Been looking for another project, the Elise is out, my weekends for racing are getting cut back by office and family responsibility. (I.E. long term hospice sucks, got promoted again, Yeah) Lots of at home time now on the weekends.
Its cut down the way I would do it, Its got a good stance. It is overpriced I know that but if it goes down to the 6Kish range I would pick it up. .
Would it be blasphemous to rip something like this apart and finish it to a higher level?
IE correct paint. Full rust removal and rebuild the banger correctly with period parts.
Thinking vintage Porsche cream on black frame with some brass accents like the tank and a few of the straps. Black wheels with Brass center caps.
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=5050931
i would drive the snot outta that! 
JoeyM
Reader
3/23/10 11:59 a.m.
Either would be fun. I'd prefer it done up right, but still keeping some of the low-buck vibe. Your color scheme sounds nice. Just promise us it will never be freshly painted in suede black with red wheels. That's been done to death.
Ian F
Dork
3/23/10 12:28 p.m.
Another "as-is" vote...
You're asking the wrong crowd if you were hoping for a different answer... 
I like it as is, but the whole point of hot rodding is to build a car to suit yourself and not others. Having said that, it's also important (in my opinion) to pick a theme or era and stay within the parameters of that theme or era. I'm not sure your color scheme with brass accents would be something rodders would have done to their gow jobs in the pre-war era.
stuart in mn wrote:
I like it as is, but the whole point of hot rodding is to build a car to suit yourself and not others. Having said that, it's also important (in my opinion) to pick a theme or era and stay within the parameters of that theme or era. I'm not sure your color scheme with brass accents would be something rodders would have done to their gow jobs in the pre-war era.
I know that's what gets me. The color would be right but any powdercoating would look out of place in a era specific build. Other thought is to do an aluminum interior and leave the rest after going through it for safety.
Raze
HalfDork
3/23/10 12:40 p.m.
You get a vote from me "as you want it" on the one condition you post every picture you take of it from now till then and then some more after 
wearymicrobe wrote:
I know that's what gets me. The color would be right but any powdercoating would look out of place in a era specific build. Other thought is to do an aluminum interior and leave the rest after going through it for safety.
Here's an example of period correct...my dad bought an old Model T Ford roadster when he was a senior in high school, in 1929. He painted it red with a can of paint from the hardware store and a brush. 
Chances are most kids working on their cars back then did something similar, so going for a high level of finish probably isn't necessary.
stuart in mn wrote:
wearymicrobe wrote:
I know that's what gets me. The color would be right but any powdercoating would look out of place in a era specific build. Other thought is to do an aluminum interior and leave the rest after going through it for safety.
Here's an example of period correct...my dad bought an old Model T Ford roadster when he was a senior in high school, in 1929. He painted it red with a can of paint from the hardware store and a brush. Chances are most kids working on their cars back then did something similar, so going for a high level of finish probably isn't necessary.
I know all the stories about kids but there had to be some high level shops working on cars back then to reference off of.
To me that's like pointing to vwvortex with the por-15 coated audi a4 and saying that is how all the cars got done in the 2000's 100 years from now.
There were high end shops building race cars or custom bodied luxury cars back than, but probably not any that were building that style of cut down Model T - they were mainly the product of the young guys who were building them in their back yards and racing them on the dry lake beds in California (and as far as that goes, model Ts were brush painted at the factory.) Heck, even if you look at the cars Barris built in the 1950s, they weren't finished all that well when compared to today's standards.
Ian F
Dork
3/23/10 1:01 p.m.
wearymicrobe wrote:
I know all the stories about kids but there had to be some high level shops working on cars back then to reference off of.
Hmm... custom coach-builders, sure... but that's sort of a different animal. I don't think there were any hot-roddng shops that operate the way they do today.
I vote for the "keep it period correct, but cleaner and done to a higher standard." There had to have been some guys who, even if painting a car with a brush, did so carefully and sanded it between coats.
stuart in mn wrote:
I like it as is, but the whole point of hot rodding is to build a car to suit yourself and not others.
I completely agree!!!!
stuart in mn wrote:
Having said that, it's also important (in my opinion) to pick a theme or era and stay within the parameters of that theme or era.
I hear a lot of folks saying this lately............and I'm not 100% sure I agree or even know what that means..........not bagging on you at all Stuart -- just benchin' Y'all stay with me here......
