Ed Roth's fleeting time in the sun

It is probably no big surprise that I am a huge Ed Roth fan. Growing up Ratfink defined cool and custom and car culture. There is a pretty big love/hate divide in the hotrod world toward the custom cars he created but nobody, and I mean NOBODY, hates on Ed Roth for his iconic influence on hot rod culture.

Just knowing about Ed Roth from the grotesque caricatures he created on shirts and hats of the 60s and 70s only gives a very slight insight into the man. So I set out to learn more about the almighty Roth the old fashioned way... reading. For you younger folks looking at this post "reading" is a thing that people used to do before movies, youtubes and vine clips. As I read and learned more and more about the wild ride that was Ed Roth's life one thing really struck me as insane... his hot rod shop was only in existence for 11 years. Yup, 1959 - 1970 was the run of his shop at 4616 Slauson Avenue in Maywood, California.

Imagine being a genre defining icon that changed what future generations considered possible in custom car culture closing your shop and becoming a sign painter for a berry farm. How is that even possible? To me it is mind bending how fragile success can be. I always imagined that when an artist or musician "makes it big" they are set for life and that my friends could not be farther from the truth. As I learned more and more about Ed Roth it seems that his life was really broken into disjointed segments, each completely separate from the others.

I realize that a book is one persons interpretation of a person or event so it cannot be taken as gospel but there must be some truth to the accounts as they often overlap. All I know is for one person to shake up the custom car world so completely I wish his time in the spotlight would have been longer. I also wish I could have met the man and thanked him for his contributions. But as my late great father would have said... "Shit in one hand and wish in the other and see which builds up fastest."

You can’t see the forest for the trees

Not gonna lie, it's been hard to focus on things since the passing of my father. Hard to see the future, hard to make a decisive plan, hard to care. The good thing is my hot rod fund is set to automatically pull money from each check into it without my intervention which is a plus because I have been in a funk. I try to visit sites and keep reading about Roth and the monthly hotrod magazine but I haven't wrenched on anything for a few months. I know I have to get off my lazy ass and get back to what I love but it is hard. I know it will come, it isn't something that can be forced.

I was reading a long thread on a different site that posed "what is a hotrod" and being the internet the answers ranged from Troll bait to logical. I have to admit I never thought about it, my child eyes vision of a "hotrod" is anything that has been modified to be faster or "hotrodded." The vast majority seem to say any supped up car that is Pre-WWII is a "real hotrod." Not quite sure where or why that would be the determining factor but most of the clan nodded and said yup that's the real truth.

This does bring up a flaw in my conscious or personality, I never ever care about the sub-genre within a genre. To me metal music is metal music, don't need the 78 million sub-genre of Norwegian scream core... metal is metal. So when posed with the "what is a hotrod" topic I was like anything faster than stock. Boy am I naive, to a fault. Long story short when you are reading this blog please know that my definition of a Hotrod is pretty much any car made faster. In my world pretty much anything can be hotrodded if you invest stupid amounts of money for no reason other than to say "mine is faster" then it's a hotrod.

Back In The Saddle Again

I learned a valuable lesson recently, at great personal loss. Last week my father passed away. We were best friends, did a lot of stuff together and shared lots of laughs along the 45 years we shared. Now, I am not going to say we shared hotrods because honestly my father could care less about cars. He was in that 98% of the world that view cars as transportation and nothing more. Where I got my Hot Rod lust is beyond me but I digress....

Upon my fathers passing it dawned on me that I better get my ass in gear because time is fleeting. My father did a lot of awesome stuff in his 74 years on this earth... married to my mother for 51 years, together they raised 2 kids and put them through college. They retired early and traveled the country in a 5th wheel camper working at state parks. He and my mother were vegetarians, did weight lifting and yoga and tried to laugh and share joy every day. They celebrated life and touched everyone they knew. I need to learn from my father, I need to celebrate life and more than that I need to get a plan. They didn't do all this awesome stuff by "winging it" they saved and planned and did whatever they needed to get where they wanted to go. I need to learn from my parents and make sure that I get where I need to go sooner rather than later!

