Hitting its stride in the 1950s, the underground hot rod culture spawned the likes of Rat Fink, Von Dutch, and George Barris. This collection of rare photographs and ephemera should be an essential for anyone who dreams of putting the pedal to the metal.h.

Americans were forever changed when the edgy style and power of hot rods exploded onto their highways. This volume details nearly 300 of the most innovative rides to ever own the road. Alongside colour photographs is each car's history, options and top selling points.

Learn how to plan, budget, and build a hot street rod without going broke, with this expert practical advice for building, including chassis, engine, bodywork, painting, and upholstery. How-to photos depict major steps.

A deserving tribute to the American muscle of the hot rod, this edition is filled with eye popping photography, gatefolds, and four prints to hang.

The All-American Hot Rod is your personally guided tour through the saga of one of the most popular icons in American history, brought to life in the stories of well-known and respected automotive historians and celebrities, automotive journalists, and other hot rodders with their own tales to share—with more than 350 illustrations to add to your appreciation of these remarkable machines. The hot rod—each one unique, fierce, loud, and bold—has been an American icon and a symbol of performance, freedom, and creativity for decades, influencing everything from movies to music. The All-American Hot Rod is a history by those who lived it, the numerous voices and images of people who know and love the hot rod like nothing else. Relive the thrills with their great stories, complemented by fabulous period artwork and current photographs of original T-buckets, Deuces, coupes, roadsters, custom cars, street rods, rat rods, and more. It's truly an all-American tale with an exhaust note heard 'round the world. Now, step on the gas and go!

A guide to the history of hot rods and custom cars, from the earliest stripped-down roadsters of the 1930s to the tuck-and-rolled beauties of the 1950s and early '60s

Of all of the pioneering custom-car builders to come to prominence in the 1950s--Harry Westergard, George Barris, and Dean Jeffries, among others--one of the most prolific was a young man from Modesto, California, named Gene Winfield. Cutting his teeth in California's hopping postwar hot rod scene, Gene eventually gravitated toward custom cars, becoming one of the medium's preeminent and most-sought-after practitioners. For the first time, Gene's career is examined in this volume fully illustrated with photography from Gene's personal archive. Written by longtime Winfield employee David Grant, The Legendary Hot Rods and Custom Cars of Gene Winfield is culled from hours of interviews with Gene and recounts everything from his early days in Modesto and his first shop in a converted backyard chicken coop, to his role in forming the Century Toppers car club, his involvement in dry lakes and circle-track racing, the formation of Winfield's Custom Shop in 1955, and the impressive string of vehicles that followed. Cars featured include the Ford convertible that graced the second issue of Rod & Custom, the 1950 Solar Scene Mercury Coupe, the 1956 Mercury called Jade Idol, and the Ford King "T" that won the 1963 AMBR award, among dozens of others. Grant also delves into Winfield's involvement with model-maker AMT, movie and TV vehicles for such projects as The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Get Smart, and reminisces from Winfield's contemporaries.

Handcrafted, radical, and subversive, these custom cars are designed and made by a small number of specialists

Whenever hot rodders get together to bench race two questions invariably come up: "Whatever happened to such-and-such car?"; and "How can I find one of these old, abandoned hot rods?" Lost Hot Rodsanswers both questions by finding nearly 100 lost hot rods, custom cars, and a few dragsters that were famous in the 1950s and 1960s. They were featured on magazine covers or winning major car shows. Then they disappeared, or were "lost" because they weren't seen in public again. In Lost Hot Rods, we attempt to answer the questions about whatever happened to these great cars. We're not talking about vintage tin sitting in the desert or woods, or old cars parked in farm fields. Nearly all of these vintage rods and customs were found in urban or suburban garages--possibly right in your neighborhood--where they were parked years ago, maybe to save, perhaps torn apart for a rebuild, or in many cases they are projects that were started years ago and just never finished. The condition of such finds ranges from musty piles of parts, to dusty and cobwebbed originals, to pristine, still-show-quality beauties. We also show cars that have been located by others, either as-is or now in beautiful restored condition. Either way, we tell the process of finding such vehicles, giving many tips on how you can find them, too. This isn't a book about seeking these cars for profit. What's more important, and fun, is the search itself. If, when you find such a long-lost rod or custom, it turns out that it is available and you can afford to acquire it and put it back on the road and enjoy it, so much the better. But just finding them; finally answering that "Whatever happened to...'" question is the main goal. In most cases we show vintage photos of the car in its heyday, along with where and how it looks today. But what makes this venture doubly fun, and what separates this book from others, is that we are not just looking for old cars or even collector cars hidden away. Finding a vintage Corvette, or Porsche, or even a gennie Model A or Model T stashed in a garage or barn is cool. But hot rods and custom cars are very different--literally. Each one is unique. So each of these cars has its own unique story, it's own personal history, which makes Lost Hot Rodsa special collection of stories as well as "Then" and "Now" images. This is a paperback edition of the original best-selling hardcover.