[cobalt327]

Originally Posted by John long

I hate to show my ignorance but you will have to explain.

John L

Maybe angel dust?

[TimoFinn]

Originally Posted by AutoGear

Why does everyone put repop rallye wheels on everything now? I see em with all kinds of screwed up caps, colors etc etc on everything from Tbuckets, to '76 nova 4dr's. Most times they look awful

Hey!
I had a -77 4d Nova with rallyes and it looked cool
I get your point there, it`s like we see a lot of american racings in astrovans, camrys and pt cruisers and such crap

[John long]

Wow. Sorry I brought up the angel hair. I can't handle the mental image of what appears to be currently available......

John L

[boothboy]

Hey if I keep it braided it looks pretty good. Now if it was nose hair that would be tacky!

[Northstar T]

Originally Posted by John long

I hate to show my ignorance but you will have to explain.

John L

I guess you had to be there. Times were different then/there.

Russ

[John long]

Originally Posted by Northstar T

I guess you had to be there. Times were different then/there.

Russ

Yes, I'm sure. I joined the Navy in '63. While I was floating around the Atlantic Ocean doing nothing the guy I joined with was on a gun boat floating up the river in 'Nam. He came home alive but a lot of those guys didn't. I may be a Vet but never saw combat or had my courage tested. God bless all the guys who did.

John L

[1971BB427]

I've had the same garter belt hanging from the rear view mirror on my main rod for the last 35 yrs. It came off my wife's leg when we got married, and just recently moved it from my '71 Camaro to the Austin gasser.


We used to put garter belts around our Sun tachs or whatever brand tach you had. Never owned or wanted to own fuzzy dice, or dingle balls hanging from my window trim either.
We had a car rolled and pleated in Mexico, and not cow dung used, but the pleats went flat pretty fast. They used rolled up newspapers to fill the pleats.
Most the guys I ran with were performance oriented, so what we added to our cars were things to emulate the cars we saw at the drags. Big huge white ladder bars were way cool, as were white fenderwell headers. A roll bar (whether you needed it or not) was over the top back then! I had a black '55 Chevy gasser I built with every race item I could hang on it to make it look like a strip car. Chrome straight axle, ladder bars, roll bar, fenderwell headers. It was pretty quick, but nearly as fast as it looked!
Some guys painted everything white under the car! Inner fenderwells, rearends, headers, suspension. Rarely looked good after a few weeks without constant touch up.
14" tires were popular once all the new cars came with 14", and many guys wanted to "update" their cars to the new stuff. We used to do the poor man's redline tires when they first appeared on the scene, using a red tire crayon and spinning the tire while we held it against the sidewall. My first car was a '57 Chevy Belaire and I had 2" whitewalls with chrome reverse all around in 1966. It was very cool until the redline tires showed up, and I had to get the whitewalls reversed inside to do the redline thing. Nobody wanted wide whites back then, (looked too old to us) but narrower 1"-2" whitewalls were great.
Car fads changed so quickly back in the 60's that it was tough to keep up on a working guy's budget. The 70's weren't much better with the advent of factory muscle cars that could beat most of our built up hotrods. We all wanted the latest hot engines that came in the muscle cars, but most guys just added the emblems on their fenders and ran their old 283 or whatever. I remember guys getting the crossed flags with 396 logo and putting them on various tri 5 Chevys. Or getting the "fuel injection" emblems from Corvettes and adding that to their 4 brl. cars. Lots of posers in my high school parking lot. One guy's dad was pretty wealthy and he got a new Chevelle SS 327 4 speed in 1965. Then later that year Chevy brought out the SS 396 in the '65 Chevelle and his dad wouldn't replace his, so he just got the emblems for his 327 Chevelle.
And those dreaded rally wheels that came along in the 60's Chevys have been on my '71 Camaro since I got it in 1973. Had the rears widened, and changed the center caps, but just always liked them better than the later rally wheels mine came with. As have the old fender flares I added in 1974.

[Bonneville462]

I have chrome reverse wheels on my 64 Bonneville, they are my favorite style wheel..

[oldbogie]

Originally Posted by AutoGear

Chrome Reverse Dish rims.

I saw a 1970 Impala the other day with CRDs, no caps - just the small 'dust cap' on the front, and no cap on the rears (to show off the moser M)

I know how they're made and several old timers here (who have sadly left the party too soon) Said these rims were a royal ****** because they would wear out rear axle bearings sooner than later (Im assuming that reversing the center throws the whole thing out of balance more than the bubble balancers of the day could account for?)

My grandad was the head welder for Carrier for almost 40yrs right after WW2; and he used to do a lot of this stuff out of his barn/ fab shop. Widen rims, fix blocks and heads, split manifolds etc. He's gone now and too many questions I never thought to ask

Now I know things vary by region and that 'reliving history through pictures' can be dangerous, because people can find a picture of almost anything and insist that was 'traditional'.

