Hot Rod Forum banner

What is a 'hotrodder'?

30K views 138 replies 100 participants last post by  jmclefty 
#1 ·
If someone only loves hotrods are they a hotrodder? What about if they build one from scratch in their garage, making every makeable piece or adapting from other cars, are they a hotrodder? What about the guy who gives $150,000 to a builder to have one built for them, are they a hotrodder? Are there 'hot rod' snobs like the purists who would look down on you if you did not have a numbers matching 'whatever'? Should a car club member feel any more of a hotrodder if they bought their car in pieces from a mailorder catalog than the guy who buys a hotrod someone else has built? Maybe if you admit you did not build it everytime someone says 'nice car', would that make you redeem yourself in their eyes?
Just wondering.
 
#102 ·
I guess i would be classified as a speed junkie. when i look at an engine i automatically think how could i make it go faster :mwink: i am by no means a pro in this department. but i have a willingness to learn and am under the hood when ever i get the chance. whether it be helping a friend or a complete stranger out with their vehicle. and when watching top fuelers roar down the track it brings a tear to my eye for no apperent reason. and i actually loose sleep over the current projects iam working on just mulling things over or second guessing the decisions i have made about tiny details. so i get on this forum and get the opinions. of fellow car guys and gals whether they be hotrodders,gear heads,or speed junkies or what ever they classify themselves as. every one brings something to the table and thats what makes us all hotrodders. i think its a broad classification and if you have the willingness,drive and compassion to press forward into new territory. you deffinatly fall in that hotrodder catigory.
 
#103 ·
I think I was born one,I'd be playin with my new toy car one minute mom would walk by see it all apart the next then the next time shed see me playin with it again all back together.my most disturbing memory is when my grand pa welded all the nuts on my bike because i took it apart so much i striped them,heck I'm still mad at him.My father was grooming me to be an electronics engineer and I loved it that is till I got my first car at 15 he never forgave me for that.Now I've been building cars for 35yrs and still cant wait to get to the shop and get started.I just cant imagine doing aything else.Does this sound familiar?
 
#105 ·
akm said:
the only true rodder in my eyes is someone that takes a car that is nothing and turns it in to exactly what they want, with there own two hands. and does most if not all of the work themselves.

i hate these yuppy rich wantabee rodders that just pay for a car to be built, and then claim all the glory and hard work that actually went into building it.
you want to know what a true rodder is? hang around here a while. about 90% of the people here are true rodders.
I like this guy.....but there are three types Those that like the building.....,Those that like the driving,....and those that love both..,but ....if you dont build em or drive em your deffinitly not one... stay at the show and bragg...Because, you dont even have to own one ..just wanting too is enough
 
#106 ·
old thread.. but like old hotrods that never die...

A big thanks for all who have shared their insight.

A "hotrod" in the truest sense of the word is probably a pre 1940 vehicle.. that was very factory limited in speed and power.

Most of the younger generation of that era [1930-1939 great depression]could probably only afford what was tired, worn-out, and or discarded in the way of vehicles.

To have a sense of pride in their ride they would do whatever they could to fix these vehicles up. And maybe even make them go faster than what was currently selling on the new car lots.

Since most aftermarket companies were either in their infancy or maybe not even started yet.. these guys had to be very crafty with their modifications.

Fast forward today 60+ years later. There is not a multitude of pre 1940 junkers to fix up or modify. But there is a multitude of 10, 20, 30, and 40 year old cars and trucks to hotrod and modify.

There is also an aftermarket industry now well on its feet.. with online catalogs with miles of parts and pieces to swamp even the most knowledgeable hotrodder to death. :pain: [modifications out the window.. just bolt prefit parts on..]

So in the case of changing times.. loosely defined the modern hotrodder with his latest hotrod is taking pride in his ride.. and hotrodding what is currently available to them.. only limited by budget and imagination.

If I see a modern day guy or gal with the hood up doing anything to modify speed, power, and fuel efficiency they are "hotrodding their hotrod!" [not all can rebuild their engines from a million little bitty pieces.. but they are learning and doing.. and that's what counts!]

I'm confident the hotrodders of the days of old.. who have now crossed over.. would not be aiming their middle fingers at us.. but instead giving us the huge thumbs up! :thumbup:

Que up the instrumental song "Green onions"...

