One of the most amazing things about the hot rod business is that it’s constantly changing. Fresh ideas are always emerging, with new shops and designers getting involved in building cars. Things are different now than they were when I got started, and I’m often asked where I think things might heading in the world of custom cars.
No one has a crystal ball—least of all, me—but there are definite trends. Two of the easiest changes to spot, at least in my opinion, are the move away from what you might call “cookie-cutter” cars, and the increased use of digital tools.
Breaking Tradition
Hemisfear was a labor of love for me, but it also represents a specific era in hot rod design that is slowly receding in the rearview mirror.
I love ‘55 Chevys and ‘32 Ford roadsters as much as the next guy—maybe even more, given my track record. But there will come a time when the original crowd that found those vehicles so fascinating will either move on, retire from the business, or simply run out of ideas on how to put a fresh spin on these classic hot rod canvases.
In fact, the swing away from “traditional” hot rods has already begun, and it’s easy to understand why: demographics.
The 1960s are increasingly being mined for hot rods by Boomers eager to drive their teenage dream cars.
The baby boomers that grew up dreaming about muscle cars, for example, have begun to enter a phase in their lives where they have the extra cash to turn those dreams into reality.
That means something from the 1960s, not the 1940s or 1950s. This has opened room for more unusual automobiles to get the full hot rod treatment. Rare vehicles you might not see very often in stock form are starting to get the resto-mod treatment in a bid to turn them into fun daily drivers.
Geeking Out
Ideas can have humble beginnings, but advanced technology lets us take them to the limit in how we can implement them when designing a modern hot rod.
Modern metal-working technologies move well beyond mallets and English wheels to alloy for precise and repeatable expression of design concepts.
What gets me the most excited, however, is the role technology will play in the future of hot rodding. I’m talking about the amazing advances made by rapid prototyping (a.k.a. 3D printing); CNC-based machining; and computer-controlled metal fabrication. These developments have improved on traditional tools like the English wheel, the dolly and hammer, and the lathe to offer repeatable results and factory-level tolerances with a lot less labor.
This not only lowers the price of a hot rod build, but also frees the imagination—because most of these high-tech tools can be programmed using software design files that, in turn, can be shared around the world on the Internet. This allows global collaboration on a vehicle project that would have previously been impossible. Throw in the fact that rapid prototyping is flexible enough to work with a variety of different materials, including metals and plastics, and you can painlessly fabricate your own parts based on computer designs without having to deal with endless trial-and-error.
The key to building a beautiful custom isn’t what tools you use, it’s how those tools allow you to tap into your imagination.
In fact, I can see a time coming when you could sit in the comfort of your own home, design a car using special software, and then upload those files to a custom car shop that will fabricate the entire vehicle based on your specifications and sketches using the technologies I mentioned above. This might be enough to return us to the days of Duesenberg and early Cadillac when car buyers could choose from a long list of different custom body designs and builders, which would match with whatever mechanical package they could afford to slide underneath.
Even elaborate metal designs are possible with modern extrusion technologies.
I can’t imagine anything more creative for gear heads and design freaks, just aching to get dream projects off of the ground. I love and respect tradition, but you also have to roll with the times.
