I started watching
The Giant Gila Monster (1959) on DVD last night. This online version is a little darker. Not really a rodding movie, but features a mechanic and his friends who happen to be into rodding.
Some pretty cool looking cars. There's even one that's almost identical to Cboy's roadster, right up to the wheels. You can see it at 29:45.
The first scene might make you sob though. Yeah, they wreck a classic even by 1959 standards.