So; when were these the most popular, what were the problems and what are some things you see today in regards to this that just weren't done and aren't 'period correct'.
I woulda asked on the HAMB, but their collective viewpoint seems a little skewed at times. Too many guys my age who read Ol Skool Rods, cuff their jeans and have 3 grand in tattoos and pompadours who 'know'

Reversing the rims moved the tire centerline outboard of the wheel bearings, which for good engineering on the front will be between the inner and outer wheel bearings perhaps favoring the larger inboard bearing; for the rear over the outside wheel bearing. When the tire centerline, which is also a reasonable assumption of the load carrying center for the tire, is moved toward or outboard of the bearing it creates what is called an "overhung moment" on the bearing. What this does is to multiply the force on the bearing by the distance the load center is moved away from the bearing. A common example of this is torquing a bolt where becomes easier to develop the needed load as the wrench handle used gets longer. So it is this multiplied load created by the load center distance from the bearing that kills the bearing. You, also, have to keep in mind that in the 1950s and into the early 1960s many cars still used single row ball bearings not roller bearings. Most rear axles used a single row bearing inside a leather oil seal that was lubricated by what passed for EP gear oil of the day at 90 to 140 weight, imagine getting that stuff to lubricate gears let alone a bearing 3 feet from the axle sump on a winter's morning. Up front there would be two ball bearings in the hub, a smaller outboard and larger inboard both lubricated with short fiber grease that was again contained by a leather grease seal that was also expected to keep water out. So with all these structures right on the edge of the loads they could carry in stock form it is little wonder that they survived at all when a reversed rim was hung on them.

Yes wheel balancing was usually done on a bubble balancer if at all. Although a spin balancer came into use during the 50’s that spun the assembled tire, wheel, and brake drum while on the mounted on the car, this was an expensive process that the average guy couldn’t afford.

Angel hair is simply unchopped fiberglass, it was used by customizers on back window trays of their cars for some reason; as well as under the then popular aluminum Christmas tree with a spot light that illuminated the tree through a rotating color wheel.

When I was in high school, 1955-1959, I had a 53 Merc rag top, lowered with a 55 Lincoln 341 punched an eighth. It had chopped wheel wells to fit reversed rims, this was exactly the opposite of what was done in that era to close the rear wheel wells with fender skirts. The rims were painted black with chrome deep dish beauty rings, a chrome cone hub/axle cover with a chrome 5 bolt spider that covered the lug nuts with a small cone of similar shape to the larger hub/axle end cover. Living in outside of San Diego it had the obligatory TJ tuck and roll they filled it with foam rubber, I think the place was called Exclusive in Tijuana. Funny I don’t think Exclusive is the right name but I can’t grab it but I know/knew it, puff. Old age is a b%%%%. All I remember is they came highly recommended and did super work.

Bogie

[35terraplane]

I know this is an old thread but I have read the whole thing and I didn't see where anyone had what I did on my first car. When I turned 15 I got my first car, a 53 chev. 2 dr. I worked in a junk yard so I got a GMC engine 6cyl to replace the 6 in it. Then what no one has mention was scavenger pipes. I put them on in 59, I had seen a car in Hot Rod or some other Mag. and thought they were cool. I had a big rake on the car, running 14" on front and 15" on back. I don't remember what size the rear ones were but they were huge. When you looked at the back of the car all you saw was 6 chrome pipes with 4 red balls with a little chain holding them together.

When I got out of the Navy, I bought a 63 SS/409/425 horse and it had chrome wheels. in 68 I got my first new car, a 68 "Hemi" Charger R/T I put CRW on it I still have the little stock hub caps that came on the car.

Bob

[John long]

Originally Posted by 35terraplane

I know this is an old thread but I have read the whole thing and I didn't see where anyone had what I did on my first car. When I turned 15 I got my first car, a 53 chev. 2 dr. I worked in a junk yard so I got a GMC engine 6cyl to replace the 6 in it. Then what no one has mention was scavenger pipes. I put them on in 59, I had seen a car in Hot Rod or some other Mag. and thought they were cool. I had a big rake on the car, running 14" on front and 15" on back. I don't remember what size the rear ones were but they were huge. When you looked at the back of the car all you saw was 6 chrome pipes with 4 red balls with a little chain holding them together.

When I got out of the Navy, I bought a 63 SS/409/425 horse and it had chrome wheels. in 68 I got my first new car, a 68 "Hemi" Charger R/T I put CRW on it I still have the little stock hub caps that came on the car.

Bob

They were big when I was in high school Bob. About 1961 there was a black 56 Ford station wagon that sat on a sever rake with gold scallops and 4 scavanger pipes coming out inder the rear end equally spaced. Accross the tailgate he had the name Wells Fargo incorperated into the gold scallops. It used to cruise the Fricshe's Big Boy in St. Matthews which is a suburb of Louisville. In those days it was unusual to see a show quality car on the street. It sure was cool.

I think one of the things most people don't realize is the best cars on the road in those days would only be average today.

John

[boothboy]

Anybody remember "dumps"?

BB

[John long]

Originally Posted by boothboy

Anybody remember "dumps"?

BB

If you ate referring to drag plugs I am still running them on the roadster.

[boothboy]

It may have been a regional thing. "Dumps" referred to short turned down tail pipes that did not reach the rear of the car. The end dumped the exhaust downward. The pipes were and turndowns were visible because the rear of the car was raised at the shackles. Why more kids weren't killed by carbon monoxide poisoning I don't know.

BB

[John long]

Originally Posted by boothboy

It may have been a regional thing. "Dumps" referred to short turned down tail pipes that did not reach the rear of the car. The end dumped the exhaust downward. The pipes were and turndowns were visible because the rear of the car was raised at the shackles. Why more kids weren't killed by carbon monoxide poisoning I don't know.

BB

Alot of guys did run them but I think around my area it was a question of economics. You could buy a couple of exhaust pipes, hang your mufflers and instal turn downs a lot cheaper than buying tailpipes.

John