If you don't get the gist.. Buy and watch the movie "American Graffiti" from 1973.
 
#107 ·
in my opinion, a hot rodder is anyone who wants to perfect nostalgia. Companies mass produce cars, but a true hot rodder makes a car their own. They can see something like a bone stock 1932 ford and see all the possibilities. Though there is a big difference in "branches" of hot rodding (Rat Rods, street rods, rat fink styled, etc.) they are all connected by one thing. Speed. Speed is how this whole thing got started, ripping apart old coupes to make them lighter and faster. Everyone in the hot rodding world can appreciate a big engine.
And finally a 100% true die hard perfect definition of a hot rodder does all their own work. Its just not the same if its not.
 
#110 ·
oh,please, most of these so called hotrodders drive like grandma..
anyone that loves cars, and loves changing the car into what THEY think is kool.. is a hot rodder..
no matter if they buck the norm.. and build a 80's car or take a junker out of a junkyard and build off that.. even if they have to farm out some of the work.. a smart hotrodder knows his limitations.. is honest enough to know when to farm out a part of a build.. be it an engine, trans,paint, don't matter..
I'm gonna catch a bunch of heat for this.. but there is more hotrodders at the dragstrip with imports than at most goodguys shows..
same with solocross races..
I've been into cars since 3y/o (1973) do take that for what it's worth..
but todays "rods" tend to be more show and flash than GOoooooooo!!!!
and thats fine.. I'm more the muscle cars and 80's cars as thats what was around when I was in school..
the best thing to happen to this hobby.. hot rodding was the rat rod..
love it or hate it.. it let cars show up that where not show cars and not get laughed off the show field.. at one time Gray Bakersfields hot rod wasn't allowed on the goodguys show field..
the other thing is the movement toward enjoying and DRIVING the cars..
instead of the trailor/garage queens.. D/F's power tour Idea and others put that back on the map... the don't let perfect get in the way of done..
and enjoyed..
I guess but your thinking I'm not a hotrodder as I'm into newer cars to build.. but still love the other stuff..
I also don't have the chops to build a ground up rod.. but someday I will..
I hot rodder is a person with the love for the cars and the will to make it "THEIRS" be it the 30's junk thats build but unsafe at any speed, the 50's lead sled or hipo build, the 60's low riders, the 70 muscle cars,the vans,the 80's rebuilding of hp.. the 90's full package builds, or todays.
order everything out of a catolog. builds..
they all have their place...EVEN the import guys that are more than a fart pipe and bling,,
like music every generation hates the next gen's music, and in the car world the same can be said about the cars people build..
some love them all. some are era snobs..
here there is more of the love of all cars.. well other than the "come on man thread"..
the sooner we all learn to band together the better the hobby as a whole will be..
peace
 
#111 ·
I have to tell you, I dig seeing the little imports all dumped with ground effect kits and what not, I am man enough to know that a lot of those little four bangers would blow the doors off my American muscle car!

Have you ever been to a drifting event? That is a blast and I can sure see why they like it and YES they are hotrodders!

There was a shop down the street from where I work that did those late model hot rods, imports, Mustangs, Porsches, you name it. I miss them, I use to love seeing and HEARING those guys as they went past where I work some REAL hot rods I'll tell you that!

Brian
 
  • Like
Reactions: John long
#112 ·
I'm man enough to say one of them ***** little imports blew the doors off my vette one day..:eek::eek::eek::drunk::drunk: We was both running side by side and he was making his car JUMP on side of me.. This was at around 75 or 80 MPH... I looked at him and said Ok !!!! Let's Play young Man !!!:mwink:

Well it looked like I just pulled on the side of the road and stopped..:drunk::sweat::pain:

So be carefull playing with them little imports .... They will get you...:mad:
 
#113 ·
I like the oldies music, Holly, del Shannon, everly bros, petty, eagles, Floyd, stones, beatles, lynne, etc...What the hell is kanye west/bieber/swift? A reflection of the decline?

I am man enough to love well figured ladies. Women come before any car, and are a POSITIVE force.

I AM THE NEGATIVE! And live with it. Sometimes I try to enjoy it. Embrace the dark side, . It is in you.
 
#115 ·
I haven't commented on this thread, so...

Back to the original question...

