Has a lot of old school hot rodding been lost?
Full disclosure. I grew up in a family shop that had been building race cars and hot rods since the model A up hrough racing on the beach at daytona and drag cars in the 70's and hot tords in the 80's. It was old school (outdated) by the time I came along I was exposed to a lot of things people thought was nuts even in the lat 80's early 90's so my perspective is probably skewed.
But I was thinking about how a lot of the things that my grandad and great grandad did are lost due to a bunch of reasons.
I mean who re-arches leaf springs with an anvil and a hammer? Who builds slant sixes for a dirt track car? Who has factory crank counterweights machined down and knife edged anymore? Who modifies a chassis to use two different length torsion bars on a dirt car? Who the hell hotrods old Plymouth flatheads?
A lot of these practices are lost dues to better options now days and many due to it being more cost effective to just buy a crank or a cylinder head than spend the man hours or machine shop bill necessary.
But as I look around the world is changing. Things that were cheap and readily available a couple years ago are hard to come by and suspect quality now. I'm finding myself out of necessity dipping back into some of the things I learned as a kid. Hell Im planning to weld a carb flange into a jeep efi Intake. Something I never would have considered had I not seen it as kid.
Are any of you experiencing this? Or I am I just maybe overly nostalgic?
Are these kind of things being lost to time?
Overly nostalgic for sure but that was then and this is now.
Currently, the best of everything can be bought over the counter and much of it ready to rock and roll out of the box.
The old stuff where you had to use your head and think out of the box is gone because the industry is thinking, Hey! We can make money copying, enhancing, doing it better, making it in a box for them to purchase and install, then go racing.
I don’t re-arc my springs but the shop I went to has a jig and a press. They heated it up and bent it. The same machine made new springs. Be it for an A body or Mack semi.
Knife edging a crank is done if and only if a lot is coming off. Shops where I used to live would do this or narrow the counter weight on request only.
I’ve seen a flat head Chrysler six operated but not exactly hot rodded. Most are or would be looking for old Offenhauser intakes for them. No one I know would bother making one. Besides the old car meet guys are most critical and offensive when this stuff shows up.
These things aren’t lost but seldom seen.
Blame the big mouth unskilled know it all runnin his flaps against being creative and the do it yourself guy.
GOD forbid you show up with your own sheet metal intake!
I’d make one and run it if it proved itself but would t bother showing it.
