70's era hotrodding...history lesson please

[Mack81]

After many months of constant thinking about what direction I wanna go with this truck I've decided on doing an early 70's-era street freak. I wanna stay period correct as best I can even though I'm 30 and this style was before my time. My good friend has been hotrodding for almost 40 years and he remembers this era of street cars being jacked way up in the rear with shackles and air shocks, slotted mags or crager ss', tunnel ram with a bird catcher, and glass-pack header mufflers like "purple hornies." I have a slightly different idea, but it's best to hear it from the experts.
I have little to no regard for street manners with this thing because it will be at the track 90% of the time running street trophy brackets. I just really want to do it with the 70's flavor and period correct parts. I was raised in the pro-street era so for you guys running the streets in the early-mid 70's, how did you do it?

[CG]

Get a hold of car magazines from that era for the best info. I seldom saw tunnel rams with bird catchers. Most of em ran velocity stacks. You should be able to attain the look you want using todays technology. Avoid the long shackles and mickey mouse stuff we did back in the day. Sounds like a fun build, will be looking forward to progress pics.

[special-K]

yeah,look at some old magazines. Guys used long shackles a lot,but they did a lot of cheesy things. It wasn't as common for someone to go as far as we go these days. But,even back then doing it right would be custom spring work. Air shocks were definitely used and if you run leaf springs,Lakewood "slapper" bars were common. But again,the classy rides would run ladder bars. Big/little tire/wheels were big and raked stance,too. But,the better rides ran the front up,too. Guys would go as far as running smaller diameter wheels up front for a real nose dive look. To me running big block springs gave more of a track look. It was at the end of the straight axle era and tires were still not what they are today. So the thing was to get more weight to shift over the rear for traction. Snorkle scoops were big,but for a real street freak look you wanted to see the motor up through the hood...like a blower or dual carb tunnel ram. The street freaks ran side pipes mostly. Zoomies were big. But a street/strip ride just ran the pipes in front of the rear tires or Purple Hornies. Cragar S/S and Keystone Klassics were common,as well as slots,were common choices in the early ;70s. Turbine wheels came on a bit later in the '70s. Roll & pleat interior was still common if any interior work went on.

[bsteenburg]

L60 or N15 tires on the back, air shocks and shackles, flared rear fenders, either dumped low in the front or jacked way high, 11-1 pistons, Holley 780 on aluminum high rise, chrome valve covers, Hooker headers, Cherry bombs or Purple Hornies dumped at the axle or out the side, close ration 4 speed with Hurst comp. plus or Mr Gasket in line shifter with Tee handle, Cragers or Ansen slots for wheels, huge Sun tach, big thumper mechanical cam, cool can, full pressure Hays clutch assy. that you could barely push in, hood scope of some sorts, velocity stack with filter. The sound system was 6x9 Jensens in the rear deck, 4" rounds in the front hanging from the dash, a Kracko from Radio Shack.
If you had money it was 2 4"s on a tunnel ram or a 6-71 blower.

Bryce

[trevrolet65]

Originally Posted by special-K

yeah,look at some old magazines. Guys used long shackles a lot,but they did a lot of cheesy things. It wasn't as common for someone to go as far as we go these days. But,even back then doing it right would be custom spring work. Air shocks were definitely used and if you run leaf springs,Lakewood "slapper" bars were common. But again,the classy rides would run ladder bars. Big/little tire/wheels were big and raked stance,too. But,the better rides ran the front up,too. Guys would go as far as running smaller diameter wheels up front for a real nose dive look. To me running big block springs gave more of a track look. It was at the end of the straight axle era and tires were still not what they are today. So the thing was to get more weight to shift over the rear for traction. Snorkle scoops were big,but for a real street freak look you wanted to see the motor up through the hood...like a blower or dual carb tunnel ram. The street freaks ran side pipes mostly. Zoomies were big. But a street/strip ride just ran the pipes in front of the rear tires or Purple Hornies. Cragar S/S and Keystone Klassics were common,as well as slots,were common choices in the early ;70s. Turbine wheels came on a bit later in the '70s. Roll & pleat interior was still common if any interior work went on.

