Custom paint and intricate pinstriping have been essential elements in the ethos of hot rodding. Nearly every rod and custom flash a protective coat of gloss. If accented by detailed striping and vivid flames, so much the better. And few were – and are –
If the original hot rod era of the 1940s and ’50s was the second coming of the 1932 Ford, then the street rod revival that began in the 1970s could be seen as the Deuce’s first encore. And what better representatives of that time than
You’ve heard it said that Deuce roadsters are like bellybuttons – everyone has one. Well, maybe not everyone, but you get the point. The venerable and iconic ’32 roadster is hot rodding’s signature ride. Original steel, fiberglass, new steel, it doesn’t matter, the Deuce’s timeless
Instead of telling Ed Iskenderian’s life story and his rich hot rodding history, which we’ve done previously in the Legends of Hot Rodding column, I wanted to write this this month about a few Isky nuggets you might not know about, as well as some
Tom McMullen's imprint on the history of hot rodding would make him a unanimous first-ballot, car-guy hall of famer. He is best known for his publishing chops – founder of both Street Chopper and Street Rodder magazines – and a madcap lifestyle that included two
Story Courtesy PPG Automotive Refinish Bobby Alloway is an icon in the world of custom automobiles. He has been building distinctive, trendsetting street rods, cruisers and muscle cars at his Tennessee-based shop since 1991. Along the way, he has won pretty much every major trophy relevant to
The early, post-World War II hot rod culture of Southern California was awash in talent, innovators such as Ed Iskenderian, visionaries like Wally Parks, journalists like Dean Batchelor, to name but a few. Leroi "Tex" Smith would be a first-ballot member of this exclusive club. Tex
One could argue that street rodding’s popularity after the first Street Rod Nationals was propelled not by ’glass bodies, aftermarket suspension bits, or crate motors. Rather, that growth was driven by something far simpler – cool air. Air conditioning made driving a hot rod in
Every month, Goodguys Gazette editor Damon Lee and I kick around ideas on who will be our next Legend of Hot Rodding. This month, we agreed: Don Garlits. We were both flabbergasted that to date he had eluded our attention. It would be like a
In the quest for speed, aerodynamics has proven just as important as horsepower. The machines that hurdled across the dusty dry lakes of SoCal and the salty flats of Bonneville caught on early that reducing aero drag resulted in a boost in top speed. While the
