Pre war hot rod ideas

[Corvette.Jeff]

hi all, its been a while since ive posted anything here well ive been busy with 1:1's here lately and haven't had much down time.

Anyways, im working on a 27' ford sedan delivery(thanks to the tree hugger for the instructions) but I've hit a mental wall with ideas.

At first i did just do a simple chop to it, then the sides fell apart from the belt line up, so i channeled it down, then made a little tonneau cover type thing for it. then i got a windshield outta the parts box and stuck in there. now it looks like an old pre war hot rod from socal, ill have to post pictures in a bit.

But I've hit a mental wall of sorts on ideas for it. does anybody have some pictures of hot rods of this sort?

i searched and couldnt find anything that looked like it.

thanks,Jeff

Edited November 9, 2009 by ThatOneEmoKid

[Corvette.Jeff]

this was my initial inspiration for this build.

[Corvette.Jeff]

heres mine as of right now.

i think the wheels fit with the car(ignor the orange, i was testing my masking skills)so i may keep them on it, if not i have a set of slicks and steelies for it.

another view.

another

the frame(poorly built, but its not gonna be shown)

showing the bodywork.

i usually wont show my bodys without a nice coat of primer, but the paint on this just looks so freakin awesome, i may just mask off the body and put a coat of primer on the body filler.

jeff.

[Ragnar]

If you want it to be pre World War 2, use the frame and running gear from the 29 Rat Rod, and a thirties flat head. I like the Rev/Mon 37 ford flat head. Put on aftermarket center water port heads, eithe a two deuces manifold, or a two into 1 adapter manifold keep the thirties style two bulb distributor. Use wheel from one of the cars or trucks made during the thirties with skinny black wall tyres from the same period. Keep the paint simple, ie. Black Dark green, red or one of the other colours available during the thirties, flat or semi gloss, they didn't have the high gloss paints that started showing up later, except on very exspensive luxury cars. Keep the interior period correct, no bomber seats or fance tuck and roll upholstery. The Hot Rods of the thirties are all about speed, so everything they could remove was removed. The Frames were simple C-Channel afairs, no fancy tube frames, they were often drilled out to lighten them, even though it weakened the frames. They all used Banjo, or in the very rare case quick change rears and many of these early rods had the rear axle mounted directly to the frame rails without springs. Z-ed frames were very, very rare. The Hot setup was a 38 Flathead. bored 3/16", and stroked 1/4", 8:1 Heads( the fuel available limited compression ratios ), Two Singles, or two early 2 barrel carbs( no 97s), hooked up to a mid thirties Ford Truck Toploader, With weed burner stlye exhaust. The rearend gear was often 3.27 to 1. The most popular body was a 28/29 A Roadster, with a cut down Deuce Radiator surround and grille. Of course the first thing they did away with was the fenders.

CHEERS!

[Art Anderson]

If you want it to be pre World War 2, use the frame and running gear from the 29 Rat Rod, and a thirties flat head. I like the Rev/Mon 37 ford flat head. Put on aftermarket center water port heads, eithe a two deuces manifold, or a two into 1 adapter manifold keep the thirties style two bulb distributor. Use wheel from one of the cars or trucks made during the thirties with skinny black wall tyres from the same period. Keep the paint simple, ie. Black Dark green, red or one of the other colours available during the thirties, flat or semi gloss, they didn't have the high gloss paints that started showing up later, except on very exspensive luxury cars. Keep the interior period correct, no bomber seats or fance tuck and roll upholstery. The Hot Rods of the thirties are all about speed, so everything they could remove was removed. The Frames were simple C-Channel afairs, no fancy tube frames, they were often drilled out to lighten them, even though it weakened the frames. They all used Banjo, or in the very rare case quick change rears and many of these early rods had the rear axle mounted directly to the frame rails without springs. Z-ed frames were very, very rare. The Hot setup was a 38 Flathead. bored 3/16", and stroked 1/4", 8:1 Heads( the fuel available limited compression ratios ), Two Singles, or two early 2 barrel carbs( no 97s), hooked up to a mid thirties Ford Truck Toploader, With weed burner stlye exhaust. The rearend gear was often 3.27 to 1. The most popular body was a 28/29 A Roadster, with a cut down Deuce Radiator surround and grille. Of course the first thing they did away with was the fenders.

CHEERS!

For starters, pre-World War II rodders tended to shy away from flathead V8's, to them all the Ford V8 was good for was to be the "best waterheater Detroit ever built". Seriously, inline 4-bangers ruled the hot rod scene in the 30's (it wasn't until those prewar rodders went off to war that their younger kin discovered the possibilities of the Flathead V8 for the most part).

