Thread: Hotrods

Doesn't seem like there could be anything finer than flying down an old 2 lane highway in western Kansas in a hotrod built by your own two hands, with nothing automatic about the machine; everything under your total control, just like it was in the "good ol' days".

Anyone else here into traditional hotrodding?

Or maybe just mild customs, restos, etc. of anything pre 1960's?

I've been working with my step-father (might as well be the real thing) for the last 5 years on a 1927 Model T coupe, and hope to finish by summer '09 at the latest.

The car was given to his older twin brothers in the 1950's to drive to and from high school, then they made it into a hotrod in the sixties (no surviving pics though), then the brothers "grew up" moved away from Kansas and forgot about it until their mom passed away and we had to clean out her house. So in 2003 we brought it to Wichita from Hutchinson and began working to make it run again.

The body was the only piece that was serviceable; the old flathead was long-gone and everything else was rusty as can be. So we made a new chassis from scratch, found some vintage goodies for the 302 sbf (newest thing on the car), chopped and channeled the body, and are in the process of fitting the fine details to make it a running vehicle.

Anybody else find joy in old cars?


The attachments are old and some small details have changed, but they give a good overview of what it will look like.

Sweet! Like the tri-power set up.

Just an early 70's Nova for me though.

BTW - Is that on old Pinto?

Wow, good eye. Yeah, that's an old pinto that my step father has had for a while. He and some buddies used to have an amateur racing team that made stock looking Pintos into serious racecars. They would take bets on the winner and make some pretty good money, since nobody picks the pinto for a winner of any contest, let alone a race.

And thanks for the compliment on the tri-power, those intakes are few and far between. And the vintage 94's are attached with custom machined adapters that ought to have a very slight tunnel ram effect. Can't wait to take it around the block for the first time!

That is good old style rodding right there. I have a '51 Chevy Styleline Deluxe in storage right now. It is pretty much done, but I have some upgrades I want to put in once I am done, mainly just because I recently found out how much driving it around without a defroster can suck...

im still learning to work on cars but man o man do i love working on my '72 chevy 3/4 ton c-20 long bed that i got from my girlfriends step dad. its slow going but ive made a few up grades msd ignition box k&n filter. ive got the inside about half way done with stereo equipment and i took out the bench and put in a couple of racing seats new floor boards rocker panels. i hope to rebuild the engine this summer sine it is motorcycle riding time. your hotrod is kick ass keep us posted i would also like to see that thing going down the block.

Wow, nice! I've got a 90 C1500 sportside that's a work in progress. It needs a new transmission and it just so happens to be the expensive Getrag manuals. I can't decide if I want to spend the $1000 to get it rebuilt or not. Sensibility says yes, my wallet says hell no. Right now it's just a toy hauler, but hopefully sometime in the next couple months I'll turn it back into an ass hauler

Jimmy, that sounds great! 51 Chevy is a classic to say the least, and one that runs even without defrost should be a real joy. Kudos.

All I can say is WOW. And tumbs up on catching the Pinto

That thing looks awesome! I am an absolute car nut... in high school my dad and I rebuilt/worked on/fiddled with a 1955 Jaguar Xk140. We've updated it with a 5 speed transmission, some new disc brakes, aluminum radiator... head ported and polished, cams, bigger valves... etc... Now I have a 73 Porsche 911 working on making SVRA vintage racer (dad still has the Jag.. hopefully someday it will pass to me). Brother has a 1966 Corvette my dad bought in 1979.

I have real problems with so many new cars that have more computers than you can count, and think they know more about driving than the driver (even when they do!).

Love cars, got my first Camaro when I was 12 (spent 4 years making it legally drivable, and all the time since making it more and more illeagle ;-). Don't have anything that would really be called a hotrod, but love the muscle cars. Have a '63 Galaxie 500 Convertible, '70 El Camino SS 396, and a '73 Camaro (recently grabbed the SSR so I had to add it in later).