I HELPED to build a street rod just out of high school. ('66-'69) It was on early Ford pickup rails, with an early Olds and a '33 Plymouth coupe body. The body was too far gone, so we switched to a Fiat coupe body. My buddy and I did ALL of the work except machining and paint. (Now I custom paint for a living!) :)

In those days a "hot rod" was a pre-war body... so my own projects were NOT considered hot rods until very recently.

Since then I have built tons of cars myself... but always post-war. I went into custom painting for others in about 1972... then full time in 1986. I've painted lots of rods because that's what I do.

To answer the question... I personally am NOT a "hot rodder". To me those will always be pre-war cars... and I have never owned one that was finished... though I've "moved some" and worked on MANY! I am working on two right now!

To me it's VERY SIMPLE! The bottom line is... YOU HAVE TO OWN ONE... AND YOU HAVE TO BE A PART OF THOSE ACTIVITIES.

I don't believe the car has to be your total creation, since in my 48 years of deep involvement, I have never met ANYONE who has all of the skills. I have much more skill than most builders... but I don't do it all either.

To me, condemning people who hire others to help is ridiculous! Those guys who need some kind of help make up the majority of the hobby.

Those who condemn them are usually simply unable to afford to hire the help. 99% of the time that changes the second their income goes up.

Maybe we all need to give each other a break, and enjoy the passion we all share! Trying to analyze it... or make others agree with our own beliefs is not bringing anything good to the table. This hobby is to be enjoyed with others "plain and simple".

Now! Quit analyzing this to death, and tell me....when is the next gathering? LOL!
 
#117 ·
Great Thread!

Personally (I'm 66), "Kevin45" said it best, waaay back on page 1 of this thread...but I'm flexible on the definition. He just said it exactly as I view what a Hot Rodder is...doesn't make me right. It's just my opinion. I saved a 1959 Ford Galaxie sedan literally from the crusher, rebuilt her from the ground up myself until she was better than the day she rolled off the LA assembly line, and gave her a second life as a 1960's style, back yard, amateur built hot rod. It's just a fun car and my wife and I love cruising in it. I get stopped all the time by people (and sheriffs and highway patrol in 3 states, so far) who just want to take pictures and talk about the car. I raced it 3 years in a row at Bonneville in the USFRA "130 Club". Here's the pic from the 2010 meet... WOS 2010 Pix (5th down on the left, also in the background in the 4th down on the left). Hot Rods are just plain coooool! (and you never see a hot rod parked outside a shrink's office).
 
#119 ·
Buddy of mine has a '57 Oldsmobile. He's been workin' on it a little at a time, and done pretty much all the work himself. It's not a show queen, but will be an excellent daily driver/rat/Olds 88.
He's been looking for the side mouldings, (doors, and 1/4 panels) There are none, for his car. So he's going the "rat route", and it's turning out to be a decent "retro Rat". Complete with lake pipes, dual spots, Moon disc hubcaps, black primer, an' fuzzy dice. He's done it all himself. He's a hotrodder.

The guy that brings a car to the shop and sez "build this", may be an enthusiast, but is no Rodder.
The guy who takes a 34 Plymouth, with no engine or tranny, and takes what he has on hand, an old Merc. flathead with no distributor, and a 5 speed tranny out of an S-10, and mount them in the Plymouth, then fire the merc. with a magneto from an R1830, is a hotrodder.
 
#121 ·
Don't know if I'm a hotrodder or just mechanically obsessed. I have had mainly muscle cars most my life and did most the work myself out of necessity. I always wanted to build a car from just a basic body but lacked the skills but decided to try anyway. Eight years into building my rambler and I'm still not finished but I learned a bunch. I have nothing against the guys that pay to have cars built but it is frustrating to see a beautiful custom at a show and the owner can only give you basic info on the build and how much it cost. I think there are a lot of definition levels to hotrodders. I think anyone who modifies their vehicle and is hands on could be considered a hotrodder. I don't personally know anyone like me. I seem to be a bit more anal about trying to do everything myself no matter how long it takes.
 
