Hot Rods We all come in all shapes and sizes ~

Alright,.... I'll play..


I'm usually pretty camera shy, But I'll post this 15 year old picture for effect. I was 6'2" and 235 back when this picture was taken. But when I first met Frank Mack I was only 175 lbs. Frank was only 5'1" and pretty much built his Roadster for him and him alone. He told me "if I could get in his car, I could drive it".... Try as hard as I could, I could get just about everything except my left leg in the drivers side (But I could fit in the passenger side).

As much as I have always wanted to build a 26-27 Roadster, It's Franks Roadster that makes me remember how impractical it is for my build (However I drove a stock 27 Roadster. But! it was anything but comfortable) ....

Unfortunately, I have always wanted to build a 28-29 Roadster as well... But they are pretty tight and uncomfortable for me as well... 1940 and earlier Pick-Up ?..... Not even a consideration now....

Thank goodness for 1932-34 "3/W Coupes !"

 

Sorry George, I really was directing that comment towards the word "lummox".
Would never make a rude comment about someone's sweet little girl.
I really shouldn't eat sweets before going to bed.

 

I can get anything but my shoulders into most cars. I have discovered that I like an ample foot box as my feet have grown from size 9.5 to size 11 since I was in high school. LOL

I am not very tall and have pretty short legs so that is seldom a real problem, but some cars make me feel boxed in. Especially a narrow cab with a passenger, shoulders have always been a problem for me.

 

Its a-ok DDDenny, you gotta have a sense of humour about this stuff. Hey I was the one who called her a lummox. You gotta see her running across the playground in rubber gumboots, long gangly legs and arms flailing in all directions, like some kind of berserk windmill running amok. Hell, she will probably end up being a model.

 

At 6-4 240, I am completely comfortable in my 3.5" chopped coupe. Dakota buckets, lowered seat mounts and no back seat gives 2 people all the room you need. The plus is the huge trunk space!! I've driven 500 miles in it and was completely comfortable. Rear vision, well that's another question! Who looks backwards.

 

I sat in one a while back and I had a hard time getting in the door. (5'9" / 165 lbs.) I didn't like that the seat was against the back wall and my knees were almost against the dash and the wheel was in my face. Good thing I don't have a pot belly!

 

LOL we are the same size more or less. My legs are not real long and that helps.

It sounds a little street roddy but I am thinking that suicide doors are a good idea for us older guys. I may reverse the doors on my A just to make it easier to get in and out.

 

I sat in a 32-34 pickup at last years HAMB DRAGs. The owner had done away with the sear back and had mounted upholstered pads against the back of the cab. It actually felt pretty good. Sure added the extra 3 or more inches of belly and legroom that I needed.

 

A number of years ago I had a 40 Willys pick up. It was tiny. The seat was the back seat out of an Escort station wagon. My wife barely had room for her bag. When I decided to sell it, it appeared that everyone who was interested in it was at least 250# or better. At the NSRA Nats in Columbus I thought we were going to need the Jaws Of Life to extricate an interested customer after a test drive. Why were all these big guys interested in that little car?

Gary

 

This thread makes me think of a race car I built a few years ago. OT car so I won't mention make but it was small, comparable to like a chopped Model A. Built a full 12 point cage, things got tight in a hurry. When I built it I figured it would work, if I could fit at 6'4" I didn't think the owner would have a problem since he's only 6' and about the same build plus it's not like long distant comfort is an issue. He couldn't even get in it, never mentioned to me he had a bad knee that after surgery would only bend about 45 degrees till after I was done! Guess he didn't think it would matter. He expected me to do something about it, I told him I can't make the car bigger and I don't know anything about fixing legs. Told him best he could do is sell it and build something else.

 

This problem has a very different meaning to me - at 5'3" tall, I can fit into just about anything. I just can't reach the pedals .....

 

In the '60s Wilt Chamberlain (7'1 275) bought an MG Coupe and it ended up in the Ol' Man's shop to be modified so that he could drive it. he literally sat in the back seat. Even as a little kid I didn't get it, he should have been in a Cadillac or a Bently.

 

Back when I was trying to decide "pickup, coupe or sedan" for the body of my AV8, I looked inside a closed cab pickup and thought, "no - don't think so" for room (I'm 6'2" and 170 lb.). Coupes looked a little better, but luckily a nice sedan body showed up at a swap meet and I bought it. My son had a Fiero and I always liked the comfort of the seats. Scored a pair for a mere 25.00. Lots of fore and aft adjustment and narrow enough to fit the confines of the narrowing feature from the B to A pillars of the "A".

Recently got to test out the seating in a buddy’s recently purchased roadster pickup. Managed to get most of me behind the wheel except for my left leg which was having absolutely no part of it! Regards, Dave.

 

I think that most people don't understand that we are bigger people (in general) than we were in the '30s. I look at it this way my granddad was an Officer in the Army, back then they had a height requirement because *"an officer had to stand above his men." My granddad made the minimum requirement of 5'3". They actually raised the requirement by the second war, but not by much. I figure that if at 5'3" an officer stood above his men than the average man must have stood around there or less. I think that the cars that we are building bear that out.

*I read that in an old military manual.

 

In about 2006, I drove my mother's old Cyclone for the first time in 20 yrs. I was surprised at how much that interior had shrunk! Kept the car anyway...


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I'm over six feet tall and weigh 270. I built the roll cage on my race car and installed the full containment seat. Getting in was not hard and it was comfortable but it took me twenty minutes to figure out how to exit the car.

Oh, and I look like a high school kid in a pedal car when I drive my roadster.

 

I'm 6'2",215. When someone gets in my jalopy I tell them," If we were only friend before, we'll be close friends by the time this ride is over".

 

I know how ya feel. Same height but 20 pounds heavier..... My 56 Vicky or one of my 52 f1s are my go to for long trips. But do love driving my model As and model T...but my body can't handle much more than an hour or so drive without taking a break to straighten out my knees. My 42 gpw is even worse... I can only do about a half hour before I gotta stretch a bit.

 

Im 6'1 and about 250lbs with short legs and a long back. Im like the worlds tallest dwarf, - see the size of the cage on my old bucket in my avartar - so I hunger after a street legal fiat topolino with a blown sbc and a full cage.

I sold my Topo project a few weeks ago after figuring I was unlikely to lose either of 60 lbs or 5 inches in height.

But I still see this as a huge loss and the death of my 40 year dream.

 

Man this brings back memories. I had the exact same experience. My brother and I would sit in that back compartment facing each other !
Now about those hot rods, I'm 6'4" and I had to cut that parcel tray thing out of my Model A coupe so I could move the seat back a few inches. That actually made the seating manageable.