So someone builds a model-T based rod in the 50's..........weren't they really building the car to suit themselves using what was available at hand, at the time? Same thing for the exact same car built in the 70's.........building a car using the materials and tech that was available at the time. I don't think folks in the 60's set about to build a car that looked like it was built in the 30's.....we're in a unique period today where folks are trying to do just this.....and I think it's just a little whacky!!
The current crop of hot/rat rods being built today claim to be a representation of what a low-buck rod would have been built like "back in the day". I think these cars, like the folks that attend the billetproof type shows, are really caricatures of what we think things were like back then. It makes me wonder -- have we as a society just run out of gas......run out of original ideas? Is retro really the new "new'? The new Camaro/Challenger/Mustang/Mini just look like bloated memories of the cars of yesteryear. I am not a big fan of kitcars that look like other things, either. In this context, I actually like the Miata because it invokes the feeling/aura/presence of the little british convertible without looking like an exact replica of a Lotus Elan.
To that end.........it is my opinion that if I were the OP, I'd straighten all the metal and put on a paint that works for the car....might be a satin black, maybe a satin brown??? Saw that color on a car of this era and I think it really works. I'd find a way to put some sort of IFS up front, maybe throw a C4 IRS out back (the transverse composite leaf spring would look sorta similar to the old buggy spring if you squint!).....and then there is the motor. Maybe a Q4 or Ecotec with adapted sidedrafts or some throttle bodies and aftermarket injection. Or possibly some sort of AWD and fat tires all around?
It is why I like the essence of the pro-touring concept.........put today's tech into an old chassis/bodystyle. Use what we know today and put it into an older body and make that car drive/stop/handle better than it did when it was new. Note that I said the essence of PT -- I think some folks take PT to an extreme and create rolling boxes that just hold cubic dollars.
Granted, the ideas on the surface don't seem to be cost conscious.....therein lies the challenge :-)
Do what you want. period. Following your own muse is always in style!
That said, Anything that I drive has to have good brakes. Big, finned drum brakes are cool and all, but if they don't stop well, to e-bay they go.
looks great as is, but i'd clean up the rusty suspension parts. not sure if/how i'd paint the body. my favorite hot rods tend to be roadster truck bodies as the cab is moved to the middle of the chassis, but this does that without a bed and i'm loving the proportions.
I would clean up the rust and maybe re-paint it but otherwise leave it the same.
stuart in mn wrote:
Here's an example of period correct...my dad bought an old Model T Ford roadster when he was a senior in high school, in 1929. He painted it red with a can of paint from the hardware store and a brush. Chances are most kids working on their cars back then did something similar, so going for a high level of finish probably isn't necessary.
/Begin Rant
NO offense to your grandfather at all, but this type of stuff kills me when I hear you guys rag on "ricers". He painted it with a can of hardware store paint and a brush. Not to make it faster/handle better/stop well/etc. But because red looked cool. How exactly is that different than someone who puts wings or fart can exhausts or pearl paint jobs on Civics?
"Back in the day" (which can be applied to ANY era), guys took whatever cars were cheap and available (Model T's in the '50s, post war cars in the early '60's, muscle cars in the '80s, minitrucks in the early '90s, Civics today) and customized them to what they wanted. Sometimes it was for performance, other times it was for show. And I guarantee you there were tons of guys doing things to cars because they "thought" it made it faster or better, when it really didn't do anything. (Exhaust flames, lake pipes, RED wire wheels, fart can exhausts, wood rim steering wheels, etc).
I've argued for a long time that ricers and drifters of today are no different than the hot rod kids of the '50s. Some know/knew performance, most just jumped on the band wagon for the looks.
/End Rant
To the OP, I'd drive it just like it is, but it would be YOUR car. Do whatever you think looks cool and would make YOU happy and don't worry what anyone else thinks. Regardless of what you did to it, somebody will hate it, but if you like it, who cares?
In reply to rob_lewis:
If it was me free of other notions I would build it to the level of a coach built Packard. Custom but not garish, well painted well detailed and with some cool touches.
I would do modern brakes I know people would throw stones if I do but I NEED modern brakes in a car like this.
Rob - I completely agree with your stance on ricers/drifters. They're not doing anything new or different, they're just doing it with the current batch of cars that are cheap to them.