#125 · (Edited)
I think you hit something, the fact that you have always done it. I am big on this and I don't care so much if the guy built it or bought it (I didn't always feel that way :nono:) but is it in his blood? My friend Steve who is in the wheel chair, I am sorry folks, HE is a "Hot rodder", this stuff is in his blood! He can't do it, but it is in his blood, running through his veins. Me personally, since before I could drive I was hotrodding bikes, and cars and making them better has been my life long work. Heck, I was riding my bike 10 miles from my home to the drag strip and climbing over the fence! Cars have been my life long job not always "Hot rods" but every single day I have ever earned a dollar it was making cars better. I have never driven a late model "car" just a "car" in my life for my daily transportation. The closest I have ever gotten was my SHO and even that is a factory hot rod. I have driven every single day old cars, hotrods, a car that I was putting slicks on and uncapping headers and running it at the drags on the weekend, I was driving every day to work. I was driving my chopped top truck with no windows (other than the windshield) in the rain to work!


Because someone builds a car doesn't even mean it's in his blood! I have seen many cars built by guys who really didn't care much about it, it was something they were trying to prove or some crap like that. One guy pops into my head right now, he is a pro painter and he has built from the frame up a 40's pickup that is VERY rough, there was no passion what so ever in it. He didn't learn anything about these trucks, what is the difference year to year, he didn't put ANY passion into it.
He recently decided to sell the truck because it isn't big enough for his family and bought a very nice mid sixties Rambler American. It needed paint and had a little rust in the quarter. He pulled off SOME of the mouldings, welded in a panel where the rust was and painted the thing, in a few days! In just a few days he had it painted, right over the dents! It is COVERED in small door dings and he painted right over them! This is a guy with ZERO passion, he could build fifty cars and he wouldn't be a "hot rodder" to me.

Then you have the surgeon who fixed my son's leg when he broke his femur last year. He LIT UP when he saw my Street Rodder magazine I was reading in my sons room at the hospital. He LIT UP and started telling me about his truck that be built in med school, polishing the stainless steel in the dental dept! LOLOL, That was the only car he had ever built, that was it, and he was MUCH more of a "Hot rodder" than MANY people who have built many cars, he had true passion thru his veins and you could see that he followed the medical field because of some outward push like from parents. Which made it so clear to me how when he showed me the xrays and explained the procedure he was going to do on my son how it sounded so "mechanical" to me. He talked to me in my language! This guy would have been a HELL of a fabricator if that was the direction he would have went. He was a Hot Rodder thru and thru.

It is a heck of a lot more about what is inside a person than what he has built.

Brian
 
#122 ·
Re: What is a hot rodder?

There are those of us that have the capability of building a hot rod and those other's call checkbook rodders. While I don't have or ever will have the money to build one of these trailer queens but their owners spend a lot of money so the rest of us can maybe get an idea or two (while careful not to get drool on their car). My car is a labor of love, love of streetrods and muscle cars. I used to race Plymouths in the 60's and 70's before kids, house, insurance, etc. made it financially impossible to continue. I lived about 15 minutes from O.C.I.R so raced there a lot but did make trips to Lions, Irwindale and once at Pomona.

Now that I'm retired, my new shop is almost ready for me to get to working full time on an all steel 41 Dodge Custom Deluxe coupe. I'm using the front clip from a 92 Dakota, building my own back half so I can do some tubbing and triangulated 4 link holding a narrowed 70' 340 Duster 8 3/4 rearend with a sure-grip holding 3.55's. I rescued a 69' SuperBee 440 SixPack motor. I've had the motor machined and new buckets. The Mopar Performance Stage IV aluminum heads are being ported soon. I have a 97' Viper six speed tranny for it but now my wife wants me to install an automatic (A-518) in it:(

In closing a hotrodder can be many different type of personalities but most of us really love cars, from an old stock car, rat rod, streetrod, muscle car, pro-street to a 3 second AA fuel rail.
 
#126 ·
I learned a few things that hotrodders are NOT, during my time of about 5 years editing and distributing the monthly newsletter of a local car club. Hotrodders are NOT people who own their car as one of many toys of all types designed to show their financial success (even though they are probably really showing their high debt ceiling); hotrodders are NOT people who get P.O.'d if you don't include their cooking recipe in the newsletter; hotrodders are NOT those who are obsessed about some facet of old cars, such as the hood ornaments, without bothering about the old cars themselves. And assuredly, hotrodders are NOT those who whine about the space taken up in the newsletter by the monthly tech article.
 
#128 ·
What is a Hotrodder?

