Return of the hot rod?
Discussion
Been a part of the crowd for some eyears when i was younger, so rods were fairly normal for me (55 chevys, consuls, anglias, 100e, old skool 54 chevy rat rods) and wheels day always holds memories for me. Think these old classics hold lots of carisma and personality that modern cars dont seem to hold just yet.
Lurked for years but never posted -------- Until Now!
Subject mater of this thread will oft cause heated debates
Firstly; opinions as to which car is best or which is rubbish is defiantly in the eye of the beholder. Having been a rodder for in excess of 35yrs I have owned and built many from buckets and buggies to sleds and sleepers: From vans and pick-ups to huge trucks. All have there merits and demerits.
My last collection included a diesel Vauxhall Astra van that produced way to much HP with a shadow paint job that was impossible to photograph; A 50 Chevy stepside clipped with a Jag front end, an Edelbrock crate with a MadDog TH400 trany And a Daimler XJ40 series with a 420Bhp motor – The Astra was the works shopping trolley, The Chevy was just to scare grannies at the lights for fun and the Daimler was a sleeper that really used to p
s off the Skyline boys in the lo-cal
Before that I ran a Skoda Rapid ragtop with 280Bhp in the back (and a block of concrete in the front to keep it on the road lol)
So which of these was a hotrod? --- Non of them?
For those that would want to be pedantic then all of them where!
Some would say that the term ‘Hot Rod’ comes from the practice of fitting a different camshaft or ‘ROD ‘to increase performance. But the truth is that the phrase was coined long before Hot Roding became that sophisticated.
The term ‘Hot Rod’ actually comes from Southern California before the 2nd world war and comes from the term “Hot Roadster”
This was a term that was used to describe cars that had been 'modified' by their owners in the mid 1930’s by removing things such as hoods, fenders, windshields, rag tops and anything else they could to reduce weight and tuning the stock engine to get as much power as possible in order to race them in the many dried up lakes around Los Angeles under the rules of the SCTA
The Ford models T,A and B where the most popular at the time but possibly only due to the fact that they where the most prolific in production and ownership. – They where dirt cheap by the days standards.
After the 2nd world war the pastime gained in popularity and mutated with owners often ‘Channelling' the body to lower the ground clearance and swapping and building engines specifically for power. The ‘Flatty’ (Ford Flat Head V8) was very popular as there where loads about in the ex military surplus vehicles such as the Jeep with its, wait for it!, 60hp Ford Flatty
Ever since then it has continued to mutate. Now, instead of the poorly designed and finished cheapo Fords of the 1930’s we have the equally poorly designed Saxo’s , Fiesta’s etc of today.
Forget the custom paint jobs, shiny bling, vinyl’s, huge sound systems, fancy lights and Uncomfortable bucket seats. The truth is that a bog standard Citroen 2cv with a breather kit and loadsa rust is just as much a ‘Hot Rod’ as the Chevy Impala with a 428 blown hemi doing the ‘ run wot U brung’ at the Pod. Why? Because it’s owner has modified it in an attempt to screw more speed outa their bucket of bolts.
As for the Chysler PT Cruizer? As I said, it is in the eye of the beholder. Just ‘cause you don’t like it Don’t knock it. Fact is that the PT Cruiser club is one of the biggest single make – SINGLE MODEL clubs in the world. A trip to PITP Billing for the yearly Nat would open a few eyes no doubt
As for me?
A new collection of projects:-
PT Cruizer – Off road at the mo getting a custom front end, rebuilt motor lots of clever electrismicals and a little bling.
Y60 Patrol – daily driver with perm. LPG, 2 inch suspension lift, 2 inch body lift and some subtle but clever tranny mods. This will come off the road when the cruiser is back on as my daily and will be rebuilt as a car and toy hauler with a (ahem) ‘different’ body on full air with some, interesting, other mods
ERF E-series custom truck with shortened wheelbase, Eaton Double Drive, 8 on the gate and double splitters.
