Has a lot of old school hot rodding been lost?

[rumblefish360]

hey, cash talks bullshit walks.. i have friends that had cars for sale for quite some time.. people would try to low ball and all the other related crap.. someone from overseas sent money and arraigned shipping. i'd do the same thing. you don't like it then maybe you should go around and buy them all..

That’s true. Oh yea. Anytime I put up a ride for sale the amount of complaining and picking the car apart as if I was presenting a resto ride is insane. Then the price chewing!

OMG!

It’s pretty simple, here’s the car, this is what I want, pay it or leave is pretty much the deal. I can take some haggling, but most people act like a bitter, in the middle of a divorced wife trig to claw every last want into there pocket.

I price them to sell and I don’t really care about making huge profits. If I even make a few bucks I’m happy.

If some guy from overseas makes a payment for my stuff, away it goes!

 

[barbee6043]

The old car hobby is as diverse as human nature, and that is a LOT!

What has always appealed to me was to take someone's trash and make it something useful and worth having. I was never raised to be the rich kid on the block, I always looked to substitute work for $$. Its nice to just be able to buy what I need, but it is more fulfilling to make it happen with sweat, blisters, and tears. Sweat equity.

1964 new new kid moved to my small rural hometown. I was 16 and he was a senior. Never seen anything like him. His mom built a NEW home. WTF! She was a widow lady. He had a 63 split window Vette AND a 55 Chevy HOTROD, the coolest car I had ever seen!!! It had a tilt fiberglass front end, a built 327, 4 speed, roll and tuck interior! I asked him IF he built it, and he said NO, Mom bought it! I was nieve for sure. All I could say was " God, YOU people must be RICH!!!!!!!"
A year later, they sold their home and moved away!!!
IF he had built it, or at least said he helped!, I would have been REALLY impressed!!!!

 

[LO23M8B]

I agree with you 100%.
Nowadays, I thoroughly enjoy taking a car and making it complete, safe, and road worthy with what you have other than safety things being new more than ''restoring'' something.
Been there, done that with restorations.
There's a lot more fun in fixing up a shitty 318 and making it reliable than buying a crate engine or building a 700 H.P. bullet.
And then drive it with lousy paint and all.
A lot of people lose sight of having fun with tinkering with cars.

A case in point comes to mind when I was 20 years old and I had a '73 Road Runner big block 4 speed that had no oil pressure.
It was 30 below zero and I ended up chiseling off the oil pan that some idiot siliconed on and changed the bearings that were screwed up with yes, good used ones that I scrounged from a local machine shop for free.
After the job was done, it got me another 4 months of driving until I could afford to buy a better engine.
I bet a lot of people wouldn't have done that, but I did, and it made me appreciate learning how to work on cars myself.
Sadly, I doubt this same scenario happens very much these days...

yep worked on many of cars in the freezing cold, rain and parking lots. Never had fun doing it,

 

[Dartswinger70]

you made a post and i replied to said post. hardly picking on you. if you are that thin skinned i pitty you.

 

[rumblefish360]

Oh that’s some funny stuff right there!

 

[dart4forte]

It gets in your blood

 

[barbee6043]

Its art. Form to function. Cool.

 

[halifaxhops]

Love old school My sleeper

 

[MopaR&D]

It might not be as prevalent a hobby now as it was in decades past but it's definitely not dead. There will always be creative gearheads who like to build things on a tight budget that are unique and fun. I'm 31, most of my car buddies are more into imports but they all appreciate old-school hot rods and we always talk about engine swaps and doing oddball stuff to make our stuff faster and more interesting. One friend has a late-2000s Mazda Miata (NC), he wanted more power but without swapping to a totally different engine or using a power adder so he swapped in a 2.5L Ford Duratec 4-banger he pulled from a junkyard car and partially rebuilt with upgraded cams, intake, headers, custom tune. That specific engine wasn't available in the NC Miata but Ford and Mazda share a lot of drivetrain stuff and it was a pretty direct bolt-in from the stock engine. I've gone for a ride in it, gotta say it sounds pretty strong and nasty for a 4-cylinder.

Another friend has an early-2000s Toyota Tacoma, those trucks have never been available with a V8 but he crammed in a Toyota 2UZ 4.7L V8 and is just now wrapping up swapping a Ford 8.8" rear end into it with limited slip and 3.73 gears and is thinking about supercharging it.

 

[chilsam]

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?

There are 2 r 3 young guys on YOUTUBE...they are making their own DOHC heads for a V10 ford truck engine ...in their own garage .They could not find a machine shop to do it so they bought a lathe welder n many dohc heads to practice with .They have the heads welded up n made their own boring bar for the heads cam journals..The machine shops all said it could nor be done...well their last vid had them fabbn up the intake with dual G.M throttle bodies mounted on the front ...pretty cool build

 

[wheelsport]

I inherited my older brothers '37 Chevy when I turned 16. Every week I had the pan off filing rod caps. I learned to R&R and rebuild the tranny in 1 1/2 hours. If there was a broken part, I figured out how to fix it. When I bought my first MOPAR, I tinkered with tuning so it would go just a little bit faster. When the engine blew up, I ordered a short block from Sears for $85. I found a lightened flywheel and clutch and paid 15$ for a wrapped 8-1 Edmund high comp finned head and a water heated dual Edmund manifold with Stromberg 97's. I took the head to the school machine shop and milled the head flat, which probably made it 10-1. It was off to the local street races. That old flatty humiliated a lot of new Tri five Chevies. Those days are gone. Twenty years ago I bought a '48 Plymouth club coupe from a scrapper. Put a '53 318 in it with dual Edelbrock manifold and one barrel carbs. I had lots of fun playing with the car. I even won a few trophies. When it started spitting rings out the tail pipes, I installed a slant six and a 904. Those old flatties are just scrap metal now. Sadly technology has taken over the car sport and what could be called modern hot rodders use computers to build engines.

 

[barbee6043]

I inherited my older brothers '37 Chevy when I turned 16. Every week I had the pan off filing rod caps. I learned to R&R and rebuild the tranny in 1 1/2 hours. If there was a broken part, I figured out how to fix it. When I bought my first MOPAR, I tinkered with tuning so it would go just a little bit faster. When the engine blew up, I ordered a short block from Sears for $85. I found a lightened flywheel and clutch and paid 15$ for a wrapped 8-1 Edmund high comp finned head and a water heated dual Edmund manifold with Stromberg 97's. I took the head to the school machine shop and milled the head flat, which probably made it 10-1. It was off to the local street races. That old flatty humiliated a lot of new Tri five Chevies. Those days are gone. Twenty years ago I bought a '48 Plymouth club coupe from a scrapper. Put a '53 318 in it with dual Edelbrock manifold and one barrel carbs. I had lots of fun playing with the car. I even won a few trophies. When it started spitting rings out the tail pipes, I installed a slant six and a 904. Those old flatties are just scrap metal now. Sadly technology has taken over the car sport and what could be called modern hot rodders use computers to build engines.

View attachment 1716023261

I had a 49 Like your 48 there. I wanted to build it, but really bit me in the butt, too big a project for this old bird. Plenty rough. Sold it other week. Then the next week, my cariologist told me to NOT slow down!!!!

 

[Darts 4 Me]

Thinking of putting a delay box on my toilet.
if I just new what a delay box was ?

 

[wrecks]

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?

The changes you menion happen with every generation; each tending to think its generation was the only and best, and longing for something that is going away. There seems to be a technology/spiritual tradeoff. The new cars are faster and handle better, but for most of us are relatively more expensive. But the explosion of car options on the road and the attendant complications combined with the loss of respect for God has conspired to create great cars, but cars that are viewed with so much selfish concern that their great ride being recognized (Chevy Suburban, no never- must have a GMC or Audi). But at redlights, almost everybody has a great ride and can't value what we value.

 

[Swinger 340]

I actually saved an old distributor machine from my grandads shop. It is rusted to **** now and I don't know how to work it but I refuse to give it up because someday I may fix it and learn how to properly set up distributors.

Make "SOMEDAY" today!!!! If you just say someday, it will never happen. Curving a distributor works Great (mine are curved). Most people never heard of it. The guy who did mine is long gone. We need someone like you, that has the potential to make it happen. If not, sell it to someone who will.

 

[HankRearden]

Make "SOMEDAY" today!!!! If you just say someday, it will never happen. Curving a distributor works Great (mine are curved). Most people never heard of it. The guy who did mine is long gone. We need someone like you, that has the potential to make it happen. If not, sell it to someone who will.

It's on my list to figure out after I get heat in the garage.

 

[jos51700]

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?

You might as well as why they didn't do LS and Gen III Hemi swaps back in the day, because the answer is the same.

 

[Swinger 340]

Hot-Rodding has always evolved. The way I enjoy hot-rodding has no chance against todays hot-rodding. But to me, true hotrodding isn't who you can beat on the street or whip at the track. It's about making a change in your ride and being happy for the accomplishment. So be it flathead '49 Plymouth, or a hopped up 318 in a Street Van, or a gen III hemi with a ebay turbo stuck in a Mazda, it's just doing it differently but enjoying the same thing. Hot-Rodding.

It was not a MOPAR but my stepbrother and I built a chassis out of scrap cars in the 70's, installed a 350 chevy and a wooden box to sit in. Never took it to the drag strip, but we did take it to an a banded air field and run it. I almost fell out of the box the first time running it, as it went straight up and almost over. Wheelie bars were next. THE GOOD OLD DAYS!!!!! OBTW, the throttle was a rope.

 

[Martythetrimmer]

Today there's so many "bought" cars around. Be they finished drive cars or pro built show cars rather than home built. Great if you have the money, or no skills! I can understand it with outright show cars as the required standard is so high today. But I like fabricating and achieving what I can for myself built at home with almost no outside help. I built all these cars over the past 40 years, the ute (last image, still under construction) is my current and final build so it has to be the best! The previous 3 images have all done well at major shows often finishing amongst the top contenders. All were street driven cars other than the roofless wagon as it was unregistrable and built just as a show cruiser!

 

[NoCar340]

A lot of "old school" hot-rodding has been replaced by the aftermarket. In the late '40s, if you wanted to go fast you put a flathead anything in a lightweight body, then started throwing out anything unnecessary. If you needed more airflow, you added another Stromberg, usually on a fabbed manifold, and built your own exhaust manifolds/headers. Cams were regrinds and almost always experimental to some degree. Then Vic started casting manifolds, and Doug Thorley and Hooker started making headers, while folks knowledgeable in cam timing like Ed Iskendarian started making new camshafts. Various manufacturers stepped up with pistons. The OEs started making huge (for the time) 2- and 4-barrel carbs, which quickly found their way into old-school cars, along with better OHV engines... and the aftermarket came along to support those, too. Have you ever seen Ardun heads? "Let's apply Chrysler's Hemi engineering to a Ford flathead." With rare exception, virtually every viable aftermarket "gee-whiz" carburetor we use today is a direct descendent of a production-line part--even the Dominator. Hell, by the 1960s the aftermarket was strong enough to have eliminated a lot of "traditional" hot rodding. Very few, if any, bought a '66 anything and said, "I'm-a stick-weld up some headers for this bad boy."
There are still guys doing it, though, and it's made a resurgence. A good friend has a legit old-school hot rod: 1931 Ford A with a '37-ish flathead V8. It's got '38 (I think) hydraulic brakes, dual 97s on an old-school "tunnel ram", straight "lakes" headers, and artillery wheels. Gears are, I think, 4.44:1, and the transmission is a truck 3-speed ('37 or '38). I can't think of a post-1950 part on it, although it's been converted to 12V (still a generator, though). In 1947, it would've been a world-beater. Today, nobody would call it fast, including him. Cars like his didn't exist when we were kids, even at shows.

If you're a huge fan of truly old-school hot rodding, you should attend the Symco Weekender (formerly the Symco Shakedown) in WI. They do not allow post-1964 cars, nor cars with post-1964 parts visible. No EFI, no modern wheels/tires, no billet anything. They don't even want open hoods (it distracts from the car's lines). If you don't meet the criteria, though, they have VIP parking--which is a car show unto itself. The show rules are worth reading--more shows should be like theirs.

 

[barbee6043]

Hotrodding was a different animal when you could go to a boneyard and shop for parts!!!!

 

[Swinger 340]

Hotrodding was a different animal when you could go to a boneyard and shop for parts!!!!

My Best memories were in junk yards on Saturdays. My best friend and I would bring a Swinger cooler full of beer and spend the entire day looking for parts for our cars.