Yeah, remember Lakes?

[Lippyp]

Over here I remember Dralon (velvet) buttoned interiors, porthole windows in vans, murals, jacked up rear ends with foot long shackles, red painted rear axles with a red light shining on them, chrome side pipes (usually non functional) furry dice hanging from the rear view mirror and wolfrace slot mags, usually on a slightly rusty MK2 cortina.

[bsteenburg]

Forgot dual point distributor and slapper bars.


Bryce

[bsteenburg]

Houndstooth or tuck and roll interiors. Bucket seats open between them. Always had a small pillow in the back seat. Hid the bong between seats and tunnel. LOL



Bryce

[chuckmc8]

Old Style Americans, white letters out on 15", bigs in back, littles in front. Mines lower than I remember them in the 70's. I'd like to have some sidepipes to hold up and see what the look like, I don't know if I would run them tho

[ItsRandy]

Originally Posted by bsteenburg

Houndstooth or tuck and roll interiors. Bucket seats open between them. Always had a small pillow in the back seat. Hid the bong between seats and tunnel. LOL



Bryce

Hid the bong? That's where I went wrong!

[bsteenburg]

Originally Posted by ItsRandy

Hid the bong? That's where I went wrong!

Yep!! and its not like I was the only one either!!! Sex, drugs and rock'n roll surrounded with hotrods was very popular. Booze of all sorts was everywhere at anytime. Just the way it was. Same as it is now with kids, just handled different back then.



Bryce

[Rochlow]

I'm taking the same approach with my jimmy. Just with a modern air suspension. When aired out it still has that 70s rake with cragar SS wheels. I've been tossing around the idea of side pipes.. Just not sure yet.

[Mack81]

I already have alot of parts to get this going but some of them are questionable era-wise.
How about a yes or no on the following parts:
-noisy gear drive
-blue window tint
-t handle auto ratchet shifter
-fenderwell dump headers painted white (I'm going nose high look)
-6/8" car rallys (maybe painted copper)
-30" tall Blackwall pie crust cheater slicks
-aluminum fuel cell
-big block front springs with urethane buckets and Balljoint spacers
-2" lowering blocks in the rear
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[trevrolet65]

Originally Posted by trevrolet65

Yeah, remember Lakes?

Those were the old side pipes

[bsteenburg]

Yes on all that, sounds about right.

Bryce

[Torrey72]

It's funny. Most of the crazy crap people would do back in the day wouldn't even let you pass inspection onto the track today. Like jacking the front end way up in the air with a spindly straight axel to improve weight transfer. True drag cars would never raked the front like the kids would do to their street cars. The front end was always high to the sky. Drag racers where all about speed and not frills. So you would never see craiger wheels or anything heavy or fancy like that. Just basic steel wheels. Exhaust dumps off of fender headers. Beer can radiator overflows. Big holes cut into the frame to lighten the car. Huge holes cut threw the fire wall so you could move the engine back into the cab to improve weight transfer. Their is a reason you don't see most of their modifications around anymore. Though, some of them look cool. Don't forget the metallic flake paint. Lots of racers would just paint their cars Hot rod black (Black Primer) The Rockabilly look with primer black car with red wheels was from the 50's and 60's and died out in the 70's But if you want to pimp it out 70's style. you got to lay down some metallic flake paint. Not the metallic flake you see today. It's old school huge flake metallic paint. Flake so big it wont shoot through a paint gun. Hand painted pin striping Von Dutch style is a must as well. Diamond tuck interior was way popular too. And if you are looking to have a name or logo on the side. It's got to be done with gold Leaf. It's the gold lettering you might still see on some fire trucks today.

Have fun with it.

[Mack81]

Yeah I'm putting "Purple Nurple" on the bed sides in gold leaf. Since it's purple with blue flames right now.
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[ChevLoRay]

Gear drives was a little later.

