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.