Ace-Garageguy

Response 1: Yup, just before she cut my heart out. Sort of established a pattern with women...she was less than impressed by the punctuation in an essay I'd written on manufacturing. Alternate response: Yup. I'm the turkey.

Great looking model, and the wheelstand really brings it to life. Are the wheelie-bar wheels holding it up at all, or is all the load going through the axle attachment?

Man, some beautiful stuff in this thread....

It'd be kinda fun to do some parts-swapping among those. Sort of a recombinant-DNA kitbash.

And from all of us to all of you...PLEASE EAT HAM.

Sigh. Why don't we just agree to disagree...those of us who think rat-rods embody the spirit of the early hot-rods don't HAVE to accept the opinion of those who don't, and vise-versa. Life's too short to argue over such a trivial distinction. In the overall scheme of things, it really doesn't matter a rat's ass.

Here's the part where your 1/4 brain let you down. The early spin the discussion took was whether rat-rods were built in the SPIRIT of the original hot-rods. i think the answer has pretty well been established as "no". Too subtle? Maybe the definition of "spirit" is what's throwing you. Try this..."The loyalty and feeling of inclusion in the social history or collective essence of an institution or group". Understand? Hot-rods GO. Rat-rods NO go. :)

Dang...I wish I'd said it that well, and in so few words. Right on, brother. Know what I'm sayin'? EDIT: A big BUT...the guys in the early days who could manage to afford nice bodywork, upholstery and shiny paint, or who at least wanted it, were far from the minority. The intent evolved from building bare-bones speed into building refined and finished vehicles that looked as good as they performed. The intent finally evolved into PAYING someone else to build expensive showpieces that often didn't get driven at all, though the "purist" segment never really died; it was just overshadowed by the big-buck billet trailer-queens. The rat thing, as discussed ad nauseam, was a backlash against the expensive, pro-built, eat-off-of-it-clean segment of the hobby. Now it's spun to silly extremes, and the "build it nice and drive it" faction is beginning to make a comeback. They're ALL interesting and worthwhile creative endeavors. To each his own.

Yeah, but it passed whatever tech inspection it had to pass that day...and was obviously built after roll bars became mandatory. I never said ALL hot rods were built safe from the beginning, because a lot of the guys just didn't know any better. As they learned what made a car particularly risky to operate, sanctioning bodies and clubs made competition rules to try to avoid needless tragedies.To RACE, you have to be able to get something down or around the course, and that means a certain level of performance is necessary, and the cars were meant to be MOVING things.Tech rules evolved over time, because it became obvious that without standards of construction and safety, people would get hurt more than was necessary in the pursuit of more speed. It happened pretty quickly, and came about BECAUSE THE CARS WERE MEANT TO BE MOVING THINGS, not static piles. And I kinda doubt it had any saw blades welded to it, or a toilet seat just to be "cool". But I tell you what...anybody can think anything they want, about ANYTHING they want. I'm glad I live in a country where it's still possible to build a rat-rod, even a poorly-welded one with no brakes, if that's what you want.

Very nice job of weathering, and of shoe-horning that big Caddy that little engine bay.

Frankly, this statement shouldn't even be acknowledged, much less dignified with a response, but if you had ANY idea of what you're talking about, you'd know that Thompson's and his wife's murderer was finally convicted, and was a business rival who had been screwing everyone he had any dealings with for years. Read the dammed story of the investigation, trial and conviction. Thompson came from a working class family. His father was a cop. He got in a little trouble street racing when he was a teen, but then went on to build a string of record-breaking and groundbreaking competition machinery, from junk in the beginning, and was quite simply one of the most gifted self-taught natural engineers in motorsports. Even his Challenger I LSR vehicle was built with a LOT of salvaged, junkyard parts (20+ year-old LaSalle gearboxes, for example). A lot of people were jealous of his accomplishments, and in the spirit of what is so unfortunately a large part of human-nature, took every opportunity to try to ridicule his ideas and tear him down. The successes he won speak for themselves, and in his self-designed Challenger I he became the fastest man on Earth in a wheel-driven vehicle in 1960.

Glad you like them Doc, but better to thank the guys over on the HAMB for digging up and posting all of them.

Glad you like it. There's a lot of stuff here I've never seen before, and a lot of combinations of components I'd never really considered...like the Hemi in the MG. Did you happen to see the flat-top Comet?

To clarify, many early hot-rods were drag raced BECAUSE THEY COULD BE. That's because they were built well enough so they COULD be raced...not specifically TO be raced. Early drag racing and lakes cars were usually street-driven hot-rods, real cars used for real transportation, by guys who wanted to DRIVE something different, and wanted to compete with other DRIVABLE CARS. The CARS came first, THEN the motorsports followed. Poor craftsmanship just won't go. Not far, not fast.

Yes, but who we REALLY have to thank are the mis-guided SOBs who decided to try to use public air transportation as a weapon against the freedom-loving West, and those in the West who would apparently happily trade freedom and convenience for the perception of "security". Sorry if this strays too close to politics.

Them too.

Yeah, and you can't selectively block ebay's general BS promotions from your e-mail and keep on getting the actually-relevant-to-what-you-want messages that unsold items have been relisted, etc. It seems to be all or nothing...at least that's what a 30-second investigation looked like.

So far I think the amoeba' s in the lead. Anybody have a model of Deinococcus radiodurans ?

Love your "Determination", Neil.

"Safe" is a relative term, but here take it to mean "they go where you point them, they stop when you want to stop, parts don't fall off, and they don't have jagged edges just to be cool".

Here's a link to almost 1800 pages of photos of drag-racing cars in motion...cars that, in a LOT of cases, especially in the early days, were built out of junk and very little money. Cars that were built out of junk, and were fast and safe. Fast safe cars built from junk, whose owner/ builders weren't "bad dude" poseurs, but who put their money where their mouths were and raced their creations. Real nads, backed up with real skills. No BS. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=228509 This is the REAL spirit of hot-rodding.

Build another one and leave them in a cage together for a while. You may end up with all the rats you could ever want.