It seems that it takes some owners just a few months to build their ride while others take multiple years to get one done. Most of the time it’s minor stuff that delays a build, but it might be hard for Jim Wise to explain why his coupe took 27 years to finish.

Though Street Rodder often hears from hot rodders who were influenced in their youth by something they heard or saw in a magazine or at a show, it’s very rare that the magazine runs across someone who has bothered to not only track down the person responsible for their obsession, but to also find that the influential rodder still owns the very same vehicle from 40 years past!

The road to Bonneville is a well-worn path fueled by passion and desire. For over 60 years hot rodders have been making the trek to the Salt Flats not only to race, but to experience the ultimate drive to the Promised Land in their own hot rods. Depending where you start from, it’s a trip that’s not for the faint at heart, as it can be grueling in many respects for both drivers and machines.

If there was ever an excellent example of an oxymoron, it might be the phrase: “a high-performance ’63 Rambler.” Truly a dare-to-be-different type of vehicle, Doyle Thomas’ ’63 Rambler American 440-H was originally going to be a wholly dissimilar car.

Derick Samson was 19 years old when he started getting national attention with his homebuilt customs, but he had already been working on cars for seven years.

There are a variety of ways to get the car of your dreams. Rummaging through junkyards and swap meets for years while you collect parts is one way and, at the other end of the spectrum, simply writing a check for a finished vehicle that is exactly as you want it (i.e. one that someone else slaved over) is another.

Sometimes it’s easy to see the writing on the wall regarding where destiny will take you. It’s called fate and for Clay Moorman of Elkton, Maryland, it was obvious that he’d eventually find his way into the world of hot rodding, starting way back on his parents’ farm in Roanoke, Virginia. When most kids were still learning how to ride a bike, Clay moved to the head of the class perched atop his dad’s lap while tending to the fields and operating cut-down Ford Model A’s serving as farm equipment. It was easy to see that learning to drive the doodlebugs fueled the fire for his automotive interests. There were also daily journeys taken while sitting on an old log shifting a left-for-dead transmission through the gears as well as cobbling together countless buggies from discarded wood and wheels to race down the meadows at the farm. As the years passed, Clay maintained his enthusiasm for horsepower, getting his fix while watching an endless array of cars light up the quarter-mile at Cecil County Dragway in North East, Maryland. At the same time, there was also plenty of cruising on the local ’strip in big-inch Chryslers with his friends. After raising a family, he decided to finally step into the rodding world and live out his dreams. Having always had a fascination with Tri-Five Chevys, he started to look for one with all the right elements. Sometimes the best cars are found through personal contacts and this time it was old pal, Rodney Manuel, who turned Clay onto a wicked ’55 offered by a local collector. The car had some race history and a neat attitude so a deal was made with Clay taking the keys and driving it for a few years.

Regardless of whether you are taking on the task of building a diehard traditional hot rod or one with contemporary accents, you need to follow your vision until the end to ensure the sum of the parts will work seamlessly when you’re done. Dave Rodenbaugh, of Baden, Pennsylvania, grew up in an area where there was no shortage of high-performance V-8s tearing up the local streets. Regardless of whether the cars were cruising the strip or lining up for late-night street racing, it was an obvious influence to getting him hooked.

Where were you in the summer of 1968? Tom Nolen was home on leave from the service and visiting his best girl and his favorite car, his ’55 Chevy hardtop. It was set up with a 348 with three Deuces and a three-speed but, since he was broke, he sensed this would be the last time he would get to see his ride before he sold it. So he and his girlfriend, Pat, took some pictures of each other with the car before he went back to Davisville, Rhode Island, where Tom was a Navy Seabee.

The term “wolf in sheep’s clothing” has been used for a few thousand years to describe how one’s true nature will eventually be revealed by one’s actions. And nothing could be closer in illustrating that truth than Dave Rios’ ’40 Ford from Los Gatos, California.

Oftentimes our ultimate hot rod is steeped in something that has influenced us from our past. For Ron Lee, of South Pasadena, California, it was his desire to have a traditional-styled roadster with elements of a vintage European sports cars; cars that built their reputations on decades of legacy at the racetrack.

Father’s Day is extra special for hot rod dads here on the Best Coast. The L.A. Roadsters put on one heck of a shindig for us dads. It’s called the L.A. Roadsters Show, and as the name suggests, this two-day gathering showcases some of the best—no, make it the best—hot rod roadsters in the country.

When someone is dedicated to something, they’re wholly committed to its purpose. There are probably those who you can think of who are “into” cars—folks who buy and build cars and always have an interesting project out in the garage.

