Historic Hot Rod Club Revived! est. 1936, reborn 2007.

[cowboy76]

Thought a good bunch of you fellas on here can appreciate something near and dear to my heart. The revived hot rod club originally formed in the mid 1930s,...the Hot Irons. For now we have a simple myspace page to get people aware of the club, history, etc.
We actually have the honor of having one of the original surviving members to add to our roster! Some of the original memers served during the second world war. Everytime a WWII vet or friend of that era passes away,...a little piece of me goes with them.

www.myspace.com/hotironscc

Enjoy!
Keep history alive!

 

[Speedster]

Welcome

Welcome to the Lounge cowboy76.

Although driving a modern hatchback, i am a great fan of early hot rods. Please post photos of your and the other rods from the club.

 

[Twitch]

And those early hot rods were simple modifieds for the time. Most guys would simply take off the heavy fenders of the say 29-34 era cars. Actual performance equipment was scarce then and is more so now. It was usually only a multiple carb intake manifold and perhaps a split exhaust manifold. Don't confuse them with rat rods, though.

 

[kpreed]

My Car Cub is not that old. It was started after WWII, but it has never dis-banded, a few lean years in the 1960s, but it never gave up. Some of the original members too, so a bunch of history also and that I really like.

 

[GearHead]

Very cool and right up my alley owning a hot rod and classic restoration shop out here in NJ. www.retrolaneautoworks.com
Maybe we can meet up at a show at some point.

Erick

 

[cowboy76]

My Car Cub is not that old. It was started after WWII, but it has never dis-banded, a few lean years in the 1960s, but it never gave up. Some of the original members too, so a bunch of history also and that I really like.

Well you see, the boys never "gave up" of course, it was just the nature of the beast in those times (post wwii) that many clubs simply merged,...this is what happened with several of the original fellows.

 

[cowboy76]

And those early hot rods were simple modifieds for the time. Most guys would simply take off the heavy fenders of the say 29-34 era cars. Actual performance equipment was scarce then and is more so now. It was usually only a multiple carb intake manifold and perhaps a split exhaust manifold. Don't confuse them with rat rods, though.

Actually, they were not simply modified from their original stock selves by any means! That was not the norm at all in the 1930s and 40s. Actual performance equipment was VERY prevalant in those time periods,....from the mid 1920s in fact. There were high performance overhead valve heads for model T's that if used properly could make a T go 80-90 mph if built correctly (rare speeds but possible, as seen in the late 30s early 40s),...many early speedsters were able to prove their muscle even well into the 1930s! Rajo was a company among others that produced an overhead valve head for the Ford model T engine.

As far as Henry's (henry Ford) 4 banger model A engine,...well, things just improved and got faster with time!! By the mid-late 1930s, there were many manufacturers producing speed parts for your average model A engine. Acme, Winfield, Miller-Schofield (which later became "Cragar"), Pop Evans, Riley, etc.
One such very popular piece of speed/performance equipment was the Riley Dual-Valve-In-Head made from 1929 to 1932 for the Model "A" & "B" Ford.

(Riley Head)

Right now they are being successfully reproduced and they are NICE!! In fact a lot of Ford 4 cylinder speed equipment is being reproduced,....which is nicely driving down the prices of original speed equipment for the Model A's and Bs!! Nice to see for me!!

When the Ford Flathead V8 came out, there was NO speed parts to be had, and the flathead Ford V8 didnt gain acceptance by most untill guys started toying with them in the late 1930s and realizing they had potential. Reason being, they were new, expensive and they had no speed parts availible for them,..so guys kept running their Model A and B engines, in fact many times beating out the Ford V8s like it was nothing,...those little 4 cylinders dynamoes have much more torque than many realize and can really gow out like the dickens when built properly with good speed parts inside its belly!

Sadly, it is a time that our civilization overlooks and continues to overlook. I've had discussions with guys insisting that hot rodding didnt start untill AFTER WWII.....dead wrong!

