Hot Rods....are they?

I'm going to have a bet each way because I really like seeing the hot rods and the work that's gone into them, but I also don't like to see good stuff getting trashed. That's not all down to the hot rodders though. How many times have you seen a nice bit of gear parked in a paddock with the windows down slowly going to ruin. And when you ask old mate if he wants to sell it he's either asking 3 times what its worth or is adamant that he is going to do something with it himself one day. Yeh right.

At the end of the day I would rather see something put to good use than to disappear altogether

Cam,

I totally agree you can spend your money how you like.

There is another aspect that comes in with old stuff, be they cars, boats or heritage buildings and even rain forests (I certainly am no green and will hold the bag of feathers while you put the tar on Bob Brown). All this stuff is part of the heritage and the nuts and bolts of the history of our nation.

There were once hundreds of thousands if not millions of various items which built our world and made Australia what it is today. Now we have cared so little for them, many are extinct and the others remain in tiny handfuls that people are still determined to wipe out for fleeting pleasure or profit. We really are just caretakers for a short while of this history.

It is not that the people destroying these things are just exercising their legal rights - which they are, to me it is a statement about our current society "I am not responsible for my actions, I will get what I can and do what I like and everyone else can get f....".

I fully understand there are a lot of guys on this forum who are keen hotrodders and to each his own and they certainly do not have to justify themselves to an opinionated bastard like me.

Just my own feelings and I am certainly not going to burn my bra at the next hotrod show, which I do go to because I love the engineering. When I look - and admire - a hotrod that may have used just a few body parts off the last remaining vehicle in existance I get the same feeling as when I admire a beautifully made tiger skin rug.

I don't want to start a battle or raging tirades but what are the thoughts of the full hotrodders (as opposed to the "modified" unchopped hotrodders)?

Hot rodding just started out of need, couldn't get that roots blower on that 30's something Ford flathead V8 for Bonneville, better make a tunnel ram for it. Now all we need are some bigger finned brake drum to stop, oh need some bigger dia rims,.......... etc etc etc
Even KW are hot rodders to some degree..stating on each truck manual..Qoute....Customised maintainance manual has been specially compiled for truck no... bah bah
Geoff
If you want to read about restoration gone crazy just read some heritage building tender requirements !!
Geoff

Yes, but when they started the hotrod movement the cars they were using were only 10-20 years old and there were MILLIONS of them.

We have continued to draw on this one pool of 30's/40's vehicles until we have driven them to extinction. If we were true to your "needs" birthright hotrods would now be based on 1990 Commodores and Falcons. We have overfished the pond and instead of putting them in an aquarium so people can see what they looked like they are using dynamite to get the last few still alive for one meal.

I'm with everything that Lang has said. This is supposed to be the Historic Commercial Vehicle forum.
I don't have a problem with a bloke modifying his truck a little to make it go better, look nicer, or drive easier.
However, there's nothing historic or original about a vehicle that has six different contributors to its construction, and only just barely resembles what the original was.
In time to come, these hot-rodders will probably regret cutting up good historic vehicles, to make something that is nothing more than someones idea of a hot set of wheels.

sorry onetrack i was not awere that this sight was just for historic vehicles or commercial i have and brought a 1940s dodge truck for that just resone of hot rodding it and i dont regret it at all so if this is the case i will stop useing this site and find some were easle to get parts for my TRUCK or hot rod as you say > and my old 401 had 8inch stacks so was this a hot rod old trucks never die they just get better with age

I have my restored AR162 and my unrestored XP Falcon Ute. Years ago (before the AR was in the road but after it was purchased) I was offered and complete AR110/120 cab and guards from front bumper to back of cab if I had somewhere under cover to store it. I could then do what I liked with it.

I had thought of getting a C or Series Inter Chassis with a V8 and bolting the bits onto it. I was then going to paint it black with a couple of flames on the bonnet and have a similar logo on the door to my AR162 (by using a skull and bones rather than a person's face.

The bits would have been bolted on as far as possible so if they were needed for a restoration one day it could be put back on an appropriate chassis and repainted.

