Sitting here doing this on May 2, and looked over at the HAMB and somebody mentioned Erector Sets. WooooWooooWoooooWoooo (eerie music).
This is what we had:
Gilbert Erector sets.
It's just like them, but the components were made by Ford.
But ya gotta pick up the parts at swap meets, and places like Hop Up Advertisers. Not hobby stores. Some parts are new, and some don't even have to be vintage-style, but you have to do what it was you did when you were a kid. You have to invent something that hints of function...out of parts. Components. Pieces.
Scraps.
They're kinda made to go together...somehow.........
That's the essence of putting together never-before-combined parts of old Fords, to achieve the innovated (but not invented) traditional hot rod.
Look at what we're in the middle of: original AR Model A frame , modern fabrication to suit , B crossmember, B motor, after market high compression head, '32 trans and '32 rear end with after market 3:25 gear set, '40 Ford brakes on the rear and '40 Lincoln Brakes on the front. Dropped '32 axle, '37 spindles '26 T body, race car steering., earlier brass era T motometer, new aluminum hood, 16" Kelsey Hayes wheels, custom knocked-off knock-off type hub caps (gift...and we do thank you guys), carburetors from a V8-60, new header and exhaust system, new old stock Fer-Shit seat covers from the 40's or 50's, repro door/kick panels, aftermarket racer steering wheel, tires left over from re-shoeing of another car,, '37 Ford tail lights, new tube shocks......and a gas tank outa a MG? A frickin' MG? Somebody stop me!!!
A whole range of Ford hardware is bein' used to make a one-off car that says (sure, everybody from Stupid Car Steve to Hot Rod Joe has a tub...but they're all different!) ' this-here is how I'd do it if I could. This is the ideal T for me.'
So now we're doing the 'sit in it and imagine how it'll ride' deal.; 'positioning' imaginary mirrors; visualizing that first ride around the pits..and wondering who'll be in the back seat....feelin' the warm wind in the face on the ride back in to Wendover....next day parking it next to it's cool tubbish predecessors.......... out in 6"deep salt.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...........................
We know what it'll sound like 'cuz the Boys were here for Shop Night and Tacos and....suck, squeeze, bang, blow, Bub!!...that mutha fired without even one dry revolution. And it sounded real good, thru a Braga blooey pipe that you'll see in Hop Up Volume VI..
So this is what it is that has been keeping us awake every night.... but whose ponderment... in fact ....sedates us into a sweet sleep anyway!
It's the 'purpose' whose daily advancement fulfills some need for accomplishment:
It's the thing, temporarily inanimate, that causes us to get to talk to, counsel with, conjure with.............. hairy-legged beings who all know more than we do...it is a guise, a topic, a subject, a dilemma, a problem.........an issue....and maybe a reason (excuse) to command their time....and have the pleasure of hearing their voices, and interacting with them and .........knowing how cool it is....... to be welcome............... to distract them from their own hot rod larceny and....in most cases...legacy.
We're happy to have it (the T) but we know that it's not the panacea. It isn't going to be the 'one'. None of 'em can be. If you had the 'one', you'd quit trying and if your expression was over, an' if you were quenched, an' if you had total fulfillment, you'd have no need for another project.
It's the process that you thrive on, and if you wanted to take it all apart and process it differently......you could do it with your Erector Set.
But not with your kit.
en hopup veritas