Feature: Engine Swaps 4/4

1932 Ford Roadster Hot Rod

Once customizing post-war cars caught on, many of the practices were extended to pre-war cars, which were also known as fendered rods. These fendered rods had more bodywork done on them. An alternate rule for the obvious had developed. For a hot rod to be classified as a hot rod, the engine must be located behind the front suspension. Whereas the customs had to have, the engine placed over the front suspension. The clearest example of this is Fords prior to 1949 had Henry Ford's old transverse front suspension, while the 1949 models had a more modern suspension with the engine moved forward. However, what could be the first true custom, 1932 Clobes can found in an American Museum

Feature: Engine Swaps 3/4

Swapping engines has been commonplace since the customization of pre-war cars. At one time “the flatty” or flathead, was the preferred choice, but that was overthrown by the early hemi that came the in the ‘50s and the ‘60s. By the ‘70s, the small-block Chevy became the most common choice since the ‘80s. By that point, the 350 cu in (5.71) Chevy engine were found practically everywhere.

The flatheads and early hemis have not exclusively disappeared, but they are becoming more readily available, with the ease of maintenance and the low cost of replacement parts; the SB Chevy has become the frequent choice when swapping when swapping engines.

Now that you know the basics. How do you view your car? Is it just something that gets you to and from a place or is it more that that? Have you named your car. I did...her name is Sephyr, because she is black like a dragon. I also view my Sephyr as a work of art not just a car. So, please tell me about your car.

Features: Paint (2/4)

When building a custom ride, whether it be a street or rat rod, hot rod, lowrider or lowrod or simply a custom car for cruisin’ on the weekends—the paint was always an important concern. Generally, once the bodywork was completed, the cars were sometimes painted in unusual colors.

Transparent, but wildly colored candy apple paint with aluminum glitter within the paint is applied on top of a metallic undercoat, first appeared in the 1960s. But, there was a problem with this method; it took too many coats to produce a brilliant effect, which in the hotter climates would eventually begin to flake. Car customizer Joe “Candy Apple Joe” Bailon, form northern California invented this method, process and style of paint job.

Soon, customizers began to add decorative paint to the car after the main coats was finished of any flames extending rearward from the front wheels, scallop flame and hand painted pin striping of a contrasting color. The base color, which is most often, is a single coat of a simpler paint. At some point in the customization process, flame jobs were introduced into this customization world. Applied later on in the process, the flames eventually spread to the hood, enclosing the entire front end. The flames begin at the bottom of the front fenders and follow the wind patterns up, over the hood, and down the side of the car. And since then have progressed from traditional fire/flame colors of reds, oranges and yellows through to the blues, greens and body-color "ghost" flames [insert pic of ghost flames]. One particular style of flames, called "crab claw flames,” which is still prevalent today, is attributed to Dean Jeffries.

Because custom painting has become such an important component of the custom car scene, many shows and competitions are awarding trophies for custom paint and paint design.

Customization: Style Part 1/4

Over the years, customizers have been determined to design or redesign (in many cases) their rides to resemble cars in stock or factory condition. In fact, many customizers have gone so far as to take both the visual components and the performance characteristics of various modification styles and combining them as they saw fit.

By now, there are five different custom themes, including the following. First there is the rat rods, which imitates (or exaggerates) the “unfinished” or amateurish built appearance of the hot rods from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. Next come the street rods, which are American cars with large-displaced, modified engines; for example, the 1962 Chevy Impala with an up-to-date Corvette or Cadillac engine under the hood. These often consist of largely period and/or spec vehicles and their components that imitate and surpass the visual characteristics of hot rods from the ‘30s, ‘40s, and ‘50s.

There are some great overlaps between the street and hot rods on the road today. The third style is the modern styles of contemporary cars are also out there. Most often, they are built (or rebuilt) using contemporary parts and by using custom colors and paint finishes on these cars. The fourth and fifth styles come out Southern California and they are the lowrider and lowrod. The lowrider sits inches off the ground. It’s designed for crusin' the streets—top down, slow n low that’s how they roll in southern California. The latest thing in the chopped and dropped world is the lowrod. The lowrod has a bigger, more powerful engine designed for speed, and a stock suspension both are installed without any modifications. The lowrod is a combination of the “low of the lowrider and the engine of a hot rod” all riding on 20 or 22 inch wheels.

So, if you had unlimited resources and money and could buy any car you could possibly want, what would be? What would it look like and why?

Mine, … I'd want a Bugatti... so when I drive it on the Autobahn I could feel my face flatten and feel the gravity pull my body back into the seat. But, my dream car, is a 64 Impala lowrider that has been royal blue with a custom paint job with grey details.

History

Pre-World War II cars were the first hot rods with running boards and simple fenders over the wheels. Modifications to factory cars from 1929 to 1934 were made by removing the running boards and/or removing the fenders entirely or replacing them with very light "cycle fenders” and for the cars that came after, generally installed "fender skirts" on the rear fenders. Numerous rides were "hopped up" with modifications to the engine.

These modifications were as simple as adding additional carburetors, high compression heads, and dual exhausts. "Engine swaps" were competed. The name of that game was to install the most powerful engine into the lightest frame and body combination.

Altering the suspension was one way to modify the ride. “Primarily this involved lowering the rear end as much as possible with the use of "lowering blocks" on the rear springs.” Later cars were given a "rake job," is a hot rod that leans forward either by lowering the front or lowering the back by either adding a "dropped" front axle or heating front coil springs to make the front end of the car much lower than the rear. Subsequently, hot rods and custom cars often swapped the old solid rear axle for an independent rear axle, often from Jaguar. Rarely was the grille of one make of car replaced by another. For example, was the 1937 Buick grille, often used on a Ford was the exception to that rule.

The original hot rods were plainly painted like the Model A Fords from which they had been built up, and only slowly begun to take on colors, and eventually fancy orange-yellow flamed hoods or "candy-like" deep acrylic finishes in the various colors.

With the new changes in automobile design that encased the wheels in the fenders and the extension of the hood to the full width of the car, the previous modification practices were no longer an option. Due to the large amount of advertising and subsequent public interest grew in the new models that were rolling of the assembly line in the 1950s.

Thus, custom cars came into existence, and the creation of a world of swapping headlamp rings, grilles, bumpers, chrome side strips, and taillights, as well as "frenching" and "tunnelling" head- and taillights. The bodies of the cars were altered by cutting through the sheet metal, removing pieces to make the car lower, welding it back together, and adding a lot of lead to make the resulting from smooth (hence the term "lead sled." In the custom car culture, someone who merely changed the appearance without substantially improving the performance was looked down upon.