1934 ford hot rod truck.

metalshapes I wouldn’t worry too much about the HAMB ending up how it has. I think given the demographic, it was inevitable. The age and nationality of the majority of members meant the place was a reflection of their values.

It’s why this forum is different in a way, being British based the build threads tend to be more honest.
Be that quietly confident, understated, or just self effacing. There’s a lot less ‘look at me’ on here than American forums, as the british tend to find such behaviour vulgar, something that’s pretty much been bred out of the American population.

I guess trad Rods are a bit of a fad, ish, but if it is it keeps coming round and never really going away. Most of the guys I know who are into em (including a few low flyers members) were part of the 80s rockabilly revival. I had only just been born. Then there was a big surge 20 years later, around the millennium and just before, when guys like Jimmy shine made his name. . Then again in the past few years with another dearth of bullsh1t American ‘shows’.
It’s not like they disappeared in between though.

The hipster crowd isn’t necessarily a bad thing though. Maybe 10-20% make the transition to being proper hot rod guys. The rest spend all their money then after a few years flog off all their stuff cheap when they move onto the next fad, leaving a good parts supply for the lifers. In the meantime we benefit from all the business springing up to supply the perceived need.

OK, maybe its better to call it the flavor of the day.

If you go through a stack of period pics, you can usually date the era the car was built in pretty well.

By build style, parts used, paint/graphics, interior, etc.

The Pony car/ Musclecar era put a dent into Hot Rodding, but it never went away.


If we take the greatest generation coming back from the war as a starting point ( it wasnt, people were building Hot Rods before that ), there has been a constant evolution of styles.


When lil'John Buttera did his Billet '32Coupe, I was very impressed.

Right after that came the Boyd built Billet '34Coupe, and those 2 cars are the only ones I ever cut magazines up for.

But then it was downhill from there, for me.

As a buildstyle it went stale for me, almost right away.


Another factor was, the articles Thacker did in ( I think ) Street Machine Magazine.

At the end of his '32Roadster build, he lamented that he went the ( then ) contemporary Billet route.

Instead of building a Trad car.
His reasoning made a lot of sense to me.

And I've been trying to learn about Trad Hot Rods long before I was able to build one.


So it was never in any doubt that was the direction I'd go in, when I was finally able to build them.
( but with a generous helping of Road Race/Track influence, because thats what I'm into as well... )


My apologies for derailing your Buildthread, Dez .
But it does explain why I like your builds as much as I do...

There’s been a few parts based developments for this.

I was over my mate franks picking up a few little bits for something else and he gave me these-


Probably because me and his nephew (who I happen to already be mates with independently through entirely different types of car) got roped (quite literally) into handling a 32 Ford chassis up in the roof of his garage so it was out the way. So I reckon I earned em 😂

Don’t get too excited though, as although they’ve never been used-


The sidewalls look like this, hence them going begging.


Still, bit o’ boot polish and they’ll be reet 😉😬
In all seriousness though, with the acquisition of these, this thing can now be a roller.

I also bought these off friendface.


They’re an original 50s/60s pair of Stewart Warner oil pressure and OIL temp gauges. They have a nice patina, and at 40 quid plus the ride, they were a bit of a barg. The panel is new and nothing special so that’ll get flogged on. They’re untested but they’re mechanical so generally speaking if the needles rest in around the right place they’re Proably gunna be ok.


The temp one has the capillary and bulb all in good order, the pressure one needs a copper line making up.

Well ignore how much a matching SW Speedo is for now 😂

Last thing was a handbrake lever. Yeah d been keeping an eye out for one for a while as it was a thing a new I needed, in typical dashing I now have 2-1/2.

One 35/36 one with the little kink and the big bracket, one that was sold as model A but I can’t place as the ratchet bit is wrong for model A and 32-34, and lastly an extra model A or 32-34 handle with the mech missing. I’m favouring the 35/36 at the mo but we’ll see.



I need so few parts now, just plenty of time.

Yeah I know I’m getting confused with other things I’ve bought 😂
I’ve got quite a few of this type of gauge for different cars.
I’ll go correct it, thanks. Stupid thing is I bought these cos the oil temp gauge is quite rare!