rodder vs. restorer...cira 1973 article

[mrspeedyt]

my 86 year old dad died last month and i'm going thru his stuff... (btw: his joy was to modify cars) one of his books lying around.... to quote: "Have pity on the Ford restorers for they know not what they do." "The Fordnatics (ford restorers) were completely into K-type brassmobiles or the very early T era, while we rodders continued to remove fenders from '32 roadsters or scare up enough money to have George Barris lay one of his ocean-deep lacquer jobs on a '41 merc convert." "But time, scarcity of raw material and changing tastes have altered all that. What was once below their dignity is now considered prime metal. They slipped from the K-models, to the brass T's, to the rare A's and now anything that ran a flathead V-8 is worth protecting and preserving ... from, of all things, the poor hot rodder." all quoted from Rodder Vs. Restorer by Gary Baskerville page 40 Peterson's Complete Ford Book 3rd edition 1973.

the reason I bring this up is that the arguement has been around quite a while and it DOES bring up a good point that the hobby is always in a state of change... and OUR vehicles of interest change too... as cited above, at one time the 'old car' interest was just the really old cars... pre 1910... then most restorers had no interest in anything newer and did not care if something newer got modified or scrapped. then as time passes... the cars of the teens then the twenties (and so on) become the focus of restoring and/or preserving.

Edited December 3, 2010 by mrspeedyt (see edit history)

[Dave@Moon]

my 86 year old dad died last month and i'm going thru his stuff... (btw: his joy was to modify cars) one of his books lying around.... to quote: "Have pity on the Ford restorers for they know not what they do." "The Fordnatics (ford restorers) were completely into K-type brassmobiles or the very early T era, while we rodders continued to remove fenders from '32 roadsters or scare up enough money to have George Barris lay one of his ocean-deep lacquer jobs on a '41 merc convert." "But time, scarcity of raw material and changing tastes have altered all that. What was once below their dignity is now considered prime metal. They slipped from the K-models, to the brass T's, to the rare A's and now anything that ran a flathead V-8 is worth protecting and preserving ... from, of all things, the poor hot rodder." quoted from Rodder Vs. Restorer by Gary Baskerville page 40 Peterson's Complete Ford Book 3rd edition 1973.

the reason I bring this up is that the arguement has been around quite a while and it DOES bring up a good point that the hobby is always in a state of change... and OUR vehicles of interest change too... as cited above, at one time the 'old car' interest was just the really old cars... pre 1910... then most restorers had no interest in anything newer and did not care if something newer got modified or scrapped. then as time passes... the cars of the teens then the twenties (and so on) become the focus of restoring and/or preserving.

A little perspective:

In 1973 a flathead engine could be as little as 20 years old. This article acknowledges that cars as little as 20 years old were being looked at as too good to rod. Today, that's a 1991 Crown Vic.

Have you ever heard of anyone complain about rodding a '91 Crown Vic?

The '41 Mercury convertible the author speaks of being rodded without concern back in the old days had only been an antique car (by the most liberal of standards, 25 years) for 7 years when the article was published. According to him it is now (in 1973) sacrosanct to rod a '41 Merc in some circles. Today that's a 1979 Cougar XR7.

Have you ever heard anyone complain about all the 1979 Cougars lost to hot rodders over the years?

The rare Model As and late Model Ts that were not worth saving by restorers in the first years of hot rodding were 20-30 year old cars at the time. When this article was written they were still only 40-50 years old, by which time they'd beomce "scarce". Today that's a '65 Mustang.

Are newly rodded Mustangs exactly hard to find?

It is not the same as it always has been, with conflict between rodders and restorers limited to only cars beyond a certain age and rodders left in peace with the more recent stuff. Things have changed. Nobody wants the recent stuff, and today's antique restorers are, if anything, vastly more gracious and tolerant of street rodders than they ever were in the past....

...and some street rodders have taken HUGE advantage of this in recent years. :mad:

Edited December 2, 2010 by Dave@Moon (see edit history)

[Guest Jim_Edwards]

Who are you attacking? Or better yet why even bother to attack an article written nearly 40 years ago! And why ask a bunch of silly questions in the process? Sheesh!

[1937hd45]

Time to pop some popcorn.

[Guest Silverghost]

You make several very good points with your article posted above.

The real problem we real Antique car guys have today is the fact that there are possibly 1000 times as many Hot Rod / Street Rod folks around today compared to the number that existed back when the article was written . We are outnumbered and loosing many good real Antiques each and every day !

There are also fewer good unrestored Antique projects out there every day~

So sorry to hear about your Father's passing ~

I am going through the same thing now as I lost my Dad this Summer. He was my best friend and my only living family member. He was almost 92 !

It's really hard for me to deal with his loss ~

Take Care~

Edited December 3, 2010 by Silverghost (see edit history)

[Guest Gary Hearn]

Time to pop some popcorn.

[Dave@Moon]

Time to pop some popcorn.

Don't worry about it, Bob. This topic is clearly divided into those that get it and those that don't. We've wasted enough electrons here to know that gulf is too wide to cross for virtually anyone.

It winds up being the same old

[Guest Dee Jay]

I guess I missed the attack.

[earl e rizer]

That's a great article from '73. I think I read it back then. My grandfather and father as well as uncles always had lots of old Fords around the shop. Some restored, some rodded depending on the condition they started with. There was no conflict in our house. Both sides were equal opportunity gearheads!