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Today’s car market is filled with generic styling of cars. Detroit has rarely got it right when it comes to performance and style. In the 50’s men would take the old 30’s cars and rip the fenders off to give their cars more personality. The paint jobs were wild with most sporting flames.

This is where the term hot rod came from was a fast car with flames on it.  One thing all hotrods have had done to them is to have modifications done to the engine. The suspension was picked for the type of driving the car was intended to do, usually straight-line ¼ mile runs.

The big three from Detroit did make advances in the 60’s with the Shelby Cobra, Mustang, Camaro and Barracuda.  Big engines that performed were the way they went until the gas shortage in the mid 70”s, then it was back to blah. Cosmetic look a likes was the name of the game.

General Motors was the worst at this with four of their brands putting out cars almost exactly the same just different names. In the early 80’s I was working in an Oldsmobile dealership and found a new car with a dashboard from a Buick, name and all. These were made at the same factory as the Olds, it was just a different name and slightly different non-performing engine.

But back to hot-rods. Today car enthusiast can build the car of his dream with the help of the web. This just makes finding that certain part necessary to finish the car easier. Take the old family car, strip it down, put performance parts in the engine, jack up the rear, put fat tires on it with a wild paint job and you will have the distinctive car or hot rod, that gets the heads turning.

Keep watching this blog as we will be having some nice hot rods for sale this summer.

A good used muscle car is hard to find.  Remember these cars were built to run fast and look bad.  Most are over 30 yeas old and have a lot of miles on them So if you are in the market for a used muscle car whether it is a Mustang, Barracuda, Camaro, Firebird, GTO or Corvette, take your time and know the weak points of that particular model.

A perfect example is the Camaro and Firebird weaknesses.  With large engines their bodies had a tendency to twist. This was because the designers built them on a unibody.  Yes, it was not a complete frame just one that goes back about mid way where the transmission ends.  The rest is just sheet metal. I have seen many of the Camaro’s with the 396 engines that would side step down the road.

The same goes for the Firebirds and Trans Am’s, a twisted body because of so much torque from the large engines. This can be corrected in a properly equipped body shop but that costs a lot of money.  This should only be done if you are restoring a muscle car.  If you just want to build a muscle car then buy a model with a smaller engine.  You can still buy frame extensions to prevent the twisting.  Have them in place before the large engine is installed.  This is one way to be assured of ending up with a fine American classic car.   If you are like me once the engine goes in I am out on a test run.  Just to make sure it is running properly of course.  Even a test run can twist the body or at least I can do it.

Just be careful with used muscle cars. Know the model and its weaknesses so you will get what you think you bought.