As for 4-cylinder engines, at the top of the horsepower charts (excluding the exotic Model A/B Ford based Cragar 4, which was both scarce and expensive) were the Chevy 4's out of the 20's, followed by the somewhat larger 4-cyl that powered Oldsmobiles from 1919 to about 1924 or so (the engine that is in the Beverly Hillbillies Truck kit, BTW). Model A engines were popular, the Model B even more so (and there is but one external visual difference between the two--the Model B doesn't have the outside oil return pipe on the valve galley cover on the left side of the block!), with one of the numerous aftermarket cylinder heads (Revell has two different Model A speed equipment heads, a flathead, and an OHV conversion, look inside their '31 and '29 Model A kits). All sorts of wild intake manifolds got built, as were exhaust headers (the tapered section of a Ford torque tube made for those wild looking "megaphone pipes"!). Bodies remained, for the most part, completely stock, and not that many were channeled, almost no coupes ran, roadsters were king. Suspensions tended to be mostly stock Ford setups, not even dropped front axles for the most part. 6:00-16 wheels and tires were pretty much what got run by the late 30's, often on '35 Ford wire wheels (R&D Unique has those in cast white metal).

As for paintwork, most didn't spend much time or money on that, often the cars ran in primer (now you begin to see where rat rods got their modern day inspiration!).

There have been a number of books written about hot rodding in the years 1930-1941, as well as a good number of articles in Hot Rod and Rod & Custom (others also) that talk about what I have just written.

Art

[Eshaver]

I agree with Art ! I'll get ya some pictures of a 1929 Ford Jalopy racer I did for the Amoco projek ya'all have yet to see . I used the Model A 4 banger with very period speed equipment and of course Steel wheels . See Jarius I do pay tention ! Ed Shaver

[Harry P.]

If by "pre-war" hot rod you mean a hot rod as it would have been built in the 30s, the wheels and tires you have on your mockup are all wrong! Those types of wheels/tires didn't exist back then.

[george 53]

Jeff, ya know Ol Harry's gotta point there! Them wheels DO look good, but for the PERIOD your goin for, thety ARE too new. Maybe if you were to put a set of deepened wire wheels on it, i'd be more of keepin with the look your goin for. Just some constructive criticism, caz I do like the look.

[Jairus]

Pre-War hot rods were also known as "Gow jobs", one has to remember what was available back then and only use parts, bits and pieces of the era.

A good... no, GREAT starting point is the Revell kits: 30 Woody, 29 pickup, 31 sedan as those kits contain the correct engine and speed equipment. As far as wheels, Stock wheels were usually used because the guys didn't know better and very little was available to them in aftermarket wheels. Chopping was unheard of but channeling and "z'ing" the frame rails common practice. However, many rodders simply removed the fenders and drove it the way it was.

What bodies were used were almost exclusively open tubs or open pickup cabs. Few wanted a closed car as they were heavier and the quickest way to make horsepower was to lose weight. So Gow Jobs of the era were super light and agile.

Indy and Grand Prix across the pond were huge inspirations for rodders then and they emulated what they saw. Some even hand forming tapered tails to match what was popular on the brickyard.

Google Indy Cars of the 30's and you will see what the rodder of the era was using as an inspiration.

The car you posted (shown below) is only Pre-Viet Nam war...

this was my initial inspiration for this build.

Edited November 9, 2009 by Jairus

[Chuck Most]

The car you posted (shown below) is only Pre-Viet Nam war...

Looks more POST Vietnam war to me! I can agree that it is most certainly pre-Gulf War!

No pre-war rod had that kind of stance, much less a Hemi! Still doesn't mean you can't build a bad-ass looking pre WWII rod... they're out there.

[Corvette.Jeff]

i like the look of what you've got going right now. pre-war hot rod? not even close, but it's not a bad thing either

believe it or not i see some 80's BMX influence here the reverse tilted windshiled reminds me alot of how we used to like our handlebars and the low stance and wide 80's style tires and rims just add to that. i could be going out on a limb here but the 4cyl. BMW engine from the Revell 320i would be a cool choice in my opinion for power.

leave the body a bit rough and pick up some of those skate or BMX stickers for the Tech Deck's and stick them on the tonneau cover and you could have a cool skate rod.

Dave

I am inspired by 80's bmx quite a bit my current bmx even has the handlebars tilted forward(mostly for comfort) im alos riding brakless at the moment(mostly becasue im waiting for my tire to bald completley) im alos running the white wheel on the back with a black one on the front

that is a cool idea for the engine!

Thanks,Jeff

Edited November 9, 2009 by ThatOneEmoKid

[Corvette.Jeff]

Thanks to everyone for the tips and such!

I thought i had posted about what i meant by "pre war", but i dont see the post any where, what i meant by it was teh car is pre war, but no specific era(hince the wheels )

IM mostly really looking for some ideas of where to go to next with this thing, like paint, dropping teh front down more, etc,etc...

The backstory to this build would probably go something like this....

A kid finds an old 27' ford that was built somewhere in the fifties, when he found it it was just a rolling chassis and a shell, and since hot rods and fast cars were the big things in the 80's he decided he was gonna get this one, so he buys it imports a set of wheels from japan(i got em from a guy in hong kong ) and finds a sbc to power the car.

and thats as far as i've gotten so far.