It's official Doug Bredbury of Durham, Connecticut was selected from 100 finalists that was narrowed down to a final 10 and his '32 Ford highboy coupe was selected as the Street Rodder Street Rod of the Year presented by Painless Wiring. Doug's Deuce was selected while attending the Goodguys Rhinebeck event earlier this year.

When Street Rodder asks an owner and/or builder for a few words about the vehicle the magazine just finished photographing, you usually get a long list of who did what and an even longer parts list to make into a story. But sometimes the owner/builder will write their story down in such great detail in how the project came about that it is good enough to publish “as is,” which is the case with the owner of this car, Ron Wolcott, and the builder, Garret Kitchen, of Garret’s Rod Shop in Columbus, Ohio. Here’s their story:

Maybe it was growing up standing on the running board of his great-grandfather’s ’27 Ford woodie wagon. Maybe it was his involvement at age 10 in its restoration with his dad, John. But one thing’s for sure, Street Rodder’s Road Tour wizard, Jerry Dixey, has spent a lifetime under the magical spell of Ford’s Model T.

Decades have rolled on since the dawn of hot rodding with each one being greeted by a distinct and memorable styling change. Early it was the stripped-down coupes and roadsters that evolved into the post-war era’s hard-core engineering. Next was the classic lines updated to include chopped tops, channeled bodies, and slick sprayjobs. No matter what era sparked your magneto, there was always something out there to spin your crank or light up your tires.

I’ve lusted after a ’39 Ford convertible coupe since I was a teenager. Perhaps it’s because the stylish ’39 was Ford’s last pre-war open two-seater? Or maybe it’s the timeless appeal of Ford stylist E.T. “Bob” Gregorie’s clean design, with its inverted boat-shaped hood, soft catwalks, rumble seat, and tapered tail? Or is it because a guy I knew (and envied) had one in high school?

More often than not, when someone gets involved in the hot rod hobby it’s because they already know somebody immersed in the culture. That’s how Eddie Lindsey, from Weston, Missouri, was drawn in. His dad, Gerald, had a full-time job at TWA when Eddie was a youngster but, on evenings and weekends, Gerald and his brother ran their own salvage yard, so Eddie was surrounded by vintage cars from a very early age.

Timeless is a bold term in hot rodding. Because trends come and go you want to be sure of yourself before calling any hot rod “timeless.” The 1928 Ford roadster pickup seen here will likely never grow old in the eyes of any hot rodder—it simply has “the look.” While the amazing craftsmanship of high-end builds provides plenty of “wow” moments, this pickup has the same effect without trying so hard. It’s a simple hot rod with lots of traditional flavor, proving that a ’60s hot rod will never go out of style.

If the name Eric Brockmeyer sounds a little familiar, it should. The 40-year-old from Viera, Florida, has made a good name for himself in the last decade providing automotive illustrations to some of the biggest names in the street rod industry. To name a few, Bobby Alloway, The Roadster Shop, Alan Johnson, Boyd Coddington, Legens, Dominator, and Rutterz Rods have all used Brockmeyer to put pen to paper and conceptualize and design new ways to look at the hot rodding hobby.

Like most people who’ve seen Jared Roethlisberger’s ’51 Olds in person, STREET RODDER’s first look at the car was at the 2011 Grand National Roadster Show where the custom made its debut.

Brian Paul’s wife, Ann, thought her husband had lost his mind when he traded their recently finished ’63 Chevy Bel Air custom for a 1929 Ford sedan that wasn’t! What Brian saw was huge potential in the tricked-out Ford that was running around in primer and had to make the trade. Switching horses midstream worked for Brian. He put his finishing touches on his ’29 and won his class at the 2011 Detroit Autorama and took home the STREET RODDER Driven Award, presented by Lokar Performance.

For many young hot rodders growing up over the last half century, seeing plenty of hopped-up Detroit steel parked at the local burger joint, gas station, or main strip in town was as easy as taking a walk on a hot summer day. Being influenced by what you saw came naturally, causing your mind to grasp concepts for ideas you’d want to work into your own car someday.

For some street rod builders the journey is the build. They toil endlessly in their garages to transform ideas into rolling art, every day moving closer to the destination. Yet when the destination nears, and the car is ready to roll into the light of day, their eyes mysteriously turn toward the horizon and you can almost hear the gears meshing inside their heads as they lay plans for a new journey with a new project. The paint on the finished car has yet to dry before boxes filled with parts begin arriving for another build. Clearly, it’s the journey not the destination that fuels this breed of street rod builder.