Any ‘Hot Roder’ who don’t comprehend any of the above ----- just do the research!
Sorry for the long post but it just HAD to be said
Subject mater of this thread will oft cause heated debates
Firstly; opinions as to which car is best or which is rubbish is defiantly in the eye of the beholder. Having been a rodder for in excess of 35yrs I have owned and built many from buckets and buggies to sleds and sleepers: From vans and pick-ups to huge trucks. All have there merits and demerits.
My last collection included a diesel Vauxhall Astra van that produced way to much HP with a shadow paint job that was impossible to photograph; A 50 Chevy stepside clipped with a Jag front end, an Edelbrock crate with a MadDog TH400 trany And a Daimler XJ40 series with a 420Bhp motor – The Astra was the works shopping trolley, The Chevy was just to scare grannies at the lights for fun and the Daimler was a sleeper that really used to p
s off the Skyline boys in the lo-calBefore that I ran a Skoda Rapid ragtop with 280Bhp in the back (and a block of concrete in the front to keep it on the road lol)
So which of these was a hotrod? --- Non of them?
For those that would want to be pedantic then all of them where!
Some would say that the term ‘Hot Rod’ comes from the practice of fitting a different camshaft or ‘ROD ‘to increase performance. But the truth is that the phrase was coined long before Hot Roding became that sophisticated.
The term ‘Hot Rod’ actually comes from Southern California before the 2nd world war and comes from the term “Hot Roadster”
This was a term that was used to describe cars that had been 'modified' by their owners in the mid 1930’s by removing things such as hoods, fenders, windshields, rag tops and anything else they could to reduce weight and tuning the stock engine to get as much power as possible in order to race them in the many dried up lakes around Los Angeles under the rules of the SCTA
The Ford models T,A and B where the most popular at the time but possibly only due to the fact that they where the most prolific in production and ownership. – They where dirt cheap by the days standards.
After the 2nd world war the pastime gained in popularity and mutated with owners often ‘Channelling' the body to lower the ground clearance and swapping and building engines specifically for power. The ‘Flatty’ (Ford Flat Head V8) was very popular as there where loads about in the ex military surplus vehicles such as the Jeep with its, wait for it!, 60hp Ford Flatty
Ever since then it has continued to mutate. Now, instead of the poorly designed and finished cheapo Fords of the 1930’s we have the equally poorly designed Saxo’s , Fiesta’s etc of today.
Forget the custom paint jobs, shiny bling, vinyl’s, huge sound systems, fancy lights and Uncomfortable bucket seats. The truth is that a bog standard Citroen 2cv with a breather kit and loadsa rust is just as much a ‘Hot Rod’ as the Chevy Impala with a 428 blown hemi doing the ‘ run wot U brung’ at the Pod. Why? Because it’s owner has modified it in an attempt to screw more speed outa their bucket of bolts.
As for the Chysler PT Cruizer? As I said, it is in the eye of the beholder. Just ‘cause you don’t like it Don’t knock it. Fact is that the PT Cruiser club is one of the biggest single make – SINGLE MODEL clubs in the world. A trip to PITP Billing for the yearly Nat would open a few eyes no doubt
As for me?
A new collection of projects:-
PT Cruizer – Off road at the mo getting a custom front end, rebuilt motor lots of clever electrismicals and a little bling.
Y60 Patrol – daily driver with perm. LPG, 2 inch suspension lift, 2 inch body lift and some subtle but clever tranny mods. This will come off the road when the cruiser is back on as my daily and will be rebuilt as a car and toy hauler with a (ahem) ‘different’ body on full air with some, interesting, other mods
ERF E-series custom truck with shortened wheelbase, Eaton Double Drive, 8 on the gate and double splitters.
Any ‘Hot Roder’ who don’t comprehend any of the above ----- just do the research!
Sorry for the long post but it just HAD to be said
Interesting first post and great screen name 
I posted this on another thread in response to the origin of "souped up":
Its probably lost in the mists of time, so we'll never know for sure.
