenders, nerfs, windshield, etc.

Somebody should photochop what it would look like then.

Rich