I do wholeheartedly agree with real Hot Rods NOT being "Rat Rods" or "street rods",...if you read through the myspace page at the top side where the description lies, you'll see why many distain "rat rods" and "street rods". As many other things have fallen prey to the historical molesters,...the world and history of hot rodding so to has slipped into the clutches of the unknowing, ignorant masses of hipsters and trend riders. I always say, No, Virginia, Rat Rods and street rods did NOT exist in the old days,....

For more reliabe and trusted info on the early and REAL days of hot rodding see the following books:

"Flat Out" - Al Drake
"The day the hot rods ran" - William Carroll
"Hot Rods as They Were" - Don Montgomery

All very good reads and a MUST for anyone looking to learn the REAL history of hot rodding. These boys did a TON of research and interviewed the guys who were there in the beginning!!

 

[cowboy76]

Oh hey I forgot,..check this site out for old hopped up engines,...really the cat's pajamas brother!

http://winfield.50megs.com/Engines/Engines.htm

 

[The Wingnut]

THAT'S the spirit! Finally a little backlash against all the silliness. 'Rat rods' are a subculture that have gone off the deep end, and 'street rods' are so far from the original spirit of the hobby, it's laughable.

My grandpa had a '30 Ford in the mid '30s that he swapped bodies on seasonally, between a phaeton in the summer and a coupe in the winter. He worked it to the point that he could undo 4 bolts, tie the roof to a rope going over a crossbeam in the barn and connected to the bumper, drive forward, lift off the body and set it aside, then reverse the process with the other body. The phaeton was great in the summer months with 6 friends.

He worked over the stock banger to the point that he was blowing up banjo rear ends left and right. He later traded the car on a Harley that he bored out to 80 CI, and nearly killed himself with when a woman backed her car away from a curb in front of him while he was blowing through town flat out. He woke up in a hospital two weeks later.

The war mellowed him out considerably, and the kids came afterward...a bullet nose Studebaker was the next car, and later an Austin Mini, which was the only thing that could handle the Syracuse snow at the time...he'd tell stories of plowing through snowbanks just for fun.

Maybe that '30 is still out there somewhere...but it's proof that rodding started long before the war!

 

[cowboy76]

Hey Wingnut,...you're allright brother! Great story!

 

[BellyTank]

For those who don't know a lot about early HotRodding,
this book is a great resource:

"The Birth of Hot Rodding (The story of the dry lakes era)"

And the photos are fantastic.


B
T

 

[cowboy76]

For those who don't know a lot about early HotRodding,
this book is a great resource:

"The Birth of Hot Rodding (The story of the dry lakes era)"

And the photos are fantastic.


B
T

That is a great book, I have it, really awesome source for post WWII photos and hot rods.

Sadly it DOES NOT do justice to its name becuase in reality, it does NOT show nor tell much at all in the way of the "Birth" of hot rodding. I dont know why he titled it "The Birth Of Hot Rodding" to be honest with ya?? That was the let down for me when I purchased it...misleading title. I've spoken to the author before and he's a great guy, really nice fellow, good photographer, etc.

So, yes, its wonderfully put together book, great collection of photography without a doubt if you're looking to see how guys built rods, some of the history of early
post-wwii rodding and to see how people dressed and how the men wore everything they had taken home with them after the war,..very cool indeed!

It must be specified, however, that you will NOT get a good understanding about the actual "birth" of hot rodding because its a book that derives 99.9% of its info and photography from post WWII. "Dry Lakes and Drag Strips" is another interesting book, that actually has just a bit more on the real early days of rodding (20s to the early 1940s).