At this point you might be saying to yourself... what the hell does any of this have to do with being a Wannabe Hot Rodder? Everything, and nothing. It means I need to get that hotrod I am pining for and I need to get it NOW. It means I need to knock down the barriers and ensure that I do all the little stupid things in the way of getting said Hot Rod. It means I personally need to never ever put something off, as putting off means it may never come. So, in honor of my father whom I love and care for dearly I am pulling up my boot straps and kicking as much ass as I can every moment of every day. He was a great man, and I need to ensure that I honor his teachings and become a great man. Come hell or high water, the wannabe hotrodder will become THE HOTRODDER! Please raise your glass and say a prayer for a fallen hero. My dad - R.I.P. 06/10/2015

Hot Rodding A Non-Hotrod?

So, currently I am saving up my meager pennies toward my bad ass hot rod. While I sit and wait I figured why not work on my old 1994 Nissan Pickup. It already has a pretty bad attitude with a hotrod black paint, full moon wheels and a nice throaty exhaust. After consulting with my friend MurderStang about it my choices were sell it, fix it up and drive it or make it a monster. Obviously I am going with option C.

I do need to get some things in order on the truck before the Rodding begins. I fixed a few of the little bothersome things a few weeks back... general maintenance stuff. Then I ordered all new bushings and joints for the front end. That sucker is LOOSE! (insert prostitute joke here if you please). So luckily I waited until Florida reached the temperature of the sun before I decided to do this.

After I get done replacing wore out parts that have no intention of leaving where they called home since 1994 the suspension will be tight, the paint and body mean and nasty looking and the interior... eh, it'll do. Last bit of tidy up I will need to get the top end worked over. I would pull the motor completely but I am going to try to cheap out. See, me and MurderStang have developed a dubious plot of bolting a turbo on the old Nissan. Should make a tidy little sleeper with another 100+ HP under the hood.

I am looking forward to it, I have been with this truck since 1995 and have grown quite fond of it. Making it a bad contender will be great. I had thought about ripping it out and going the SBC route but that is a bit ambitious and probably at that point would not even be used as a truck anymore. So until the top and turbo tails get into place I best be keeping my eye on the temp and drinking lots of gatoraide until I can get these god damn control arm bushings out of this god damn front end.

until next time... Wannabe Hotrodder OUT!

JESUS BUILT MY HOTROD!

Hotrods they are a'changing! I have a modest little Honda S2000 daily driver that is pushing around 265 HP. It is my every day drive to work car. It is fast, not like break your back fast but damn fast. It was made in 2005... way back when 265 horsepower sounded impressive. Since then I have seen the average horse power of consumer cars climb and climb. There are freakin' boring ass family cars running 300 HP from the factory. Now, would they beat mine in an honest street race? Probably not as there are about a billion and one things that contribute to who crosses the finish line first and most family cars ain't got em. BUT, with the new technology pushing the boundaries more and more every day hotrods have to be absolute monsters to even get noticed anymore. It is not uncommon for a hotrod to hit 600 - 800 or more horsepower to seem respectable. Hell, my friend Murder Stang is shooting for above 1000 horsepower on his vintage mustang. It is no wonder, Hellcats come stock with 707 hp from the factory and every other major car company is racing (literally) to beat that number.

Hotrods with outrageous horsepower are not surprising as the true hotrod culture has always taken the lightest and fastest and made it part of their car. Some of the purists out there bitch and complain if you bolt anything new on an old car but the harsh reality is hotrodders increase power and speed any way possible. You can keep your "Pre-blah blah blah or nothing" bullshit along with numbers matching and patina. With the modern horsepower war ramping up from all sides how will the garage tree mechanic or wannabe hotrodder keep up? I guess the same way we always have, run what ya brought until you can beg borrow and steal the next performance part. 

So, if you are sitting at the light next to a goofball 4 door accord don't laugh too hard as the kid driving it tachs the engine and cranks up his Skrillex CD. It just might make a fool of you unless you put the pedal all the way to the metal and ride out every gear. In traditional Wannabe fashion I will continue to dream and scheme all the ways my car WILL be the fastest... that is until I own my hotrod and it isn't. Till next time keep the rubber side down and rev it loud.