I posted this on another thread in response to the origin of "souped up":
Crafty_ said:
What we now commonly refer to as hot rods were once upon a time known as "gow jobs" or "soup ups".
From a 2001 issue of Street Rodder magazine:
"They used the terms hop-up or gow job. So where did these come from? Well, "hop" and "gow" were names for opium which were in use as far back as the late 1800s and probably came from the Chinese. In the old days they improved the performance of race horses with drugs including opium and cocaine. This was not even illegal until the early '20s and continued surreptitiously after that. Even today the performance enhancement of human athletes and horses is nor unknown.
A horse that went faster than it had any right to, was said to be 'hopped-up" or "gowed-up". From there it was a short step to apply the same names to a souped-up car. By the way, human drug users got the same names. If you read a few hard-boiled detective stories from the '30s and '40s you will soon find reference to "hopped-up punks" and "gowed-up hoodlums."
As far as "soup" goes, in the '20s, nitroglycerine was called "soup" in the under-world. It was not easy to get -- safe crackers had to extract it from dynamite. It was all illegal substance and possession was evidence of criminal intent, like burglar tools. Hence the code name. "souped-up" probably referred to a race car running on exotic fuel. I know that in the '20s it was possible to buy special racing fuel from the big oil companies. An old-time motorcycle mechanic told me of taking a can of such fuel to the races where his employer had bikes competing, then pouring the leftover fuel into the tank of his hopped-up Ford, and how fast it went on the way home.
In the '50s they began to use nitromethane, which is a close relative of nitroglycerine. Small world. By that time "souped-up" had acquired the general meaning it has today and hot fuel users coined new terms like "pop" and "nitro."
Another explanation I heard for the origin of "hot rod" was from Gray Baskerville who said originally cars became known as "hot roadsters" - typically As and Bs with their "hopped up" or "hot" engines, over time this got shortened to "hot rod".From a 2001 issue of Street Rodder magazine:
"They used the terms hop-up or gow job. So where did these come from? Well, "hop" and "gow" were names for opium which were in use as far back as the late 1800s and probably came from the Chinese. In the old days they improved the performance of race horses with drugs including opium and cocaine. This was not even illegal until the early '20s and continued surreptitiously after that. Even today the performance enhancement of human athletes and horses is nor unknown.
A horse that went faster than it had any right to, was said to be 'hopped-up" or "gowed-up". From there it was a short step to apply the same names to a souped-up car. By the way, human drug users got the same names. If you read a few hard-boiled detective stories from the '30s and '40s you will soon find reference to "hopped-up punks" and "gowed-up hoodlums."
As far as "soup" goes, in the '20s, nitroglycerine was called "soup" in the under-world. It was not easy to get -- safe crackers had to extract it from dynamite. It was all illegal substance and possession was evidence of criminal intent, like burglar tools. Hence the code name. "souped-up" probably referred to a race car running on exotic fuel. I know that in the '20s it was possible to buy special racing fuel from the big oil companies. An old-time motorcycle mechanic told me of taking a can of such fuel to the races where his employer had bikes competing, then pouring the leftover fuel into the tank of his hopped-up Ford, and how fast it went on the way home.
In the '50s they began to use nitromethane, which is a close relative of nitroglycerine. Small world. By that time "souped-up" had acquired the general meaning it has today and hot fuel users coined new terms like "pop" and "nitro."
Its probably lost in the mists of time, so we'll never know for sure.
Edited by Crafty_ on Saturday 11th May 13:05
Crafty_ said:
ing first post and great screen name
Many thanksCrafty_ said:
Another explanation I heard for the origin of "hot rod" was from Gray Baskerville who said originally cars became known as "hot roadsters" - typically As and Bs with their "hopped up" or "hot" engines, over time this got shortened to "hot rod".
Its probably lost in the mists of time, so we'll never know for sure.
Gray Baskerville was, of course, from LA. Born into the life style and, I think it fare to say undeniably, an authority on the subjectIts probably lost in the mists of time, so we'll never know for sure.