The best book that really, truely delves into the early days of hot roding and gives a good amount of true history still has to be "Flat Out" by Al Drake. Drake's book is all about the early days, the entire thing except for (literally) a few pages at the end that brings you into a slight bit of the modern world of rodding. He wrote it specifically to deal with the beginnings of it all.
I actually stumbled on it by accident and very glad I did too! You can still order it right from Al at fla tout press on the internet. He'll even autograph it for you, no extra charge! Another friend is Don Montgomery, he's helped me a LOT in my research. A wonderful guy to chat with, and a wealth of information! Very helpful, and kind! Great author and he was an early hot roder too!!

 

[Twitch]

What you point out Cowboy is what I meant. Guys in the 30s-40s modified the original cars and engines without doing major swaps as in later times. There was no pulling out the Model A's 4-banger and grafting on a frame to take a Buick straight 8.

Even into the early 60s the average Hot Rod magazine feature car was a super mild custom. A '32-'40 Ford with full fenders but modern wheels and chrome hubcaps, a dual carb set up amd dual exhausts plus a custom paint and interior. Almost stock but not quite.

 

[RIOT]

Glad to see another traditional Hot Rod club back in action. Now let's see some photos from your club's arsenal.

 

[Thunderbolt]

V-8's are nice, but not the only one

Many people don't think a car is anything if it doesn't have a V-8. That's sad. I've got a 238 six waiting for me back home. Needs a re-build, it's all siezed up. Any advice for hop ups once I get it running? For now I tool around in a four-banger Mustang hatchback.

 

[The Wingnut]

Try Clifford for straight six performance.

My first two cars had Chrysler big blocks rumbling away under the hood, but I love my little Japanese straight six(derived from a Mercedes design!) under the hood of my Datsun Z, as well. I'm picking up another motor and trans tomorrow!

 

[MrNewportCustom]

Many people don't think a car is anything if it doesn't have a V-8. That's sad. I've got a 238 six waiting for me back home. Needs a re-build, it's all siezed up. Any advice for hop ups once I get it running? For now I tool around in a four-banger Mustang hatchback.

I've never done this, but a friend from years back told me that he once unfroze an engine by removing the spark plugs and squirting transmission fluid into each cylinder. He then let it sit for a couple weeks, with another squirt every now and then to refresh the fluid. Occasionally, he'd take a socket and breaker bar to nudge it around until he could turn the crank. He said that the first time he fired it up, there was a lot of smoke!


Lee

 

[cowboy76]

Many people don't think a car is anything if it doesn't have a V-8. That's sad. I've got a 238 six waiting for me back home. Needs a re-build, it's all siezed up. Any advice for hop ups once I get it running? For now I tool around in a four-banger Mustang hatchback.

a 238 six?? I know an inline six in the mid 30s late 40s was a 216 CI engine,...later they came out with 235 CI in the late 1940s/50s....GMC had the 228, 248, 270 ,298 and later in the mid 1950s the 302 inline six. What's the 238 from??

My speed tech is old stuff,...if its pre 1955 I can help or find out for ya,...after that I'm a blank!![huh] LOL

 

[cowboy76]

Glad to see another traditional Hot Rod club back in action. Now let's see some photos from your club's arsenal.

Well for now we've got four members,..small but I think its better to be a small sized club sometimes. We're small because of the fact that these are rods being built as period correct rods,...so its hard to allow someone with a nice hot rod that looks like it belongs in 1941 to join when he's runnng a T10 transmission tucked away under the floor. it just doesnt jive,...I hat to be the stick in the mud,..but this stuff's got its roots and that's where I want to be at, I dont want to compramise, so many other clubs and people do and things go tits up, I dont want to see that happen with us.

For now, just head to www.myspace.com/hotironscc and that's as good as it gets, no arsenal yet,...I and another are guys with cars on the road (well I took mine off the road to work on it/finish it up more).

Thanks for the kind words of encouragement!!

 

[Twitch]

Mr Newport there are several variations on that theme with differences in what liquid is used to unfreeze a stuck engine. Very often they will I hear. It's always worth a try!

Speak of "straight" engines, how about my straight 8?