Late Sixties/early Seventies was when I was in the USAF and in Arizona. Ansen Sprint wheels were common. Running Purple Hornies behind your headers was not uncommon, but Cherry Bombs were also good. Air shocks were good. Velour button-tuft interiors with shag carpet and lace panel paint, or vinyl coverings on the roof top were also seen. Firestone Wide Ovals and Goodyear Polyglas GT tires were the hot ticket. I don't recall a lot of window tinting. It seemed to come on later in the Seventies...lots of heat by the cops because they couldn't see the driver. Now, the cops have dark tint. We also got a lot of flap about loud pipes, not like today. Kragar Kustomags, American 200S (Daisy) mags were popular. There were a lot of "mags" back then that I haven't seen for at least 35 years. Chrome wheels were always popular, mostly just un-capped. But, Cal Custom had a neat cap called the Black Jack. It looked a lot like the '60 Ford hubcap (not the full wheel cover). Scavenger pipes, with bazooka tips were common. Side pipes were not really common. 'Vettes had 'em, but most side pipes were out of style, meaning lakes pipes. Shorty dumps which exited behind the front tires usually had a two-bolt cap that could be swung out of the way, or they had a screw cap that could be undone and then you had an open pipe. Cars that were jacked up, were jacked up in the front. There was a 90/10 shock that was intended to help weight transfer to the rear. The rear wasn't jacked up, and it wasn't dragging, either. Shackles didn't come to be common until '72, or so. The hood scoops that I remember were the Ramcharger style, and the bubble, like Ford used on the late Sixties Fairlanes and Mustangs. Oh, Cal Custom had an aluminum one that was also used by Yenko. I have one of those in my "stuff".

Neat memories....

[bajaracing]

Originally Posted by chuckmc8

Old Style Americans, white letters out on 15", bigs in back, littles in front. Mines lower than I remember them in the 70's. I'd like to have some sidepipes to hold up and see what the look like, I don't know if I would run them tho

would look good 2me..

[69 Okie Truck]

Ladder bars and 50's pokin waaaay out the back.
The REAL bad boys ran open headers...law be danged....

[70cst]

Good reading ...

[69 Okie Truck]

If you dont go ladder bars you go traction bars with Moroso, Hooker, Holly and Crane stickers all over the windows.

Of course if you're trickin' out a Chevy truck you'll need the impossible to find ABS injection molded window louver for your back glass.

The shaker hood scoop was in vogue in those days too along with hood pins and hood tach, whether you needed 'em or not.

Of course it HAS to be four on the floor with a tricked out speed shifter.

Shag carpeting IS optional, 8 track player is NOT. Don't forget the ultra cool Jensen COAX speakers and the Tancredi power distorter...er, booster... to get all the foxy ladies attention.

The only thing left is the trip up to the corner Super Fuels for some premium fuel and a beer cooler in the back....'cause we could drink and drive back then.

[N2TRUX]

My buddies brother had a 62 Nova that was probably the epitome of late 70's hot rods. It was dark green metal flake, running N50's on 15x12 aluminum slots sticking out the rear. The back was lifted with High Jacker air shocks and ladder bars,the front was running a straight axle.

It had a 427 with a HUGE cam, tunnel ram with two fours and velocity stacks. They were gold anodized, and he had matching Moroso valve covers. Of course it had fenderwell headers and cherry bombs with turnouts. To complete the look, it had no front bumper and a tilt front end.

Man, it was like totally groovy...

[ETsC10]

Mack, great thread though it's making me feel kinda old

I guess I never grew past the 'make believe racer' styling that
street rods had in the 70's...still a fan of purple hornies and
a raked stance! (yes, I was a product of the era)

Carry on gents...subscribed!




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[Jacfourteen]

Good stuff! My dad got into hot rodding in the late 70's and he's told me about some of the stuff he saw/built back in the day. It would have been cool to see it but it was before my time.