Post by duffy on Mar 1, 2015 22:12:43 GMT -5
I guess I'm asking more than "IS it," like, "HOW is it" - how do I categorize this build?
I"m gonna make up a two/push utility truck for my drag & speed team, using a '55 Chevy pickup at the basis.
Now, my Dad had one of these from 1962-1995, and its long tenure as the service vehicle for his cabinetry biz served as a life lesson to me. Early on, my 12-year-old blather of "Why doesn't it have a V-8?" was quietly addressed with "This engine (a hokey-ol' sixer) has an established reputation as a load hauler." - And he proceeded to prove that statement over the next three decades' hard use. As I learned how to dress a joiner plane blade for quilted maple or loblolly pine, so I learned to appreciate a properly designed tool to get us over Altamont Pass and back, and again. - Life lesson, right?
I'm going all-Sentimental here for a bigger reason, maybe: I like how we often give our models their own "back story," because it's not only entertaining in its own right but because the story also informs our builds.
So: I'm planning a model of a truck that began around the mid-'50s with Arnie Paitch's Speed Shop, and has soldiered on into the '60s and '70s with the care lavished on it by the small team. I'm gonna put a Chevy 6 in there (as a wave to my Dad), with maybe two carbs on an Offenhauser manifold & a tweak or two more, as well as some performance upgrades to the rest of the chassis; and I'll drop Jimmy Flintstone's panel truck over it all, which now has me doing all manner of homework about how a utility panel truck would be fleshed out inside. I'm intending this build as a workout for full wiring, plumbing and upholstering too, and oh yah: a proper paintjob as well. That's the plan, as of tonight.
So - mild "custom," maybe-maybe-not: is a careful refit to an older motor "customizing?" If the truck's life has been around a bunch of dedicated wrenchmen who love it and aren't afraid of bestowing that love in a maybe-conservative-but-pragmatic way, is it a "Rod?"
You decide.
Thanx
duf
I"m gonna make up a two/push utility truck for my drag & speed team, using a '55 Chevy pickup at the basis.
Now, my Dad had one of these from 1962-1995, and its long tenure as the service vehicle for his cabinetry biz served as a life lesson to me. Early on, my 12-year-old blather of "Why doesn't it have a V-8?" was quietly addressed with "This engine (a hokey-ol' sixer) has an established reputation as a load hauler." - And he proceeded to prove that statement over the next three decades' hard use. As I learned how to dress a joiner plane blade for quilted maple or loblolly pine, so I learned to appreciate a properly designed tool to get us over Altamont Pass and back, and again. - Life lesson, right?
I'm going all-Sentimental here for a bigger reason, maybe: I like how we often give our models their own "back story," because it's not only entertaining in its own right but because the story also informs our builds.
So: I'm planning a model of a truck that began around the mid-'50s with Arnie Paitch's Speed Shop, and has soldiered on into the '60s and '70s with the care lavished on it by the small team. I'm gonna put a Chevy 6 in there (as a wave to my Dad), with maybe two carbs on an Offenhauser manifold & a tweak or two more, as well as some performance upgrades to the rest of the chassis; and I'll drop Jimmy Flintstone's panel truck over it all, which now has me doing all manner of homework about how a utility panel truck would be fleshed out inside. I'm intending this build as a workout for full wiring, plumbing and upholstering too, and oh yah: a proper paintjob as well. That's the plan, as of tonight.
So - mild "custom," maybe-maybe-not: is a careful refit to an older motor "customizing?" If the truck's life has been around a bunch of dedicated wrenchmen who love it and aren't afraid of bestowing that love in a maybe-conservative-but-pragmatic way, is it a "Rod?"
You decide.
Thanx
duf