Unfortunately I didn't have anywhere undercover to store it (and was rung late on Thursday to pick it up that weekend as they new owners took over the property when I was already committed to other things) so the offer was withdrawn. I don't know where the parts ended up.

Not all rods are cut up as lang and onetrack suggest. A lot of rodders are taking care not to modify original panels these days so they can be returned in the future. Most people doing chops these days use fibreglass. There are rodders who have original vehicles as well but like to have a bit of variety in what they drive.

Also where do you draw the line, If you replace the motor, gearbox and Diff, change it from single to bogie drive (or back) are they are restoration or a rod? If you fit a tilt front to an B-Model Mack, R190, Diamond T or other truck that didn't have one with all the welding and chopping of panels that entails does that make it a hot rod? Even if the original drivetrain is there? What about fitting a more modern, computerised, motor based on the original-style block?

It reminds me of some discussions in the car side of the movement where some people consider that cars built after WWII should not have access to club plates 'as they are too new'. The same people ask me when am I going to sell my XP and by a 'real' old car. One told me he purchased his 1932 vehicle in 1955 and has had it since. I pointed out I bought my 1965 vehicle in 1999. His was 23 years old when he got it - mine was 34 years old so by rights, at the time each of us purchased the said vehicles mine was actually older than his.

Personally I find the lines to hard to draw and can appreciate all sorts of vehicles (even holden one-tonners) and I think others do too - My Inter was invited in to be put on display at a hot rod show once, then invited to more

The simple fact of the matter is .. if ya wanna cut chop and hack up an old vehicle, until it represents your dream, rather than the original vehicle .. then there's always the OzRodders forum, for discussing the multitude of ways you're going to hack it up.

Historic restored vehicles represent the vehicles that people saw, 20, 40, 60 or 80 years ago, and they are valuable contributions to our society, our history record .. and what people had to work with, and use in those earlier eras.
In addition, they are in demand for hire for use in "earlier-era", movies and TV shows. They show people exactly as life was in those eras.

Too many hot-rodders have not the slightest appreciation of this point. They see only their "dream" vehicle as being the primary focus of the world, and to hell with any history or scarcity associated with the vehicle, or its components.
To most hot-rodders, the only item of interest to them, is the body panels and shape, that they can then cut, chop, and hack, until it resembles their view of the world. All the rest is junk. I've seen hot rodders discard valuable vintage components into scrap bins.
Most hot rodders have not the slightest interest in history, or the preservation of any part of it.

The problem is that few hot rodders have lived long enough to experience what us older blokes have experienced.
When I was 18-20, every second mate was a panel beater or spray painter. Every single one of them bought good FX or FJ Holdens (for $150-250), and cut them up in a 100 different ways.
It was a constant competition, as to who could have the most modified FX or FJ Holden.

There were thousands and thousands of good condition early Holdens that met this death. Most were buggered within a few years, when all the rust created by welding and cutting, pushed all the bog out.
That's the reason there's only small numbers of good condition, early Holdens left.

The ones that have survived, did so .. because the owners strenuously knocked back the hot rodders every time they were asked if their vehicle was for sale.

I can find 10,000 hot-rodded Holden 1-tonners .. all worked over, pursuing the "dream".
The panel beater bloke next to my shop came over and wanted to buy my WB 1-tonner. He whinged about not being able to find a good, original, 1-tonner.

Then I asked what he wanted to do with it. "Well, I want to do it up, ya know? Big block nitro Chev, turbo 400, 9" Ford diff, lowered, chopped, wild paint job, cut-down tray, big slicks, ya know??"

"And that is exactly the reason you're hard-pressed to find an original 1-tonner like mine", I said!
He looked a bit sheepish, and said, "Yeah" .. and wandered off .. but he still wants that good, original, 1-tonner .. so he can hack it up ..

Dun Ovr
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Ovr Dun









Cya
[ch9786]

Now that was what I was talking about. Nice to see a nice untouched original vehicle with just a couple of subtle embellishments.