According to my knowledge I was 9 years old when helping two of my teenage brothers build a 1930 Chrysler, 46 Ford, 49 Ford etc. these cars came as a result of lack of financial means for buying a new car. so you would have to make with what ever you could get around you at your level of economics, creativity, inventiveness and on the spot skills development...

early 50's. The Mexican Kids from California are the originators and pioneers of Hot Rods. They had no credit, Had no means and needed to create some sort of high school transportation which needed to have a distinctiveness or superiority than the newer cars of the rich kids with recent model-cars... So they will build this " Hot Rods" No real mechanical knowledge but a lot of willingness to mix engine parts to make a none running car into a unique machine in some cases they made a lot of extraordinary performance just like the donkey which played a flute and every one thought the donkey was a prodigy! Soon these kids started to race against the newer cars and betting, and to compete and so-on and so-forth.

Real mechanics started to come to those competitions and started to tinker with these old "Car-catchers" "Carcachas" (The Chicano Term) because seldom, a well-to-do kid would never suspect that an old parts missing-(Fenders, hood, etc)-car could out run their T bird, Corvette, etc. Besides the mechanics started to make money as the kid returned for more power and so on..

I hope you find this interesting,

Dan C. Chaidez
 
#130 ·
Hot Rodder ??



Billy Joe...I got in to this neat-o hobby in 1953 when I was 12 thanx to Rod & Custom, Hot Rod, etc.
1957, opened my Hot Rod shop on Capitol Hill here in Washington DC at 16. Mergered with the Nationally known The Hot Rod Garage in 2000.
Nothing has changed in the Hot Rod World since I got "grease in my blood".
I enjoy all types of "Hot Rodders".
Keep kroozen, Jim , 410 535 1933
 

Attachments

#132 ·
correct answers,not really

Are there really any correct answers but for just the guy that asked? And there only correct answers to him anyway. For me,I like any one that also likes cars,ture some more then others,but if they like cars there is some talking ground. I do build from scrach my own cars on very low $,but can indeed see some one who has $, love cars so much he buys them to his liking. I don't care for the new rat rod thing,I'm 70 and was building rods in the mid 50's,so having been a hotrodder for a very long time now,it is sad and sorry to see a young guy say it's "tad" to be rat,but same goes for flat paint as a finish=not tad ether guys,that was primer and was on its way to get a shiny nice paint job/an most good rod got shiny<but you like to copy the lazy bum that never did get his car to the shiny fine,don't call it a finish.:boxing:
 
#133 ·
Haven't got a chance to read every page but before I could drive my dad always took me to the drags and I watched him and "helped" him work on everything from c60s to Rivieras. I love every second of it, but I don't think I was a "real hotrodder" until my 15 year old self flipped the air cleaner lid on my 84 caprice for the first time and heard the secondaries open on that 140hp beast :D

Much like Brian says, I think the qualifier is the love and passion. If you go to the Scottsdale Pavilions, you'll see guys there that are "real hotrodders" that have a Ford Ranger, and guys there that aren't that are in a Tri-5 or Bucket. It's the passion that sets them apart.
 
#135 ·
I would consider my self a Hot Rodder even though my car is not typical. (If there is such a thing.)

I suffer form HP envy and always want to go faster. I do all my own work and fabrication, learning as I go. I enjoy tinkering as much as driving. I use my "Hotrod" as a jack of all trades. 1/4 mile, Road race, AutoX, Street cruising and now Drifting.

Is it a little German? A little 'Merican? A little Rice? Yes to all, but it and I are hotrodders to the core. With exhaust cut outs open at the Dairy Queen cruise in, we fit in just fine...

 
#136 ·
I like to think it's the passion of old iron that separates a person in the car world...you always get the purists who piss and moan about rat rods or chunk buckets...you get the 60's guys who scream about a mid seventies car not being a muscle car and then there are the 2 door guys verses 4 door guys....they are all hot rodders IMHO ... and if you bought a car or had one built and take it out to a cruise or race and flog the liven crap out of it and then have it repaired and try to fix it yourself...then your good in my book...if you bought it as a sound investment as the value increases and sell before ever driving the car and can't remember what auction you got it from?...then you are not a hot rodder and should collect something other than cars that I want to buy and flog the liven hell out of ;)
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top