Bit more work done on mine, built some windscreen posts and made a stainless frame. Pickup bed built, rear lights fitted etc.
Wifey is currently negotiating with the authorities to obtain some paperworks, through various 'legal' channels.
I've driven it a couple of times, but it overheats, so some radiator work required, bigger fan maybe. Average air temps have been about 35C+ recently.
Wifey is currently negotiating with the authorities to obtain some paperworks, through various 'legal' channels.
I've driven it a couple of times, but it overheats, so some radiator work required, bigger fan maybe. Average air temps have been about 35C+ recently.
KH, before you change the rad, look at a fan with a shroud. Another trick I have learned for my F100 in summer is to use Redline Water Wetter. Not sure if it is an aussie product or not but it dropped mine by 10 degrees. With the dicky angle I have on my latest clubman, I'll certainly need it if I race in summer.
King Herald said:
I've driven it a couple of times, but it overheats, so some radiator work required, bigger fan maybe. Average air temps have been about 35C+ recently.
That grill is doing you no favours at all, I'd guess that the holes probably add up about 20-30% of the entire so it's blocking the vast majority of air that could be passing through the radiator. A bigger fan is a waste of time if it can't get the air to push/pull through the radiator.dmulally said:
KH, before you change the rad, look at a fan with a shroud. Another trick I have learned for my F100 in summer is to use Redline Water Wetter. Not sure if it is an aussie product or not but it dropped mine by 10 degrees. With the dicky angle I have on my latest clubman, I'll certainly need it if I race in summer.
It has a full shroud, and a 14 inch electric fan. You can just see it in this pic. The only trouble is the shroud may be too close to the rad to allow full flow outside of the fan area. With ambient air temps a good 25C above average UK temps I may have underestimated the cooling issues here....Some of my racing buddies use the Water Wetter, and swear by it, but I'd rather get it running 'normally' if I can rather than right on the ragged edge.
Mr2Mike said:
That grill is doing you no favours at all, I'd guess that the holes probably add up about 20-30% of the entire so it's blocking the vast majority of air that could be passing through the radiator. A bigger fan is a waste of time if it can't get the air to push/pull through the radiator.
I love the look of it, old school gasser style from the fifties, but I think you (and several other people...) are right; it simply blocks off too much air flow, and is too close to the rad to even allow air to circulate behind it. I'll pull it off and see if things improve, one step at a time. I too love the look of this but, as has already bin said, airflow is king and you just ain't gora nuf.
From the pics that shroud hugs the rad so tight that it effectively restricts the flow of air to the dia of the fan. Add to that the restriction caused by the grill and you just dont have enough surface area gettin air past it.
I recon even just increasing the gap between the grill and the rad would make a difference. And, if you have the room, moving the fan shroud back would also help.
or even how about increasing the depth of the grill to allow the fan to be mounted between the grill and the rad?
Would be a shame to loose that grill
From the pics that shroud hugs the rad so tight that it effectively restricts the flow of air to the dia of the fan. Add to that the restriction caused by the grill and you just dont have enough surface area gettin air past it.
I recon even just increasing the gap between the grill and the rad would make a difference. And, if you have the room, moving the fan shroud back would also help.
or even how about increasing the depth of the grill to allow the fan to be mounted between the grill and the rad?
Would be a shame to loose that grill
The Hooligan said:
or even how about increasing the depth of the grill to allow the fan to be mounted between the grill and the rad?
Would be a shame to loose that grill
There are lots of close moving interactions going on between the rad and the steering cross link, and the headlight supports. Ideally I need to move the whole rad backwards, so I can get the grill further away from it, but the motor is in the way... Many, many hours were spent trying to align it all and make sure everything clears and has room to function, without having too much length, yet I still cocked it up. Would be a shame to loose that grill
Another inch would have made it all so much easier. This is what makes me laugh when Hot Rod Build-off reality TV throws a hot rods together, from scratch, in three days, then drives it 2000 miles, or other such drivel.
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff