I wonder if hot rodding is dead...

Ranger50 wrote: Plus, I also believe cost vs age is a big factor. Look back in the 40's, 50's, 60's and what cars cost vs income. Imports TEND to fit that same template today, even in this throwaway society.

I had a conversation with a local car club president not that long ago along these lines. He was wondering why there aren't more kids into the older cars. I told him he needs to look at it from their perspective.

In high school my hot rod was a 10 year old Chevy. It was old and depreciated enough that it was affordable. The average kid in school now (*) isn't going to be looking for a 40-50 year old car, so they work with what is available to them. Might be an old Honda, S10, or whatever their parents bought when they were 6 years old.

• The Nelson family, and other multiple generations participating here don't count as average.

novaderrik wrote: as cool as that stuff is, it's generally just someone with more money than talent throwing a checkbook at a car to build something radical. not always, but usually. real hotrods are built in 2 car garages with minimal cash outlay.

Agree disagree.

I've looked at the photos for the 37. Even though certain parts look daunting, once you have the tubing, bender, welders, and some damn PRACTICE, you too could build a copy of it. Doesn't even matter if you start with a old steel body or an already chopped fiberglass one.

jstein77 wrote: Hot rodding is not dead, just modernized!

These Factory Five things are an affront to real hot rodding, as are any of the other plastic street rods kits. Steel is real. Plastic is for tampon applicators.

Aeromoto wrote: These Factory Five things are an affront to real hot rodding, as are any of the other plastic street rods kits. Steel is real. Plastic is for tampon applicators.

Give me a break. Your purism may be reflective of a particular element within hot rodding, but IMO as soon as you refuse to change, you become a relic yourself. Hot rodding evolves. Deal with it. I'm sure that there were rodders who felt that the first pony cars weren't real. There definitely were a bunch of folks who resisted the Ls1 when it hit the scene just as there were and probably are folks who feel that real hot rods had to have flatheads. Notice that a bunch of rods are made to handle nowadays. Some might feel that sacreligious as well.

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I think there are an awful lot of plastic T-buckets and 32 coupe owners out there who would call their cars a hot rod.

I have no issue with plastic hot rods. Anymore, I'd rather see a vintage car from the 30's restored than chopped up into a hot rod.

DeadSkunk wrote: I think there are an awful lot of plastic T-buckets and 32 coupe owners out there who would call their cars a hot rod.

As far as a T-Bucket, If you know the history of the "Fad-T", it's supposed to be fiberglass, so it gets a pass. There is no such thing as a plastic '32 , '33, or '34 Ford Hot Rod, it could be considered a kit car at best, not a real hot rod. The owners of the plastic '32 kits might call them "hot rods", but I could also buy a Walmart watch and call it a Rolex.

No plastic here, except the girls, maybe--

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaIZWjItReI

There is no such thing as "real" hot rodding...There never was.

Driven5 wrote: There is no such thing as "real" hot rodding...There never was.

Uhhm...., yea.... , in that case, check out these two awesome "real" hot rods ---

Aeromoto wrote: As far as a T-Bucket, If you know the history of the "Fad-T", it's supposed to be fiberglass, so it gets a pass.

They started out as vintage steel in the 1950s - the fiberglass copies came along in the early 60s as a alternative.

On that note, Norm Grabowski, the father of the T-bucket, just passed away last week.

Aeromoto wrote:

Driven5 wrote: There is no such thing as "real" hot rodding...There never was.

Uhhm...., yea.... , in that case, check out these two awesome "real" hot rods ---

You sir, see very angry.

Joey

stuart in mn wrote:

Aeromoto wrote: As far as a T-Bucket, If you know the history of the "Fad-T", it's supposed to be fiberglass, so it gets a pass.

They started out as vintage steel in the 1950s - the fiberglass copies came along in the early 60s as a alternative. On that note, Norm Grabowski, the father of the T-bucket, just passed away last week.

Yep, and Norm did alot more for hot rodding besides giving us the t-bucket as well. He was a kick ass mf'er and a hell of a nice guy. I had the good fortune to shake his hand once years ago at an industry trade show.

The first glass T-bucket body was offered in 1957 by Cal Auto, and many knock offs followed soon after. A few years back, I got my hands on a set of Speedy Bill's original bucket molds for the late 50s, restored them, and popped out several dozen of my own bodies. I finally gave it up because the fumes were taking years off my life. Never again will I screw with fiberglass to that extent.

There isn't a standard definition for Hot Rod, but personally, I like mine with a Porsche flavor! (BTW, this used to be a Formula Vee).

I was over to Crusin' the Coast in the Biloxi Ms. area of the Gulf Coast last week and can say that hot rodding is not dead. There was everything there you could imagine from 100K trailer queens to rat rods. The car of choice seems to be mucsle cars, especially Camaros with the mid fifties Chevy's a close second.

Old sheet metal from the 30's in the form of coupes and some sedans is almost impossible to find and when you do expect to pay through the nose.The 29 to 34 coupe bodies that are not in very good shape can easily be over 10 plus grand. So even if you have the building skills it is not cheap.

I know some of the traditional hot rodders will say you just have to keep looking. Fact is many of the real steel hotrods you see are a cowl with the rest being patch panels and weld. That in itself is a real talent to be able to do the work but is it really any more real then the fiberglass replicas or the all steel new coupe/roadster bodies yo can buy.

One of the things I did notice is that the average age of the owners is probably 50 plus. I'm in that group but notice you see very few young people. You might see a few in the lowered/hydraulic pickups and maybe a few in rat rods. In general kids are not into cars nowadays. Most see them simply as a means of transportation to do other things. I try to involve my grand kids in my car project but I think they actually would rather be playing video games. I'm sure there are exceptions.

All you have to do is drive by a local high school student parking lot to realize why would kids want to work on cars when they already have a better ride then some of their parents. Not trying to sound like an old fart but if guys my age didn't learn how to work on cars when they were young they probably didn't have a car.

I like all kind of cars and am happy to see people involved at what ever level they choose, be it tuners, sportscars hotrods (including fiberglass) antique cars. One of the neatest things I saw last week wasan couple in the late 70's or 80's with a bone stock 46 Ford Sedan out mingling with the masses at crusin' the Coast.

Maroon92 wrote: There isn't a standard definition for Hot Rod, but personally, I like mine with a Porsche flavor! (BTW, this used to be a Formula Vee).

Me likey...details please?

No it is not. In my opinion far in the future, the many different kinds of import cars built by this new generations youth will be looked at as Hot Rods. They are cars built by the young and old to go fast. I bet there was a time when the guys in roadsters from the 30's thought that modified muscle cars those dang kids were driving in the 70's were not real Hot Rods. Times change, but young men and women will always want to go fast and will use whatever is cheap and easily available to get the job done. heck even Hot Rod Magazine has built an japanese front wheel drive car.

http://www.hotrod.com/projectbuild/113_0306_1991_acura_integra/

Aeromoto wrote:

ahahaha one of those things (except a pickup i think) passed by me on the highway the other day.... i had NO idea what the hell was coming from behind... it was, um, interesting?

Stargazer wrote:

Maroon92 wrote: There isn't a standard definition for Hot Rod, but personally, I like mine with a Porsche flavor! (BTW, this used to be a Formula Vee).

Me likey...details please?

Sure. The Frankfurt Flyer.

Aeromoto wrote: These Factory Five things are an affront to real hot rodding, as are any of the other plastic street rods kits. Steel is real. Plastic is for tampon applicators.

Now you're giving me an urge to build a track T with frame rails made by carving Styrofoam blocks and wrapping them in carbon fiber and put an aluminum body on it just to confuse everybody.

Materials are just a means to an end, and if that end is creating something that outwardly looks the way I want, weighs less, and costs less, that's what I'll do. If anything, the problem with the street rod front end on a Blazer is not that the front clip is made of fiberglass, but that it retained too much of the Blazer's steel.

These hot rods won't be dead for another 10000 years.

I had a convo with my Pops friend when I had my 04 GTO.

He poo-pooed the modern GTO; "my 68 GTO would run circles around it", "It don't have dual exhaust", "where are the damn hood scoops, e'erybody knows Goats come with hood scoops", "my 68 would take your imports lunch money", "for what you paid for that furrin car, you coulda had the real thing"

I took him for a spin in the furrin GTO. When we got back, my Pop asked him what he thought . . . . he left mumbling expletives and couldn't believe you could get that much car for (at the time) $17K. Pop told me his friend paid nearly $50K for his 68 GTO

I would love a nice hot rod or muscle car . . . but have your seen the price of complete basket cases. "I got this 67 Camaro in the barn that straight. It needs floors, truck pan, and interior . . . I'll let it go for $7K"

Strike_Zero wrote: He poo-pooed the modern GTO; "my 68 GTO would run circles around it", "It don't have dual exhaust", "where are the damn hood scoops, e'erybody knows Goats come with hood scoops", "my 68 would take your imports lunch money", "for what you paid for that furrin car, you coulda had the real thing"

The new GTO is awesome but it's overkill for making muscle cars look silly. I have a 70 Chevelle SS 396... It is like driving a UPS truck with a better soundtrack. A stock E30 would eat it's lunch as well as the 2002 did back in the 70s.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: It is like driving a UPS truck with a better soundtrack.

Aeromoto wrote: Uhhm...., yea.... , in that case, check out these two awesome "real" hot rods

You could not have missed my point by a wider margin. You could try...But you would not succeed.

The problem obvious to most people is that the term "hot rod" is not a tangible thing. Thus the ability to fully and completely define it in absolute terms simply does not exist. In fact, it's the act of enforcing such superficial labels that diminishes the very spirit of true hot rodding...In my humble opinion.

Consider that the original goal of hot rodding, did not include building a hot rod.