help me understand.. why do some guys like their trucks sitting on the ground. I think it started with the rice burners with their megaphone tailpipes. Most you see have the front air dam either chipped or broken. But I don't see that look being great for our old trucks... not to mention the expense, hassle, fabrication and maintenance it takes. PLUS it takes away the utillity of a truck. I know you can raise them and lower them at will.. but I just don't see the attraction. But, I'm old and as my wife says "what the hell do you know ?" AND (while I'm up here on this box) why do some folks put stage coach wheels on their trucks then lower them so you can't see half the wheel ??? Truck manufacturers spent fortunes designing their trucks to be appealing to the eye as well as a tool. I've made my choice of changes to my ride but nothing that strays away from the lines that Henry designed.... maybe someone with more smarts can explain the fascination to me.

 

There's an old, old saying, so old it was first published in Latin. Maybe it's older than that. De gustibus non est disputandum basically it means "There's no accounting for taste". People are weird.

 

I think it's a culture thing, John. I don't understand the reasoning behind lifted trucks as well (where's the practicality in that?). And then there are the jumping cars (shudder). "Slamming", I think is just another term for lowering, like we did to make boulevard cruisers back in the late '40's early '50's, where you could get a ticket if a cop couldn't slide a pack of cigarettes between your lake pipes and the road. And don't get me started on arena magnitude sound systems.

 

John, the whole lowering thing goes way back to the 40's and 50's with the taildragger customs. As Detroit began making cars longer and lower, young kids, or guys just getting out of the service from WWII started taking things to the extreme. It may also have had some beginnings from bootleggers and rum runners in the south, where guys would put heavy springs in their cars to haul the weight, so they'd be jacked up when empty, but when the back seat and trunk was full of 'shine, their tails would be draggin'.

Modern technology with air bags and such gives more options for customization. It's all about showing off to the crowd. Everyone has their idea of what's cool. Some people want to go fast, others are happy going "lo-and-slo."

 

Because it looks good,that's about it, handling is ... sceptical!

 

There were a bunch of young fellows who would lower their ricers down until a steel plate with nubbies contacted the ground and then they would drive away in front of a shower of sparks. While it may have looked cool, they didn't care how bad they were tearing up the blacktop. Don't know why, but they all of a sudden stopped coming around.

Later!
Mr. Ed

 

Trends come and go, usually it follows a "function (usefulness) creates form (style)" then evolves to "form evolves to eliminate function". In full disclosure, my 54 f100 is all original for the most part, even with the 6 cylinder. If I wanted to "hot rod" it, I'd add a more powerful motor to give it more speed, then lower the ride height a few inches to lower the center of gravity and handle better. I'd add larger wheels to allow for bigger brakes, because now it actually goes fast and needs to stop. I'd have to go to lower profile tires than original unless I wanted huge wheels inside the wheel wells. These things all make sense until they go to the extreme, which is where the form over function problems come in.

In the past, guys would swap in hopped up v8s to make it go better. Function. Then the bigger motor became stylish (form), to the point now where they're putting in 800+ HP motors into hot rods. Why? It can't possibly use more than half that power, but the style is to have the biggest, flashiest motor you can jam in there. Lowering the truck can help add better handling, changing out the springs and suspension for more modern parts makes it handle like a modern car. Form. Because if that, in the day if you saw a lowered truck, the lowered look meant "performance", so folks took that look and now you have trucks literally lowered to the ground on airbags. Form taken to the extreme. You can't drive it like that, you have to raise it up at least some, and pray that you don't encounter a raised manhole cover or you're going to tear off the bottom of a $25K motor. Bigger wheels meant better top end speed, wider wheels meant better handling. Functional purpose for that. Since the style was bigger wheels means better performance, the form takes it to the extreme now with huge wheels with a 1' sidewall that requires cutting out the floors and wheelwells of the car or truck to tub it and make the lowering suspension fit. And the ride on those tires is appalling.

I guess what it means is that folks make a change to improve something, and eventually someone else will take it to the extreme and ruin it. I've seen enough of those car fabrication shows to be turned off by people hacking up good vehicles and throwing away 80% of what they started with to build something that hardly even resembles the original. I have no problem with hot rods or modified vehicles, but please start with something that isn't already great. If you're going to remove the floor in order to install a new frame and drop it to the ground, then chop the top, shave the drip rails, take out the dash and replace it with something else, why start with an original truck in the first place? You can buy complete cabs with new steel, after all. At some point, there won't be any of these things left that aren't collecting dust in some rich guys collection.

 

IMHO Almost all are useful mods ( bigger wheels allowing for bigger brakes , wider tires for better handling etc ) that are often taken far past their usefulness often to the point of making them almost undriveable . I personally do not find huge rims or vehicles sitting on the pavement attractive but if we all liked the same thing car shows would be a little boring .

 

Excellent point!

 

Dump the air and "lay frame". I don't get it either, but at 64 I don't get a lot of stuff. I do admire the engineering on a nicely done build though.
To each his own.

B

 

Looks and opinions are like noses. Everyone has one and everyone else's gets out of joint when it doesn't match theirs. Or as my brother says everyone has opinions and things they like and they are like a-holes. Everyone else's stinks but their own. Build it to what you like. Don't like it. walk away. Me, I prefer modified over restored original. Hope you don't hate me for that.
thepitshop, I really like the look of your truck.

 

I think we need to be careful here. This site has always been a welcoming place to all types of trucks. Lately, I have noticed more and more us vs them posts in regards to stock vs modified trucks. I can appreciate a stocker just as much as a cool custom.

 

This is one of the reasons why I've been pretty much absent on this site. When I first joined FTE there was a mix of stock and modified truck builders. There are things I don't like about some of the new styles of builds, but if that is what you like.......do it. It does seem to be a trend to beat up the guys that want to do something a little different.

 

You know, I’m a stock guy, and I do appreciate fine craftsmanship (mostly because I can’t do it)
i bought a chop top 67 f100. And I had so many replies on how it was ruined, looked dumb, fugly, etc. well I liked it and I have had so much fun with it this summer. I’m glad I didn’t pass on it because of what one or 2 people thought of it.

 

I want to make sure if anyone feels beat up by what I said, then I'm definitely sorry for that. I thought it was a pretty well put question for someone wanting to better understand the trends in the hobby and it was a fair discussion. I appreciate a modified car or truck as well, I was trying to explain how artists often take one aspect of an art form to an extreme until some folks love it and some just don't get it. Ever try listening to jazz? The old stuff is pretty good, even if it's not your thing you can understand it. Some of it I can't understand at all.

In terms of cutting up a perfectly good truck, I think it's fine if it's yours and that's what you want to do with it.

I'm new to this forum and had no idea folks were sensitive about this discussion, I'll definitely stay out of future ones that go there!